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3 hour old full moon

Canon Powershot S3 IS, hand held. Moon was 3 hours old, just rising above the trees.

Moonrise at Coast Guard Beach

ntbt

Original NexStar 8 hand controller

This is a photo of an original NexStar 8 hand controller LCD panel, showing the graphite FFC (Flat Flexible Cable) attached to the glass pane of the LCD display.

Zodiacal Light

So I had read about the Zodiacal Light in one of the astronomy magazines and now that I live in a good dark place I was wondering if I could see it. What is the Zodiacal Light? From the wikipedia page:

The zodiacal light is a faint, roughly triangular, whitish glow seen in the night sky which appears to extend up from the vicinity of the sun along the ecliptic or zodiac. In mid-northern latitudes, the zodiacal light is best observed in the western sky in the spring after the evening twilight has completely disappeared, or in the eastern sky in the autumn just before the morning twilight appears.

I did some quick googling and found that the best time to see it is 2 to 3 hours before sunrise and certainly when the moon is goon. It is so faint, they say, thay any light pollution or moon will make it impossible to see. Sunrise was at 6:49AM so I set the alarm for 4:45AM and it fails to go off, but fortunately Jeannette had also set hers, she has a conference is Boston this weekend, so her alarm woke me. I dressed quickly and dashed out of the house, driving to Coast Guard beach, a local beach in the Cape Cad National Seashore that faces north east.

I drove down the road with high beams on, to make sure that I didn't hit any coyotes, turned into the parking lot and got out.

There it was. The only dark adaptation I had was from driving down a dark road. It was clear that it wasn't the Milky Way, that was visible to the right and all across the sky.

Photo from http://www.astrophoto.com/ZodiacalLight.htm

I stayed and observed for a bit, quickly grabbing M41 just beneath Sirius and of course M42 in Orion. I was pleased to see how gorgeous M42 was. I look at it a few weeks ago as it rose one evening and it was too low to show its glory. High in the sky, well, it was wonderful as usual.

But back to the Zodiacal Light. I primarily brought the binoculars to give me something to do while I dark adapted. I knew I wasn't going to wait half an hour to get fully dark adapted so playing around the the Canons gave my pupils a few minutes to expand. The light extended from the horizon (obviously) and rose about half the way towards zenith, going up at a slight angle to the right, maybe 60 to 70 degrees. It was not colored at all. I can see how it would be mistaken for a false dawn except the shape was all wrong, it was a soft triangle.

What I saw wasn't as bright as the internet photo above, nor was there a birdhouse, but that shows approximately what I saw. I'll try and take my own photo of it one of these days.

What causes it? Quoting the wikipedia again:

The zodiacal light is produced by sunlight reflecting off dust particles which are present in the solar system and known as cosmic dust. Consequently, its spectrum is the same as the solar spectrum. The material producing the zodiacal light is located in a lens-shaped volume of space centered on the sun and extending well out beyond the orbit of Earth. This material is known as the interplanetary dust cloud. Since most of the material is located near the plane of the solar system, the zodiacal light is seen along the ecliptic.

And curiously, Dr. Brian May's, thesis, A Survey of Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud, was on the Zodiacal Light. Dr. May wrote the thesis in the early 70's but abandoned astrophysics to become the lead guitarist for the rock band Queen.

The Veil and M32

Midway through the Red Sox game I paused the DVR and headed outside for an hour of observing. My goal was to ensure that I had captured The Veil Nebula a few weeks ago when I wasn't sure I had grabbed it.

I bundled up and reclined my beach chair. The Veil was at a comfortable 50 or so degrees up, just about perfect for binocular viewing. Any lower and you are looking through too much air, any higher and the seating gets uncomfortable.

I followed my pointer stars in the chart from the wonderful Sky and Telescope's Pocket Sky Atlas. Lets see, draw a line from those two naked eye bright ones, then look for a row of three, then two real close to each other. Then down a bit.

I had only been outside about 10 minutes when I finally saw the very dim glow of the NGC 6992 / NGC 6995 complex. This is definitely what I saw a few weeks ago. I very carefully confirmed all the stars in the chart against the plethora of stars in the sky. Yes, I had it.

(Image from Wikipedia, you should click the link if you want to see a huge image of the Veil)

I then tried for the other 2 "parts." Both NGC 6979 and 6960 should have been easy pickups, the pointers are obvious, but alas, no matter how much I tried they never jumped out at me. Oh, I'll go on record saying that with averted vision I saw a haze where 6979 is, and once, just once I thought I saw a brightening for 6960.

All in all I'd say it was a pretty good outing for a pair of 50mm binoculars without OIII filters! I hate getting all ready and then not doing some more, so even with the lure of the Sox calling, I spun the chair around and looked a The Pleiades, no counting stars, no splitting doubles, just looking how pretty it is!

I then reclined fully and went up to Andromeda. I've seen the galaxy a lot this time, but tonight I wanted M32. Again, carefully, I looked at the star patterns and sure enough, there was a very small dim spot that didn't appear stellar, just where the chart said it should be. Yay!

And for a bonus, I also got to see what I guess was a tumbling satellite. It moved very slowly through the star field, flashing very brightly about every 5-6 seconds. It took about a minute to traverse M31. What a nice bonus.

Venus

Ahhh, the joys of cell phone astrophotography. Cropped and brightness / contrast adjusted, that's all.

Saturn in the morning

After last night's test I left the entire scope setup. The forecast was clear for the next two days so I wasn't worried at all about rain. I put the eyepieces away, took the diagonal off, covered the objective and went to bed, setting the alarm for 5:20AM, which was just went Saturn should be up above the horizon. I hoped it would be up above the trees!

I woke up several hours later with the idea that something was wrong. The sprinkers! I hadn't turned them off. I jumped out of bed and ran outside in barefeet and a robe. My eyes were fully dark adapted and I expected the wonders of the heavens. Uh oh, a thin haze had come in. This is not at all uncommon where I live, surrounded by the sea. So I went back to bed and waited for the alarm.

When it went off I dressed quickly and was outside. I knew I had very little time before the sun rose. Indeed, the sky was light already. I had hibernated the scope the night before so I didn't need to re-align. A slew to Saturn put it in the trees. Drat. But still, I could look between the leaves but still, nothing. I couldn't even focus, there was nothing to focus on. So I manually slewed to Procyon (I could see that star along with Sirius, all of the main Orion stars, and many whose names I didn't know) focused and aligned.

I then slewed back to Saturn. Got her!

I took the 30mm Paragon out and put the 9mm Planetary in. Nothing. Drat, she wasn't centered. I looked around but couldn't find her. So I put the 30mm back in, centered and aligned on Saturn. Then the 9mm was back in.

Trees.

She had risen from the branches into the full leaves. It looked like I had about 15 minutes before she would clear the tree tops. Well, I guess I'd gave a full daylight Saturn test then. I went in to make some tea and wait it out.

When the eyepiece show blue again, well, the trees were gone but so was Saturn.

(I later learned in a Cloudy Nights forum that daytime Saturn sights are difficult and were not favored right now.)

A few hours later during a diet coke break from work I went out and slewed to Sirius, just so say I could. She pointed to the ground. I tried M42, same thing.

There was either a power glitch or the heat of the sun had warmed the electronics enough to cause the GoTo to fail. This was a work day so I couldn't play anymore. I put the Burgess in its case, put the eye pieces away, and left it all outside for that night's observing.

30mm TMB/Burgess Paragon

I just recieved my 30mm TMB Paragon from Burgess Optical and I was anxious to give it a try. I didn't need to buy it. I've been very happy, quite happy, with my Siebert Optical 34mm Observatory, but a poster in the Burgess Yahoo groups said, and I quote:

I'm not going to bore everyone with excrusiating details about what I saw, how many I saw and all that jazz. I'm going to cut right to the chase: I brought my very recently purchased $99 30MM Paragon along with me. I used it as my primary wide field EP, either specificly to look at an object, or to locate an object for closer viewing. To say that it delivered would be a gross understatement; indeed, an insult to the eyepiece! The beauty of this EP was that it was THE PERFECT MATCH for the 1278! It delivered on almost every object and brought out the very best of this scope. While it was out- standing on virtually every object viewed, it it was devastating on the larger objects in the sky, like The Double Cluster, M31, The Plieades and M8.

But it saved the best for last, so to speak. It presented the most spectacular views of M42 that I believe an achromat could produce. It had admirers of scope costing several thousand more than the humble 1278. The M42 almost matched the routinely "perfect" views produced by a TV 101 three tents down. An owner of a 12" Meade dob (with the OLD premium mirror) couldn't believe a 5 inch refractor matched his view of it. But the most amazing compliment it recieved was from the owner of a 14" Celestron CGE SCT next to me:

The owner was SOOOOO impressed with MY views, especially of M42, the next afternoon, he went and bought a..., get this, Bill,...a TV 41MM Panoptic, just to match the view HE saw in MY scope! Retail value of his purchase? Beyond $600!!! Now THAT'S got to be the ultimate compliment! It doesn't get any better n' that!!! Wow! pparently, the secret seems to be that the Paragon's FOV, coupled with the almost-by-accident 5" size, the right magnification, and perhaps the multi-coatings, produces an absolutely PERFECT picture view, framing those larger objects as "not-too-big, not-too-small" in the EP. "Perfect fits", that most sought-after of viewing experiences. Needless to say, I had a fantastic time, with other eyepieces in supporting roles, viewing as many objects as I could find, staying up 'till dawn three nights consectutively....

