First Observations w/ new Scope

Name: Curt Diggs
Observing Site: Earth'n'Sky Farm (Calhoun, GA)
Observing Date: 05/27/2006
Observing Time: 09:00 pm to 11:00 pm
Seeing: 3
Transparency: 6
Equipment: 12.5" F5.3 Dobsonian


M13 - many individual stars visible. Contrast was fairly poor due to some haze and thin clouds. Used 22mm ED Orion eyepiece.

M101 - Difficult to find at first. Very dim with little or detail visible even with averted vision.
22mm ED ep. 26mm Ploessl no better.

M65 & M66 - Easy to find about 3 deg southeast of theta Leo. Both stood out nicely in the 22mm with a star or two visible in M66. Low oblique view of both spirals shows little structure.

NGC3628 - Just one eyepiece field to the NW of M65 and M66. This is a relatively large spiral seen somewhat obliquely. Not as bright as M65 & 66 but larger. 22mm EP used.

Mars - very small now and little surface detail visible. 9.5mm ED eyepiece (175 power).

Saturn - Poor seeing made it difficult to discern much detail in rings or on surface. I could just make out the Cassini division but little else. 9.5 mm EP.

Jupiter - Extremely bright (maybe mag -2.5?). Early viewing yielded very poor views due to bad seeing. Later the seeing improved and some surface detail became visible including the Great Red Spot.

General - Defocused bright star images showed atmosphere was "churning" at altitude, probably due to earlier storms.