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Date: August 23rd, 2002
Location: Tucson (In City Limits)
Targets: M31, NGC 869 + 884
M31
was really cool. First time I've seen it through anything of any real
magnification. I was in the city so the background was extremely washed
out. Looked like a fuzzy jellybean. with the 25mm, which makes for 24x, I
could see rather far (assuming that I seen the entire field of the
galaxy). Put in the 10mm (60x) and it was much more larger, but no details
were evident than were noticed with the 25mm. I couldn't spot
M32 or
M110,
and I believe that was mostly due to the sky, and nearly full moon. I
could however tell that the dust bands (which could not be made out of
course) were on the top of my field of view.
Searching
for M31
on my first night out, came across the double cluster of NGC 869 and NGC
884. These looked incredibly cool with the 25mm eyepiece. Both fit
entirely into the field of vision, and when boosted up to the 10mm
eyepiece, both appeared crammed in the eyepiece, still cool. Almost
immediately I dropped back to the 25mm and looked at greater detail the
clusters. To my eyes, NGC 869 seemed more compact, and slightly brighter
(hence why its probably the favorite of the two. But without one, the
other does not seem complete). I can not wait to get a picture of this,
and will be on top of my list of pictures to take once I get my camera
ready. I definitely see why this is on the
SAC 110
best NGC object list. This was my first ever object found in the
AstroView scope (with exception to the full moon the night before).
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