The upshot of all this, and the reason for writing here, is to urge all the 1278 owners who haven't done so, to BUY YOUR PARAGON BEFORE THEY RUN OUT!!!!! IT IS THE PERFECT EYEPIECE FOR THIS SCOPE!

IT'S ONLY $99! DO IT NOW. YOU WON'T REGRET IT!!!

Now, that was kinda hard to ignore, so I called up Bill and yakked for awhile then Tammy took my order. It arrived a few days later.

Well, the eyepiece was everything that the quoted poster made it out to be. Except, it wasn't filling a hole in my eyepiece case. My much loved Siebert was there also, perfectly matched with the 22.5mm Siebert.

So I started the night on my usual favorite, the Double Cluster. Then went to M31, the North America Nebula and then over to M8 before it set. I then went back to the Double Cluster for the bulk of the testing.

Based on the published specifications, the Siebert should have given a slightly larger field of view, but really, 2.1 vs 2.4 degrees? That's pretty close. 29x vs 33x. Again, very close. So it would come down to contrast and sharpness plus other ease of use factors.

Sharpness was a toss up. Both were as perfect as I can tell in the center (I have some uncorrected astigmatism in my eyes, so far I live with it.) and both seemed to soften up a bit at the edges. At times I thought that the Paragon had blacker backgrounds, I guess this is to be expected since the magnification is higher. But at other times I wasn't so sure. I didn't detect any color difference between the eyepices at all.

The Siebert are famous for having no pincushion and I'm sad to say I forgot to compare the two eyepieces!

Now onto comfort. Well, the two eyepieces are about as different as I can imagine in that area, but there isn't a winner! The Siebert is great when I wear my eyeglasses. I was able to find the sweet spot with ease with only the slightess bit of blackouts. I normally prefer viewing with my eyeglasses so I've never actually looked through the Siebert without them.

The Paragon, on the other hand, has a wonderful, absolutely wonderful eyecup. (This is just like the wonderful eyecup on my 9mm TMB/Burgess Planetary.) It is comfortable and holds the eye exactly where it needs to be. Blackouts? Impossible since the eye is correctly position at all times. However, when I folded it down, and tried to use the lens without my eyeglasses, twice I had it pop back up, once striking me around the eyes! I'm not sure what I did wrong, but this is an eyepiece that wants to be used with the eyecup up. And guess what, I didn't mind at all! (This might be an issue if my glasses actually did a good job of correcting my astigmatism since I would need to wear them.) Could I learn to fold the eyecup down correctly? I'll bet I could.

The observing session was cut short. It was the first cold evening of the fall and I really hadn't prepared for it. I had a hat and gloves but I was still chilled to the bone and had to go in. I declared the Paragon the winner but it wasn't a landslide at all, it could certainly have gone to the Siebert and I would not unhappy with that. Indeed, 4 days later when I'm writing up this blog entry I'm now second guessing my decision. I'll have to head out again, or maybe wait for M42 to get high in the sky. Oh, I'll sell one of them, I just don't know which one right now.

But, chilled to the bone I screwed a Lumicon UHC into the Paragon and slewed to the Veil. Ah, just beautiful. I couldn't stay long but I knew I'd be back on this object. And actually, I'm now convinced that earlier this month, with my binoculars, that I had grabbed the Veil. What I was seeing through the refractor exactly matched in shape what I had seen in the Canons. I can only guess that I had read the star charts wrong. Well, there's another observation to repeat then.

Things that make you go "Oh!"

Remember when you first saw the rings of Saturn or the Orion Nebula, how stunning they were to you. Did you gasp or say something, or maybe you just held your breath. Those times are rare because with experience, the things we look for are not as impressive. Sure, search for that dim DSO might give you more satisfaction now than those object do now, but that satisfaction lies from the challenge, not the beauty. I got to say "Oh" tonight when I wasn't expecting it, and that was wonderful.

But let me set the stage.

I've been enjoying my binoculars so much recently I went on a book buying spree. I happily picked up Philip Harrington's Star Watch. This is a great book that gives the usual overview of things in the sky, then breaks into seasonal sections, covering 125 objects.

What makes the book special is the organization and detail. I love the seasonal layout. (I've also picked up his Touring the Universe through Binoculars which, uhhh, divides the sky alphabetically! Yuk.) And I love the detail that he goes into. For the most part, each object gets an entire page. There is a star chart every couple of pages, making it easy, in the dark, to cross reference the text and the chart. There are photos and sketches of many objects. The sketches are particularly useful since, unlike modern photos, they show you what you can actually see. Each object is also rated on a Wow factor and more importanly, you are given a separate Wow for binocuars, small telescopes, and large telescopes.

One of my favorite binocular objects in the sky is M7.

(M7 image courtesy seds.org)

I don't know why I like this open cluster so much, perhaps because it was one of the first objects, if not the first object, that I found without using the GoTo feature of my telescope. I found this a week or two after getting my Canon 15x50IS binoculars.

M7 is in Scoprius and this summer has been rough for me for the Scorpius/Sagitarius section of the sky. I'm not sure why, I've had time to look elsewhere but not here. So after avidly reading the section containing M7, I anxiously awaited the time when I could head out.

I also decided to go out to Pilgrim Heights. I've used this dark site before, but as I noted in an earlier blog entry, I'm not at all fond of going here alone, coyotes you know. But, I wanted to see if I could do it so I headed out.

The good news is that I was able to spend an hour and a half there. The bad news is that I was never comfortable. Oh well, perhaps with exposure I'll get used to it.

I got to the site after dark, but not completely dark. The western sky was still a nice Maxfield Parish blue, beautiful, but not great for dim DSOs low on the horizon. You see, I'd waited until late September and these objects are very low on the horizon.

My first attempt was for M4, a globular that I've found before from light polluted Manchester, but at only 15 degrees above the horizon, I needed more dark.

So I went over to M7 and M6, I didn't even need the charts for those friends. They were nice, but I'd seen better M7s before. I guess I waited too late in the year. I bounced back and forth between them and where M4 should have been, waiting for more dark. Of course I looked at the Double Cluster and M31 since I was just killing time.

Eventually I grabbed M4, it was around 7:30 and Stellarium tells me it was only 12 degrees above the horizon then! It was quite dim and I don't think I would have seen it without knowing that it was there. I then looked for M80, couldn't find it. (I would try several times again that evening but I never nabbed it.)

NGC6231 was on the chart but in the trees for me so I went up to find M19 and M62. Both were a bit of a challenge. Harrington says that M19 should appear noticably oval. It was dim enough for me that I could not observe that. And he goes on to say that M62 lies in an "absolutely stunning star field." Well, that wasn't the case for me. (Memo to myself, look again at these objects when they are higher in the sky.)

So now I'm feeling a bit disappointed. I waited so long that everything was in the murk. I should have regrouped at this point and started looking at things higher in the sky but I guess I'm too stubborn to do that.

So next on the list was M8, the Lagoon Nebula. I've seen it before but it never fails to disappoint and indeed, even under these conditions I could see the central dark rift between the two nebulous sections. Not that my binoculars are 15 power, which is high for binoculars, it may not be as impressive in yours.

Close by is M20, the Triffid Nebula. If M8 weren't next door this would be considered a impressive object, but M8's glory overshadows it.

I know I saw M21 but I wasn't able to pick it out from the copius background stars. I probably should have tried harder but I still wasn't entirely comfortable with the location. I just knew their beady eyes were peering at me from the trees.

So then, I head up north a bit more and...

"Oh!"

I'd actually looked at this object a few weeks ago at this site through my Burgess but I didn't even know what I was looking for. It just looked like a lot of stars. But that's because M24, the Small Sagitarius Star Cloud is just too big to really be appreciated in a telescope. Oh sure, your short focal length APO refractor will give great views but I loved my view, sliding the binoculars north from M20/21 and there it was. More stars than I could fathom, wonderfully framed by dark spots. This made the whole evening worth it.

I lingered some then headed north again, to M18, which I could spot even though it seemed so small. Then M17, the Swan Nebula. I was very glad that Harrington included a sketch of M17. I spent a lot of time looking at, trying to see the neck, and you know, several times I caught elusive glimpses of it with averted vision, but never with direct. I need to revisit this one.

Next was M16 and I was able to easily see it but alas, there was motion in the woods. Probably a cute little bunny but it sounded like a Coyote to me. I packed up my gear and headed home.

I will certainly revisit this section of the sky, maybe in 9 or 10 months when things are higher in the sky!

Poking around Cygnus with Binoculars

Last night, after the Red Sox game, I headed out around 11pm to poke around in the sky some with my trusty Canon 15x50is binoculars. The Moon was about half full but the sky was very dark and clear.

I warmed up on some of my favorites, the Double Cluster and the Andromeda Galaxy. But they weren't why I was here tonight. I had my new Sky & Telescope's Pocket Sky Atlas and I wanted to explore Cygnus, in particular, some of the bigger items in there.

