USER OBSERVATIONS Last updated: 18 September 2002

Another ETX-90 Field Report

Subject:	Field Report (ETX-90)
Sent:	Monday, September 16, 2002 7:04:34
From:	edmosser@attbi.com (Ed Mosser)
Took advantage of the great fall skys to get outside a couple of times. 
The weather here in Indiana has really turned nice....with cool weather
and clear transparent skys.

September 11, 2002:
Started with 54 Cygnus...couldnt resolve this double at 96x. 61 Cygnus
is one of the skys best doubles.  Nearly equal magnitudes.  Very easily
resolved at 48x.  Both are orange in color. Star hopped from 61 Cygnus
to 65 Cygnus, which I could not resolve at 48x then on to NGC 7063 -
which is in the same FOV as 69 Cygnus.  I counted about 10 stars from my
sky polluted back yard observatory.  These were contained in an area of
about 10 arc minutes.  The brightest stars were 9th mag.  Not a good
object for a 90mm etx.

I then turned south:
M11 - This looks like a globular cluster to me with the 90mm.  Lots of
fuzzy stuff.  There is a double star to the south of the cluster. Then
just west and north of M11 is a pretty wide double star.  It is a 6mag
and 8 mag double with 90" separation or so.

NGC 6664 is about 30' east of Alpha Scutum.  The glow of Alpha makes it
difficult to spot this.  There were about 6 - 9th mag stars in a pretty
large area.

M26 is easily located.  It is about 15' in size with 15 stars visable
with 9th mag being the brightest.  Lots of glow in there, suggesting a
number of dimmer stars.

I then used Sue French's excellent Small Scope Sampler column as a guide
for viewing objects in Delphinus and Sagitta.  I believe her column is
the best that Sky and Telescope offers each month.  She uses a 4"
refractor and that is very similar to what we use.

Gamma Delphinus is a great star for those who enjoy doubles or those who
want to begin to observe.  There is actually 2 double systems in the
FOV.  Gamma has nearly equal magnitudes with 9" of separation.  The
other system...Struve 2725 is tougher for the 90mm as the magnitudes are
much dimmer at 7.5/8.2 with 6" of separation.  Very nice FOV at 48x
(25mm)

Just west of Beta Delphinus is Struve 2703 which is a nice triple.  Sue
describes it much better than I can, but it is easily resolved in the
ETX at low power.

Then I checked out the Toadstool further east.  I couldnt make out NGC
7006 which is a 10.6 mag globular cluster.

I looked at M71/H20.  M71 was disappointing.  Could barely make it out,
more than likely due to the moonlight.  I have had trouble with this
inthe past.  Some nights it is there, other nights it is not.  However,
Harvard 20 was easily spotted.  In the past I could not recognize it. 
This year I did.

Took a look at Alpha 1 and Alpha 2 Capricorn and Beta Capricorn.

I woke up this morning (September 16th) at 3am and couldnt sleep. 
So...outside I went at 430.  Should have gone out earlier, but  I did a
few chores in the house.

Auriga was nicely placed in the early morning sky.
Started with 14 Auriga...an easy double at 48x.  This is a 5.1/7.4
double with 14.6" degrees of sep.

Next I looked at 16, 17, and 18 Auriga which makes a nice FOV. NGC 1893
was next.  I saw 12 stars, the brightest about 9th mag in a a 10' area.

NGC 1907 is a pretty nice OC with about 15 stars in a 12' area.  There
is lots of background stars, so estimating the size is sometimes
difficult.

M36 and M38 and nice and bright and easy to star hop to and from using
24 Auriga as a central point.  I counted 35 stars in M36 and M38 had
lots of 9th mag stars.

Went to NGC 1778 which is about 8-10' in size with 6 - 9th mag stars
visable.  There was noticable twilight and it was getting tougher to see
the dimmer objects.

Hustled over to NGC1664 which is "big and loose" at 30' with 15stars,
brightest at 8th mag.

Checked to see if M42 was still around (it is) and finished with Jupiter
and Saturn and went inside at 530 to start the daily routine.

Thanks,

Ed

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