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NorthWolf
professor emeritus
Reged: 02/23/09
Posts: 557
Loc: Montreal, Canada 45.33N 73.47W
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Finally a cloudless night, going to head out there tonight, what would you guys recommend I look out for in a red zone between 11pm-3am? 
My view is towards SW-SSW-WWS.
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A Speck of Dust
Orion SkyQuest XT10
Pentax XW 5mm
TV 9mm Nagler T6
TV 24mm Panoptic
TV 2x, 3x Barlow 1.25"
Telrad w/ 4" Riser
1/3 Protostar Flocked
Canon Powershot A590 IS
Astrozap Flexible Light/Dew Shield
Homemade 7,2' x 10' PVC/ABS Light Shield
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John Kocijanski
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 08/22/03
Posts: 1652
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How about some galaxies in Virgo or Coma Bernices? Markarian's Chain. NGC 4565.
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Deep Space Observer 10 * SPC-8 * C102 HD f/10 * XT 4.5 * Orion/Moonlite 80ED * PST *
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Dave Mitsky
Postmaster
Reged: 04/08/02
Posts: 10195
Loc: PA, USA, Planet Earth
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Here are my top ten DSO lists for the summer:
Top ten deep-sky objects for June: M5, M101, M102, NGC 5566, NGC 5585, NGC 5689, NGC 5746, NGC 5813, NGC 5838, NGC 5907
Top ten deep-sky objects for July: M4, M6, M7, M10, M12, M13, M92, NGC 6210, NGC 6231, NGC 6543
Top ten deep-sky objects for August: M8, M11, M16, M17, M20, M22, M24, M27, M55, M57
Top ten deep-sky objects for September: IC 1396, M2, M15, M30, NGC 6888, NGC 6946, NGC 6960, NGC 6992, NGC 7000, NGC 7009
You may want to consult some of these DSO lists:
http://www.seds.org/Messier/messier.html
http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/messier/xtra/similar/sac110bn.html
http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/Messier/xtra/similar/rasc-ngc.html
http://www.astronomyboy.com/saa/
http://skywatch.brainiac.com/saa100/saanm2.pdf
http://www.taas.org/taas/load.php?fil=taas200.html
http://x.astrogeek.org/observations/list.php?list_id=26
http://homepage.mac.com/vicmenard/telescopes/TheList.pdf
http://pages.sbcglobal.net/raycash/dm600.htm
http://delphes.net/messier/xtra/similar/m1000.txt
Binary and carbon stars are always good targets:
http://www.astroleague.org/al/obsclubs/dblstar/dblstar2.html
http://www.nckas.org/carbonstars/
http://www.astrosurf.com/buil/us/peculiar2/carbon.htm
Don't forget about Jupiter towards the end of your session.
Dave Mitsky
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Chance favors the prepared mind.
De gustibus non est disputandum.
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Ken....
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 01/22/04
Posts: 1109
Loc: Nashua, NH, USA
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Download and install one of the free, and very good, planetarium programs (Stellarium, Cartes du Ciel, HNSky, KStars, etc) to find out what's up there from your location and help plan observing sessions.
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Ken....
Discovery 12.5"
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NorthWolf
professor emeritus
Reged: 02/23/09
Posts: 557
Loc: Montreal, Canada 45.33N 73.47W
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Sweet! thx guys, thx for all the links and sweet put info as well Dave! True, will look at Jupiter towards the end of the session.
I already use Stellarium and love it, was just wondering what everyone else is looking at these days, it's been cloudy for months. Thx again, this should keep me busy for a while.
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A Speck of Dust
Orion SkyQuest XT10
Pentax XW 5mm
TV 9mm Nagler T6
TV 24mm Panoptic
TV 2x, 3x Barlow 1.25"
Telrad w/ 4" Riser
1/3 Protostar Flocked
Canon Powershot A590 IS
Astrozap Flexible Light/Dew Shield
Homemade 7,2' x 10' PVC/ABS Light Shield
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Achernar
Post Laureate
Reged: 02/25/06
Posts: 4981
Loc: Mobile, Alabama, USA
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Bright globulars and smaller planetaries are good objects to hunt for from a red zone. I have seen lots of them in the Sagittarius, Scorpius and Ophiuchus. The Messier globulars I can see with my 10-inch from home, and open clusters such as M-6, NGC-6231, NGC-6124, M-11, M-25 and many others show up nicely too. Planetary nebulae such as NGC-6302 in Scorpius and NGC-6818, M-27 and M-57 are good choices. For more challenging planetary nebula, try NGC-6563, 6565, 6572, NGC-6309, 6440 and at high power, NGC-6629. Use nebula filters if you have them. M-8 and M-17 can be seen from light polluted areas with a O-III or narrowband filter.
Taras
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15-inch F/4.5 Dob under construction
10-inch F/4.5 Discovery Dob
6-inch F/8 Homebuilt Dob
4 1/4-inch F/4 Homebuilt reflector
A whole bunch of eyepieces, filters and other accessories....
