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 – Tuesday 4 September 2012

Location: Home, middle of the lawn
Weather: Clear, Dry, some high cloud.
Highlights: Moon, Sea of Tranquility Sea of Serenity

What a difference a couple of weeks make. I’ve not been out in the garden with the scope since 14 August. It’s getting darker much earlier now. The Summer Triangle, which was in that prime piece of sky to the South, is now slipping round to the South West. There have been a few clear nights recently but I’ve been either busy or out so I haven’t had chance to do any proper observing. After I got in from band practice last night I set up about 23:15 and made a start in my usual places around Vega. I was intending to go for M57, the Ring Nebula, to get my eye in. However by the time I was set up, in the middle of the lawn grass, the constellation of Lyra was disappearing into the crown of the oak tree. I chose Albireo as my starting point instead. I got the scope and finders lined up and once again admired the blue and yellow double. I was about to start some star hopping from there, and possibly to have a go at the Deep Sky Tour from September’s Sky At Night magazine when I noticed the waning gibbous moon coming up through gaps in the laburnum to the east so that became my target for the session.

I got lined up and focussed with the 17mm Plossl and grabbed a quick afocal iPhone snapshot.

I spent quite some time observing around the Sea of Tranquility and made an attempt at getting to know a few of the features by sketching them. The view through the scope is inverted so N is down on the below sketch.

Craters around the Sea of Tranquility area

This was an opportunity to increase my observations on the Lunar 100 up to 7/100.
New spots for me this evening were:
#3 Mare/highland dichotomy
#20 Posidonius crater
#21 Fracastorius crater.

Observations – Sunday 26 August 2012

Location: Cloud Farm, Exmoor. Somerset-Devon border.
Weather:clear to mixed cloud. Sheltered site but cloud cover changing all the time due to strong winds
Highlights: Milky Way, Pleiades, M45, Jupiter, Venus,

As mentioned in a earlier post I was heading off to Exmoor for a camping weekend with friends, at the excellent Cloud Farm campsite. I had hoped for clear skies but accepted that may not happen. I took the scope in case but the weather forecast wasn’t exactly hopeful. The first night, Saturday night, was too cloudy to make it worth getting the scope out despite the dark skies. In the few gaps there were, I was able to see as may stars with the naked eye as I get with the scope back home. Had a bit of a poke around with the binoculars though.
Having gone to bed I awoke around 4:00am Sunday morning needing the toilet. Leaving the tent, I looked up and despite not having my contact lenses in or glasses on, I was blown away by the sky. It was clear and the sheer number of stars was a bit confusing to be honest. It took me a few moments to get my bearings. Even with my blurred vision I could make out the Milky Way streaking across the sky from west to east, using Cygnus as a confirmation. The bright blueish glow around the Pleides cluster (M45) was also evident to the East with Jupiter shining brightly not far away. That’s my Messier count to 5/110.

I then rather foolishly went back to bed but found I couldn’t sleep knowing such a magnificent sky was out there.

So I got up again and set up the scope. By the time I had it aligned and balanced, it was no longer as dark and the clouds were coming in again. I spent my time observing and tracking Jupiter first, and a little later Venus rose above the hillside.
Even through the 9×50 RACI I could make out a couple of the Galilean moons and with the 6mm eyepiece on Jupiter I could clearly see all 4. More excitingly I could make out banding. I’d not seen this before through my Skywatcher 130M. I had seen the banding before, at a Stargazing live event run by Birmingham Astronomical Society at the Mailbox, through a 900mm refractor.
I made a sketch of the banding, remembering that the view was inverted through the eyepiece. I couldn’t see the Great Red Spot.

The sky was lightening as dawn approached, and Venus popped up over the hillside to the East. I tracked and observed that for a while, observing it shining brightly at half phase.
It was daylight by then and my fellow campers were starting to rise as I was packing up at around 6:20. I went back to bed for an hour or two.

Unfortunately Sunday evening was pretty cloudy with quite a bit of mist so no observing that night, just a bit of a late night ukulele singalong around the campfire instead. It turned to rain about 1:00am so there was no late night/early morning viewing to be had. It was worth taking the scope with me though, for the views of Jupiter and Venus the previous morning. It’s just a shame I didn’t know how clear the sky was whilst I slept else I’d have been up and out sooner to make the most of the dark skies.

Update: 10 September 2012. I was watching The Sky At Night this evening. In the night sky section, they were discussing Jupiter and how the Northern Equatorial Belt is rather thick and complex at the moment. The showed the image below, which I have cheekily screenshot from iPlayer, (inc the copyright for credit). I’m quite chuffed at the similarity between this and my sketch. I had noted and captured that thicker band.