The Explore the Universe certification requires many different observations of constellations, the moon, the solar system, deep-sky objects and double stars. Under the solar system category it is required to plot the orbital motion of a planet against the background star field. I plotted the orbital motion of Neptune from July 30, 2016 - September 24, 2016.
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| Neptune Orbital Motion |
I remember the first time I found Neptune. I spent about 15 minutes analyzing star charts to determine the best way to find the dim planet. Neptune was in Aquarius very close to Lambda Aquarii which made the task much easier.
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| Orbital Motion Observation Record |
The 'Y' shape formed by Zeta, Eta, Pi and Gamma Aquarii was easily visible in the sky. I used binoculars to find Kappa Aqaurii below the 'Y' shape and it pointed me down to Lambda Aqaurii. Using the star field I saw through the binoculars I repeated the same procedure with a wide field telescope configuration. When I had Lambda Aquarii in the eyepiece I looked nearby for several minutes. I found a non-twinkling blue-green ball among the faint background stars. I immediately sketched the view and came back 3 weeks later (due to cloudy summer weather). The blue-green ball had moved against the background stars. Over the course of the next two months I continued to follow Neptune and drew its motion. This is shown in the diagram above with Lambda Aquarii marked and Neptune shown in a straight line. I have added a photograph I took of Neptune with my cell phone through the telescope. The quality is very bad, but it is very exciting that this object is nearly 5 billion kilometers away.
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| Neptune |
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