Shortly after my arrival, around 9:00 PM, I opened the observatory quickly. For Sal. Slewed to Al Geidi.
We viewed Neptune in the C14 and Ian's 12½" Dob 'scope. 391x in the SCT. Around 350x in Ian's reflector with a 10mm and 2.5x doubler. After a time, we spotted Triton!
Took me a while to get the Sony IC Recorder going. I tried a bunch of my green Duracell rechargeable NiMH AAA batteries. They didn't seem to work. Are they getting old and tired? I've had them for a while. And, for some reason, I believe this type of rechargeable doesn't last as long. Then the SX750 prompted me for the time. Seems to have lost its real-time clock data. Attached the wind sock. Set the recorder in the little stand. Happily, all the recorded audio seemed to be intact. Crickets!
11:12 PM. Organised the warm room. Camera adapters, etc.
Helped Sal find Polaris with the RASC green laser. This helped him aim the Vixen Polarie. Initially way off.
Ian was set up on the east end of Observing Pad.
Updated the Firefox browser toolbar button for the local CAO weather station, so to use the new address. Huh. Then I found the images were not current. As of 3 PM yesterday. Something wrong with the server? Considered trying to remote-in but couldn't remember the IP address...
Still had not found my eyeglasses strap. The preferred one, anyway. I know I packed it.
Headed to the house to return my keys, get my pants belt, to check the weather on the console, to fix the server. Decided against it, so to preserve my night vision; left it for tomorrow.
Outside temperature 13°C; dew point 9°; humidity 79%; air pressure 1020.6 (and dropping overall). Wind: was fluctuating between 10 and 14 km/h, out of the south-east. Bearing 133°. 10 minute average: 11. Inside humidity 58%.
The Clear Sky Charts looked good. Thursday night looks pretty good, dark-dark.
Checked Environment Canada, for Collingwood. 102.1 kPa and falling, 8.6°C, 7.6 dew point, humidity 94%, wind out of the south at 6 km/h. Friday clear 21, Saturday clear 21, Sunday rain, 60% POP. Clearing on Monday.
Milky Way was very apparent. Arcing overhead.
Downloaded files from my dropbox. Loaded the Excel file, the export from SkyTools, uploaded from home. I reformatted the cells to be white text on a black fill. Ha. Much easier to view on the monitor. Made a custom toolbar with the strikeout button. Sorted by the Optimum column.
Was a little thrown by the R in the Observation Status column. I guessed it meant "re-observe." [ed: Yes, R means Re-observe. And the others: N means Not yet observed; nothing shows for "no value;" and finally Y means Observed!]
Cracked open a soda.
Made a note of the process to add a comet in TheSky 6. Click on the Data menu, Comets and Minor Planets..., then uncheck old comets, as necessary, so to (hopefully) speed up the software and to unclutter the simulated sky. From The Web section, click the Observable... button. Then choose the preferred comet from the sorted list and click Add. It is automatically checked or made active. This assumes, obviously, there's a network connection.
Added 154P/Brewington, C/2010 S1 (LINEAR), C/2013 R1 (Lovejoy), 2P/Encke (added it again), C/2011 J2 (LINEAR), C/2012 S1 (ISON). Turned off L4 (Pan-STARRS).
Tried to view Brewington in Aquarius. SkyTools said it was magnitude 11.4, with a coma diameter of 3.9', only 0.9 AU from Earth; detectable. Dropped from a high power eyepiece in the C14 to the 27mm (so, 145x). Then the 50mm. Used the Tele Vue with the 10mm (so around 50x). Then the 27mm (20x). No joy. Double-checked the location—seemed OK. SkyTools said 21h58m30.8s by -04°29'44".
Ian W popped in. He was imaging the Bubble. He didn't think the transparency was all that good. A lot of moisture in the air. More sky glow. But steady. He took a look in the C14. He wondered if he didn't see a very faint object... Above the brightest star. Really?! I couldn't.
We chatted about comets. Ian said Hyakutake was still his favourite.
Ian went to bed. He planned to get up in a few hours to go after ISON, photographically and visually. Jupiter too.
Moon down. I took Sky Quality Meter readings. Best one was 21.18. Best for the season, so far: 21.28.
Getting tired.
Wanted to warm up the Warm Room. Closed the door. Fired up the portable ceramic heater.
Headed to the Andromeda-Pegasus border. Viewed NGC 7550, aka Arp 99. Very small. Went for more power. Started initially (by accident) with the 10mm eyepiece in the C14. That made it big. But it was very dark, the view. Perhaps a spiral. ST3P said mag 13.1. When I switched to the 18mm (217x), and I could see other objects! Zoomed in with TheSky 6. Spotted a mag 12.4 star to the south, GSC 01715-1460, and another galaxy to the north (NGC 7549, mag 14.1). And then one to the west (NGC 7547, mag 14.7).
Sal visited the Warm Room. Invited him to look. He thought them very faint. Wasn't sure he saw all three...
I didn't realise it at the time that these galaxies were part of the Hickson 93 galaxy group. Which contains four members, actually. I did not see 7553, the smallest galaxy in the cluster, or 7558 to the east.
With the big Oberwerk binoculars, Sal and I viewed the Pleiades (Messier 45 or M45). Awesome. I showed Sal how to rotate the turret eyepieces. Then the Orion nebula. Excellent at 25x.
12:58 AM. I closed the roof and shut down for the evening.
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