Observations – Wednesday 21 November 2012

Location : Home, next to the bench
Conditions: Clear. Had been raining earlier so damp.
Equipment: skywatcher 130 scope, AsdaCAM
Highlights: Jupiter, Auriga, M36-Pinwheel Cluster, M37, M38-Starfish Cluster

17:30 1st Quarter Moon, Jupiter
As I left work this evening the skies were reasonably clear with a quarter moon shining brightly to the South, after over a week of cloud. While driving home along the dark A38, I also spotted Jupiter up in the East. Was looking forwards to getting out when I got home.

21:00 Jupiter
In and out of the garden setting up while I was doing the tea. Got out to start observing just before 21:00. Spent until about 21:30 imaging Jupiter to the East before it went behind a fir tree. Used the AsdaCam. Used some of what I picked up from the Bromsgrove Astro session on webcam imaging on Monday. Found that I could shoot at 1280 rather than 640. Also ran it at the fasted frame rate I could in Sharpcam. Used the histogram to get the best exposure. Also picked up on the fact that Jupiter rotates quickly so kept my captures down to 45 seconds. I also captured some over exposed video so that I could combine the moons, 3 of which were visible in a line of to the the right side. It’s a shame that it went behind the tree when it did, as a Great Red Spot transit was due between 21:30 and 23:30. I’ll process the images in the next few days.

21:40 Auriga, Capella – Alpha Aurigae
The space to the left of the fir tree to the east was filled Auriga. Another new constellation that I can identify easily to help find my way around the sky. Capella is it’s brightest star.

22:10 Pinwheel Cluster – Messier 36 , Open Cluster in Auriga
I was intending to try for the Double Cluster next between Perseus and Cassiopeia but that part of the sky was right up at the zenith and I couldn’t get the scope there without it fouling on the tripod mount. So instead I used SkySafari+ to find out what was in the vicinity of Auriga. Delighted to find there were 3 Messier objects, all open clusters. So there’s my objective for the evening. I started with M36, the Pinwheel cluster. An easy starhop from Elnath-Beta Tauri via Chi Auriga. This was a rewarding target. It was a bit boring at first in the 25mm but stepping up to the 17mm Plossl eyepiece and spending time at the eyepiece brought out more stars in the cluster. It didn’t have a particularly recognisable or distinctive shape but I think that will come from more time spent on return visits. This is one of the targets in the Sky at Night Deep Sky Tour for November 2012. I also got the Turn Left at Orion book out to compare notes.

22:43 Messier 37 Open Cluster in Auriga
This was a tricky starhop. I tried from Elath first and got lost so tried again from Theta Auriga and found it on the second attempt. I was hopping using quite faint stars and it was pleasing to be doing so with confidence. My starhop skills with the RACI really have improved. M37 was just about visible in the RACI. Moving to the scope and looking through the 17mm Plossl I was struggling to make out any detail other than a fuzzy. There was a bit of thin cloud about but this was reasonably fast moving so not too much of a problem. The glare of the street light was not helping either. I had my baffle screen out but I couldn’t get it close enough to the scope without having to move everything and without it obscuring the sky. It was difficult to resolve individual stars but it was definitely there as I could make out the fuzziness. I was a bit surprised by this as SkySafari+ was claiming it to be quite a bright object. Changing to the 25mm in an attempt to improve the brightness of the image was actually worse and I pretty much lost it altogether. Checking in Turn Left at Orion helped and reassured me that I was looking at M37, 4,600 light years away as it described it as fuzzy and challenging. It also suggested that in a small to medium scope it wouldn’t resolve to individual stars and looks a bit like a globular cluster.

23:02 Starfish Cluster – Messier 38 Open Cluster in Auriga
My favourite cluster of the evening and my 3rd new Messier in this session. Takes my count up to 11/110. SkySafari+ didn’t know why it’s called Starfish but I think it does look a bit like one. It certainly seems to radiate out from a centre. The 17m eyepiece is definitely the eyepiece of choice for these Open Clusters. Again this is a cluster that rewards patience and persistence at the eyepiece. It’s resolving into stars well and there is some nebulosity there. The seeing is quite still now.

23:31 Crab Nebula – Messier 1 Nebula in Taurus
Tried but did not find. Needs to be a target for the next few days. I’m adding it to the general list on my observing plans. It should be just above Zeta Tauri on the lower horn of Taurus but I’m having problems reorientating myself now. Might not have been helped by moving the scope down the garden a bit without going through a full realignment.

23:45 Packing Up and Conclusions
Just before packing up I noticed that Orion was up to the South East. Some treats in store here in coming weeks, I think. I also had a quick look at M45, the Pleiades through the binoculars which is always a treat. I do love the way they glow blue. The nebulous glow is just visible with the naked eye which draws me to them when just gazing at the sky. It was a cold evening tonight but that wasn’t a problem. Was wearing my snowboarding base layer, walking trousers, hiking boots and socks, hoody, body warmer and waterproof. Also had on a hat and scarf and my North Face eTip gloves were essential to working the laptop trackpad and the iPad. Time to pack up as lights have gone on around the house now as A heads to bed. Called to through the window so had to go into the house so my night vision is shot now anyway. One thing I noticed this evening is that now the leaves have gone from the trees there is more sky available but there is much less shade from the orange glow of the streetlights. Making these final notes I notice that the cloud has come in and only Jupiter and Capella are visible now. The cloud has been drifting across all night but with some pace so has not been a problem. It’s been a good observing session. I’m very pleased with the three new Messiers.

