Observing Reports
December 2004
-28th / 29th December 2004-
-Weather-
Cold
Clear
Seeing quite good
-Report-
This is my first report after Christmas and what a great night it was.
Set everything up at around 11:30pm and took another look at Polaris. Managed to split it with my 10mm (60x), still amazes me that the north star is a double.
Since Cassiopeia was lower in the western sky I thought I would give it another look, since every other observing period it would be too high for comfortable viewing. Set the scope to beta to give M52 a try. I'm not sure if I have seen this object and shall need to try again another night. What I drew down resembles a coat hanger type shape and filled the 25mm eyepiece field of view. Could be due to the amount of stars and smaller clusters I could not distinguish M52.
Next came as a really big surprise and the first time I have ever viewed this amazing object. I remembered that Comet Machholz would be on view, so I got out the binoculars and astronomy magazine to locate it. It was very easy to find and resembled a faint fuzzy but was clearly brighter that a lot of deep sky objects I have viewed. It looked amazing and through my telescope looked even brighter. I have tried to take a few images with my digital camera but not sure they have turned out very well.
Orion was well placed in the night sky so I finally managed to get some viewing done of this amazing constellation in all its glory. First stop was M42 the Orion Nebula. What a sight through the scope. The nebula was so blue and I could clearly see the Trapezium region. On increasing the magnification to about 100x I could see three bright starts and one faint star to the north. The nebula looked very bright and large with my scope and one of the best sights I have seen yet.
Moving north of the nebula I viewed Orion's belt the three stars that flow in a slanted line. I noticed another very interesting area to the south of Zeta Orion which is known as Sigma Orion. Compact stars and a double star was the bright sight that lured me to the location. This was a very interesting group which I hope to view again on another night.
Further north I positioned over Betelgeuse which was very bright and very orange. The colour looked great on the black background of the sky and I noticed diffraction spikes (or what I thought must have been) radiating outwards...all even and bright round this red giant.
Taurus was the next stop and Hyades had been over looked on other nights so the scope was pointed this way for another first. Yet another great sight or star clusters and I shall be definitely taking a look again. M45 was starting to get lower in the west, so I took a quick look and was not disappointed. This star cluster is always bright and rewarding and the amount of stars on view is always impressive.
Noticed that Gemini was beginning to appear from behind the house and I could make out Alhena. On looking at my star atlas I noticed another Messier was near and M35 was to be the next object of the night. Took a while to find M35 even by star hopping and found out the reason of this was that I had been positioned over the wrong first star. Quite a nice star cluster, but need more time to really appreciate it. Saturn would be in view soon.
Jumping over to Perseus to look at the double cluster and getting colder all the time, I took a 5 minute break to take in the night sky. I meteor went shooting right through Perseus just for a second but that break really was worthwhile.
Back to the double cluster and what a sight!!! This really had the wow factor. Two clusters so close and bright, with hundreds of stars in each one. Just wish I could have taken some images. Just above it was St2 another open cluster a lot bigger but still very interesting. A group of stars just above the double cluster lead you to it and it should not be over looked. Messier M103 was next on the list and this proved difficult to distinguish from other clusters around it. I first thought it was NGC 457 but on looking a second time I found the small cluster near the bright star Ruchbah. The star cluster, once magnified looked a lot like a triangle or an "A" on its side. NGC 457 was a lucky find and resembled the shape of a stick man. I think it's actually called "The ET Cluster". Very interesting object with two bright stars which make up the eyes and also comes under Caldwell 13.
Saturn was now in view but still to my dismay I could not make out the Cassini Division. I have taken some images and hope to process them soon. I also stepped down the scope and it gave me some better contrast with the colours of Saturn. I'll keep trying for the division but not that hopeful as Saturn was very high last night and I still could not make out the gap.
Last stop was a very quick look at the moon for some images, but since I had been out for almost 3 hours I thought it best to get some rest and as my feet were numb it was time to go in.
Clear Skies!
-20th December 2004-
-Weather-
Very cold
Clear sky
No noticeable wind.
-Report-
It was cloudy all day and when I got home for work, the sky was clear. Looked like a great night for observing..........it was.
Left my scope out in the backyard for about an hour so as to completely cool it down. This was going to be a great test for my scope as the sky was cloudy last time and could only do a quick test on Alpha Gemini a 4.1" split, which I managed fairly well.
Looking towards the North I began on the famous star Polaris, as I knew this was a double with a very faint second star. Pointing towards Polaris with a 10mm (60x) I managed to split it with ease and see the faint 9th magnitude star. Tried using my 25mm & 2 x Barlow (48x) and still managed to see the double split. That seemed quite a good test since last time I could not make out the faint star. I think I shall be viewing this double quite a lot in the future.
