Observing Recap 3-20-09

I had planned to trek out to my dark sky site last night, but weather reports were mixed (including scattered showers!). And with the clouds overhead at early evening, I decided it would be prudent to hang around home. Observing from home does have it's advantages, particularly that there is no long drive or loading/unloading of a vehicle. It's also nice to have easy access to a coffee maker and my full observing library. I'm nearing the end of the Astronomical League's Double Star Club list, so I wanted to work on that.

But first, I submitted light pollution observations to GLOBE at Night. This is the 3rd year I have participated in this project. It's very easy to do, and no equipment other than your Mark I eyeball is required (although you can use a SQM if you have one). I encourage everyone interested to participate in this; it is also a great way to kids involved in astronomy. They are particularly hoping for a lot of observations here in 2009, the International Year of Astronomy.

Next up: double stars. Turns out it was almost perfectly clear here in Fort Myers. Working down the list roughly by Right Ascension, I observed N Hydrae, 24 Coma Berenices, Polaris, 32 Camelopardalis, Pi Bootis, Xi Bootis, Xi Bootis, Epsilon Bootis, Kappa Bootis, Iota Bootis, Delta Bootis, Mu Bootis, Zeta Corona Borealis, and Delta Serpentis. Only 27 systems left on this list, so I hope to finish it soon. And I got to bed in time to get enough sleep so that I'm not a zombie animated only by the caffeine running through my veins the next day :-).

I don't know about you, but I have trouble remembering some of those Greek letters used to label stars. To help, I created this chart, which I present here in pdf format. Nice and easy. I plan to have it laminated.

Clear skies!