The Astronomy Chronicles 190604

Approximate Location: 9 Deg 58 Min North / 76 Deg 14 Minutes East
(Cochin, India)
Date: 19-06-04
Time: 15:39 - 17:09 UT (21:09 - 22:39 IST)
Temp: Approximately 82 deg F
Humidity: Approximately 80 % (it was HOT and HUMID!)
Equipment: SV102 APO / GM8
Eyepieces: Konig 2" 32mm / 17T4, Meade 8.8UWA

Well - I FINALLY got the scope out (for real this time) and didn't have
to break it down 5 minutes after being setup either! This is all the
more impressive due to the fact that this is Monsoon season, so I must
be ever vigilant against sudden rain storms!

Walked my dog around 8:30 or so and looked up. Wow! Clear. Transparency
was crappy but I could see more stars than usual so I rushed in, and
lugged the equipment to the roof. If nothing else I wanted to try out my
web cam and 5X PM on Jupiter.

As I was setting up I turned around and spied Centaurus. The heck with
Jupiter - we're going after Omega Centauri. Well, I spend about half an
hour trying to locate this thing and as the clouds begin to roll in I
reassess the situation, and damn it! I'm looking towards Scorpius (I am
not familiar with this part of the sky!). Find Corvus and that gets me
back to where I need to be. Go to approximately where the lines between
Zeta /Gamma Centauri and Epsilon / Iota Centauri intersect, look in the
32mm and.......big fuzzy. Well, at least I found it! Zoomed in with the
8.8mm UWA (100x) and it was a bigger fuzzy. Did I mention the
transparency sucked!!?? Looked at it for about 8 minutes with direct
and averted vision and could make out some stars in the core, but for
the most part it looked to me like a large round fuzzy. Probably a
combination of three things: 4-inch aperture, lots of moisture in the
air and rather low in the sky. Was glad I bagged that one as I normally
would never see it from Lat 40 deg North!

Realizing my Scorpius mistake I swung the scope over to Antares and did
a quick star test. Outside of focus things looked very concentric and
even. Can't get that kind of result from my 10" Newtonian; but inside
of focus I can barely get ANY diffraction rings. Any ideas as to why?
Perhaps the star was too low and I was getting a lot of atmospheric
refraction? Transparency so bad? I'm not worried about it now; if
anyone has any thoughts I would appreciate it (still haven't finished
that Suiter book).

Enough wasting time on star tests....Swing the scope a little west and
there is M4. To be honest, it looked like a small Omega Centauri. Did
the same routine; put the 8.8UWA on it and it became a slightly bigger
fuzzy. A few stars resolving near the core.

Then I remembered there was another one off the south-end of Scorpius so
~ I return to the 32mm Konig and put the scope on 35 Lambda Scorpii and
move the scope east about halfway between 35 Lambda Scorpii and 10 Gamma
Sagittari (sic). Bang - M7. To be honest - this one looked absolutely
GORGEOUS in the 32mm. Pretty much framed the bulk of the cluster and it
reminded me (impression-wise) of M44. It pretty much made me go 'WOW!'.

Up to 22 Lambda Sagittari and a little to the east to M22. With these
conditions it was another yawner; just couldn't make much of it out.
Actually tried the 8.8UWA and the 17T4, and the 8.8UWA was still the
best. Just a big, round fuzzy.

OK - I setup for Jupiter, might as well take a look. It was somewhat
mushy at 100x in the 8.8UWA. From earlier in the night (as I was
setting up) I could see that one of the moons that was coming out from
behind the planet earlier was well wide now. Many bands evident but not
much detail. Oh well - wasn't going to waste my time with the Webcam as
Jupiter was fading fast!

So then I decide to swing to Mizar. Was able to cleanly split a closely
separated star (the 8th Magnitude one between Mizar and Alcor?). The
Mizar / Alcor split was too easy, but there was a teeny, tiny little
star just off of Mizar. Very, very beautiful! Just sitting there. Took
a few moments to enjoy the view.

Next, despite all the warning signs (low in the sky, bad transparency,
etc.) I went after the bane of my existence; M101. I have been in the
FOV several times with no luck (the Harrisburg skies were never that
great the previous attempt; Mag 4.0 LM?) Well we didn't have any luck
here either. I was in the right piece of sky, just couldn't make out
the galaxy. I know the drill well by now: 80 Ursa Major, 81 Ursa Major,
83 Ursa Major, 84 Ursa Major, approximately 18 deg RA west and half a
degree south in Dec. Nope. Nothin'. I've become very familiar with
those stars. Oh well.

Since we're going after hopeless objects, how about M51? Got in the
right FOV, but no fuzzy. Oh well.

I was nonetheless thrilled to actually get to use the 102APO during
monsoon season nonetheless! I am going to be enjoying the scope for
years to come.