UMaj doubles and Saturn poorly seen - 12 April 2008

location: Tomball, TX
time: 830pm-1130pm
cloud cover: 0%
transparency: 100%
seeing: poor (2/5)
darkness: city sky glow, 1st quarter moon
wind: 2-5mph n
humidity: 40% up to 60%
temperature: 65F-52F
dewpoint: 40F-43F

ξ UMaj - slightly yellow, could not split with 7.9mm

ν UMaj - golden primary, could not split, used SNP to verify that nearby star was not secondary

Mizar - nearly identical, bright pair with a touch of blue hue, close but easily split

Englemann 43 - easily split even with 25mm. SNP lists these stars as HIP50505 (primary) and TYC3007-899-1 (secondary). I can’t find a reference to this star anywhere except the Sky & Telescope article.

Saturn - seeing varied from 3/5 to 1/5, usually 2/5. ring shadow inside ring edge; south equatorial belt occasionally visible. Titan clear but could not discern color. Rhea mostly visible but occasionally obscured. Tethys near rings faint and rarely visible. several stars visible nearby, including mag 7 HIP50473.

M3 - faint but unmistakable. in good seeing individual stars visible both fringe and interior.

Measured true field width of 25mm using dec readout. Star at left edge (58′ 38″) and right edge (22′ 54″) indicates true field with is 35′ 44″. SNP calculated the field at 37′, so I feel confident that the view in SNP matches the actual field during observation.

 

Many Moons - 19 March 2008

location: Tomball, TX
time: 830pm-1030pm
cloud cover: 0%
transparency: 100%
seeing: avg (3/5) to poor (2/5)
darkness: city sky glow, full moon
wind: 5-10mph nnw
humidity: 30% up to 50%
temperature: 59F-53F
dewpoint: 31F-39F

M42 in 25mm. Less nebulosity discernible than normal presumably due to full moon.

Observed iota cancri; color of primary (reddish) not as distinct as nights past.

No detail visible in Mars.

Saturn’s moons best in 25mm. Titan and Rhea clear, Tethys and Dione occasionally obscured by bad seeing, Iapetus a challenge, often obscured.

Waxing full moon very bright. First time to attempt identification of features. ID’d Tycho, Copernicus, Kepler, Aristarchus, and Mare Crisium.

 

Zeke’s Place - March 08, 2008

Location: Tomball
Temperature: upper 40’s
Clouds: none
Seeing: average (3/5)
Transparency: good (4/5)
Instrument: 8″ SCT

First night to observe from Zeke’s place. The sky is slightly darker than home and the area has wider overhead field of view than home.

Observed Saturn in 25mm, several moons visible. Titan, Rhea, and Iapetus were clear. Dione sometimes faded out with bad seeing. Tethys was occasionally visible but quite faint just above and to the left of the rings. Both Dione and Tethys were easier in the 15mm, which developed a smudge.

Also visited a few double stars. Iota cancri was splendid contrast of red and blue.

We observed m42 and discussed the process of star formation within nebulae.

Zeke wanted to see Mars. The “dark” patch of Syrtis Major was visible — an area of just slightly diminished brightness compared with the rest of the planet.

Open Clusters, Doubles, & Saturn - March 04, 2008

temp: 53F-46F
humidity: 37%-70%
transparency: 4/5 - 5/5
seeing: average 3/5

Attempted M1 (Crab Nebula) with 25mm, 32mm, 10mm, could not discern any nebulosity
using 25mm
M35 - dozens of stars, many bright - bow shape in center
M36 - moderately bright cluster, some linear patterns
M37 - faint cluster, few lines, bright center star
M38 - odd abstract bilateral symmetry of four rays (two short, two long), center star

M41 - behind a tree
M42 - observed to test dark adaptation of my eyes after failing to see M1. region is impressive as a cluster

M46 - wide cluster in 32mm, celestron controller indicated nebula in field of view, but I could not discern any
M47 - several bright stars, prominent lines, one tight pair of similar magnitude
M48 - dozens of similar magnitude stars, no prominent lines, many “wide” pairs
M50 - sparse cluster, wide magnitude range
M67 - dim cluster with pleasing random arrangement

Rigel - companion much fainter, 9.5″ separation
lambda orionis - similar magnitude companion 4″ separation, very close in 10mm but distinct during moments of good seeing
sirius - could not discern companion

Saturn was bright, Titan clear. Dione was dim but distinct. Rhea was very faint, disappearing at times with poorer seeing.