Next stop the famous Double Double in Lyra. Positioned over Epsilon Lyra 2, and split this using 10mm & 2 x Barlow (120x). This looked really amazing giving two stars vertical at the northern end of the view and two stars horizontal at the southern end. Its strange that when trying Epsilon Lyra 1, I could not split it even though it has a slightly larger arc distance.
The sky was noticeably brighter with the Moon just appearing from behind the house. Pointed the scope towards it and was presented with bright very sharp image. The Moon was quite high and with the scope cooled down this gave some of the best views I have ever seen. Spent quite a while viewing the moon as its been a few weeks I haven’t seen it through my scope. Looking away I was moon blinded in one eye from the bright glare and tested the scope for the glow of chromatic aberration. This was slightly noticeable of a blue fringe but no green what so ever. I think this must have been picked up from the camera on previous nights. Replaced the lens cap and removed the middle section to stop it down giving around me a 2” scope at f/12. The slight blue fringe was gone and the image was less bright making it easier to view.
Viewing the details along the terminator of the moon showed up a big surprise that I have not seen before, The Straight Wall was clearly visible and pushed the magnification up to 120x for crisp views. Going to 200x seemed a bit too blurry and I could not focus the image very well.
The Straight Wall looked amazing and I have wanted to see this feature for ages. Finally glad I have.
Ptolemaeus/Alphonus & Arzahel looked very sharp and below are some images I managed to take throughout the night.
Plato, The Apls and Apennines were stunning and I could clearly see the Alpine Valley.
To finish off a great night I moved the scope to the front of the house (East) and viewed M38 & M36 for the first time. I didn't spend too much time on these objects and shall leave them for another night. As it was getting really cold and the scope was badly dewed up, (need to find a cure for this problem) I thought it best to head in.
Looks like my scope is of fairly good quality and will provide me with years of great viewing
Clear Skies!
-15th December 2004-
-Weather-
Seeing was bad, lots of high clouds
Slight wind
-Report-
I have been reading about double stars and optical quality of telescopes. There seems to be a lot to read up on, so that’ll keep me busy.
Set up the scope so as to carry out some star testing with my Refractor.
I find it quite difficult to distinguish where about the Airy disk is and I really think that I need better range of eyepieces.
I’m a bit concerned about the false colour around the limb of the moon. There seems to be a slight blue glow and also a green glow towards the south of the image. I have read that blue is acceptable but any green is not. The glow does not seem to affect the image much and I’m getting used to it. Some Photoshop processing can get rid of the glow quite easily.
Carried out a star test on Castor (Alpha Gemini) and managed to split it at x120 and clearly at x200.
I think my main problem with not being able to see the Cassini Division around Saturn is probably due to not taking my time to really notice slight details. I jump to the next object too fast and should wait for periods of less atmospheric turbulence.
I have learnt quite a lot from reading up on this topic and find that the most useful information was the size of objects in relation to arc minutes and seconds. I now understand and can visualise the different sizes. As far as I can tell my scope have a limit of about 1 arc second.
Aperture is the most important aspect of a scope and defines the resolution so I feel fairly happy that my 4.5” Refractor will satisfy my needs.
With the cold weather reducing the cool down time of my scope, I hope to be able to get some valuable viewing time in and be able to really test the scopes capabilities.
Any advice would be great.
Clear Skies!
-10th December 2004-
-Equipment-
Skywatcher Startravel Refractor 120mm, focal length 600mm, EQ3/2, 10mm, 25mm, 6mm & 2x Barlow
Canon Powershot A60
-Report-
I have been so lucky with the weather, I managed to get another clear night for viewing. That makes three nights in one week and who says Scottish weather is bad!!! (me last week when it was cloudy).
Started with Cassiopeia but found that I could not get into a comfy viewing position so I moved down a constellation to Perseus.
Started on Mirphak and while using my Uranometria Star Atlas I found orientating the sky to be a lot easier this time. Great looking set of stars below Alpha Persei and noticed a grouping that reminded me of M29 in Cygnus, but larger. Next I setup on Algol so as to find M34, which I haven’t seen before. Found this after a short while and was quite stunned at how great this open cluster looked. Using my 25mm gave great views of the cluster with room to spare in the field of view. I did not use the 10mm much as it would always steam up too quickly. But the 25mm and Barlow gave a great view. So that’s another Messier under my belt. Tried to view a faint galaxy around M34, but U2370 must have been too faint as I could not see it between the two stars that appear in Uranometria. I managed to locate a very faint Planetary Nebula called P144.3-15.5, no detail at all and only a star like point at the limits of my scope. This must have been around magnitude 11 to 12. Quite happy just to locate the object but nothing really of any interest could be viewed.