First stop was the North America Nebula. I tried for quite some time. Arms aching, consulting the atlas and then the stars, back and forth. I could follow the star patterns to it, but I wasn't certain of what I was seeing. Oh, I could make out the "Gulf of Mexico" allright, but the rest seemed a bit indistinct. And to the north of it, it seem just as bright, grainy, but bright, and then a falloff. The nebula area was grainy, but the neigboring region was. This was why I was pretty sure I had seen the nebula.

But I was puzzled by seeing the object I was looking for right next to another object that wasn't on the charts. I wondered if it was a denser part of the Milky Way. (I was sort of right, see below.)

So I moved on, trying to see the Pelican Nebula, right next to it. Try as I might I couldn't see anything at all.

I then reached for the gold, the Veil Nebula. I meticulously followed the pointers to it. I find this difficult because the binoculars show more stars than the atlas does. But by going back and forth, again, from the atlas to the sky I could find the right patterns. There! I got it. Well, actually no. I was seeing something that was round like the Veil, but it was fuller, and althought large, it was too small. It would fit entirely inside the Veil. I was looking primarily for the 6992 and 6995 parts. The bright star in the 6960 part seem to dazzle me a bit so I didn't look there too much. I kept on finding that round thing, but it wasn't right. I can only think that it was the brain playing a trick on me, seeing sometihng it wanted to see.

Not wanting to go inside, I found and split Albireo, then slid down to Stock 1, a nice open cluster.

The next day, while googling what I had been looking for, I came across this great web site, Showcase of Digital Astrophotography by Jerry Lodriguss. I don't know if that URL will always be good, so I grabbe the photo and I'll reproduce it here. (Jerry, if you don't want this, just tell me and I'll take it down.)



You can see the North America Nebula as a red blob just above bright blue Deneb in the lower left. To its right you can see a defined bright area, marked by a dark area.

This dark area was marked on my atlas but I ignored it, it is a dark nebula known as Le Gentil 3. So the border of Le Gentil 3 was making me see that part of the Milky Way as distinct object.

So after tonight's Red Sox game, I went out again. The sky wasn't nearly as nice. It was about an hour earlier and Deneb was certainly at the zenith, so I fully reclined my lawn chair. Ahhh, that was a lot better. I wanted a bit, just poking about, looking around while my eyes dark adapted. And then I looked. The North American nebula was much harder to see, but the dark nebulas! Oh my, they are pretty interesting. There are many in that area. The Atlas marks them but I didn't go hunting for numbers, I just moved the binoculars around enjoying the abscence of light.

I had accomplished what I wanted to, but you know how it is, I didn't want to go back inside. So I figured I'd find M29, since it was right there next to Sadr. It was an easy find. The area is full of stars but the patterns are easy to follow, shoot, you just keep Sadr in the field of view and you're all set. The challenge is making sure you see M29, not something else.

Moon and Masts

Two schooners in town for the Provincetown Schooner Regatta. Sorry for the poor quality, this is a cell phone photo.

Blinking Cassiopeia

Three times this evening I went outside very briefly, and all three time I saw a meteor shoot across the sky. How pretty and what a nice coincidence. I know there are lots of not very famous meteor showers but I really couldn't say that there was a radiant to these three.

Anyhow, after the Red Sox game I went out again just to look up.  So I wasn't dark adapted at all and Cassiopeia was gone. Drat, clouds I guess. So I looked away and she blinked back on with averted vision. I could stare at her and she'd disappear, and then I'd look away and I could see all five stars. What fun!

The explanation? The sky condition and my tiny pupils combined to make an interesting sweet spot, just enough light to see with averted vision, not enough light to see direct.

And yes, a few minutes later I could look directly at her ad there it was.

And the curious part, I never saw the Milky Way disappear. Oh. clearly it must have been gone in the spots I was looking directly at, but since I was focused on the stars, not the background glow, it seemed as if the Milky Way was a constant brightness.

Edmund First Light

I headed out to MacMillian Pier to do some public astronomy with the Burgess. Yeah, pretty strange with a brand new scope at home, but the tourist season is almost over and I wanted to get another night of that in. I need to build up my P-town "character" rep, right?

Anyway, I get there and find that the parking lot is full. Now there are many other parking lots in P-town, and no, I won't tell you where the good, secret, ones are, but when you have 3 trips worth of gear, you can only choose the close lot.

I turned around and headed home. I had already setup the Edmund before I left, knowing that I would just have to grab a few peeks before heading to bed. I took the plastic bag off the business end (memo to myself, buy a pair of shower caps) and plopped a 40mm Plossl into the focuser and pointed at the Double Cluster. I had just been there with the binoculars and I knew I'd be able to find it.

First I went to Jupiter but with the short pier it was hidden by my light block shields!

So I'm down on my knees, did I mention the pier is short, trying to see through the soda straw finderscope and dang. I can barely see anything! I can see the Double Cluster with my naked eye and I can't find it in the finderscope! After what seemed like eternity I gave up and headed over to M31. I somehow hit that very quickly.

This was it. The first image.

Well, it was much better than I remember from the Celestro C8, and I could see M110 so it was better than the binoculars, but you know, I didn't have the Burgess set up but I know the image in the Burgess was better, much better actually, M32 was clearly visible in the Burgess. Now, that was another night so the sky conditions could have been better then.

I looked a lot more, trying to look for subtle details that would wow me. But frankly, I wasn't impressed. Don't get me wrong, the image was great, but not as good as the Burgess. And it was work getting the object in the view. I head down and bit and put a nearby bright star in the center of the eyepiece. I figured I should align the finderscope.

Well, the star was right in the middle! But, the stars, as they were, were blurry! I need to focus the finderscope. I got the red flashlight on it but couldn't see an obvious way to rotate or push or pull something so I figured I just wing it for tonight.

I went back to the Double Cluster and found that fine after a few minutes of searching. I looked at this a bit, then switched to a 30mm Plossl. I found the larger image more pleasing and both of them were still nicely framed. Stars were pinpoint, that was nice to see. I could make our serious detail in the centers of them.

I took part of the light shield down and found, after a ton of difficulty, Jupiter. The view was very disappointing but I think I can attribute that to the seeing, it seem to be shimmering and that wouldn't have been the scopes fault. I gave up and headed up to M13

I found that pretty quickly. I'm not how, I think I just got lucky. I certainly didn't find any of the pointer stars in the finderscope. Basically I just pointed in the right area and moved it all around.

M13 look pretty nice, well formed and framed. I took the 30mm out and put in a 9mm Burgess Planetary eyepiece in the focuser.

I moved it around until it was centered and then refocused. It looked a lot better, pou could certainly see some detail in the middle. But alas, it was slowly slipping out of the field of view!

Ah, my first non-tracking scope experience. So which axis do I lock and which axis do I turn? Intellectually I know what the mount needs to do, but I never had to pay attention to that before. I felt down to the mount and found the shaft that had the big gear on it. This shaft must be the Right Ascension axis and that is the one I need to turn. I looked other axis and found that it was very easy to track, a little nudge was all it took. No worries about moving it the proper amount in x and y, GEMs do have their advantages!

So now I wanted to see a bit more, so I headed inside and found the book I bought that afternoon in Hyannis, Sky and Telescope's Pocket Sky Atlas, 80 single page star charts. I figured I need this since I was moving away from the Goto land.

I figured I find the Double Double in Lyra. Vega was easy to find. Hey look, diffraction spikes! I sure never saw those before in a scope. I never did find the Double Double but when writing this entry I know I had it, I just was reading the char incorrectly! I quickly gave up and head down to M57. I was able, while looking through the 30mm eyepiece not the finderscope, to hop down to Sulafat. And sure enough, M57 was there! I put the 9mm back in and well, I was impressed now. The ring was looking sweet indeed.

Feeling cocky I headed over to Deneb and tried to find the North America Nebula. Yeah, right. I actually thought I was a slightly bright area in what colud have been the right spot. I tired so hard to match up the star patterns in the chart with the star patterns in the eyepiece but I was unable to. This is a skill I'll certainly need to develop.

Next it was back to M31 and the Double Cluster, now that they were higher in the sky. I found them both with ease. Maybe I'm getting used to this manual aiming.

So then I was off to Triangulum, which had now risen above the trees and then some more. I didn't use the star charts, I could remember where it was based on my finding it a few nights ago. And sure enough, there it was. Diane, my neighbor, came over about now. She often looks through the scopes with me and she was anxious to try out the new one. Lets just say that she was less than impressed with M35! So after showing her the Double Cluster with the naked eye, I showed her the Double Cluster in the Edmund. She had seen it with the Burgess before and she pronounced the old scope as a good scope.

So that's where I ended my night. It took about 3 hours and I learned a whole lot about how manual scopes work and how astronomers did it when Kennedy was still president. If you had come up to me in the first hour and offered to me what I paid for it, I would have help load it into your car. It was extremely frustrating. But by midnight, no sir, I wouldn't part with this one. This is a keeper.