Two curious cats
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NorthWolf
professor emeritus
Reged: 02/23/09
Posts: 557
Loc: Montreal, Canada 45.33N 73.47W
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Thx, I'm writing down everyone's lists, including Herb's (Panhard) in an agenda and will go through them this month and especially tonight.
Dave, that first link is perfect for an Messier Object list, would you happen to know if one exists for NGC objects? Thx.
I'm writing the name of the target first, what constellation they belong in and what type of object they are.
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A Speck of Dust
Orion SkyQuest XT10
Pentax XW 5mm
TV 9mm Nagler T6
TV 24mm Panoptic
TV 2x, 3x Barlow 1.25"
Telrad w/ 4" Riser
1/3 Protostar Flocked
Canon Powershot A590 IS
Astrozap Flexible Light/Dew Shield
Homemade 7,2' x 10' PVC/ABS Light Shield
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NorthWolf
professor emeritus
Reged: 02/23/09
Posts: 557
Loc: Montreal, Canada 45.33N 73.47W
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http://seds.org/~spider/ngc/ngc.html
This link should be perfect, thx!
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A Speck of Dust
Orion SkyQuest XT10
Pentax XW 5mm
TV 9mm Nagler T6
TV 24mm Panoptic
TV 2x, 3x Barlow 1.25"
Telrad w/ 4" Riser
1/3 Protostar Flocked
Canon Powershot A590 IS
Astrozap Flexible Light/Dew Shield
Homemade 7,2' x 10' PVC/ABS Light Shield
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Dave Mitsky
Postmaster
Reged: 04/08/02
Posts: 10195
Loc: PA, USA, Planet Earth
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You may also want to have a look at http://www.ngcicproject.org/
Dave Mitsky
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Chance favors the prepared mind.
De gustibus non est disputandum.
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NorthWolf
professor emeritus
Reged: 02/23/09
Posts: 557
Loc: Montreal, Canada 45.33N 73.47W
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Finally! Found my first Messier target, M13 - Great Cluster in Hercules! - Globular Cluster in Hercules constellation. It made me stay out there an extra 3 hours looking for more targets.
Everything changes once you find something your actually looking for. I found M13 with my 24mm Panoptic, it stood out like a sore thumb, a nice blotch right in the middle of the dark sky between HIP 81833 and HIP 81693 A.
I than used a 9mm on it, and than a 5mm, it looked fantastic. I wonder why, the 5mm Pentax XW has a type of extra tint, I would have liked to have seen it more clearer. It still looked great though.
The cloud cover in my region was 5/5 which is great, Transparency 4/5, but Seeing was 3/5, Darkness was all black between 12-3am when I was out.
I started looking for some double stars in and around Bootes and Corona Borealis but I realize how badly I need a LED red light flashlight now. I also have a Deepmap 600 but I just dont like the way everything is positioned on it. It's not at all like the way things appear on Stellarium, which would probably be ideal to have on a laptop next to you, unfortunately I have to go upstairs in my house to look at it.
I will have to go out there with a LED flashlight and a book I bought called Illustrated Guide to Astronomical Wonders.
By the time I realized where M5 actually was, it was sinking down the horizon. I'll find it tonight if it's not cloudy.
Same thing for M10 and M12 inside Ophiuchus, I could not locate them in time.
I also found my first Open Cluster (IC 4665 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IC_4665 ) right on top of Cebalrai, I did not know what exactly an open cluster was, but I did notice a beautiful pattern of closely spread out stars which looked really cool!
Afterwards I started looking at Jupiter which was in the south coming westwards towards me, It stood out like a sore thumb, I could easily see Io, Ganymede and Europa and Callisto on the other side. I noticed the 2 wide bands on Jupiter and for a sec I thought I saw "the eye"!
I desperately tried to find Neptune as well, I may have been looking at it and HIP 108036 (m cap).
Overall this was a great night for me, finally got to use all the equipment I had been collecting the last 2 months.
Everything changes once you find a target that your looking for, that is the funnest part for me, having to star hop looking for a target and than finding it. I just have to get a red flashlight now and bring out some books and my planisphere and map.
Thx for all your targets, I know I'm going to find many of them!
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A Speck of Dust
Orion SkyQuest XT10
Pentax XW 5mm
TV 9mm Nagler T6
TV 24mm Panoptic
TV 2x, 3x Barlow 1.25"
Telrad w/ 4" Riser
1/3 Protostar Flocked
Canon Powershot A590 IS
Astrozap Flexible Light/Dew Shield
Homemade 7,2' x 10' PVC/ABS Light Shield
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NorthWolf
professor emeritus
Reged: 02/23/09
Posts: 557
Loc: Montreal, Canada 45.33N 73.47W
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Quote:
You may also want to have a look at http://www.ngcicproject.org/
Dave Mitsky
Perfect site! thank you.
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A Speck of Dust
Orion SkyQuest XT10
Pentax XW 5mm
TV 9mm Nagler T6
TV 24mm Panoptic
TV 2x, 3x Barlow 1.25"
Telrad w/ 4" Riser
1/3 Protostar Flocked
Canon Powershot A590 IS
Astrozap Flexible Light/Dew Shield
Homemade 7,2' x 10' PVC/ABS Light Shield
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PG Lewis
sage
Reged: 09/25/08
Posts: 204
Loc: ~31.5S NSW Australia
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Good observations so far and I hope you're keeping a notebook!