Observing programs
Messier: 11/110
Lunar 100 observed: 8/100
Lunar 100 imaged: 8/100

Voyager: To The Final Frontier

I watched Voyager: To The Final Frontier on iPlayer this morning. It’s not available online anymore, just clips of it at the link above. I’d got it stacked up in my backlog of things I hadn’t watched yet. It was another great programme from the BBC. Voyager 2 is in the news again as it’s about to leave the Solar System. It is incredible to think this piece of 70s technology is still going and still sending back valid data. It was interesting to see how Voyager’s technology has remained the same while back here on Earth the equipment that it talks to has changed massively.
It’s caused me to read Murmurs of Earth by Carl Sagan (and others) that I picked up in a second hand bookshop recently. It’s all about the Voyager Golden Record that was mounted on the Voyager space probes. It’s purpose was partly a message in a bottle in the incredibly unlikely ever another civilisation found it, and partly to celebrate the achievements of our civilisation and cultures.

Patrick Moore – Yearbook of Astronomy free ebooks

Every year since 1962 Patrick Moore has produced a Yearbook of Astronomy. These excellent books usually contain observing notes for the coming year, a review of the previous year and a selection of articles and essays. I have a few old copies of them and they’re a nice thing to have and are interesting even though they’re out of date in many respects. I’ve just found a load from the first one in 1962 up to 1979, with a few gaps, available as eBooks in a variety of formats on the Internet Archive. I’ve downloaded all they have and stuck them on my Kobo eReader.

Obviously they’re not as good in this format as the real thing so if you ever find an old one in a dusty corner second hand bookshop then it’d be gratefully received. I’m always happy to buy you a pint in return.

Moon

Been thinking about the moon a fair bit in the last few days. Firstly to mark the death of Neil Armstrong on Saturday. It’s a shame I didn’t get the news until I’d got home from Exmoor where there is no mobile signal and definitely no 3G else I’d have spent some time taking a look around the Sea of Tranquility through the thin cloud.
I bought a copy of another old book today, Patrick Moore’s Moon Flight Atlas. A brilliant book that I remember borrowing from the library time and time again as a child. It filled me with awe and wonder then how we could go to the moon. Still does. It’s amazing to think 40 years have passed and it all occurred before I could remember.
A few years ago I visited the Smithsonian Air and Space museum in Washington DC. Two things struck me there. Firstly they had the command module from Apollo 11 encased in Perspex. It was incredible how small it was and the damage on the heat shield showed it to be made of what looked like chicken wire. There was also a mock up of a lunar lander and that really did look like it was made in a shed by some enthusiasts. This is the technology that put man on the moon! They say there’s more computing power in the phone that I write this post on than uses in those missions.
But still the moon landings are a memory for my parents generation.
I was out in the garden earlier this evening putting the damp tent from the weekend up to dry out. It started raining so I came in. Just been out again to do the bins and the moon was looking magnificent between the trees. Took a quick photo or two on my phone, as above.
This week there’s a blue moon. Not that rare an occurrence really. Second full moon in a month is all that means.

Old Books

I’m a sucker for a second hand bookshop. Today I picked up a couple of great old books on Astronomy in one for less than £3 each.
The Observer’s Book Of Astronomy from 1965 by (not yet Sir) Patrick Moore.
This is a classic from the Observer’s series of books which had a field guide format and very much geared to observing planets, stars and constellations.

The second and more interesting book was The Modern Universe by Raymond A Lyttleton, written in 1956. I was chuffed to look him up on Wikipedia to find he was a local chap from Oldbury, educated at King Edward’s in Birmingham and a cricketting friend of Fred Hoyle who got Hoyle into Astronomy.

I’ve only had a quick flick through the book. It starts with chapters on the Earth, The Moon, Planets and Comets, The Sun, Stars and Galaxy before getting the final chapter on “The Expanding Universe”. Whilst the expanding model had been known about for quite a while since Lemaitre proposed it and Hubble provided the empirical evidence of receding redshifted galaxies to back it up, it was still very much a matter for discussion and the book does discuss the two proposed theories of the time. “The first of them has been termed the ‘big bang’ hypothesis…” Note the lower case and the inverted commas. It also discussed the “steady-state theory of the universe”.
It was still to be a few years until the discovery of the Cosmic Microwave Background in 1964 which effectively did for the Steady State Theory. I’m not sure which side of this debate Lyttleton was on, if any. He doesn’t seem to come out in favour of either but presents both as possibilities. It’s interesting to read what was thought of the origins and the state of the universe back in 1956.