1963 Edmund Scientfic Space Conqueror

I just bought a new scope, well, not really new, new for me. The telescope is actually almost as old as I am. It is an Edmund Scientific 6" reflector, the Space Conqueror, as it was called in the catalogs back then. (This scan is from a 1968 catalog.)

I'm pretty sure it is from 1963, I have a typed sheet showing the elongations of Mercury and Venus, as well as the oppositions of Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. The December 18, 1963 elongation of Mercury is the oldest date on the list.

Now let that last paragraph sink in for a bit. I said "I have a typed sheet." When was the last time you used a typewriter? I can just see the original owner at the library, copying the data from an ephemeris, and then typing them up at home. It is hard to remember a time when information was so precious, so hard to come by. You're reading this on a blog, or reprinted in a newletter which will probably be delivered by email. Yet L. M. Kazarian of Providence, Rhode Island, had to get himself to an ephemeris and then use a typewriter to preserve it. So I'm pretty certain that he would not have type dates in the past!

But, onto the telescope! As I said above, it is a 6" reflector. The optics are provided by UPCO, the same company that provided the mirror for the venerable Criterion RV-6. It is mounted to a GEM on a pier that seems to weigh 200lbs, but in fact only weighs 44 lbs.

The tiny finderscope and clock drive are present, but the clock drive isn't working, the wires are cut off short. Steve Forbes, of Trapezium Telescopes, tells me that this is an easy repair and he may even be able to get it to run on 12v for me.

There is also a box of eyepieces, including a 25mm Kellner and 2 Ramsden eyepieces with focal lengths of 1/2" and 1/4". All are 1.25" eyepieces! An achromatic barlow is also included but I'm not sure that all the spacers are intact. The lenses slide freely in the tube, that can't be right.

4 years later, a few days after January 17, 1967, another package from Edmund arrived at the Kazarian household. With $0.12 of postage on the box, 2 orthoscopic eyepieces showed up, one 6mm and one 12.5mm. I can only imagine a small envelope with an IOU it as a Christmas present.

The OTA is a white metal tube, with a 4 vane spider with a collimateable secondary! The focuser is pretty crude by today's standard with a T cut into the wall, presumable one bent the metal to hold the eyepiece "securely."

The OTA is held to a non-rotating cradle with 2 wing-nuts. There are 3 feet on the short pier, also held on by 3 wingnuts.

I am quite looking forward to seeing how the scope works. It isn't my first non-goto scope, the Swift is, but it will be the first non-goto scope that I'll use. The Swift stayed in the box since I got the Burgess soon after getting the Swift!

I'll keep you posted.

Triangulum!

I was sitting watching the Red Sox beat the Yankees (yeah!) when the phone rang. Our neighbor, Diane, was looking for a lost cat named Lowell and noticed that the stars were gorgeous. So I made a note to check them out after the game. She was right! Many of Truro's nights have some light to the sky, I'll guess it is humidity couple with the lights from the summer people.

So I got the 15x50 Canon IS binoculars out and sat down in the backyard for a few minutes just to see what I could see. Of course I fired up Stellarium first but I didn't bring a chart outside with me so I did it all from memory.

Of course the Double Cluster was nice, and then I dashed upwards just to grab M52, which was easy. I couldn't find M103. I've seen it before but I had forgotten which stars in Cassiopeia it was near!

Of course then I popped over to Andromeda, looking gorgeous as usual, I could really see just how huge it was. When I last saw her I found M110 and M32 easily, but that was with the 5" Burgess 1278 refractor. I half heartedly looked but didn't see either of them, I spent most of the time looking at the edges, trying to see just how far out I could see.

So then I went looking for something I had never seen before, M33 or Triangulum. I'd heard it was big and dim. I went back inside to try and find some pointer asterisms in Stelarium. Found a nice pretty set. Popped down from M31 the right amount, found the star pattern I was looking for, then a bit further down. And yes! There it was.

Big.

Dim.

Very, very, nice.

Public Observing at CCAS

The Cape Cod Astronomy Society holds weekly summer star parties during the summer. (Check their web site for details, but alas, they are done for 2008.) I've managed to miss all of them so far this summer so I was quite pleased to find myself able to attend tonight's.

Unlike the public observing from the New Hampshire Astronomy Society, it seems that CCAS members rarely bring their scopes. This isn't to say that either club is right or wrong. With the big dome and the big scope available for the public, CCAS chooses to use the exceptional facilities. NHAS tends to have mobile star parties, so of course they need to bring out the 'scopes!

But, nothing was stopping me from bringing mine and I just love showing the skies to people. So I packed up the Burgess 1278 and drove off to Dennis Yarmouth High School.

Of course the Clear Sky clock showed a gorgeous forecast and as soon as it got towards dusk, the clouds came, along with the great sunsets. Yes, this is an actual photo from that night.

But the dome was open and I sat down with Mike and Peter and listened as they planned out the night's objects for the guests. Now that is impressive! I went and set up the Burgess and the skies got worse and worse.

Fortunately, holes appeared and we were able to show Jupiter a lot. That was about all we could show at first. Bands were quite visible and everyone was extremely impressed with the Burgess, which really pleased me especially considering that I forgot to bring the Baader Semi-APO filter!

I was especially honored to have Werner Schmidt himself both look my my telescope and be impressed by it. I'll remember that for a long time.

After almost everyone left we pointed the 16" at M13 again just for me, that was very nice. (It was featured all night long for the guests.) And then we tried for Neptune and Uranus. I never did see Neptune but the others were able to discern that it wasn't stellar as you turned it in and out of focus.

We tried the same in Burgess. Uranus was lovely, quite a distinct disk. Same thing as before for Neptune however, others could see it non-stellar but I couldn't.

Next time for sure!

Astronomy 101

Last week or so I gave a talk to a standing room only house, 46 people, at the Truro Library on Astronomy. The title of the talk was called "Astronomy 101: What I Can See in the Sky Tonight."

I talked about the Milky Way, Constellations, Moon, Jupiter the Perseids and Light Pollution. I tried to give some detail but not too much, didn't want to overwhelm anyone, nor bore anyone. The crowed listen attentively, asking questions both during the talk and after the talk.

Afterwards, I set up the Burgess 5" refractor for a look at the Moon and Jupiter. Clouds were very much threatening but they stayed clear and all who wanted to were able to see both them. I had a little patter going on, talking about the terminator on the moon and central peaks, and then talking about the moons of Jupiter and the cloud bands.

I'd really like to thank both Dave Martin who had been the scheduled speaker and Sharon Sullivan of the library for making it all happen.

Come See the Moon!

"Come see the Moon!"

Ok, I really didn't say that. I'm not sure why, that's what one is supposed to say, right? Last Saturday night I set up my 5" refractor, a Burgess 1278, on MacMillan Wharf in Provincetown, Massachusetts to do some sidewalk astronomy. I was still setting up when I had my first pair of "customers."

I had originally put the Garret Optical 30mm Wide Angle eyepice in, but I when I saw how some folks had problems getting the sweet spot, I pulled it and used a Celestron 30mm Plossl. Both eyepieces were in a 2x Barlow. This yields 67x with a FOV of about 0.8 degrees. 67x is great because you can see much of the moon yet still make out craters and ever see the central peak in some of them.

You could see the entire waxing gibbous moon plus some to spare. This was good because I set up right at dusk and Polaris was no where to be seen. I had a pretty good guess at North (from looking at the high tide seaweed mark in Google Maps!). The ASGT does not track well at all if your north is off but it turns out I was good enough. I only had to hit the Down button bout every 15 minutes.

But enough of the tech stuff, what about the people? I met Russian, French and German tourist. Couples, singles. Families. The usual response was "Wow" accompanied with a big smile.

Some people were initially distrustful, but when I assured them that it was completely free they came over and put their eye to the eyepiece.

And of course, some were not interested at all.

I should two bicycle police officers who loved it. Later on I showed 2 other officers with a car, whose observations were cut short by a nearby drug transaction!

Many people couldn't believe that I was doing this for free. Some wanted to tip me. I, of course, refused. I told them to donate to a school but that seems lame, I need a better line to handle those situations. I kept telling the story of John Dobson over and over again, talking of his commitment to sidewalk astronomy.

I was setup for about 2 1/2 hours, thin clouds came and put a haze on the moon but nobody really minded. Late in the evening I tried showing Jupiter but the high winds really made it pretty wobbly.

I'll certainly be back to do this again and I encourage all of you to bring your telescopes to the street and share the sky.

Oh, and what did I say instead of "Come see the moon?" My line was "Would you like to see the moon?" I'm not sure why I changed it, I just did.

Burgess 1278 First and Second Light report

I've had the Burgess 1278 for well over a month now. The first month was spent waiting, waiting for clear skies at a time I would be home to enjoy them. I watched the ClearSkyClock almost obsessively, and illogically believed the 10 day forecasts at weather.com. So a little more than a week ago, I was quite pleased to see that the skies would be clear and I would be home, but barely. I was working in Cambridge that day and would not be home until about 9:30 or 10pm that night. Given how long I waited, I didn’t care. I was especially interested in seeing Jupiter. I had viewed it with the 8” SCT a few weeks before and it was impressive, my best Jupiter ever. I wanted to see how the Burgess compared. I had looked at the Great Red Spot calculator from SkyAndTelescope.com and was pleased to see that it was at the meridian at 10:53pm.