M13 was my first "searched for it and found it" DSO as well. M57 in Lyra is another nice starter and fairly easy to find thanks to being located between two fairly close, bright stars in the little constellation. It'll be small at lower magnification, possibly looking like an out of focus star, but higher magnification on it should make you happy  .
Keep up the reports!
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Cincinnati, Ohio (~39N, 84.5W)
Currently enjoying the southern milkyway from the mid-North coast NSW, Australia
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NorthWolf
professor emeritus
Reged: 02/23/09
Posts: 557
Loc: Montreal, Canada 45.33N 73.47W
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Due to high humidity 80-85%++ last night, I could not see as clear as the other night, but ended up finding M5 with ease this time, (After starring at it's whereabouts on Stellarium for half an hour), M10 and M11 (The Wild Duck Cluster).
M5 was extremely murky, I could make out some minor detail at 240x with my 5mm, I was convinced it was bad when I quickly found M13 and remembered how clearer it was the night before.
I managed to find M10 but could not find it's partner, again it wasn't that clear. Will definately look for all these again on a better night.
I managed to find M11, at first I thought it was a blueish Nebula, this one looks pretty neat, will have to revisit for sure.
I'm also pretty sure I was looking at open clusters all over the place to the rght of Sagittarius.
I also spotted no less than 3 fast moving satellites, although one Near M5 looked like it could have been something WAY WAY WAY further.
I really want to get a 2X Barlow now to try 480X on Jupiter as well as barlowing the 24mm Panoptic.
I cannot wait to get back out there again.
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A Speck of Dust
Orion SkyQuest XT10
Pentax XW 5mm
TV 9mm Nagler T6
TV 24mm Panoptic
TV 2x, 3x Barlow 1.25"
Telrad w/ 4" Riser
1/3 Protostar Flocked
Canon Powershot A590 IS
Astrozap Flexible Light/Dew Shield
Homemade 7,2' x 10' PVC/ABS Light Shield
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teskridg
sage
Reged: 01/15/08
Posts: 276
Loc: PA
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Duh, what is a "red zone"?
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Tim Eskridge
CPC 800
Scopebuggy
Burgess Binoviewer Model 24
8mm Radian
11mm Nagler
15mm GTO
20mm Burgess binolite and Stellar
26mm Meade SP Series 4000
30mm Vixen NPL
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Javier
sage
Reged: 05/03/09
Posts: 423
Loc: New Jersey
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NorthWolf,
Congrats on M13, my first was M109 and then M3. last night I finally nailed down the Ring Nebula but no luck on the Owl Nebula. How did Jupiter look in your area?
Jav
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Mike K
professor emeritus
Reged: 04/01/07
Posts: 626
Loc: Central Texas
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Quote:
Duh, what is a "red zone"?
Go to you clear sky chart, look below the chart where it says "Nifty Links" and click on Light Polution Map. Red is bad, green/blue is better, grey/black is good.
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Clear skies,
Mike K.
30°31" N 97°44" W, LP: Red
Observe: Once or twice a week back yard, once a month under dark skies
Favorites: Globulars, planets, face-on spirals
Equipment: CPC925/XT10i/TMB-92SS/Lunt LS60THaDS
Eyepieces: Naglers, Ethos, UO HDs, Hyperion Zoom
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teskridg
sage
Reged: 01/15/08
Posts: 276
Loc: PA
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Thank you for obliterating this infinitesimal portion of my ignorance!
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Tim Eskridge
CPC 800
Scopebuggy
Burgess Binoviewer Model 24
8mm Radian
11mm Nagler
15mm GTO
20mm Burgess binolite and Stellar
26mm Meade SP Series 4000
30mm Vixen NPL
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NorthWolf
professor emeritus
Reged: 02/23/09
Posts: 557
Loc: Montreal, Canada 45.33N 73.47W
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Quote:
NorthWolf,
Congrats on M13, my first was M109 and then M3. last night I finally nailed down the Ring Nebula but no luck on the Owl Nebula. How did Jupiter look in your area?
Jav
It looked great, especially 2 nights ago, even though there was a full moon I saw great detail and even saw blueish - greenish detail on Neptune which s on top of mu Capricornus right over Jupiter.
I cant wait for more clear skies, I have so many targets written down.
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A Speck of Dust
Orion SkyQuest XT10
Pentax XW 5mm
TV 9mm Nagler T6
TV 24mm Panoptic
TV 2x, 3x Barlow 1.25"
Telrad w/ 4" Riser
1/3 Protostar Flocked
Canon Powershot A590 IS
Astrozap Flexible Light/Dew Shield
Homemade 7,2' x 10' PVC/ABS Light Shield
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mypontiac
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 09/06/07
Posts: 1079
Loc: Austin, Tx.
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Look for the Double Cluster too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Cluster
One of my favorites. 
Hopefully you can manage to pick it up in your viewing area. It is more to the east.
Sean
Edited by mypontiac (07/12/09 02:01 PM)
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