Location: at home in Tomball, TX
Cloud cover: less than 5%
Transparency: average (3/5)
Seeing: below avg (4/5)
Darkness: no moon, city glow
Wind: almost none (see below)
Temperature: 70º-72º
Humidity: 95%+
Dew Point: 69º+
Time: 10:45 pm – 12:15 am CDT
OTA: 8″ SC

First light using Starry Night Pro to control the telescope via serial cable. I have an old version of SNP (4.5) and there are a few minor user interface quirks, but generally I was pleased with the operation. Also first light using DIYPhotoBits to control the Nikon D50 via USB. I was very pleased with the results. I’ve actually modded DIYPB to display images after download using IrfanView, making it much easier to center and check focus.

I started with M57, the Ring Nebula. Exposures above 10 seconds exhibited elongation. It didn’t occur to me until later to use DIYPB’s time lapse feature to collect a set of images for stacking, so I only captured two at that speed. M57 is hardly visible at only 10 seconds, even using ISO1600, so there’s not much to see there.

Next I captured photos of Jupiter and the Galilean moons. Due to the bad seeing and the humidity the image quality was quite poor. The two main bands were visible but murky and the entire image seemed slightly out of focus. I rechecked the focus with the Hartman mask and that was not the problem. The composite photo below shows the relative positions of the planet and its four moons. Io and Europa (on the left) passed in conjunction over the next couple of hours, but it was already late and I didn’t want to stay up for it.

Jupiter and its moons (composite image)

Last I photographed M52, an open star cluster in the constellation Cassiopeia. As earlier with M57, I was unable to get an exposure longer than 10 seconds without elongation. It occurred to me then to use DIYPB’s time lapse feature to take several photos (10, actually) in quick succession then try to stack and merge them later. I tried stacking with RegiStax5, but I was not pleased with the results: the stars looked dull and washed out. I stacked the frames by hand and the result was much better.

Composite image detail of M52(click image for 1000x800 resolution)

This image shows far fewer stars than you might see in a typical photo of M52. This view is representative of what you might see in an amateur telescope. You mileage will vary depending on your telescope and sky conditions.

Location: at home in Tomball, TX
Cloud cover: none
Transparency: above average (4/5)
Seeing: average (3/5)
Darkness: no moon, city glow
Wind: none
Humidity: 50%-75%
Temperature: low 60’s
Start Time: 8:20 pm CDT
End Time: 10:30 pm CDT
OTA: 8″ SC

Saturn alternately fuzzy & clear; Iapetus “close” to planet, Titan and Rhea distinct, Dione & Tethys occasionally lost in glare and turbulence.

M35 OC was amazing, brought Amanda outside to see. Many, many stars (guide info said 70+) over a narrow magnitude range within 1/2 degree region.

38 Gem DBL, could not see color difference. Guessed delta mag between 3 and 4; SNP lists them as 4.7 and 7.8.

β Mon TRIPLE, split with 12.5mm Plossl, appeared DBL in 25mm.

NGC 2392 (eskimo nebula) appeared as a fuzzy disk with a distinct central star. No detail visible.

ζ Can DBL/QUAD (tegmen); ζ1 and ζ2 easily split, close binaries beyond ability of 8″ SCT.

ι Can DBL; blue and yellow easy split. estimated yellow about 1.5 mag brighter than blue. SNP actually lists them as 4.0 and 6.6, so more like 2.6…

NGC 3242 PNEB, also called “Ghost of Jupiter”. Appeared as a fuzzy disk with no detail and no central star. Seems smaller than Jupiter (in arcsec).

Location: at home in Tomball, TX
Cloud cover: none
Transparency: excellent (5/5)
Seeing: average (3/5)
Darkness: bright quarter moon
Wind: none
Humidity: 25%-30%
Temperature: 50’s
Start Time: 7:45 pm CST
End Time: 9:15pm CST
OTA: 8″ SC

Venus half-illuminated, very bright even with ND filter. Lots of atmospheric turbulence.

Luna brilliant, just over half illuminated. Mons Piton and Mons Pico cast long black triangles toward the dark side. Occasional turbulence visible. Subtle “fractal” texture visible on the surface of Mare Imbrium. Pulled ep and diagonal then projected image onto white paper to see entire moon in FOV. Did not try to locate Pleiades nearby.

M42 nice with 12.5mm, less detail visible than two weeks ago due to moonlight. Noticed Trapezium E for the first time, a very faint mag 10.3 star between A and B, just outside the trapezoid. Observed a pair of mag 7 or 8 stars near the mouth, and another mag 8 or 9 that formed a nearly equilateral triangle with the two stars near theta2 orionis.

Beta Mon very cool, primary slightly brighter than two companions. Close triple, clean separation in the new 12.5mm ep. Open angle about 140°-150°.

M50 appeared to consist of an isoceles triangle, pinched at the narrow vertex, with stars dotting the edges. A smaller triangle inscribed the larger, fainter stars everywhere.

NGC2264 appeared like the outline of a large arrow pointing “this way up”.

Location: at home in Tomball, TX
Cloud cover: none
Transparency: above average (4/5)
Seeing: excellent (5/5)
Darkness: bright quarter moon
Wind: none
Humidity: 40% early up to 60% later
Temperature: mid-40’s F down to upper 30’s
Start Time: 9:00 pm CST
End Time: 1:00 am CST
OTA: 8″ SC

Started with M52 in Cassiopeia. Two curved lines of stars like hyperbolas, triangle left with brightest star in cluster, dim cluster above. Celestron X-Cel 12.5mm showed sharper image and dimmer stars than either of the Seibert Performance 15mm or 10mm ep’s. M52 not searchable by that name in Starry Night Pro or Celestia. Found alternate NGC 7654 in SNP.

Zeta Piscium was easy split in 32mm. In the 12.5mm one white the other almost blue.

Phi Piscium was easy split in 20mm. Could not visually distinguish which star was brightest (5.3 vs. 5.5)

Phi Cassiopeiae was a wide split in 20mm. Primary slightly yellow.

Location: my backyard
Time: 8pm – 11pm
cloud cover: none
temperature: low 60s
humidity: maybe 60% climbing to 80%
seeing: good (4/5)
transparency: excellent (5/5)
darkness: no moon, suburban light pollution
instrument: 8″ SCT

Don and Carol came, brought binoculars. We started by observing Jupiter. Polar cloud caps visible, almost convinced myself I could see the GRS. Four moons visible, Don and I remembered all names but Callisto.

Pointed out summer triangle Vega-Deneb-Altair and constellation Cygnus. Observed familiar double stars Albireo and epsilon lyrae.

Clusters next. Started with M39 OC in Cygnus: clear blue pinpoints. Then looked at M15 GC in Pegasus: fuzzy ball with several distinct stars.

Next came planetary nebulae M27 in Vulpecula and M57 in Lyra. Outline of M27 was distinct but dumbell shape difficult to discern. Carol’s eyes seemed more sensitive than Don’s or mine. Ring of M57 clear, Carol could see dim star at center. First time I remember seeing planetaries so clearly.

Moved to Andromeda M31. Again Carol could see some swirling where Don and I only saw fuzzy core.

Ice giants came last. Uranus was a nice cyan disk with a white spec, remarkable color. Neptune was small, hard to make out as a disk or any color.

Finally used binoculars to view rising Pleiades. Very nice view in 12×50. Air was still enough for me to see three or four stars with naked eye, in the past it seems like I mostly saw a collective glow.

Dew became a problem later, corrector began fogging lightly around 10:45 even with dew shield. Humidity had coated the binocular

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.