Once I got home, I quickly hauled all the equipment from basement. I didn’t bother with the light pollution screens since I was only planning on viewing Jupiter. The neighbors were interested, as usual, and once I was fully setup, around 11pm, I quickly centered Jupiter and then let the kids look.

Then I pulled up my chair and sat down and looked myself. There it was, the Great Red Spot! As others have noted, it is more of a Great Tan Spot these days but still, I was happy. I’ve been interested in astronomy since I was a kid and the GRS had always been on my life list. I guess I wish I had seen it when it was red, not tan, but still, impressive none-the-less. It was so easy to see that I wondered if I was seeing what I wanted to see. Averted Imagination. I sat and observed for perhaps 20 minutes, waiting for a crystal clear moment. That moment really never came. The skies were just good all along. There were the 4 Galileans visible, no shadows. I stared at the GRS, stared at the bands, it was real, no doubt. I was actually seeing it! I tried to see an detail in the bands, or the Little Red Spot and that third one whose name I can’t remember, no luck, but I was still happy.

I also immediately realized that my carefully planned eyepiece collection was a bit limited. A 2000mm f10 scope does not use the same same set of eyepieces that a scope with a focal length of 1000mm uses somewhat different eyepieces than a 2000mm focal length scope! My normal “max power” eyepiece, a 9mm University Optics HD Abbe Orthoscopic was only giving 111x in this scope, my 7mm only gives 143x. I used the 7mm, which was pretty much the first time I had ever used it, that was the “miracle skies” eyepiece for the SCT. I found the eye relief bare acceptable. (I wear glasses.) I tried barlowing the 9mm with a 2x University barlow and the results were unacceptable, which is to be expected since that exceeds the Dawes’ limit rule of 40x per inch of aperture.

Pumped by my success, I decided to do some other viewing. I’ve been using Sue French’s book, Celestial Sampler, to plan my viewing sessions and I had not planned anything for tonight so I just went along ad hoc. First up was my long time favorite, the M81 and M82 pair. They were beautifully framed by the 34mm Siebert Observatory eyepiece. I was starting to see why some astronomers love wide field eyepieces. Unlike with my SCT, there was plenty of room around the two galaxies. It was quite pleasant to see.

I then went to M51, but alas, I still wasn’t able to see any detail in the arms. I’ve always wanted to see that, haven’t yet. I could, of course, see the second galaxy, but I expected to see that!

I can’t recall many of the other objects I saw. I was did try M57 at stupid power, which was, of course, stupid. It was much better with the 7mm. And I was able to split both of the double doubles. I had never been able to do that before, but then again, I hadn’t tried all that much before either!

By now it was getting close to 1AM so I went back to Jupiter. Yup, the GRS was gone, as expected, this only confirmed that I had seen it, not imagined it. M31 had now risen above the house so I went over there. Oh, very nice! I could easily see 32 and 110 in their proper spots. I had seen them in the SCT but the field of view was much narrower so once couldn’t grasp the whole picture.

I waited another half hour or so. I wanted to see the Double Cluster and it had not yet risen from behind the house. While doing so, I just looked at random star fields in the Milky Way. I was a bit dismayed to see that the 34mm Siebert was giving me unacceptable star blurring along the outer quarter or so of the field of view. I was quite upset, this has been my favorite eyepiece! (Note to those who’ve found this by googling, read on to the second light report, the 34mm Siebert is fine...)

I did a GOTO the Double Cluster and pretty much watched the edge of the roof disappear. That was actually a bit of fun, you could get a sense of slow motion of the skies. Once they both cleared I had a tremendous view. Again, like with M81/82 one could fully frame the objects against the background stars, things weren’t as crammed together.

I sadly packed up, happy with the new telescope.

I purchased a Chesire on astromart and set up the scope in the kitchen. It was very easy to collimate it. It didn’t seem to be out of collimation at all so I uncollimated it and then re-collimated it. At least I half collimated it! You, once I put the diagonal in, it was out of collimation again. So I tried another diagonal, it was also out of collimation by the same amount. I may need to shim the focuser (or something, pretty much whatever Steve Forbes of Trapezium Telescopes suggests) to get that centered. I don’t think the diagonal is out of collimation since I saw the same error with 2 different diagonals.

8 days later I was able to try the skies again. There was a first quarter moon so I decided to do lunar and Jupiter observing. From my last session I knew that the cars were annoying even though I was looking at bright objects, so I put up the screens. (Side note, I still have tons more design work to do on the screens, they are effective, but not as easy to install as possible and the tolerances are too tight, the tarps are stretching and I’ve pulled out some grommets already.)

Once everything was setup I still had some time to kill, so I pointed at the moon. This was the signal for the clouds to roll in. You could see the moon, but just as a bright blob. I tried again as the evening wore on. Eventually the skies were clearing with a sharp line coming from the north west. I could see the glow of Arturus so I use that as an alignment star. (Polaris wasn’t visible but I have true north marked on my lawn with 3 sections of PVC embedded in the ground.) I was slewing towards Mizar when it disappeared, so I just “accepted” its coordinates. Then I grabbed Vega for a calibration star. The moon was completely socked in so I went back to Mizar, which was now visible, grabbed it and then to M51. It was an exceptionally dim spot. The moon was really messing with the viewing. I tried for a few more dim things in that area but gave up and just waited out the moon.

I used the Siebert 22.5mm Ultra, both barlowed and not at 44x and 89x, and the 9mm straight @ 111x. I tried the 9mm barlowed (222x) but the skies didn’t permit it. I looked at it for about 45 minutes I think. I particularly like see the long shadow from the central peak in the Alphonsus crater. (I used Astronomist on my Palm PDA for the crater map.) I tried so hard to see the shadow move, never did. There was as a pair of mountain peaks over by where Plato is, perhaps they were from the rim of Plato. They were stick up into the sunlight. The skies were boiling. I sat and and watched and sat and watch and the atmospheric motion never stopped. Like the shadow in Alphonsus, I really wanted to see the sun move down the slopes of these mountains.

The clouds had cleaned up by now so I headed over to Jupiter. A quick look showed that the skies were still active. I only saw 3 moons. I whipped out Astromist and sure enough, Ganymede was occulted and then eclipsed. I never did look up to see if the GRS was visible, the skies didn’t permit it anyhow. I could recall how nice Jupiter looked the previous time, this wasn’t even close.

I next headed up to M27, it was easy to find but I could not make out the lobed appearance. I had seen that before with the SCT using a UHC filter. I tried that and it didn’t help. I’m guessing the moon brightness was still messing with what I could see. I had a nice star field here so I started playing the the two Siebert eyepieces and the University Optics 55mm Plossl. I was trying to learn three things: 1) how bad was the blurring in the 34mm Observatory, 2) did the 22.5mm Ultra have the blurring, and 3) would I use the 55mm Plossl ever?

The first question was easy to answer. I’m not sure what I was seeing before but the 34mm did not sure any of the blurring I saw before. I was quite pleased by this. The same was true of the 22.5mm Siebert, the views were great.

When I put the 55mm in it seemed that the views were sharper than with the 2 Sieberts, but the magnification was so low that I’m not sure I found the view better. I wasn’t able to evaluate the eyepiece for contrast. I also didn’t like the huge eye relief nor do I like the blackouts. I’m still thinking of selling this eyepiece but I’m not sure. I sometimes wonder if I’m not experienced enough to use it.

I looked at some DSO in Sagitarius, trying to work my way over to M8 and M20, but they both required a meridian flip so I put off those slews. There wasn’t anything to write home about so I did do the flip.

I visited the moon again, it was just about to set into the trees, so I wanted to check out that shadow and the 2 mountains again. They had not changed at all. So I guess this means that over an hour or two one cannot see changes on the Moon. Well, I’ll keep on trying. I know I’ve seen changes on a crater rim with binoculars, but I don’t know how much time had passed between sightings.

I next go to M8, the Lagoon Nebula. It wasn’t impressive until I put the UHC in. Wow! Not as nice as M42, of course, but this was delightful. I do think it was dimmer, but only by a bit, than the view in the SCT.

M20 was a disappointment, it was dim and featureless. I can’t recall what it has looked like in the SCT so I’ll have to wait for another time to make that comparison.

I next went down to M7, one of my favorite clusters, and just enjoyed it for a bit. I did try the 3 eyepieces but basically just looked and enjoyed.

Before shutting down for the night, I de-clutched everything and went back to Jupiter. (I didn’t want another meridian flip, it just takes too long.) Hey Ganymede was back! That was nice to see. Like Rags, I also saw a fifth “moon” now but I’m pretty sure that that was a star. I did a bit of reading after seeing the fifth one and seeing Rags’ report. I don’t see any evidence that we should have been able to see a moon. (But it would have been cool if we did!)

Overall I’m quite pleased with the Burgess, to the point I’m thinking of selling the SCT. The only thing it gives me over the Burges is aperture and some will argue that with the central obstruction of the SCT subtracting, the Burgess doesn’t lose all that much. I must say I was disappointed by M20. I’m looking forward to see it with an 8” SCT at the same time as I see it with the Burgess. Selling the SCT has some big financial advantages, not only would the OTA but sold but the Crayford, the 2” diagonal, and the dew controller and strips. Shoot, I could even sell the Telrad since I don’t need two of them.

