We had another clear (and chilly!) night at the observatory. The observing log hasn't changed significantly since the beginning of the semester. What we looked at is listed below.
If you want to explore the sky on your own, here is a link to the November/December star map.
Through the 14-inch scope
- Waxing crescent Moon
- Saturn (and four of its 82 formally named satellites- Titan, Rhea, Dione, and Tethys.)
- M31 (Andromeda Galaxy): M31 is a neighboring galaxy located about 2.5 million light-years from us. It's a spiral galaxy like our own Milky Way, but it's larger. M31 is about 220,000 light-years across compared to the Milky Way's 100,000 light-year diameter.
- NGC 6826 (the "blinking planetary"): NGC 6826 is planetary nebula located in the constellation of Cygnus. It's called the blinking planetary because when you have it centered in the eyepiece, it appears to blink "on" when you look away from it and "off" when you look directly at it. The effect happens because our peripheral vision is more sensitive than our forward vision.
- Waxing crescent Moon (Thanks, Viga, for helping folks get such great images of the Moon!)
- Jupiter (and the four Galilean satellites- Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto.)
- Albireo: Albireo is a double star system in the constellation of Cygnus. The two stars (one blue, one gold) can't be resolved with the naked eye, but through our telescopes we are able to see the pair. The system is about 430 light-years distant.
- M13 (the Hercules cluster): M13 is a globular cluster in the constellation of Hercules. It is about 22,000 light-years from Earth.
Sincere thanks to Iadviga. The events would not be possible without her skillful collaboration.
And as always, thank you to everyone who attended!
