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So once you've been authorized to use the RDRO scopes, what do you look at?
This document makes some suggestions for feasible targets in the Pasadena sky.
ALIGNMENT STARS
For calibrating the setting circles, the following list of fiducial stars will be useful.
Coordinate epochs are J2000, so for our purposes, they require no precession correction.
| star | RA | dec |
| Aldeberan (northwest of Orion) | 4h 36m | +16.5 deg |
| Betelgeuse (left shoulder of Orion) | 5h 55m | +7.4 deg |
| Sirius (to southwest of Orion) | 6h 45m | -16.7 deg |
| Procyon (east of Orion, north of Sirius) | 7h 39m | +5.2 deg |
| Castor (north of Pollux) | 7h 34m | +31.9 deg |
| Pollux (south of Castor) | 7h 45m | +28.0 deg |
| Regulus (bottom of question mark) | 10h 08m | +12.0 deg |
| Spica (continue arc through Arcturus) | 13h 25m | -11.1 deg |
| Arcturus (follow arc of Dipper handle) | 14h 16m | +19.2 deg |
| Antares (brightest in Scorpio) | 16h 29m | -26.4 deg |
| Vega (next to parallelogram) | 18h 37m | +38.8 deg |
| Altair (below Cygnus) | 19h 51m | +8.9 deg |
| Deneb (head of cross-shaped Cygnus) | 20h 41m | +45.3 deg |
PLANETS
The major planets -- Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn -- make for excellent visual and CCD
targets. Phases of Venus, moons and bands of Jupiter, and rings and moons of Saturn have
all been sighted. Martian polar caps have been claimed, but this is doubtful. In any event,
the locations of the planets can be determined most readily from Sky & Telescope's
What's Up page, or from the hardcopy
S&T in the library (which should be borrowed for only as long as it takes to xerox,
not for a night's observing run). Of particular note is the transit timing of Jupiter's Great Red Spot.
Mercury, Uranus, and Neptune have not been reported in the RDRO observing logs, but should
be readily visible at certain times. S&T have a special Uranus and Neptune page, and Mercury should be included in the
main reference above.
THE MOON
The Moon can look spectacular, although the 14-inch and 10-inch apertures are overkill, and will ruin your
night vision for sure, so save it until last if possible. Use the C-14 aperture mask to cut down on the
light intensity.
Waxing or waning quarters are the best time, since the surface features are most striking when they lie
along the terminator (the brightside/darkside boundary). Moon phases are computed at googol,
and if you actually want to figure out what you're looking at, use this moon map.
COMETS
Again, Sky 'n' Tel is the place to go for listings -- their comet page has
details about finding the brightest comets in the current sky. The IAU center at CfA also maintains a complete list
of cometary ephemerides, although many of these will be far
beyond the capabilities of our little scopes and crappy location.
ASTEROIDS
The brightest main belt asteroids should be targetable, and are listed at CfA.
Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) are generally much smaller and dimmer, but if we can get some of these, that'd be way cool.
A huge list of orbital elements are again at CfA, including
a sublist of "observables".
GLOBULAR CLUSTERS
| name | RA | dec | mag | size |
| NGC4147 | 12h 09m | +18.7d | 9 | 1.7 arcmin |
| M53 | 13h 12m | +18.2d | 8 | 3.3 |
| M3 | 13h 41m | +28.5d | 6 | 9.8 |
| NGC5466 | 14h 04m | +28.7d | 9 | 5.0 |
OPEN CLUSTERS
NEBULAE
| name | type | RA | dec | mag | size |
| NGC2392 | PN | 07h 27m | +21.0d | 9 | 0.7 arcmin |
DOUBLE/MULTIPLE STARS
| star | RA | dec | mags | color | separation |
| Aur | 05h 37m | +31d | 5.5, 8.5 | yellow, blue | 13 arcsec |
| eps Mon | 06h 22m | +05d | 4.5, 6.5 | gold, blue | 13 |
| Hya | 09h 22m | +04d | 6.7, 8.0 | white, gray | 21 |
| 65 UMa | 11h 55m | +46.3d | 6.5, 7.0, 8.3 | yellow-white | 63, 4 |
| 24 Com | 12h 34m | +19d | 5.2, 6.7 | orange, blue | 20 |
| Mizar | 13h 23m | +55d | 2.4, 4.0 | white | 15 |
| Albireo | 19h 31m | +28.0d | 3.1, 5.1 | gold, blue | 34 |
VARIABLE STARS
EXTRAGALACTIC
EARTH ORBIT
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