Northern Cross Observatory - Part 2 1996 Archive

December 7, 1996 - Remote Access and Deepsky Observing meeting

The evening started with the setup of Jack Kennedy's LX200 10" and 208XT CCD camera. We ran 50 ft of cable from the telescope to the house, and connected it to my PC, in the den. After bringing up TheSky software and the CCD camera software, we worked on focusing the camera. Once that was done, Jack took over the controls here at the computer. He and Rick Kovari spent the next 6 hours, imaging many objects and experimenting with image processing.

The Genesee Astronomical Society held it's December business meeting here and after that observed until about 2:00am. The sky condition's were hazy, but clear. This was the last clear night, without a moon, that we've had here.

October 19, 1996 - FAAC (rain date) 4th Annual Island Lake Star Party

It was cloudy when I got there. I set the 20" up anyway, and brought the slide show I prepared. There were 30 people there when I arrived. Hot Cider and donuts were out, and everyone was hoping the sky would clear. So while we were eating donuts cars kept roling in. The clouds started breaking up about 6:30, and the scopes started springing up. We showed the public the moon for about an hour. Then it was time for the prizes and the slide show. Many youngsters were there for the evenings events. Bob Macfarland gave out door prizes until about 7:45 and then Greg Burnett and I gave a couple of slide shows on general astronomy and the Hubble Space Telescope. After that all the rest of the prizes were given out and we headed back to the scopes. By now tho the clouds were back. We showed jupiter, saturn and the moon to the public until it clouded over totally. Being the optimist, we stuck around until about 11:00 before heading home. I'm not sure what the count was, but it looked like about 150 people showed up.
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October 11-13, 1996 - Extra trip to NCO Wildwood Observing Site

It was clear friday night for a few hours. As twilight was going, we looked at jupiter first and noticed the Red Spot was prominent and face on to us. Seems it is reddening again. We dodged some clouds from time to time, but managed to observe Hale-Bopp, M57, M27, M56, M103, M51 very low on the horizon.
The next night, Saturday, was clear the entire night. We looked at jupiter again and caught a shadow transitting jupiter. It was IO's shadow. I put some power on it every 20-30 minutes to trace its progress. Also observed NGC7331 and Stephans Quintet. There were 9 of us observing here this night and we were rewarded with clear, but windy weather. Some high humidity, but still clear. Log book looks like this:

Jupiter - Shadow of IO on the surface of the planet
Comet Hale-Bopp - in binoculars and through the 20" Bright core, small tail.
M27 - Large and Bright with alot of detail
M51 - 5 degress above the horizon, I can only see the core and a slight hint of the inner arms.
M31 - Can see detail in the arms
M32 - Bright core
M110 - Bright core
NGC7331 - This edge on is the guide to Stephans Quintet
Stephans Quintet - a group of 5 galaxies tightly clustered at 93x using the 27mm Panoptic, with the 13mm nagler at 194X it is easier to distiguish each galaxy.
M103 - Very nice open cluster in Cass.
M37 - Open cluster in Auriga
M36 - Open Cluster in Auriga
M38 - Open Cluster in Auriga
M15 - Globular in Pegasus - nice tight cluster, best in the 13mm.
Veil Nebula - Easy to see both around 52 Cygnus and the other half. Richard had an OIII filter, which enhanced this.
M57 - The Ring Nebula - best with the 13mm
Comet Tabur - Moving fast this month, bright core, some tail.
M42 - Just stayed up long enought to look at this. Not to good on the horizon. Too tired to go on.

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September 13-16, 1996 - Annual Fall campout at the NCO Wildwood Observing Site

I left for the property on friday, in rain. It continued to rain through Sunday. But Sunday evening it cleared for about 3 hours. Richard and I spent 3 hours dodging fog though. In between fog banks we saw excellent sky. I checked out the Veil Nebula. Lots of detail in the southern section. M51 was very good, even though is was low. We also saw Hale-Bopp again. Its about 6th Mag. I headed home on Monday. Hopefully next month will be better.

September 7, 1996 - 4th Annual Island Lake Star Party

It was pouring rain, from the remnants of Hurricane Fran, when I left my house and headed for Island Lake. I didn't bring the scope. When I got there, about 1/2 a dozen people were there just starting to setup the registration in the covered picnic area. The forecast was for rain. This was to be the first time this event was clouded out totally. About 30-40 people showed up by 7:30, so we ordered pizza for dinner and while I was out getting it, Berry showed how to make a comet out of dry ice and other various ingredients. He also brought some video work he's been doing and a computer showing some CCD images he has taken. Bob MacFarland ran the door prize giveaway. And through the evening many conversations about all aspects of astronomy could be heard in the shelter. By 11:30 the rain had stopped and believe it or not a few stars started poking through the clouds. But by now most people had left. I headed home. The Ford club is planning to reschedule this event on October 19th. Even though observing was a wash, it was fun getting together with everyone.
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August 15-18, 1996 - SMURFS

After a day of rest, we headed back up north for the SMURFS outing. We arrived in the afternoon of the 15th, on thursday. That night it was cloudy, and several people sat around telling stories and waiting for the skies to clear. They never did. But Friday about noon the sky started to break up and clear. As the sun set, the thin crescent moon could be seen, between auburn clouds on the horizon. It was beautiful. The moisture level was high tho. We were plagued all night by dew. It was so humid, I couldn't see Stephan's Quintet in the 20". I decided to hop around and look at globular clusters instead. Jack Kennedy's scope got dewed up so he and I looked at these. M15, M5, M2, M13, M56, M92. I don't remember much else, since I am writing this from memory, today ( 9/7/96 ). The next night was much better, the 17th. I could see all of Stephan's Quintet, and found 3 of the 6 of Seyfert's Sextet. I looked at a couple of edge on's. I also looked at some favorites again. M27 ( Dumbbell ), The Veil Nebula, M81 and M82 low on the horizon, plus M51. Jack couldn't get enough of M51. Later, Ron came over and pointed the 20" at the Helix. I don't recall seeing that within the last 10 years. It was a very nice evening. A lot of meteors and a lot of astronomy friends. The Alaskan Shower was handy! Brrrrr. See ya next year.
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August 9-12, 1996 - Warren's Perseid campout at Port Crescent State Park.

We arrived friday evening and it was clear but windy. The park was full of campers, and we were the last ones to arrive. However, reservations always come in handy. We had a spot just down the road from Ryad. After setting up the camper, and settling the kids in for the night I wandered off to find where everyone was setting up. I went down to the beach, and no one was there, so I headed over to the boat launch. The ranger said they might be down there. My first trip to the boat launch and noone to be seen, but later we got together and set up on the beach. The 20" went up in about 15 minutes, after hauling it 100 yards from the parking area. The wind was stiff, and the 20 didn't want to stay still. A small group of campers came out to see what we were doing, and I managed to hold the scope while each of them looked at M13. This evening was too windy, so after about an hour I packed it in. We did see many meteors, though. It was clear 2 of the next 3 nights, so I had a chance to watch meteors through Monday night. It was a good show through the weekend. Tuesday the 13th, we headed home, since I wasn't feeling well.
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