Tag Archive for 'Stargazing Notes'

Another Night with LX90

Published on January 21, 2009 in Stargazing Notes. View Comments Tags: .

18 Jan 2009 – The light pollution is getting worse. I have long missed the starry night sky in Pulau Redang.  No, it can’t stop my enthusiasm towards the night sky. The stars are twinkling but not my eyes. I watch a meteor scratch through the southern sky below the Siruis.

Mosquitoes are detering me from continuing my passion. The wonders of the sky tell me not.

M79 is a globular cluster  in Lepus. Although it is at magnitude 8.3, I see it as a patch of light. Further observation will prove if it is the weather that spoilt the view.

M38 is one of the best open clusters in Auriga. It is at mag. 6.4. In Auriga, there are 3 marvelous open clusters.  The members are M36, M37 and M38.

The view of M42 is breathtaking! Albeit the seeing not at the best, I see the nebulosity at the farthest expansion as the first time. I assume it’s the good weather that summons such a mind-blowing scene. I can even see 2 stars through nebulosity.

Eta Carinae Nebula is always one of the mystical objects on the sky. It’s the remnant of the supernova of a star named Eta Carinae. A star is usually dead after going into the supernova but this star is the odd.  This nebula spans around 84′ (arcminutes) and shines at magnitude 5. I’m driven to save for a camera to have a deeper view.

NGC3377 is an ecliptical galaxy in Leo. Magnitude 10.1 is within my lx90 light grasp but somehow I can’t see it. It’s 32 million light year (ly) away which hosts a super black hole equals to 1o0 millions mass of suns.

Caldwell 091 is an open cluster in Carina at magnitude.3. It’s spanning around 54′ and is 1300 ly away and 25ly in diameter. It’s claimed to be the best open cluster by Autostar #497 controller.

Sprindle galaxy also known as NGC3315 and Caldwell 53 is a smudge at  mag.9.1 in Sextans, the constellation. It’s 4′  and it’s the only galaxy observed tonight

M41, another open cluster, in Canis Major, at mag.4.5. Nothing special to my eyes except lots of stars are out there.

M35, the fourth open cluster observed tonight, is in Gemini. I can see chains of light in the cluster which I think make this cluster one of the most special I have ever observed. It’s not easy for me to appreciate at first as I have to strain my eyes to clearly see what is out there.

Okay Mosquitoes, our fight shall end now. Retreat! :D

Please. Please let me know how shall I make this stargazing note more interesting to you. :)

Back Into The Hobby

Published on January 9, 2009 in Stargazing Notes. View Comments Tags: .

7 Jan 08 – Yippee! The title is self-explaining enough, I’m back. When I checked the date of my Autostar #497, the last observing date is 29 Nov 2008. Worse, I was not doing any serious observing that night. I just showed some objects to my club members so that they had a clue what does [insert any celestial body] look like. My last serious observing was around July, remember I imaged the Jupiter?

Yesterday was a breezy night. I was getting all my gears ready for the Moon and the cloud slipped in. The good news was that the wind was so fstrong that the large cloud which spanned the north and western sky was not a problem. I just need the patience.

I’ve recorded 4 piles of images in .AVI format at 384MB each. I’ve yet to process them with Registax V4. Right after the imaging session, I did visual observing. The moon glow was still quite strong so the  result was not that good compare to a new moon night.

Thanks to the Autostar #497 excellent Tonight Best guided tour, I observed the celestial bodies below.

  • Great Orion Nebula (as stunning as usual)
  • Saturn (the ring almost disappears!)
  • M35
  • M36-38 (open clusters in Auriga)
  • Beehive Cluster (Praesepe, M44)
  • M79
  • M68
  • Spindle Galaxy (elongated star patch)
  • Eta Carinae (remnant of supernova)
  • Moon (earth’s only sibling)
  • Sirius (the brightest star)
  • Canopus (the old man star)

Did I say I love blogging? I feel so relieved after I made a post.

Mars Closest Approach & My Birthday

Published on December 21, 2007 in Stargazing Notes. View Comments Tags: .
Mars at Closest to HST
Mars was 88 million km away from earth when photographed by Hubble Space Telescope

On 19 Dec 2007, 7:45 UT+8, Mars was at the closest approach to us until 2016. I was having my birthday party on the 18 Dec night. Sadly, the clouds were jealous that the Goddess of the Wars, Mars was going to celebrate my birthday with my fellow friends. :(

This color image was assembled from a series of exposures taken within 36 hours of the Mars closest approach with Hubble’s Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. More about the info of the image is below.

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I Saw 24 Geminids! [Updated]

Published on December 14, 2007 in Meteor Shower and Stargazing Notes. View Comments Tags: , .

I saw 16 Geminids on the 15 Dec night. They’re so cheerful and mostly are fireballs. Geminid meteor shower is really well known for fireballs. Don’t miss it next year.

I was watching the meteor shower with 4 CHHS Astronomy Club members. It’s very nice to enjoy the show with friends. My sisters joined us very shortly after they heard us screaming. Haha.. it’s really a cool show. Meteor shower is definitely one of the best phenomena that everyone on the earth can enjoy without any expense. :D

I just find out that my record doesn’t have any scientific value so I decided not to expose my Geminids observation report on the 15 Dec night. Look at International Meteor Organisation Visual Report Page. It drove me away from reporting… You might say that I’m not suitable for science. However, I prefer a report that the public can make, not just amateur astronomer and even the professionals.

14 Dec 2007

Whoa! It was really fantastic this midnight. I started my observing since 1:40am UT+8 14 Dec. The cloud rolled in since 2.00am and was carried away by the wind soon. Another huge cloud rolled in just after several minutes but the strong wind blew it away again.

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Watching 17P/Holmes – Fantastic!

Published on November 5, 2007 in Comet and Stargazing Notes. View Comments Tags: , , .

WOOOooooHoooOO! It’s so wonderful that a heavy downpour happened in the evening and most of the clouds are gone now. What’s the “star” tonight? Well, Comet 17P/Holmes is the “star” for the whole week and the next whole week. I’m watching it now. Sure, my laptop and Meade LPI is going to record it down and show it to my fellow friends. They are just too busy with the upcoming SPM exam (the O’ level exam).