Gremmy's Messier 30

[gremmy]

I'm starting this thread as a way of motivating myself to go out there and find/document all those Messier objects. I got my AD10 telescope a couple of days ago and so far skies have been poor, but hopefully tonight I can catch my first few observations after the fireworks stop. I will post my findings here.

[Ruud]

Good luck and clear skies!

[dougscope]

Congratulations on the scope and good luck with the search.

[BABOafrica]

Now, that's a good one! Fireworks and stars, all in one night! Wish I was there.

Good luck with your new scope. Might take some getting used to.

Clears,
Joe

[alrodriguez]

Good luck and clear skies.

[Maverick199]

Congratulations on your new purchase and you can look forward to great enjoyment. Wish you a successful Messier 30 hunt.

[LEDHead]

Good Luck on your quest. I hope our St. Louis skies cooperate for you.

[gremmy]

Well, my first night hunting Messiers was both boom and bust.

The Bust: I stayed up until 5 in the morning trying to hunt the faint fuzzies in the few constellations that weren't obscured by the moon glow. These were mostly galaxies in Ursa Major, the ring Nebula in Lyra, and the open cluster in Cygnus. I *might* have seen the cluster in Cygnus, but I couldn't swear to it, so as far as collecting M's, it was a total bust. I really wish I could have observed Scorpius and Sagittarius, but they were totally washed out.

The Boom: At about 4:44am I noticed two bright dots in the northeast stacked one atop the other. I was getting ready to pack in the scope for the night when it occurred to me that those MUST be planets! So I quickly lined up my telrad on the top dot, and lo and behold there was Jupiter along with 4 of its moons. I am still in awe of the sight. To me it was even more impressive than Saturn. Then I scanned down and found what I presume to be Venus.

[sada]

Good luck to you my man.

[gremmy]

I found my first Messier tonight.

Object: M13

Date: 7/04/2012 Time: 11:22 CDT Location: Saint Charles, MO

Scope: AD10 DOB

Eyepiece1: 2", Superview 30mm, 68 degree FOV, Eye-relief=22mm

Eyepiece2: 1.25", Super-Plossl 9mm, 52 degree FOV, Eye-relief=6mm

Filter: None

Conditions: LP Red. Severe moon glow. Neighbors shooting off multi-colored fireworks.

Description:

Nearly directly overhead in Hercules. In my 30mm EP, it appeared as a dimly glowing blob of cotton positioned between two stars. When I switched to my 9mm EP, it was dimmer but more detail was revealed and it now looked like someone had cast a handful of silver glitter across a blue piece of construction paper. Individual stars were apparent in the 9mm, but they were very dim. In fact, in both eye pieces, the moon was doing a fine job of washing out details.