Report:20090912 Ante Perkovic

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	Reports by Ante Perković	Edit
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Albireo and Ring Nebula at low power
Reference	(hr) Albireo i Prsten u dvogledu i durbinu
Constellations	Lyra, Cygnus, Ophiuchus, Scutum
Observer	Ante Perković
Date	Sep 12 2009
Time
Location	Stari Grad, island of Hvar, Croatia
Limiting magnitude	5.5
Sky brightness
Seeing
Transparency
Instruments	20x50 spotting scope 10x50 binoculars
Power	10x, 20x
Filters
Notes

Legend:
Example	seen
Example	not seen
Example	possibly seen
Example	stellar

Open clusters (2/8): IC 4665 , Basel 1 , Tr 35 , NGC 6683 , NGC 6664 , Tr 34 , M 26 , NGC 6649
Globular clusters (1/2): M 56 , NGC 6712
Planetary nebulae (1/1): M 57
Multiple stars (1/4): Albireo , 67 Ophiuchi , 68 Ophiuchi , 70 Ophiuchi

This was a cloudy day, so I didn't have hihg hopes for this evening. But, in the last moment, somewhere around nautical dusk, the sky cleared, so I took my bike and drove to the beach localy known as Caulerpa, after alochtonus alga Caulerpa taxifolia that inhabits the sea bottom of this little bay. It's not perfect lovation for observing, but it's not like i had too much choice.

Stari Grad is not such a bad place for observing, but only if you have a car.

Streetlights along lungomare are the greatest source of light pollution in the bay of Stari Grad. Along the north side of the bay, the road goes only only to the last hotel, i.e. not far enough.

Lungomare on the south side goes all the way to the ferryboat piers. Abovementioned beach is halfway to the ferryboats. The piers has a few bright lights that pose a problem for observing for most of the bay.

There are some other options, away from the coast. Those are the willage of Rudina (2 km north of Stari Grad) and Stari Grad Plain, 2400 years old agricultural landscape.

Mala and Vela Rudina are some 2 km north of SG, at the altitude of 50 m above sea. The willages are hidden from Stari Grad lights. The location is good, and LM propably reaches 5.8, but one long steep slope creates a problem for anyone without a car.

Other dark location is Stari Grad Plain. It can be reached by bike, but I still don't have any light on my bike, so it's not very practical for me at this moment.

So, I had no choice, but to go along the seaside, until I reached the last street lamp. Unfortunately, this last lamp is at the very end of the lungomare. If there wes just a single lamp less, this would be much better place for observing. Luckily, there one beach cabin that makes a shadow, so I cousl at least stax away from direct light.

For this observation, I planned 3 things:

to practice determining limiting magnitude in Ursa Minor, using the maps I printed. I learned some magnitudes, so I sould do this without actualy watching the map
Reality chech of some of my previous reports (August 15th 2004) with 12x45 binoculars
Learning to get around Scutum, which I'm planning to scan from first to last objects in following weeks

After few minutes of observing Ursa Minor i menaged to see a 5.4-magnitude star. It was dim enough to conclude that magnitude of 5.5 was out of reach. Since i observed the south, where there was less light pollution, I suppose limiting magnitude there was somewhere arounf 5.6

[edit] Albireo and nearby area

For a start, I decided to checked Albireo in 10x50. According to my notes from August 15th 2004^[1], albireo can be easily separated in 12x45 binoculars. I suspected that I might have mistaken last time.

Albireo (double star in Cygnus): I observed it with 10x50 and I imediately noticedtjat it is more than a point. I strugled to stabilise image, but I menaged to see dimmer component, just on the ege of brighter element glow.

After that, I went to my other goal for tonight - the Ring Nebula. After 5 minutes of frustrating attmepts to stabilize image, I went to plan B - the same object, but with 20x50, the instrument I used in my first report ever (October 2nd 2002).