Moon in M45 11/03/2009

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BobSikes
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Moon in M45 11/03/2009

Unread post by BobSikes »

If the clouds are willing to part tonight (11/3) at 11 pm, you will get a nice treat as the Moon ploughs through M45.
11:00
Image
12:00am
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1:00am
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2:00am
Image

Should you be so lucky to see this event in cloudy New England, please post what you see. Always interesting is exactly when the stars are occluded (as precisely timed as possible) and whether you can see stars near the edge of the Moon pop in and out of view, skimming the surface and momentarily blocked by mountain tops.

BobS
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Mark G
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Unread post by Mark G »

Cool Bob you saved me all the effort of getting dressed up heading out to watch it. :wink: :lol:
Clear skies,

Mark

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Galactus
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Unread post by Galactus »

Bob, et al, I went out several times during the aforementioned time period with my trusty 10X50s. The Moon is really, really, really bright. I could not see around or through the corona of reflected light surrounding the moon. I never saw M45. Wow! I thought I knew that some of the Subaru cluster would be difficult to see so close to the Moon, but not so much for so long. Cool. Lesson learned. I love astronomy as I learn something new with every sesson... :roll: :wink: :lol:
Galactus, Devourer of Worlds
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Rotorhead
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Unread post by Rotorhead »

George, I had the same experience last night and finally gave up at 11:30. The haze was the culprit, since I have done this conjunction twice before, once with my big binos, and once with the dob, and it is usually possible to pick out all of the brighter Pleiads, and to watch them right up to the moment of occultation. The halo around old Luna was just blinding last night, so it was no go.
Bob M
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Galactus
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Unread post by Galactus »

Thanks, Bob! I went out several times between 23:00 and 01:00 last night and thought that I was losing it, being able to see almost nothing in the Moon's vicinity. :roll: I could see Orion (and the moonlight affected all my observations far and wide), but less of M42 and M43 than usual in the 10X50s; Mars was bright and crisp, but no M45 before the time of the occultation or after... :oops:

I am relieved that you report the same difficulty and blame the haze. I really felt that the area around the Moon was brighter and larger (as to distance from the Moon itself) tha I recall in a long time. Thanks for confirming my observations! :wink:
Galactus, Devourer of Worlds
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BobSikes
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Time after Time

Unread post by BobSikes »

After getting home from the very nice event down at the Ocean Explorium, I noticed that to my amazement … the sky was clear! I was totally expecting a cloud cover, as we experienced down in New Bedford, but by 10:30, no clouds, no haze. Nice! :D

So I set up to view the passage of the Moon through M45. My first mistake was to pull out the binocs and take a look :( . The Moon was clear, but no Pleiades! For that matter, no stars at all near the almost full Moon. But then, after putting down the binocs, I couldn’t see anything anywhere. That’s a bright Moon. I needed a telescope and a smaller field of view.

So I set up properly.
  • Celestron 102mm refractor, achromatic, but with the VBlock filter
    8mm eyepiece (actually 8-20 zoom, but I used it at 8)
    tripod – no tracking (mistake #2)
    atomic clock (mistake #3)
    Starry Night Pro Plus, to show the approximate timing
I set the view so that most of the Moon was out of the field, and viola. Some stars of M45 appeared, at least I could see the bright ones, including Merope who was getting close. It also helped to move my eye back 6 inches or so from the eyepiece, making a pin point field of view. Like the Galileo telescope. I tried to simultaneously view the time on clock and the star and Moon, but it was impossible. I wanted occlusion timing down to the second but I could only see the minutes in the dim light. So I went up and got my trusty shortwave radio and tuned it to WWV (5 Mhz – the official time in US). You hear a constant very accurate click for each second, and on each minute the time and a sync beep. Very nice for timing occlusions, meteors, anything. Also I learned that my atomic clock was off by about 0.5 sec!

So went to look at Merope, but the Moon was way out of the field – no tracking. And with the Moon so high in the sky it took me awhile to finally get the Moon back in the FOV. Merope was already occluded. :( At some point before 23:07 EST but when, I don't know. DOAH!

It looked like next up was Alcyone and it’s neighbor. But using Starry Night to simulate, I could see that the Moon would miss them. And while there should be lots of dimmer stars to time, it is M45 after all, with a full Moon no such luck. Only mag 6 stars or brighter were visible.

Next up was Atlas at about 0:20. So I took a break, it’s cold now with a bit of wind. (almost mistake #4)

While snacking, watching the tube and warming up it suddenly hit me, Merope was hidden, but it will come out on the other side! You also want to time emergences. So I run back down, and simulate the emergence … about 23:40. The time is now 23:38! So out I go, no coat, of course the Moon is way out of the field, and I snatch the scope around and … no Merope yet. Whew! I had turned off the SW radio, so I turn it on and tune it a bit. “At the tone, the time will be 23:41 … BEEPâ€
Last edited by BobSikes on Thu Nov 05, 2009 8:55 am, edited 1 time in total.
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James T Kirk
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Re: Time after Time

Unread post by James T Kirk »

BobSikes wrote:After getting home from the very nice event down at the Ocean Explorium, I noticed that to my amazement … the sky was clear! I was totally expecting a cloud cover, as we experienced down in New Bedford, but by 10:30, no clouds, no haze. Nice! :D
Same here, when I got home it was also clear. Also like George and Bob M. I counldn't see the Pleiades the moon was to darn bright.
Manny M.
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Rotorhead
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Unread post by Rotorhead »

Bob, you get the bravery award this time!!! You showed persistence above and beyond, etc, etc. :D

You have also proven the reason why many (if not most) occultation-time freaks utilize video cams with time stamps to aid in the accuracy of the observations. You must have looked like a one-armed paper-hanger out there in the dark! Glad you weren't trying to time an asteroid. :P

But at least you saw it!
Bob M
15" f5 Starsplitter Dob/80mm Finder
5" Explore Scientific triplet APO on a Vixen Sphinx GEM
________
"He numbers all the stars, and calls each one by name." Ps 147:4
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Mark G
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Unread post by Mark G »

Thank guys for posting your reports. i feel like I was right there with you all. But much warmer. :shock: :lol:
Clear skies,

Mark

iOptron CEM25P w/ Tri-pier
CGEM DX
LXD750 w/ CDS #1697
LXD75 w/ #497 autostar Hypertuned
Antares 8" f/5 Newt
Antares 4" f/15 "Vixen Spec" long focus refractor
Orion 4" f/7 ED refractor
Astro-Tech 65mm Quad APO
and so much more
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