And of course, that could fund a bigger refractor.... :- )

The Moon and the Pleiades

I just finished up my viewing of the Moon occulting the Pleiades. If you follow the link you'll also see an excellent graze map! Never seen one of them before.

I had planned to stay in Cambridge, working late, and then cross the river at sunset and observe from Boston's Esplanade. But, around 6pm clouds rolled and and I wasn't going to stay late for nothing, so I came back to my crash pad in the Savin Hill area of Dorchester for a night without star viewing. You see, we're on the north east side of the hill, the west is obscured by houses above us!

I was quite pleased to see, from a west facing window, that I could see the moon! I quickly grabbed the binoculars. It was still twilight and at 7:38pm I could make out 3 of the 7 sisters. The moon was in the field of view of them.

I checked again at 8:01pm and I could make out 6 stars now, but the moon was getting perilously close to a neighbors house, and worse, the heat plume from his chimney!

By 8:07 I still could only see 6.

At 8:23 the moon was behind the house and I figured, what can the neighbors do? Call the cops? I'll show them the moon! So I went outside and was pleased to see that through a large gap in the trees I could see the show and, more importantly, not be seen as looking into someone house!

I only counted 13 stars in the Pleiades. This is pathetic. I had thought that Manchester was bright but Boston is really, really bad. Auriga had only 4 stars to the naked eye. Castor and Pollux had only 3, plus Mars. I tried to find M36, the eaisest of three clusters in Auriga, I found all my pointers but the cluster was not to be seen.

Maybe I'll take back what I said about city observing being fun. I guess I should say that small city observing is fun. Boston viewing in pathetic.

Messier Marathon practice

In preparation for the Messier Marathon at Larry's house, I wanted to run a practice one, too see what setup is like, to see how long it takes to get align from when the first stars come out until you get your first slew.

I setup on the 3rd floor deck at the apartment in Provincetown. I knew it would be wobbly and I knew I'd have light pollution problems but I figured I'd give it a try, why not? I had a black fleece to use as a hood if I needed it.

Sirius was the first star out, of course, and then I think Procyon and soon I had several. Sadly, I did not have Polaris! I eventually found it binoculars and this let me see it naked eye. I moved the tripod and stood behind it, eyeballing Polaris. I never did it through the bore, I was in a hurry, I knew that some dusk objects would be difficult, I was especially worried about M77.

So althought that wasn't the first object on my list, I used McNish's site to print out my lists, using the Phil Harrington, Astronomy 2002 sequence.

The horizon was still in twilight when I slewed to M77. Now I knew my Goto could be off, especially my first one of the evening, but I couldn't even seen Menkar, so I knew it would be bad. For some reason I put the hood on, then I pulled up my chair and waited. I probably spent about 15-20 minutes looking for M77. Sometimes I'd stay in the same spot, sometimes I'd nudge the hand controller to move the scope a bit. When I could see the power lines through the finder scope I knew I should give up. The sky still wasn't dark yet so I moved on.

M42 and M43 were the first objects. Well, M45 was but I wanted to bag at least one naked eye so I knew I'd have to wait for that one. For almost all objects I was using my Garrett Optical 30mm wide angle 2" eyepiece. This give about 1.2 degreess field of view. I wasn't using the Siebert, I'm not sure why. Maybe I wanted to use an eyepice that I was quite familiar with? I dunno. Anyhow, did us the 22.5mm Siebert to pull in M43.

Then the fun start. I slew to the next object, check it off, repeat. If I knew I could grab an object with binoculars, I would. Why not, it was both fun and probably faster than slewing.

Look up an object, slew, check it off. I know, I know. MM purist will say it wasn't a real marathon. You know what? I don't care, I'll still buy you a beer some day. That's ok. I was enjoying myself for the most part.

Why "for the most part?" Well, this was too easy! MM is supposed to be a challenge and this wasn't a challenge at all. Slew, view, check off, repeat. It was like shooting the proverbial fish in a barrel!

I'm not going to recount all of the objects, but here are some of the ones I made notes on:

• M76 - hard!
• M48 - impressive. This was with the scope. I had had this as a binocular goal object this fall but I was foolishly feeling time pressure so I just slewed to it instead. I must revisit this one!
• M81 - Meridian flip.

I didn't note the time of the meridian flip but it seemed pretty early for me. I now need to use a hood for more of my objects. There were so many street lights I was getting reflections on my glasses!

• M82 - hard. This surprised me, but I guess it had to do with the conditions. Lots of light and I was essentially never dark adapted because of that. M82 should not be a hard object.
• M108 - hard. Needed the hood and averted vision. Since I was so far away from the alignment stars, I realigned on Mizar.
• M97 - easy with the hood
• M109 - hood and averted
• M40 - failed to split with the binoculars

Arghhhh, I was moving my chair and I kicked the tripod, moving it! Oh, Rags will be laughing now. But, I didn't panic, I just realign on one star and the gotos weren't all that bad.

• M63 - a fishing boat started up in the harbor, I'm now getting a very strong diesel smell. Normally, I'd hate that but it fits in with observing from a fishing village.
• M51 - Saw both parts. Feeling less time pressure now I gave this a good 10 minutes looking for more detail with the 22.5mm Siebert. No detail was visible.

M95. Ok, here it goes. The dim spirals. I didn't have anything centered in the eyepiece but I could see something nearby. But that's isn't enough to confirm it for me. My paper chart from TUMOL was useless since I wasn't star hopping. I went inside and fired up Stellarium, that was useless also. I download Carte des Ciel and that didn't help. I was in a bit of bind. You could say that Goto was letting me down. But, Goto is a just a tool like a Telrad or paper chart. I needed to use my tools better. I could see Leo in the sky with Saturn added. Realign! I replaced my alignment stars with Saturn and Denebola. Slew to M95. Dead center, as expected.

• M105 - 2 objects in the eyepiece. The McNish charts say I'll see two, but TUMOL shows 3, but one is dim. Eventually, with averted I saw the third so I confirmed M105.

The Virgo objects were an easy blur. Everyone was dead nuts centered in the eyepiece. I have no problems claiming a find for them. Did I star hop? Nope. Did I learn how dense Virgo/Leo were? Yup. Clearly this wolud be a fun area to explore from a dark site!

• M3 - Hey, it is back. Very nice.
• M83 - I hear church bells. 11pm? Very hard, tried averted and the hood. The tube is almost horizontal but with essentially only the hills and the dunes of Truro I have perfect horizon here. Sadly, I didn't nab it. In retropspect, I may have tried too early, it could have risen some more! Yup, that's it. I just simulated it in Stellarium, I had 2 more hours until it was high.

At this point I considered giving up. I had accomplished what I wanted to accomplish. But, I scanned ahead in the list M13 and M92 were coming up. So I kept on going.

• M12 in Ophicchius. It was below the horizon! So were all the Oph objects.

Time for bed.

Well, actually not. The seeing had been great so I put the 9mm in and did some Saturn viewing. Sadly, the 3rd floor deck just didn't work out for this. I was bummed. This was the best seeing I had ever seen for Saturn, oh well, it will still be there later.

I hibernated the scope and left it all outside.

Next morning, I woke it up. Took the Telrad off and put the solar filter on. 2 sunspots!

Totals:

Found with telescope: 55
Found with binoculars: 7
Found with naked eye: 1
Did not find: 3
Obstructed view: 4

Total found: 63

The missed objects were 83, 33 and 77. If I had waited about 10 minutes, 33 would have been an obstructed, not a missed. But there was no way to get it in the twilight.

I was done by quarter after 11.

I'm looking forward to the real one next week. It will be better with friends. Goto will give me the time to observe. Clearly, I was ahead of schedule most of the night. I didn't like the TUMOL printouts, the McNish printout is better for Goto, the descriptions are better.

Truro dark report

Wow, it is dark out here.

I mean, wow, really, freaking dark.

I went to Pilgrim Heights around 8:30 tonight. I'm driving down the access road with my high beams on, having just got off Route 6 with other car's shining their headlights in my eyes. I park the car. I'm not dark adapted at all and I turn off the lights.

Wow, OMG, wow.

It is freaking dark here.

This place is darker than Steve's house, at least when I got there last week and initially wasn't dark adapted. I've not yet opened the door and with the car's dashboard lights on I can tell I'm going to be impressed when I open the door.

Now, let me digress a bit, both as a child and as an adult I've been attacked by a dog. I have a pathological fear of them. There are coyotes on the cape, in these dunes. I chose this site because of the trees, the winds are 10 to 20 mph now with gusts to 30. The house is shaking as I type this. The trees are all around me, I'm parked on just a thin strip of asphalt.

I can't open the door. I don't like being outside in the dark. I hate being alone at YFOS but I manage to do it, but I don't like it. But here? Jim Young isn't just over the hill. I try rolling down the window but that doesn't work well at all. I feel the woods around me, but I know at the beaches I'd feel the dunes around me.

