This observing session was a different one. It was more of a
personal experience more than the observing experience. It all started
with me realizing just half-an-hour back before leaving that my
spectacles are gone for repair and without it it's useless !!! (I've
short-sight so I can't see far away things, stars not clearly but
blurred and de-focused) So at the
last moment this single thing spoilt all the future happenings till
about 10:30 pm !!! I hurriedly rushed to the spectacles shop where I had
given it for repair, only seeing it to be closed, as does always happen
with fate. I left my house at 3:30 pm with my back-up spectacles (which
too had only one lens in it and the other one missing). Leaving at this
time was late if
I've got to catch the 5:00 pm bus to our site. Now the following things
that happened never will happen, except for that day. I missed the bus. And
then waited for the next bus at 6:30 pm, which in turn never arrived.
Then I at least waited for the 8 pm bus which too never arrived !!
Finally after some fights from the villagers, a special bus was booked.
For around 4 hrs. I had to stand that day, and on top of that I missed
out all the excitement of observing if I would have reached early. And
all the time while I was suffering, Akarsh, my observing partner was
having a fantastic time there observing alone and having all the
telescope time for himself. Finally I had to manage with only one glass
in my spectacles (confusing my view) but finally I was paid off with the
type of sky I saw !!
Clouds also came when I was about to reach and they didn't stay for
long. But after mid-night, when the Sagittarius Milky-Way arose at a
good height, the Milky-Way this time, was the BEST up to today !!! Yes,
it's true, the full extent of Milky-Way was only 10% better than any
other time. The Sagittarius dark lanes and bright regions looked like
paintings put up on the sky.This is the description by Akarsh
(wonderful but over-exaggerated) : Very very very very thick Sagittarius
Milky Way. Dark rift extremely clear. Very high contrast between the
dark rift and the Milky Way. Milky Way started with a thick area at
Norma. Rift started at Ara-Norma, thickened at Scorpius. Rift was very
very distinct at Sagittarius. Rift extended till Cygnus. Cygnus Milky
Way extended beyond Deneb to Cassiopeia.
So here are the proceedings of the night....
METEORS :
I saw around 4-6 meteors only but all of them seemed to originate from
Scorpius and Sagittarius. It was the Sagittarids meteor stream (as I was
just guessing it that day without knowing it's name !!) They have their
peak on May 19.
The comet 73/P was the brightest comet in this period and even though it
was calculated that Earth would not pass through it's tail until 2022,
it was predicted that there would be a minor meteor shower. I was
careful about these meteor showers originating from the comet 73/P. I
was fortunate to see around 4 of them, a fact to be proud of. Earth had
passed through the tail of this historic comet and the originating point
was Canes Venatici. These are very slow meteors moving at around 10-15
km/sec. This is a new meteor shower probably taking place the first
time. Out of the 4 seen, the first one was a slow one around 10 degrees
in length, second was a bright one, giving a feeling of a fireball,
slightly yellow. This was the brightest of the night. Third was a very
short one. A fourth one was a telescopic meteor, it passed through the
field of eyepiece.
OTHER OBJECTS :
ATTEMPTS : I attempted a new faint comet between 12-13 magnitude, 71/P
Clark. But it was nowhere there, a 8" didn't show that. If I would have
reached early in evening on time, there was another comet of average
brightness between 10-11 mag. in the evening sky, 41/P
Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak. This comet has had some very interesting
history, of brightening in a short period of 2 months or so by 10
magnitudes, that too twice !!
In the morning, wanted to see comet 73/P "C" & "B" fragments, but clouds
arrived at around 4 a.m. after which I diverted for some time on the
crescent Moon. I did very little but serious Moon observation observing
some "seas" and "craters". Among them were Gassendi, Gassendi A,
Gassendi B craters touching Mare humorum. Oceanus Procellarum is a vast
lava-cooled sea (the black features) on Moon. Grimaldi, Riccioli,
Mersenius, Aristarchis were the only 4 craters I could see.
About deep-sky objects, I saw a total of around 16 new objects this time
with one planetary nebula, 9 globulars, 3 galaxies and 3 opens including
M11.