No Eclipse - February 20, 2008

Clouds, clouds, clouds, rain, and … did I mention clouds? How am I supposed to see the eclipse?

Double-Star Night - February 17, 2008

Location: Tomball, TX
Cloud cover: none
Transparency: good (4/5) or maybe excellent (5/5)
Seeing: good (4/5)
Darkness: city sky glow, nearly full moon
Limiting Magnitude: n/a
Wind: mild w/ occasional gusts
Humidity: 60% early up to 75% later
Temperature: 60F to 53F
Start Time: 8:30 pm CST
End Time: 11:00 pm CST
OTA: 8″ SC

aligned on capella, sirius, castor, and ruchbah (celestron spells it rukbah). goto could sometimes put target in 9mm field.

double star night - observed four doubles.

polaris (alpha ursae minoris) - always see polaris/double when aligning, but spent extra time observing. primary is significantly brighter than secondary, but both are clear even in 25mm. would like to learn how to use angle and separation to align scope on true north.

castor (alpha geminorum) - two blue stars with similar magnitudes. easy split in 15mm.

photo: castor

algeiba (gamma leonis) - closest pair of the evening, two red stars with moderate difference in brightness.

iota cancri - widest pair of the evening, red primary moderately brighter than blue secondary.

photo: iota cancri

planetary observations

mars - imaged with and without the bushnell barlow. color and clarity of image both deteriorated. with 7.9mm other pinpoints visible, did not check SNP until later, not sure if one of the points may have been phobos or deimos. despite generally good conditions could not discern much detail except one edge seemed to have a touch of blue/white.

saturn - in high-power ep dione like a chick right under saturn’s “wing”, rhea less than a ring radius away, titan 3-4 ring diameters away. with lower power iapetus seen farther away on the other side of planet from other moons. several other stars also in wide field, required SNP reference to pick iapetus from stars.

photo: Saturn with Dione, Rhea, and Titan (click image to see Titan)

moon - viewed terminus briefly to estimate seeing conditions. very little turbulence in 15mm. still have no idea how to identify what I’m looking at.

view all photos at flickr

Camera working! February 13, 2008

Location: Tomball, TX
Cloud cover: none
Transparency: good (4/5)
Seeing: good (4/5)
Darkness: city sky glow, waxing crescent moon
Limiting Magnitude: n/a
Wind: mild/none
Humidity: 75% early up to 85% later
Temperature: mid-40’s
Start Time: 8:30 pm CST
End Time: 10:30 pm CST
OTA: 8″ SC

Used additional calibration star during setup, goto was very good.

Tonight the Celestron NexImage camera worked, as opposed to last night’s useless performance. Only major change that I’m aware of was that this time I ran the camera indoors until the scope was set up. Last time I set everything outside, including the camera. Maybe the temp of the electronics was below spec’ed operating range?

Captured several images of mars, luna (with and without focal reducer), and trapezium. Learning curve has just begun. Atmospheric turbulence easily seen in real-time video of lunar craters. Attempted to image Saturn but it was still low in the sky so I could not get good focus.

photo: trapezium - note line of stars left, 3rd star very faint

Observed double star Almech (gamma andromeda), easily split with 15mm. Similar magnitude, brightest with a touch of yellow, second star deep blue.

Betelgeuse yellow with orange at the fringe. Lots of scattering (as with all tonight’s observations) due to humidity.

M34 - dim open cluster in 32mm. Nearly symmetrical pattern of thirteen stars near center like a goose with wings outstretched.

Follow-up Notes

Later reference using SNP reports the dimmest of the four trapezium stars, which it calls Trapezium1B, as mag 7.46. This star is quite dim in the NexImage, although it is easily seen in any of the eyepieces. Also visible in image (but very, very faint) is mag 8.43 star TYC4774-935-1. Transparency was not perfect last night, but even so it appears the NexImage will only be useful for stars of mag 6 or brighter.

