Wednesday 4 September 2013

Small scopes on an alt-az mount are fun


45.7667 N
Sept 3

According to accuweather, scheduled to have showers at 7pm, which means there was not a cloud in the sky.

(amateur astronomers look at the forecast differently to "normal" folks  - post for another day)

Set up.

Sat by the fire about 50 or so metres away to keep warm and chat to Fred while it got dark.
Venus was the first beacon, shining like a plane light coming towards me fairly low in the west.  Would start with the objects about to set.  At about 40 X magnification could see the gibbous disc.
The not-quite-white-yellowish naked eye glow of Saturn, which came next.
“Hello beautiful”.  I’ll never get sick of looking at, well, any of the planets.
But Saturn, is so identifiable.  The colour, the shape, the grand swoop of the rings around the planet.
What I thought was one of its moons Titan (along the ring plane, about 5 “Saturns” away) was (I later found out) just a star in the field of view.   Titan was the smaller dot “above” the planet, about 2 Saturn discs away.  I didn't have my laptop with me - a Twitter friend in the UK looked it up in Stellarium for me (thanks Mark).
I looked around me.  The Milky way was starting to become visible.  A couple of mozzie bites, a slight breeze keeping the dew down for now.  No dew heather on tonight, mostly to save my battery pack for Algonquin.

On to Scorpius, where I could easily see M4 through my 9X finderscope.  Good seeing.

East of Scorpius but before Sagittarius Ophiucus winds its way quite low, between these two constellations.

After M4, I was on the hunt for more globulars.
M19, easy catch at about 50X mag.
Could even just see NGC 6284 as a non stellar object.
M62
Thought I’d look for M6 since the sightlines were good – like the southern sky (not hemisphere but direction) equivalent of the Pleiades in that it’s a naked eye smudge but through binoculars or telescope at low power the stars  form a very pretty open cluster.

Was whizzing through objects too quickly to sketch them tonight, just want to see what I can see.

Upwards to M107, another globular.

Felt like looking north.

M81/82 at fairly low magnification, two for one galaxies.  Two galaxies in the one field of view.  Two doses of awesome.
One edge on, one face on.

Nova Delph 13 very high in the sky.  Dimming, was about mag 4.5 when I first saw it August 17 at the CAO , about mag 6 last weekend.

Cor Caroli – back to the north

M63 – another galaxy – small smudge

M108 – smudge

M51 – about the favorite face on galaxy I have for observing.  Yes, I know I need a light bucket – only so much I can see with an 80mm refractor, but even at low power I can see the bright central core and interacting arms of this galaxy cannibalizing another one 37 million light years away.

Dew - egads.  Going to pack it in, wasn't that late, around 11pm - but my optics were dewy and to be honest I was getting a little "hair on the back of my neck" feeling.  There are bears around, but haven't seen any here.


Tuesday 3 September 2013

Looks good for tonight

Forecast said it would be raining right about now.  Guess I'll be able to set up scope soon.




Rain



45.7667 N

Sept 2

Will tell you about my Skywatcher tracking dob one day – remind me.
I love the intuitiveness of using a dobsonian - just point at what you want to look at.
The optics of my dob were great, collimating was simple.
What I had issues with were the cables and power issue.
Blake had help me resolve the pin power plug by replacing it with something more secure.
I just didn't like being burdened with power packs, cables, etc...
For now, clouds and insomnia await.
No observing.  Listening to rain.

Forecast lied


Photo copyright Fred Lum
45.7667 N
September 1/13

Again, the forecast was calling for rain.
Again it didn’t rain.

Set up scope, chair.  Got to be comfortable and stable to observe. (Orion 80 apocromatic refractor, on a portamount with Manfrotto legs.  Super portable and easy to set up and operate).

M22 globular again, this time in the scope.  With 14mm eyepiece, can start to resolve stars – just so pretty.  Such a jewel.

M71 globular – same magnification.  Could see why M. Messier would want to cross it off his “not comet” list.  Smudgy
*Fred joining me, camera at hand*

M27 – dumbbell nebula. Low mag (26mm) then higher mag – then OIII filter, just to play around with appearances.  I found the 14mm no filter the most pleasing.   Hourglass shape, tilted, blobby.

M11 – the Wild Duck.  I love looking at this – I get to it by scooting up Ophiucus to the West, so as not to get lost in the milky way.  Star hopping.  Like many other objects in astronomy, I don’t see the shape it’s named for.

M31 and M33 again tonight, this time with more magnification.  M33 lower surface brightness – something very satisfying about finding galaxies with a small scope.

End of Summer, new location


45.7667 N

August 31,13

Forecast was for rain, but by 9.30pm the clouds had cleared out. 
Temperature was coolish but comfortable, throwing on a fleece after dark.
Wasn’t sure what the clouds were going to do, so just grabbed my 10X50 binoculars and sat in a chair.  Listened to the crickets and the wind, and the remaining opportunistic mosquitoes.  Dewy.


Wanted to grab Scorpius before it set.  Very pretty triangle of Antares, M4 and Sigma Sco in the field of view.  M4 (globular cluster) is not do-able from Toronto due to the light pollution and sightlines, but from here – easy peasy.  Round smudge.

On to Nova Delph 2013 – dimmer than when I last saw it, a bit dimmer than mag 6.  Maybe 6.5?  Will look again and compare.  Must get on to the AAVSO reporting – will add it to my to-do list.
They have a binocular list of objects too.

Sagittarius – and “The Teapot”.  The Milky Way “steam” comes out of the spout, and if you just follow this with your binoculars upwards, you’ll start to see all sorts of identifiable knots of stars and nebulae.   So much there, that it’s easy to get lost.  Got out my handy dandy Pocket Sky Atlas.

M8 – The Lagoon Nebula.  Extremely identifiable lateral amoeba shape with stars imbedded in it.

M22 – globular cluster off the lid – one of my faves – lovely round conglomerate.

M28 – smaller GC west of Kaus Borealis in Sag

M31 – the Great Andromeda Galaxy in binoculars is so obviously a face on spiral galaxy with a dense central core – and easily visible naked eye from here too – I’m always blown away when I look without optical aid at M31 – a whole other galaxy with hundred of billions of stars, which is over 2 million light years away from us and gradually closing. 

M33 – Hop, skip and a jump from M31 down to Trangulum and this smaller but still binocular galaxy.  Not naked eye for me though – at least not  tonight.