Astronomy Notes 4/10 - 4/11 2020

PAGE ONE
10/APR/2020 - 9:00 PM EDT
Quarantine Astronomy Log

After being given a 6-inch dobsonian, and with everything closed down, I decided to continue my observation log (which was last used in November 2018)

[sketch of nebula with four stars in center and three off in a line] M42 - 9:22 PM EDT DT6/25mm
The great nebula's brightest central region is easily visible. The "wings" are easy to see with averted vision, but there is some more subtle structure visible with averted vision in the form of faint streaks coming out of the center.

[sketch of a crescent with a faint cross of diffraction spikes] Venus - 9:36 PM EDT
Venus is ~20 degrees from horizon in the west. It is a crescent. Detail is optical artifacts from telescope.
(diffraction spikes)

[sketch of a sparse starfield] Cor Caroli
A rather asymmetric pair, the bright component is much brighter than the dim one. Color is hard to tell. Primary is blue-white, but my brain alternates on seeing red, white, or blue in the secondary.
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PAGE TWO
10/APR/2020

[sketch of three stars and a smudge] Sombrero galaxy - 9:49 PM EDT
"holy shiiiiit! That's amazing!"
[sketch of close-up detail at false-scale of Sombrero Galaxy] More than just a straight smudge, this view of the galaxy can make out a gap in the light from dust lanes, as well as a brighter region in the core.

11/APR/2020 9:00 - Some faint clouds, almost entirely clear.
[sketch of a small crescent] Venus is at 30 degrees altitude, and appears in the DT6 as a crescent.

[sketch of a nebula with four stars in the center and three off in a line] M42
-Very clear view of the nebula including its dim features.

[sketch of a star field with Vesta labeled at the bottom left and Aldebaran labeled at the top left.] 4 Vesta / Hyades
(Finder Scope)
"They don't call em 'star like' for nothing"
[sketch of two points of light with Vesta labelled in the middle]
(DT6)
Visible w/ finderscope as a very dim point (mag 7 or 8) and visible through the eyepiece as a dim point. Asteroid indeed! No disk can be discerned w/ 25mm eyepiece.

//Note that I'm typing out here in pastebin but not written in the log: I used a planetarium software to find where Vesta was in the sky and created a simple one-time-only starhop to figure out where to look for it in the telescope. My first asteroid!
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PAGE THREE
9:38 10 APR 2020

I was having great difficulty finding M81 and it only got worse as the sky began to get cloudy. Looks like it'll clear in a few minutes.
-10:00 conditions worsened! Only Venus visible.
[sketch of a crescent with banding detail] Venus w/ 10mm eyepiece
filter 80A: Blue, but no clear details.
filter 25: _EXTREMELY DEEP RED,_ ~~h-alpha maybe?~~
//_underlined_ ~~crossed out~~
faintest hint of bright polar regions and dark bands bordering the "polar caps"
No.25 = Red, 14% transmittance.

Filters owned so far (from celestron kit)
-Moon filter (neutral density)
-No. 80A: light blue
-No. 25: red

10:11 PM: Clouds aren't fading, time to pack up.