Another satellite went through the field of view; I love it when this happens! But I can see how astrophotographers could become annoyed at this.
Noticed that The Andromeda Galaxy was high, so I pointed my scope and found it right away. This was still a great sight and very bright even though it’s still just a smudge. I think there was definitely more detail to pick out and if I had taken my time I would probably have seen more. Andromeda can wait…….this time anyway.
Triangulum was my next stop. Main reason was to view M33 (Pinwheel Galaxy) but I failed on this attempt. Not sure if I had the right location or the surface brightness was not great enough. Might give it a shot another night.
Well overall it was another great night. I feel my skills are improving and I’m learning a lot about orientating the night sky with my scope. A bit disappointed that I could not view Cassiopeia as I know it has a lot of great sights, I think I need a different chair. I have also noticed that a lot of my viewing is done using my 25mm eyepiece which gives the lowest powers.
Clear Skies!
-7th December 2004-
-Weather-
Cold and clear
Seeing was pretty good
No wind that I could notice
-Report-
After moaning on Cloudy Nights about the weather being so bad, I think the gods must have been listening coz we had two nights in a row of clear skies, the second one being the best (no wind).
After setting up I decided to get some more practice using my Uranometria Star Atlas while at the scope. I focused my attention on the constellation Cygnus and took my time viewing various locations around Deneb and Sadr.
Before this observation, I used to jump to different object too fast and not take in all the detail that you would get from longer viewing.
Mainly used my 25mm eyepiece (x24 magnification) I managed to get used to the positions of the stars around The North American Nebula (NGC 7000). Although I didn’t see any nebulosity I had a strong perception of where it was located.
Viewing a section of sky longer has been the biggest improvement for my viewing skills as I could see very fain stars down to about mag 11 and lower by using averted vision. A meteor appeared in the field of view for a few amazing seconds. I was blown away by this and just said to myself...wow!!!
Moving South I found a set of stars that looked a lot like Orion, so named it the Baby Orion. This was positioned between The North American Nebula and The Pelican Nebula, in the area of dark nebula.
Moving towards the North I gave NGC 6996 a try but couldn’t make it out but did notice a lot of faint stars forming a triangle and various lines.
Next stop was Sadr, which I tried to split using a magnification of x200. I could not do it and shall need to find out how.
The section around this star was packed with faint stars and I viewed NGC 6910 (open cluster) for quite a while using different magnifications. I managed to see a lot of very faint start within this cluster and it really is a great sight to view. Using 10mm and 2x Barlow gave the best view of x120. The cluster seemed very dense with loads of faint stars just visible with averted vision.
Had a couple of views of M29 (NGC 6913) and still love this box shaped open cluster.
Moved back to an area around Deneb and notices something amazing, a very faint blinking light. It was moving North through Cygnus and every 5 seconds would blink. I followed it for quite a while but it did not vanish. Even at a magnification of x120 it would take about 15-20 seconds to cross the field of view. This was really stunning and made my heart race, what was that??
Spent quite a while out so I thought it would be best to pack up and head in. Brought all my gear around to the front of the flat and notices Saturn was up and looking very steady. Managed to stack around 4000 frames of 3 movie clips and the results are below. Still cant make out the CD gap!
Over all this was probably the best observation night I has ever had.
Clear Skies!
-6th December 2004-
It was cold, clear and windy but I thought I would give some deep space viewing a try since I have spent most of my time with Saturn.
Got everything set up at around 7:20pm , star charts and red torch at the ready.
Started with Vega and I still cant seem to split the double double which lies next to it, so I moved on to M52 (NGC 7654) an amazing open cluster in Cassiopeia (making it my 11 Messier). Setting circles were a bit off, but still managed to find this object. It was so dense a lot like what I thought globular clusters would look like. It has a visual magnitude of 7.3 and has a very bright star near the middle. I spent quite some time looking at this and was surprised the best view was with my 10mm and 2X Barlow giving me a magnification of x120. The stars within the cluster were quite bright but averted vision was used to bring out a bit more detail.
Tried photographing the cluster but didn’t have any luck (afocal).
Had a last look at Saturn and thought it best to head in as it was too windy for decent comfortable viewing.
Well at last I got some viewing in, the weather has been really bad lately.
Clear Skies!