Observations – Wednesday 5 September 2012

Location: Home, outside back door
Weather: clear at first, high thin cloud towards end. Getting colder
Highlights: Sadr, M29 Open Cluster, Epsilon Lyra Double Double, Andromeda Galaxy M31

21:21 Albireo – Beta Cygni Double Star in Cygnus
Started off here this evening to get the finders and scope aligned. It’s first item on September Deep Sky Tour from Sky At Night magazine.

21:48 Ring Nebula – Messier 57, Planetary Nebula in Lyra
I was set up outside the back door so there was some light from kitchen. Observed through 17mm. Tried 6mm eyepiece without any joy. My plan for the evening was to complete the August Sky at Night magazine Deep Sky Tour so I wasn’t hanging about much on things I’d seen before. I was going to have a quick whip round the things I had seen and bag the rest of them.
And onwards….

22:05 Messier 56 Globular Cluster in Lyra
Didn’t find it. There was too much stray light from the kitchen and it was disappearing into the trees anyway. I have observed this before though on 14 August.

My next target was M29

22:10 Sadr – Gamma Cygni Double Star in Cygnus
I used this as a starting point for a starhop to m29. Luminous yellow-white. Impressive number of stars in the starfield surrounding it. Although I can’t actually see the band of the Milky Way from my garden we’re in the main band of the Milky Way here.

22:27 Messier 29 Open Cluster in Cygnus
There’s something very appealing about this open cluster. Got here in a starhop from Sadr and through Cyg 40.

Using SkySafari+ on the iPad with the field of view rings marked really does help. I’ve got the hang of starhopping this way now. I should try it with a book of starmaps too though. There’s a lot of stars round here, a very rich starfield. M29 was east to spot in 17mm Plossl eyepiece. I went up to the 6mm ultra-wide. It was still easy to see despite it being very bright outside kitchen door. A was working at the kitchen table so the lights were on. I made a sketch, which I later tweaked and inverted in Photoshop.

One more from the August Sky at Night Deep Sky Tour and another new Messier object.

;

I had to chase the cat off too. She was catching mice under the table. I really didn’t need her taking them in. I’d have to go into the light to deal with that.

22:47 Double Double – Epsilon Lyrae Double Star in Lyra
I’ve seen this double before. The double is very clear in RACI finder scope. Splitting further to the components took some doing though. I did it with the 6mm ultra-wide eyepiece. I needed some help from the 2x Barlow but the view very misty with that. Not sure if it’s dirty. I cleaned it but there was quite a bit of colour aberration creeping in. I ought to get a lens cap for it. Having seen and understood how it splits with the Barlow in place I then went back to the 6mm on its own and now it was clear. The doubles split perpendicular to each other. The view is of course inverted when looking through the scope. The screenshot from SkySafari+ shows how they split.

So that’s the August Deep Sky Tour or Summer Triangle objects completed. I’m quite pleased with that. First one I’ve managed to see everything on.

23:00 NGC 6819 Open Cluster in Cygnus
Spurred on by my completion of the August Deep Sky Tour, I decided to make a start on the September one of objects in Cygnus. I made a start on NGC6819 but gave up pretty quickly. It was getting misty at zenith and with the Summer Triangle wheeling South West across the sky by this time of a night. I need to come back to it another evening and start earlier.

Decided instead to go for a bit of naked eye astronomy and learn a few more constellations that are starting to appear to the East.

23:30 Andromeda Galaxy – Messier 31 Spiral Galaxy in Andromeda
I finished off the evening with this, although not with the telescope but with the unmounted 9×50 RACI finderscope. Another new find and the second new Messier of the evening. Takes my total to 7/110.

I’d been wandering the garden learning and identifying new constellations. Cassiopeia was an easy spot and then I worked out Andromeda lounging above the roof of the house to the east side. I stood by the back fence with the RACI finderscope looking due east and worked my way up through Andromeda.

The smudge of M31 the Andromeda Galaxy was visible. It was too low and too East to try it with the scope though. The House was in the way.

It was getting cold and the high thin cloud was coming in so it was time to pack up. This was a really good evening though. (It’s taken me days to compile and write-up the notes.)

Observations – Saturday 4 Aug 2012

Location: Worthing, in-laws back garden
Weather: mixed cloud. Moving quite quickly so changing opportunities. Dry.

22:00-ish First light on the new Skywatcher 9×50 RACI finder scope. It’s great-so much easier to use than RDF. You can see so much more. In fact I’m thinking it’s worth taking away with me when travelling. Even though i know where it is now, I was on the Ring Nebula, M57 within minutes.
Yeah, yeah, I know M57 again but I wanted to see if a couple of other factors improved the view. Firstly there is far less light pollution in Worthing, their street lights aren’t so orange, and being on the coast there is half the amount of light anyway. Well until the moon came out. More on that later.
Secondly I’d been to Sussex Astronomy Centre and bought a new eyepiece. I got a Skywatcher 6mm ultra wide eyepiece with 66deg APOV (apparent field of view).
M57 was really clear in it. I could really see the ring and the darker centre. I could also see that it wasn’t uniform all round.

Father in Law came out to see what i was up to at this point, so I moved on as this is perhaps a tricky target if you’ve not looked through a telescope before. So I showed him the double Albireo in Cygnus. The difference between the brighter yellow and it’s blue companion was very pronounced.

23:00-ish Then my Mother in Law came out, together with a lot of cloud so all I was able to show her was Vega directly above in Lyra and a few stars around it.

23:30-ishThey went in and my Brother in Law came out as the moon was clearing the trees. About two days past full. It was washing out much of the sky and reflecting off clouds and I think the sea a couple of streets to the south.
Had to put the moon filter on to cut the brightness and we went straight for the 6mm. Seeing was good. Hardly any rippling. Put the tracking on and observed along the terminator. Highlights were Mare (Lunar 100 #10) and the adjacent Cleomedes crater and a chain of 4 craters including Langrenus, Vendelinus, Petavius and Furnerius. Of these Petavius (Lunar 100 #16) was the most impressive with it’s central peak.
Takes my Lunar 100 count up to:
Observed 3/100
Imaged 8/100

24:00-ish. popped the Asda webcam into the eyepiece holder and fired up Sharpcam on the netbook to snap a couple of shots of the moon.

Mare Criseum and Cleomedes crater.

Craters on the terminator. You can see the central peak in light and shadow on Petavius