Video capture file of Mars was corrupt. Let that be a lesson: next time take multiple images.

CCD has dust on surface and lint that affects image. Needs to be cleaned.

Asteroids and Multiple Stars - February 07, 2008

Location: Tomball, TX
Cloud cover: none
Transparency: clear
Seeing: poor (2/5)
Darkness: city sky glow, no moon
Limiting Magnitude: n/a
Wind: mild/none
Humidity: 55% early up to 75% later
Temperature: upper-40’s
Start Time: 7:30 pm CST
End Time: 10:30 pm CST
OTA: 8″ SC

Didn’t learn star names in Cassiopeia, but looked them up on the laptop. Found a site that called Alpha Cas by the name Shedir, but NexStar didn’t list that name. Delta Cas was listed as Ruchbah, which was easily found. I aligned with Ruchbah, Sirius, and Capella, and the goto performed quite well all night.

Took significantly longer to find Ceres tonight than last night, even though tonight I had the laptop with SNP. There were several relatively bright stars nearby, widely dispersed with no obvious pattern. Another problem is conflicting orbital data; one set matched last night’s observations, while the other set matched tonight’s. Ugh. Anyway, Ceres sat at the 90 angle of a bright triangle. Also tried finding last night’s location, but some of the faint stars in that pattern were not visible.

Eunomia didn’t take too long to find. It sat between a boat-like squashed trapezoid of four stars and a narrow wedge of five dimmer stars.

Used NexStar’s tour function; it suggested Eta Cassiopeia and M103. The double star Eta Cas was very nice; the primary seemed white while red companion showed better color in the 25mm ep than the 10mm.

Internet photo of Eta Casseopeia

The open cluster M103 was not as bright as I expected. The narrow field easily fit in the 25mm view.

The field of view estimates in SNP seem a bit wide. The 32mm’s actual field was about the same size as SNP’s estimate of the 25mm field. Need to revisit that some time.

Ceres & Saturn’s Moons - February 06, 2008

Location: Tomball, TX
Cloud cover: none
Transparency: clear
Seeing: moderate (3/5) or maybe poor (2/5)
Darkness: city sky glow, no moon
Limiting Magnitude: n/a
Wind: mild/none
Humidity: 65%-75%
Temperature: mid-40’s
Start Time: 8:00 pm CST
End Time: 10:00 pm CST
OTA: 8″ SC
EP: 25mm mostly, also 32mm for M44 and 10mm for Saturn

Need to learn names of stars in Cassiopeia if for no other reason than for picking alignment stars.

Mars - observed briefly, noticed that disc is no longer completely circular. Other details lost in atmospheric turbulence.

Ceres - used SNP to get visual geometry and RA/Dec. Asteroid visible at the intersection of two lines of stars slightly wider than a right angle. Did not realize until looking in SNP later that Ceres would move so “far” within just an hour. Might observe twice tomorrow night an hour or more apart. SNP reference shows that observation time must have been about 8:20 or 8:30 pm, but actual time was 9pm and later. SNP location was Houston instead of Tomball — could that make such a big difference?

M42 - Trapezium clear, nebula surrounding like wings of a heraldic eagle

M44 Beehive - small almost equilateral triangle near center with dim star on one edge

Saturn - rings distinct though nearly edge-on. Visible moons: Tethys, Titan, Dione, and Iapetus, plus three stars in the field of view. Dione and Tethys uncertain at first, stronger with continued observation. Did not see Enceladus (too dim or bad seeing?) or Rhea (maybe lost in Saturn’s glare?), both of which SNP shows very close to Saturn.

Frizzum-Frazzle Clouds - January 30, 2008

Cloud cover persisted last night beyond early forecasts. Later forecasts predicted clouds until 11pm. Last checked the sky about 7:30pm; it was clearing but there were still high thin clouds. I believe Frizzum-Frazzle is the proper term for those clouds. Telescope never came out of the case.