I want to know what the ring nebula looks like in your 10 inch telescope. In the 8inch it's super faint (due to where I live) but you can barely make it out. Any color? it's just gray in mine. And what about m13, the hercules globular star cluster?
heading out tonight, have a list of stuff i'm looking at. There's a few clusters, a double cluster, a cluster w/ nebulosity and the great andromeda galaxy. hopefully the cloud cover from isaac will hold off, will report back later
gonna look for the Ring and M13, too, since they're in the sky. Ring is a magnitude 9, though, not sure how well I'll be able to see it. I typically try to stay under mag 6-7, but hopefully if i can drive far enough out in the sticks I can get away from the light
Alrighty...got my list narrowed down. If I can find half of these, I'll be happy. Galaxy - Magnitude - Nickname or Type M8 - 5.8 - Lagoon Nebula M13 - 5.9 - Great Cluster in Hercules / Glob Cluster M15 - 6.4 - Glob Cluster M16 - 6.0 - Eagle Nebula / Cluster w/ Nebulosity M17 - 6.0 - Omega Neubla / Cluster w/ Nebulosity M27 - 8.1 - Dumbbell Nebula / Planetary Nebula M57 - 9.0 - Ring Nebula / Planetary Nebula M81 - 6.9 - Bode's Nebula / Spiral Galaxy M82 - 8.4 - Bode's Nebula / Spiral Galaxy And the finale M31 - 3.5 - Great Nebula in Andromeda / Spiral Galaxy The finale can be seen with the naked eye if you're in clean enough skies. It's a massive spiral, closely mimicking our own Milky Way. Like I said, if I can find half of these, I'll be happy...should be a fun night
Had fun until Bartow County PD decided only Jesus was allowed to look at the stars...fucking churches, how about you pay some goddamn taxes, then maybe you can call it 'private' property. Anywho, kicked ass before the law came, saw pretty much everything listed above and added a few more to it. Galaxy - Magnitude - Nickname or Type M8 - 5.8 - Lagoon Nebula - No show M13 - 5.9 - Great Cluster in Hercules / Glob Cluster - fucking boss...one of the best clusters M15 - 6.4 - Glob Cluster M16 - 6.0 - Eagle Nebula / Cluster w/ Nebulosity - hiding behind the moon (87% full) M17 - 6.0 - Omega Neubla / Cluster w/ Nebulosity - hiding behind the moon M27 - 8.1 - Dumbbell Nebula / Planetary Nebula - faint smudge. was definitely noticeable, and you could see the dumbbell shape, but no color, like a cloud in space M57 - 9.0 - Ring Nebula / Planetary Nebula - didn't try, as M27 with an 8.1 was cool enough...and a 9.0 is hard as fuck to find M81 - 6.9 - Bode's Nebula / Spiral Galaxy - arrived too late, below horizon M82 - 8.4 - Bode's Nebula / Spiral Galaxy - arrived too late, below horizon M31 - 3.5 - Great Nebula in Andromeda / Spiral Galaxy - found it with the naked eye. Looks like a giant smudge, though, not much detail, though it's HUGE Double Cluster - not sure the astronomical designation, but Nicad and I both agreed this was the highlight of the night. Bad ass. M2 - Glob Cluster - was pretty sweet M34 '' M39 '' Went for Neptune, but Johnny law and the clouds both rolled in at about the same time. All in all, successful trip
Thought of you when I saw this Drew. Dude's dad hand built an observatory. Freaking awesome. http://imgur.com/a/2lxQL
dude, saw that yesterday, jaw dropping. being out on night last night REALLY makes me want to pony up the coin to get those types of images. Unfortunately, you'll never be able to see that with the naked eye (or color, for that matter), but when you stack a ton of pictures with 30 second plus exposure times on them, you get some AMAZING images. Hard to justify the costs, though...that's probably a $50k setup including the structure
Good times! That really sucks they ran you off. Let me know when you feel like planning a trip up into the national park.
best part is, they actually looked better through the scope than they do in those wiki pictures. Never saw a spiral before last night, and honestly wasn't impressed (astrophotography may change that). Clusters, especially low mag high density ones, look un-fucking-believable, though
cool stuff, Kepler is amazing. It still boggles my mind that scientists searching for life on other planets are only looking for carbon based life forms that can develop in the 'sustainable zone'. If, by chance, silicon could form the basis of life, imagine how broad the search for ET's would become