Astro log: Catching up, late 2010-May 2012

I've fairly diligently kept up keeping records of what I've been observing, either by tweeting about it or noting it in the notes on my iPhone or in SkySafari (also on my iPhone). It's been a pretty brutal last year and a half or so, weatherwise, so I had surprisingly few chances to even get out and observe anything. Plus, once you've fallen behind a bit it's hard to pick yourself up and get caught up. It's been long enough, though, that I think it's time.

It's been an eventful year astronomically for me, too: I built a split ring mount for a 3" telescope, finally joined the Tacoma Astronomical Society, and converted an old Meade DS-16 to a Dobsonian. I'll have to write those efforts up some time. Of course, being busy with actual work stuff has also worked against me writing things up, but alas.

Cobbled together from Twitter, notes, and SkySafari observing lists, a reasonably complete list of what I observed from late 2010 to mid-May 2012:

Dec 30th, 2010: M43, M79, M42.
Jan 1st, 2011: M81, M82, M42, M105. 32, 15mm eyepieces.
Jan 2nd, 2011: M1, M44, M40, NGC 1662, NGC 1647, NGC 1807 & 1817. 32, 15, 6mm eyepieces.
Apr 23rd, 2011: Saturn, Titan, Rhea, Dione, M60, M51, NGC 5195. I think, though, I may have misidentified one of those moons. This seems to have been the first time I took the 16" telescope (in its original unaltered form) out.
May 20th, 2011: M87, Markarian's Chain (except 3rd, 4th, last), M84, M86, Eyes galaxies, NGC 4477, NGC 4473, M90, M89, M91, M88, M81, M82, NGC 3077, M57
Jun 4th, 2011: At Mt. St. Helens w/ 6", Astroscan. 32, 15, 12.4, 9, 4, 8.8, 4.7mm eyepieces, OIII filter. M4, M83, M68, M65, M66, M7, NGC 6995/NGC 6992 (Eastern Veil), NGC 6530, M51, NGC 5195, SN_2011dh (ever so barely).
Aug 1st, 2011: M54, M70, M31, M32, M13. 32, 12mm TeleVue. Compared M31 & M32 between the 6" and 16" telescope, found them not to be as impressively different as I'd hoped.
Aug 25th, 2011: NGC 6818, M71, M27, M31, M32, NGC 7662.  32, 15, 9mm eyepieces, OIII filter.
Aug 27th, 2011: M27, NGC 6543. 32, 15, 12.4, 9mm eyepieces, OIII filter.
Sep 5th, 2011: M31, M32, M110 with averted vision at home, Jupiter, Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto. Shock! 32, 15, 12 TV, 9, 6mm eyepieces.
Sep 23rd, 2011: NGC 185, M31, M32, M110, M33, NGC 6995/NGC 6992, NGC 6974, NGC 6960 (Western Veil Nebula), NGC 147, M45, M2. At Sunrise on Mt. Rainier.
Jan 26th, 2012 (it was a brutal winter): M42, M43, M81, M82. 16" as Dob, 55, 12mm TV eyepeices.
Mar 23rd, 2012 (it was a brutal spring, too): M95, M105, NGC 3384, M96, NGC 3077, M81, M82, Mars, M63. 16", 55m, 12mm TV, 6mm eyepieces. Probably saw SN2012aw.
May 11th, 2012: At Mt. St. Helens. Saturn, NGC 4568, NGC 4564, M60, M59, M58, M89, NGC 4550, NGC 4551, M90, M87, NGC 4478, NGC 4476, M88, NGC 4459, NGC 4477, NGC 4473, NGC 4461, NGC 4458, NGC 4438, M86, Markarian's Chain, NGC 4425, NGC 4388, M84, NGC 4387, M99, NGC 4298, NGC 4302, M81, M82. 55, 12mm TV eyepieces. 16" scope.
May 15th, 2012: Saturn, M13, M92, M3, M63, M81, M82. Saw individual stars in M3, M13, M92. 55, 12 TV, 32, 6mm eyepieces. 16" scope.

 
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