From: Collin Smith [mailto:CollinofAlabama@cox.net]
Sent: Sunday, June 04, 2006 7:47 PM
Subject: Observation Report for June 3rd

Environmental conditions:
In Tech Terrace Park, nice and warm.  More wind than we wanted but also no mosquito problems.  Upper atmospheric turbulence that seemed heat related at first.  Faint, wispy cloudiness began later in the evening, somewhat like Friday night.  Moon at First Quarter.
Instruments:
Don Fritz had his new Lomo Optics 80mm F/6 triplet on a uniquely modified alt-az mount.  After discussing the mount with his son, a mechanical engineer, Don modified his old alt-az making it considerably more stable.  I brought my 6" F/6 dobsonian, mostly due to the windy conditions.  Tom Heisey had his Meade 8" SCT with a small LCD video display.  This setup didn't have very good gain for objects other than the moon, but it did a fine job on that target.
Who showed:
Tommy Barker of English made his first showing.  Welcome Tommy.  Gary Leiker and Scott Harris came by shortly after Tommy, and Jorge Ramirez of the Law School also made his first appearance.  Welcome Jorge.  After Tommy left, Koy Carson made an appearance.  Two newcomers a friend of mine from the Lubbock Chorale had forwarded my invitation to arrived as well.
Targets:
Luna
Saturn
Jupiter (GRS, 3 Galilean satellites)
M13 (poor)
M92
Rasalgethi (easy split in 8mm TV)
M57 (poor)
M81 (no M82!)
Saturn again
M4 (not worth it for group)
M13 again
Tom's setup did a nice job on the moon, clearly demonstrating 5 layers of craters on the lunar surface at the terminator.  Don got razor sharp images in his 4mm BO/TMB eyepiece on the moon that were stunning!
Don hit Saturn up with his 5mm, but I thought that was a bit too much.  I found Saturn in my Meade 26mm 60 degree AFOV eyepiece, and it was framed nicely beside open cluster M44.  Saturn looked GREAT in my 6" dob with the BO/TMB 9mm.  Looked pretty good in my 8mm TV.  It looked okay with my 7mm UO, but the field of view in this eyepiece is so small, I didn't want people having to work that hard to keep the object in the field of view.  The 5mm was too much power for conditions this night.
Then the couple with the dog showed up.
Jupiter, ironically, looked better in my 9mm BO/TMB than my 8mm TV Plossl.  I think this was mostly due to atmospheric conditions, but there's no denying the BO/TMB series eyepieces are excellent.  I noticed the Great Red Spot on the surface (verified by the June S&T, pg 57).  We all got three Galilean satellites in our eyepieces.
M13 was washed out and showed up best in my 26mm Meade Plossl.  M92 was largely the same story, though smaller and a bit more condensed.
Rasalgethi was an easy split in my scope with the TV 8mm.  Just after this, Tommy Barker also split.  Then Koy showed up.
M57 was so poor, no detail was observed. Best view was with the 26mm Meade Plossl.  The seeing was so bad, I actually found M81 but couldn't see M82 in the 26mm Plossl.  How's that for bad?
By this time, Gary and Scott had convinced Don to pack up his scope and head for I-Hop.  I wanted to observe a little more, and Jorge and Koy still hadn't seen Saturn so I put the dob back on Saturn.  By this time, it was VERY low and I used my 15mm TV Plossl to get the best view possible of Saturn, strangely colorful near the horizon.
I briefly tried M4 in Scorpius that was now high enough to look at.  Wow, that wasn't very good.  Didn't even bother to get folks to look at it.  I put the dob back on M13.  Still washed out, but higher up and a little better than before.  Still put the 26mm Meade on it.  After this, everyone shook hands, loaded up and we called it a night.
I think the evening was a success.  Conditions weren't ideal, but they rarely are, and folks still got a good smattering of things.
Clear Skies,
CDS

From: Tom Heisey [mailto:tom@tomheisey.com]
Sent: Sunday, June 04, 2006 7:14 PM
Subject: the regions of the moon we saw on video last night

The "Inconsistent Moon" map was helpful in finding most of the features we viewed last night.
http://www.inconstantmoon.com/inconstant.htm
Click on the grid coordinates mentioned before each line:
B4:  The mountain we watched emerge from the shadows first as a disembodied ghost and finally as a lone mount in the plains is Piton, near the crater Cassini.  In the B4 image, the mount is just above the right arrow and is not labeled.  (B3 labels it, but leaves out the rest of the area we viewed.)  You can also see the crater with all of the ejecta rubble is Aristullus.  At the top right is the Vallis Alpes (Alpine Valley) is the big slash at the upper right.
D4:  This is the center of the area with the ridges & rills on the lava plain.  The main tumbled area is labeled Boscovich.  Explore the surrounding slides to see the rest of the ridges and rills.
G4:  Faraday or Stofler (I'm not sure which is which) is the multiple hit crater that looked so great with the terminator shadow nearby.
With the fun we had last night, I'll bring the video camera to these events regularly!
Clear Skies,
Tom

From: Collin Smith [mailto:CollinofAlabama@hotmail.com]
Sent: Friday, June 02, 2006 1:28 PM
Subject: Friday observing and Saturday observing
Folks,
Tonight is the First Friday Art Trail.  I will be starting the Trail late (around 6:30) but encourage you to get out and enjoy it if you can.
Saturday night June 3rd after sunset at Tech Terrace Park, we're putting on a star party.  We set up along the south central portion of the park.
Luna, Mars, Jupiter & the day's namesake Saturn are all on display, as well as a host of double stars and a few bright Deep Space Objects.  Please come if you can;  beats anything on TV guaranteed.  Bring a friend or come solo, either way you'll be glad you did.
CDS