So I open the door and stand next to the car with the door almost closed on me. M35, 36, 37, 38 all there, all with stars. Even M46 is almost bright. M42 is small in the binocs, but I think brighter than I've ever seen it, at least it seemed that way. It is certainly bigger than I've even seen in in these binocs.

Sadly, I know I'm never ever going to be able to use this site, at least not without a partner. Oh well, lets go to the house and see what that is like

The house itself has the front porch light on, casting huge shadows. I don't have a key, shoot, I don't own the house, so I can't do anything about it.

But I find the same objects. Trees are a problem at the house. NW is pretty bad but there aren't any leaves yet so I can see all the objects easily. I turn to try for M46. A car pulls out of the street across from me blinding me with his high beams. I lift the binocs and scan, there's M47 and M46 is right next to it. No problems with that.

Ok, so that's the answer. I put some pipes in the ground as foundations and I build some light screens and I do all my observing from right here. It is hard to tell but our house may be darker than YFOS.

I head back to Provincetown and get out on the deck. There are sodium vapor lights shining in my eyes. I try for M46. Yeah, got that too from P-town.

This is gonna be a good place to live.

No Boxes tonight, or, a dark site with the binoculars

Steve and Rags cajoled me into heading over to New Boston to have one lest viewing session with them before the move. I knew I shouldn't, I was way too tired and the boxes were calling my name. But, I did anyway. I really wanted to get a dark site view of the recent M-objects I had been observing so I could take that to Truro.

So although I had my scope in the car, I only carried my parka, chair, and binoculars out behind Steve's shed.

Rags was cursing the Goto Nova, not that there was anything wrong with it, but Rags just doesn't like GoTo scopes. I felt pretty bad when I tripped over the power and his alignment was lost, but it turns out that that was not the first time that had happened that evening already!

So Rags and I got some quality binocular time in. I should him how to find M36, M38 and M37. Those were the easy ones. M35 was a bit harder, pointing out "that star there" really doesn't work all that well sometimes, but he got it.

Somewhere in here Steve's Atlas is giving him fits and he disappears inside, trying to google something to fix it.

Then we get down in earnest trying to find P17, Comet Holmes. The Comet Chasers web site was still claiming that it was naked eye visible, so I figured with binoculars it would be a cinch. I had failed 2 nights running to grab it from Manchester. I knew that section of the sky pretty well. I got out the charts and we start looking for it. Both Rags and I tried both my 15x50s and Rags' 7x30s (???) as well as the 4" Jaeger refractor. Nothing! Steve comes back out and tries also. We spent a good 45 minutes on this. We know is going to be huge and dim but we are just not seeing it.

Steve realigns the Atlas and we poke about, finding the Flame Nebula, but not the Horsehead, not that we expected to, and the Owl Nebula. Wow, that was a dim one! I'm not looking forward to that at all during the Marathon!

I had to call it an early night, the alarm was going off at 4:30, the boxes were calling to me.

Just because you didn't see anything new doesn't mean you failed

So after checking out the Comet Chasing website I decide to grab Comet Holmes tonight from Manchester and then after that easy grab, I'd enjoy 46P/Wirtanen passing by NGC 1893. I knew that that would be dim but I'm getting so good at this it would be a piece of cake.

I went outside right around 7:30pm, watched the sky turn from a turquoise Maxfield Parrish blue sky into night. I found Mirphak and it was clear the sky was too bright so I waited a bit.

This was a gonna be a tough hop. From Mirphak I found the box of 5 stars around it, so then I could rotate my paper chart. Then to the left to a pair then up to a bright one (Delta Persei I guess), then curve around down to the next bright one then up to yet another bright one. Phew, now we are getting close. Find the next one and almost bisect them up to a double, three dim ones.

And I looked and waited. It was hard. I didn't want to put the binocs down because all my neighbors lights would ruin what little dark adaption I had. I waited and looked.

I closed my eyes and went in a got a pillow so I could lay down. I could find the spot again and again but no Holmes.

I checked the charts and saw that I was slightly off so I looked in the new spot.

I spent about 45 minutes, giving up around 8:15pm. I briefly went over to NGC 1893 just because when I looked for M38 the other day I saw some patterns that I thought might be something. I found them again but they didn't match the website that had a description by Walter Scott Houston: "contains a conspicuous Y pattern formed by four 8th magnitude stars." I thought I saw a T in the right spot, but certainly not a Y.

And 46P was, of course, no where to be seen.

All in all it was a good time, even though I didn't bag anything.

PS: about an hour later I briefly went outside too take a quick check on 1893 again. It was a lot darker now! I wasn't able to stay but that may have been my problem with Holmes. Clear Sky Clock is looking ok for tomorrow night, I'll try then also

Moonset over Manchester

Here's a quick shot of the moon setting. Probably one of the last Manchester moon shot's I'll take.

I never really did like this apartment but I must say, the photographic opportunities have been great. There used to be 4 or 5 huge trees which all were dying or dead. The town cut those down a few years ago. Once they were gone the camera came out. Odd that tree cutting would improve a natural setting. Then again, as an astronomer, I guess I should know that already!

I'm especially fond of the sunrise reflecting off the building pictures, the sunsets, and of course my lunar eclipse shots that got published in the Union Leader. I'll try and dig some of those up later.

Not only M objects you see...

So I'm sitting, you know where, reading the Feb 2008 issue of Astronomy. Wanting to see if there is something I grab tonight before getting back to my boxes.

Observe Winter's Forgotten Star Clusters it says and I say sure, lets read. First one up is NGC 1502 in Camelopardalis, which has got to be one of the weirdest constellations. (Note, from Manchester, you can't see any of it!)

Note that there isn't any clickable link for NGC 1502, there isn't much out there on it. But I fired up Stellarium and memorized the patterns. I used Cassiopeia to find Mirphak, then went in a straight line from Algol through Mirphak to 2 asterisms I found in Stellarium and hey, there it was.

Or should I say, there it should have been.

Now NGC 1502 isn't all that impressive in my 15x50 Canon IS binoculars from Manchester. At times I thought I could split the double but at other times I thought I couldn't. The article in Astronomy pointed out that it was at the tail end of Kemble's Cascade, a quite attractive asterism. I hadn't looked that up at all before I headed out and I saw something that could be described as a "cascade." As I was observing, a satellite passed through the field of view. I followed it to the horizon.

So I went back inside to google some and confirmed that that was indeed what I found so I went back out to enjoy it more.

I counted 21 stars in the Cascade, about a third of which I could only see with averted vision. Quite nice in binoculars. And wouldn't you know, another satellite passed through!

And as for NGC 1502, well, I'll claim it as a find but I certainly wouldn't have unless the Cascade was there to confirm it. I think I need more power to see anything there.

Oh, I went and checked out M44 some more just so I could fix it in my mind. Rags also saw it that evening, I just read his email before writing this entry. He didn't seem to think it was as nice as the Pleiades, the overall same dimness and all. Thinking about it, I think that that may be why I like it, it isn't flashy like the Seven Sisters, it is just big and full. But of course, the Sisters are nice also.

Back to boxes.

Quick, before the moon rises

Yeah yeah yeah. I'm packing boxes, but I'll certainly take a bit of clear moonless time out, not that there will be all that much, I'm writing this at 8:22 and the moon official rose 4 minutes ago.

Anyway, I wanted to see if I could grab M46 from Manchester. No such luck. I had hoped with the moon being below the horizon it just might be possible. Sadly, the sodium vapor glow just wouldn't let it come through. M47 and M41 were nice and easy. I counted 11 in both of them.

So then I went out back just to see what "moonless" did to my previous 3 targets, M36, M37 and M38. M38 was much easier than before, but I guess that that wasn't too surprising. What was surprising to me that was, with averted vision, M36 was showing stars, just just a dim fuzz. I couldn't count them because when I looked, they disappered into the fuzz. I guess with practice I'll be able to count with averted vision.

So then, feeling lucky, I tried for M35. Hey, I got it! It easily resolved into stars, I counted but I forgot the total! I looked for NGC 2158, did not expect to see it and was not too disappointed when I didn't see it. Maybe in Truro.

The Pleiades showed 3 stars to the naked eye, thought I'd through that it for you folks with dark sites and that was with averted vision! I only got 1 with direct vision. (And no, I don't know why I could count 3 with averted here and not on M36, maybe it was the separation?)

I recall seeing the Beehive Cluster, aka Praesepe, aka M44. I had never seen it before. Wow, that is a great one! Certainly a binocular object. With no dark adaptation I counted 42 stars, quite beautiful. It certainly rivals the Pleiades for the wow factor.

My previous favorite was M7, the open cluster in Sagitarius (hmmm, maybe Scorpio, depending on where the boundary is, I sure don't know.) I guess I can have a summer favorite and a winter pair of favorites, no?

Back to the boxes...

Finally, M38

So I've been trying for a few days now to get M38 from Manchester with the binoculars. Not being dark adapted and having a very bright moon certainly hasn't helped. I've also waited until it was a bit lower toward the horizon so I didn't have to crane my neck so, but that put it into the thicker part of the atmosphere.

So tonight I said I'd try and grab it while it was high.

