Friday, January 19, 2007

Observing: Friday, January 9

Really clear skies alternated with cloudy periods for a while, but soon it clouded over completely. While we could see, though, the visibility was excellent, and we looked at the Orion Nebula, M42, through the telescope, using both the regular eyepiece and two other filters to test the filter and try and get better clarity. We tried to look at Saturn, but once the telescope was lined up only a few people managed to get a look before it clouded over permanently.

Constellations we saw included Orion, Canis Major, Canis Minor, Gemini, Taurus, Auriga, Cassiopeia, Ursa Minor, Ursa Major, and Cepheus. Stars were Rigel, Saiph, Alnitak, Alnilam, Mintaka, Bellatrix, Betelgeuse, Aldebaran, El Nath, Capella, Castor, Pollux, Procyon, Sirius, and Polaris.

We also decided that we need to buy more working red lights so we can see what we're doing without ruining our night vision.

Since we could observe tonight, there won't be any observing tomorrow, January 20.

No comments: