Chandra Obs, 30 Jul 99
Ron Lee (ronlee@pcisys.net)
Fri, 30 Jul 1999 02:35:47 -0600
This is a non-routine report.
I finally decided to attempt an observation of Chandra.
Unfortunately it is basically at apogee for me now. So
I planned on observing to get a "not brighter than"
estimate since I did not really expect to see it in my
8" telescope.
I ran both elsets (OIG and Chandra control center as provided
by McDowell/Molczan) and they were nearly identical. I ran
Skymap and found suitable guide stars and ran Guide to check
magnitudes (identical to Skymap).
I was set up about 30 minutes prior to the pasage time and
experimented with various eyepieces to see which provided
the best visibility of faint stars. I settled on a 10 mm
which is a magnification of about 203x. I was seeing stars
relatively easily of magnitude 11.7. A nearly full moon
was to the southeast and clouds were drifting in and out.
Just before one set of clouds came through, I detected a
possible object just inside the field of view. After the
cloud cleared, I saw something near my initial guide stars.
It was faintly visible using averted vision and slow motion
was noted over a span of 15-20 seconds relative to the guide
stars. The time was consistent as was the location.
About three minutes later, the object was watched against the
second set of guide stars in the same field of view.
Because I was using averted vision, I wanted to get a third
sighting but clouds seemed more prevalent so I gave up.
Time was 07:34 UT on 30 Jul 99. Range about 72703 km. Skymap
phase angle of 127.1. I think this yields a standard magnitude
of about 3.2 (of course my magnitude estimate is plus or minus
about 0.5 magnitude).
Although I have a high confidence in this sighting, I intend to
attempt another observation when the viewing conditions are
better.
Hopefully someone with a near perigee pass can attempt a sighting.
I have not run visibilities but it may be an easy binocular
object closer to perigee.
Ron Lee
Falcon, CO USA