I went outside on the deck and tried to find a good position, it was too high to permit me to sit in a chair, would have had to lean back too much. (And my deck, I did you not is not quite 4 x 4. There is a long part, but if I laid down on that the house block Auriga.

So off to the square part, I put my legs up on the railing and drat, it isn't directly overhead, I had to lean forward just a little bit. It actually wasn't as uncomfortable as that sounds.

I found M36 quite easily, the I went over to M37 just to see how it compared to the other viewings. I won't say it was bright but it was certainly brighter. I could see it without inverted vision but it got better with averted.

So, to find it. You find M36 and look below and to the right. You'll see a curved line of stars, 4, then a gap, then 2 more. (Below this structure is another, quite nice looking, structure of brighter stars.) If you continue the upper curve of 6 stars, just pretend there is a 7th.

That's where M38 is.

But, of course, I couldn't see it. But I had only been outside a few minutes, so I just relaxed and laid back. Found I could rest my head on the deck (should have brought a pillow) and hold the binoculars at an angle and still see the section I wanted to see.

I waited, watched the thin clouds pass through my field of view. And then I started to see hints of something, but I was never certain.

So I kept on waiting, waiting for my eyes to dark adapt more. I went back and checked on M36 and M37. They were both more apparent.

And I waited and yes, soon enough it was there. Dim as anything, but there.

I remembered reading that each person has a sweet spot in their averted vision. I moved all around it, trying to see if one spot was better. I couldn't see any difference.

But I had it, finally, I had it.

A Quick Attempt

The sky is very clear tonight so I try for M38 again. I find M36 quite easily, don't even need my charts, I still remember from last night. But M38 prove elusive.

Manchester with lots of moon is just not the hot ticket I guess.

Sun Pillars, the moon and an unwasted night

So we're driving back from the Cape and the skies are pretty nasty, snowing actually. But for some reason I check the Clear Sky Clock and it shows nice skies that night at YFOS. I'm pretty happy, it as been a dreadful winter. I check online to see who else might be going and frankly I'm given some questioning "looks."

But sure enough, as the sun starts setting it starts clearing to the west and we are treated to some nice sun pillars.

This is kind nice. At the time I thought the were sun dogs but I found out I was wrong when writing this post.

So Steve is trying to get Rags to go to YFOS. He'll bring the Burgess and Rags will bring the GoTo Nova and Jeannette drives and drives and we get home.

And the moon is honking bright. Drat, forgot about that. I saw all the blue on Clear Sky Clock and forgot that blue in the last row is bad.

It doesn't matter too much, it is pretty darn cloudy still also so we call it all off.

But around 11pm or 11:30pm it clears up nicely and I get the binoculars out. I'm looking out the south windows now, looking for M36, It takes me a long time to find it. I'm comparing the sky to the chart in Stellarium and it is just wrong. I eventually figure out that I'm putting Mars into Auriga and when I correct that M36 is easily seen. Don't even need averted vision to see a fuzz patch.

The nearby moon makes M38 completely impossible to see. I've got the star patterns dead on but it just isn't there. I'll have to try this when the moon isn't so bright.

I go over to M37 and I find it but just barely. Averted really helps.

I try, half heartedly, for M35 but I'm not too disappointed when I fail to grab that one.

Off to bed now.

Insomnia? M-time

So it is about 4:30 AM and I can't sleep. This is about a week now that I've been waking around 4AM. Very annoying. So why not continue the evening's stargazing? Fire up Stellarium, ooo, Cygnus is up. I know that that has an easy M in it. M29 right near Sadr.

Outside with the Canon 15x50IS binoculars. At first I thought I missed it. The star pattern was dead on but I couldn't see it. Oh, there it is. Very dim and small! I only got it with averted vision. I guess since it is an open cluster I expected it to be larger, that is, of course, nonsense. I wasn't at all able to resolve any stars.

While looking at it a very dim satellite went through the field of view. I tracked it off to my right until it disappeared behind the house. Dimmest I've ever seen.

So now I open up TUMOL, what else is in Cygnus (which is placed rather well for my chair). M39. Uh oh, at least in Stellarium it seems to be in the middle of nowhere. That's not entirely true. Take a line from Sadr through Deneb but bend it down a bit. That gets you right there but there still is a jump. Fortunately, there is a chain from Deneb that gets you halfway. Follow the chain then look around. Got it! Much, much, larger than M29. I counted 13 stars.

Ok, what else. Cepheus is up but there doesn't seem to be any Ms in it. I guess I'll try and go back to sleep.

...

No luck there, so lets see what is to the South. I can do that from indoors, hanging out a window. One star, what is it? Stellarium tells me. Jupiter! Thin clouds, can't even see Antares. Oh boy. But, the clouds are low and Stellarium tells me that M26 is up above Jupiter. I see one dim fuzzy, check the charts. Ah M11 or the Wild Duck Cluster. This is quite apparent. I can see the star pattern above it. An L pointing up and to the right. Can't resolve any stars but it is bright for Manchester. Back to M26, nope.

Nope point in sleeping now, the alarm goes off soon anyhow.

A few Ms

Steve wanted me to come out and check out the GoTo Nova but I got in late and was tired. Said no. Then later got feeling Astro-guilty, wasting clear like that. Went outside, Arcturus was up, but low, couldn't see Muphrid (eta Boo) yet, the next pointer for M3. Waited about an hour, saw Muphrid so got the parka on. M3 was easy in the Canon 15x50 IS Binoculars. Nice, averted vision was not needed but did help.

Tried for M51. I've enjoyed this in the 8" SCT. Got the star charts out on Astromist, was pointed at exactly the right spot. Stared all around the spot, nothing. Makes sense, mag 8.4 instead of 6.2.

Checked on Stellarium, M53 should be possible from the deck. Looked up the hops, Arturus to Muphrid (eta Boo) easy double hop to alpha Com. Memorize the cool pattern to the left, a bent L pointing down, M53 should be just east of it.

Dang, there it was. Clear as day.

M3 and M53, just dim spots from Manchester in binocs. It will be fun to compare the Truro view.

Wide Field imaging and MM practice

So, the Messier Marathon was supposed to happen this weekend but we were clouded out both Friday and Saturday. Sunday night was clear and moonless so I figured I get some MM practice time in, as well as shoot some widefield shots of constellations. So off to YFOS I went.

I was, of course, running late, but this was part of the MM practice. How much time does it take from when I get to the site until I am fully set up and aligned?

It turns out that that is 45 minutes, seem pathetically slow but I'll just have to take that into account. Then again, it will be much easier to get to Larry's by dusk for a DST MM in April. I wish I had measured how much time it took until I was aligning, because that initial setup time can happen while it is still light, but does it really matter? As a test, I only used 2 calibration stars for speed. That cuts some time off. (I choose two only because after I did the first one, the GoTo to the second one was pretty darn close.)

I check out M42, but the transparency seems pretty poor, not much detail could be seen. This was also true of looking up at the stars themselves, there didn't seem to be all that many.

So I took my Canon A610 and attached it with a bracket to my counter weight bar. This is something I got on Astromart months ago. Tonight would be the first time I was using it. I took some shots of the Orion Constellation, then the bottom part of the constellation, and then a shot with the Pleiades in it. The A610 can take 15 second frames with 15 second dark frames. I set it to take 10 of these in continuous mode. A manually focused on infinity. I did play around with the ISO setting but sadly the EXIF data does not record that! This is a real shame because one of the shots I took was rather nice and I have no idea what settings I used. I forgot how to set aperture on so I just used whatever the camera was set to.

Just as I was in the middle of shooting, Gardner and Rich showed up for MM marathon of their own. I was glad, I really don't like being at YFOS alone.

Here's a full frame shot of the bottom of Orion. (Click the image to see the full size one.)

Now here is a 100% crop of the sword.

I also tried using Registax to see what it could do with 10 frames. Here it is:


To me this is odd, it didn't do much at all. I was a little disappointed with this. But anyways, it was fun. Here's the shot that turned out best of all.

You can see the Pleiades in the middle upper left, the Hyades Cluster of Taurus in the upper left, Aldebaran showing its orange color. Mirfak and the Alpha Persei Cluster are in the center right, and bright Capella owns the upper right. (You really need to click this one to see anything...)

I do wish there were more stars. This was the best shot of the evening and I don't know how I made it. I know I'll being trying this again and I appreciate any advice.

The haze was getting worse and we all retired to the warming hut to chat a bit. We probably stayed about 15-20 minutes and we checked the sky again and it was getting better.

Gardner was really fighting dew with his binoculars but Rich seemed to be doing wel with his Pronto. Just as I was about to pack it up, he called out that he got M1. Now I've tried for this before with binoculars from Manchester and failed everytime, I wanted to see it. So I punched it into the hand controller and hey, there it was! I was tired so I didn't look much.

I tried for a quick succession of M objects that I knew were in the sky. Bang, they all were there, must have gotten half a dozen in about 2 minutes. It does seem like a Goto scope, once it is setup, really makes short work of a Messier Marathon! ("And yes, I realize that this isn't necessarily the point, just let me enjoy what I do, ok?," he said a bit testily...)

I had to be at work the next day so I reluctantly started tearing down the equipment. By the time I was done the haze had cleared and the skies were gorgeous.

Of course...