Dorset Binocular Observations – Tuesday 1 January 2013

Location : Poundbury, a garden
Conditions: Clear. Mild.
Equipment: Celestron 15×70 Binoculars
Highlights: Jupiter, M45 Pleiades, M31 Andromeda Galaxy, Orion, M42 Orion Nebula

First bit of observing in ages. Weather has been poor recently – wet and cloudy. I’ve also been very busy with the whole Christmas thing. The only times there has been a clear night I’ve either been out or needing to crack on with the online Astronomy course I’ve been doing. It’s frustrating to not be out observing because of it but with coursework and deadlines the study has to take a priority.

We were staying with friends in Poundbury, Dorset for New Year. Being a “model village” designed on environmental ideals, the brainchild of Prince Charles, light pollution is well under control My friends also live on the edge of the village so the skies were quite dark, despite a waning moon a few days past full. We popped out several times during the evening for a quick look. I hadn’t taken the scope down so we were using my 15×70 Celestron binoculars. Unfortunately we had to hand hold them as the tripod clamp had been damaged in flight back from the Oman trip and I hadn’t realised.
Jupiter was up high and bright with all 4 moons visible through the bins. Mike was quite impressed with it. He hadn’t seen the moons before. Jupiter is sitting in Taurus at the moment, very close to the Hyades cluster so there were a lot of stars also visible in the same field of view. I also pointed out the Pleiades nearby, which is a nice and easy binocular object. A little later when Orion was up high over the house we were out again looking at the M42 Orion Nebula which really was glowing. I think this was the best I’ve ever seen it. Giving it a few minutes through the bins also brought out more detail. As a final treat I showed them the M31 Andromeda Galaxy, 2.5 million light years away. This was trickier to spot as it wasn’t visible to the naked eye so needed a bit of a star hop. Both Rich and Mike found it after a few attempts. Again, with continued viewing it became more distinct and bright. I really enjoyed showing them a few interesting and rewarding objects. I think they were impressed with what they were seeing with just binoculars.

Shangri La, Muscat, Oman Observations – Wednesday 3 October into Thursday 4 October, 2012

Location: Barr Al Jissa Shangri La Hotel, Muscat, Oman
Conditions: Clear
Equipment: Celestron Skymaster 15×50 binoculars
Highlights: Jupiter, Orion, M42 Orion Nebula, Trapezium

We left the desert and spent a day exploring Wadi Bani Khalid. We swam in the clear freshwater pools of the canyon up in the mountains. We wouldn’t need to visit Wild Wadi back in Dubai after this. I crawled down into the Mukhal cave with my headtorch and before long was quite deep within the cave where it was very hot and dark. Turning a corner and taking care to be able to trace my route back, I could hear running water. I headed towards it for a few minutes and it got louder but I never saw the waterfall that’s supposedly in there. I was conscious that A was waiting for me outside and didn’t want her worrying so I headed back.
It was over a three hour drive back to Muscat and with some fun stress with the traffic we finally arrived at the Shangri La, Barr Al Jissah well after dark.
I had high hopes for this as a decent place for some stargazing. Before we’d headed out to Oman I’d had a discussion with somebody on Stargazers Lounge that suggested it was a good site. The resort is quite isolated, in it’s own grounds, some way South of Muscat. We had a seaview room so when we arrived there were dark skies out over the sea to the East.

12:48 After a late dinner I went out on the balcony and set the binoculars up on the tripod. The moon was out, about 3-4 days past full but very high so almost out of sight from the balcony. It did wash out the sky a bit but looking east there was no orange glow of light pollution. As I’ve done every evening I’ve been able to on this trip, I took a look at Jupiter and made a quick sketch of it’s moons.

It was interesting this evening and I needed to use SkySafari+ again to identify and locate moons. Io was in front and on the edge of the disk of Jupiter. I couldn’t make it out individually but there did appear to be a slight notch to the disk. It was hard to be sure if this was being caused by the shadow of Io on the disk or was just an artefact of the fact that the disk is very bright. It might have been due to a bit of flare or radial spiking. I get that sometimes due, I think, to my contact lenses.

12:55 Orion was up and on it’s side.

M42, the Orion Nebula was clearly visible as a smudge to the naked eye. It showed up well in the binoculars and seemed to surround a couple of the brighter stars. One of these brighter stars was actually the open cluster known as the Trapezium, although I was unable to resolve that to individual stars in the bins.
Observing M42, the Orion Nebula means another Messier Object spotted, taking my tally up to 8/110.

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