November 2019 Osage Hills State Park

Observation at Osage Hills Tennis Court Nov. 19 2019

What: Evening observation at Osage Hills Tennis Courts to evaluate using facility for star parties

Who: John Blaesi, John Grismore, Craig and Denise

Where: Osage Hills State Park Tennis Court

When: Nov. 19, 2019 appx. 6:30 pm-11 p.m.

Who coordinated: John Blaesi and John Grismore. John Blaesi let Nick Conner at Osage Hill State Park know that we were going to come out set up telescopes where the tennis court is.

Publicity used: John Blaesi thought it would be a good idea to have a spur-of-the-moment evening observation at Osage Hills because the weather was so good (clear and unusually warm for the time of year). John Grismore readily agreed, and they sent an email to some individuals who most frequently attend star parties. They also invited Nick Conner and any of his colleagues at Osage Hills that would be able to come to attend.

Number of people who attended: Four

Number telescopes used: Three, including the Club 10-inch Dobsonian

Other materials brought: Binoculars of various sizes—6.5 X 35, 8 X 42, 10 X 50, 11 X 70, and 15 X 70; camera; November star chart; and lawn chairs

Materials of location site used: None, besides the tennis court

BAS expenditures: None

What we observed: It is amazing what we saw. Here they are, categorized by type.

Planets:

Jupiter

Saturn

Uranus

Neptune

Meteors: Six Leonid meteors, including one Craig saw through the Dobsonian and one Denise saw through binoculars! Denise also saw two white meteors to the south. Not sure if those are one-offs or related to a known shower; where Denise saw them doesn’t really fit the radiants of meteor showers going on at that time. They were near to the path of the constellation Delphinus as it rose in the sky. All the meteors we saw were white or greenish-white.

Constellations we remarked on:

Lyra

Cassiopeia

Pegasus

Perseus

Andromeda

Auriga

Cygnus

Delphinus

Orion (Orion’s shield was particularly well visible)

Draco

Ursa Minor

Gemini

Taurus

Lepus

Triangulum

Aquila

Individual stars we pointed out:

Vega

Capella

Polaris

Castor

Pollux

Altair

Deneb

Aldebaran

Alnitak (belt star near Horsehead Nebula)

Sirius

Nebulae:

M57 Ring Nebula in Lyra

M27 Dumbbell Nebula in Vulpecula

M42 Orion Nebula

M1 Crab Nebula in Taurus

IC432 nebula near Alnitak in Orion

Open star clusters:

M45 Pléiades in Taurus

M37 in Auriga

M38 Starfish Cluster in Auriga

M36 Pinwheel Cluster in Auriga

Globular clusters:

M15 Great Pegasus Cluster

M13 Hercules Globular Cluster in Hercules

Other clusters:

Double cluster in Perseus (NGC 869 and NGC 884)

Spiral galaxies:

M31 Andromeda. Could see the creamy, brown, almost maroon colors even in binoculars. We gazed at Andromeda again and again.

M33 Pinwheel Galaxy between Triangulum and the line of Andromeda

Dwarf elliptical galaxies:

M32 Le Gentil in Andromeda

M110 Edward Young Star in Andromeda

Comments: Very clear, beautiful weather! A few low cirrus to the south with dim lights of Tulsa in the distance. It actually got clearer during the course of the evening! There are trees bordering the tennis court so we simply waited for objects to rise higher—and viewed them also through the trees. We compared looking at several deep-sky objects through the Dobsonian and other telescopes we’d brought and the Dobsonian was similar to the others. The moon didn’t come up until after we had left so that helped. We saw a number of aircraft—Craig even had one show up in the Dobsonian! Denise didn’t bring her tripod for her 10X70 binoculars but that actually worked out well—it was quicker to find things hand-held! Other observations included deer, armadillo and a mother raccoon and her four kits. Also heard coyotes and an owl--not sure what kind it was, but it wasn’t a Great Horned Owl. It might have been a Barred Owl—there was a definite tremolo in its call.

Here are two event photos taken by John Blaesi of telescopes and the Milky Way: