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...