(SNES) Fwd: October 21, 2001

[Timetrav2@webtv.net (Andy and Barry)]

http://community.webtv.net/Timetrav2/TIMETRAVELERS
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From: Timetrav2@webtv.net (Andy and Barry)
Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2001 18:00:42 -0400 (EDT)
To: snegazers@brainiac.com
Subject: October 21, 2001
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Location: Exeter, Rhode Island
Time: 7:30 to 9:00 PM
Weather: In the low 60's and dry, Clouds on the Northwest horizon moving
in rapidly.
Equipment: XT-8

 On the way to Brads house I noticed that  fall was being welcomed by
all the wind blown leafs that were blowing around out of the darkness
and dancing in the headlights of my car. In my mind I thought that
strong winds and telescopes don't  mix. 

Arriving at Brads, I found him standing in the dark by himself. He was
extremely excited because he had just saw his first display of the
Northern Lights from his yard. He was also feeling the pain in his gut
from running into something in the dark because he was so excited. 

 For the next several minutes we didn't unload the telescope but instead
we watched the sky to the North and Northwest for any hint of the
Aurora. In time a faint reddening of the sky took place in the North.
We were not sure if the red color was from sky glow, but as we watched,
in time the red seemed to intensify and moved to the west slowly, then
disappeared around Ursa Major. Brad had said he detected a hint of green
in the sky as well before I arrived but that emerald color did not
reappear while I was watching.  

This was very exciting because I had not seen the Aurora for several
years.

Regrettably, the Moon had not set yet and the clouds moved in real fast
before we had a chance to spend much time at the telescopes eye piece.

We only had a chance to view M31 which was very nice in the binoculars.
The  outer edges of the galaxy seemed to reach pretty far out in the
10X50's FOV.  With the 13mm ep M32 could be seen being dwarfed by M31.

Because the sky was still bright from the setting Moon,  M13 had no
contrast to speak of and was not worth a second look. I know that is
very hard to believe considering this is the "crown jewel" of Hercules.

With the clouds rushing in we hurried to M57 and had about 30 seconds
apiece to view The Ring Nebula before it was buried behind the clouds.
>From what we saw it was still there looking very much like a small blue
puff of smoke.

We thought we would give M15 a try and was surprised to find it with
ease just a short distance away from E. Pegasus. This globular cluster
was resting in darker sky and shown much more contrast than M13 did
earlier.  It is small and can use more magnification.  With the 13mm ep
many stars were resolved in the core, the star at the outer edges were
very pretty as well. Under better seeing  and darker sky this cluster is
a jewel even though it is a mag. 6.5 and very far away at 34,000 ly.

After a little more than an hour of viewing the sky was completely
covered with clouds and the session ended. Good night for the Northern
Lights, not so hot for space travel.

Stars in your eyes,
Barry Martasian

http://community.webtv.net/Timetrav2/TIMETRAVELERS
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