General Session - August 25, 2017

Crawford Notch Beach. ©Judy Black. iPhone 6s Plus. ISO 25,1/1800 sec @f/2.2

Constellations: Capricornus, Cassiopeia, Delphinus, Lyra, Ursa Major
Asterism: Coathanger/Collinder 399/Brocchi's Cluster, Keystone of Hercules, Square of Pegasus, Teapot
Satellite: (1)
Messier Objects: M8, M13, M20, M21, M31 

Location: Crawford Notch Campground on the Saco, White Mountain National Forest, New Hampshire
Date: 2017-08-25
Time: 9:00 PM - 10:30 PM EDT
Instrument: Visual + Binoculars 10x30 IS
Transparency: Fair (2) - Poor (1)
Seeing: Fair (2) - Poor (1)
Temperature: 16º C - 14º C

No wind and light clouds occasionally. High humidity and light pollution to the E-SE. We did our viewing from the rocky beach of the shallow, cold water river. There was a steep cliff directly across from us that cut off our view to the East.

Teapot (in Sagittarius)
Time: 9:07 PM EDT
Again, because of the trees, could only see the handle and lid of the Teapot.

  
 		 Delphinus
Time: not recorded
S&T Chart Reference: 64
The 5 stars of Delphinus could be easily seen but they were not as bright the evening before. Showed it to Steve (a photographer on the beach).

Lyra
Time: 9:18 PM EDT
S&T Chart Reference:63
Instrument: Visual + Binoculars
Found Vega then Lyra visually then viewed them with binoculars. Showed the constellation to a fellow on the beach taking photographs and shared the binoculars with I'm to view the double stars in Lyra - ε and δ.

Keystone of Hercules (in Hercules)
Time: 9:42 PM EDT
S&T Chart Reference: 52, 54
Instrument: Binoculars
The Keystone was located almost directly overhead. I found M13.

Satellite
Time: 9:42 PM EDT
Instrument: Binoculars
While viewing the Keystone, caught sight of a satellite. Followed it to above Scorpius where it then disappeared in the trees.

 Cassiopeia
Time: 9:48 PM EDT
S&T Chart Reference: 1, 3, 72
Instrument: Visual + Binoculars
Could identify all 5 stars of the constellation due to their magnitude. Surrounding stars not easily seen naked eye but could be seen with binoculars.

Ursa Major
Time: 9:43 PM EDT
S&T Chart Reference: 31, 32, 33, 43, F
Instrument: Visual + Binoculars
Could make out all 7 stars naked eye and used binoculars to see the double stars Mizar and Alcor. Could see Polaris but it was faint to the naked eye.

 Capricornus
Time: 9:55 PM EDT
S&T Chart Reference: 66, 68, 77
Instrument: Visual + Binoculars
Saw 2 stars in vertical alignment and used my binoculars to confirm it was Capricornus α and β. Could not easily see the other stars in this constellation due to the light pollution.

Square of Pegasus (in Pegasus)
Time: 10:00 PM EDT
S&T Chart Reference: 74, 75
Instrument: Visual
Just before leaving the beach, 3 of the 4 stars in the Square (Scheat, Algenib and Alpheratz) were visible above the cliffs across the river from us.

Coathanger /Collinder 399 / Brocchi's Cluster
Time: 10:25 PM EDT
S&T Chart Reference: 65
Instrument: Visual + Binoculars
Could not locate Albireo earlier in this session so decided to use Altair as the start point. Success! All 10 stars easily found with the binoculars. Showed this to Steve as well.

Messier Objects

M8 (Lagoon Nebula)
Time: not recorded
S&T Chart Reference: 67, 69, I
Instrument: Visual + Binoculars
The hazy skies and the tree line it made for difficult to find the spout of the Teapot; however, knowing where the lid was located,  I was able to find the nebula. The line of stars plus the grey fuzzy area around and mostly above the line were easily seen in the binoculars.

M13 (Hercules Cluster)
Time: not recorded
S&T Chart Reference: 67, 69, I
Instrument: Visual + Binoculars
I had found the Keystone earlier in this session. Locating it again, I looked 1/3 off the way from η Hercules to ζ Hercules to find the small, grey, round cluster with the binoculars.

 

M31 (open cluster)
Time: not recorded
S&T Chart Reference: 3, 72
Instrument: Visual + Binoculars
Used Cassiopeia to locate Andromeda as we couldn't see the Square of Pegasus. It was a grey fuzzy of indeterminant shape and better seen with averted vision.

 

M20 (Trifid Nebula)
Time: not recorded
S&T Chart Reference: 67, 69, I
Instrument: Binoculars
Having found M8, it was easy to look in the upper portion of my binocular FOV to see this nebula. A central bright area but not  able to discern individual stars.

M21 (open cluster)
Time: not recorded
S&T Chart Reference: 67, 69, I
Instrument: Binoculars
M21 was found in the same FOV as M20 but a little up and to the left in the FOV.

 

  

 

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Written by: Judy Black
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