Jupiter and Uranus

A couple of nights ago I noticed Jupiter shining big and bright almost overhead and decided to try catching nearby Uranus in my 7x50's. It was a bit smokey but I was able to sketch the starfield just east of Jupiter and caught Uranus visible with averted vision. Tonight it was cold and clear and I caught Uranus and nearby mag 5 and 6 stars easily with direct vision. There was just a hint of blue to Uranus. Here is a sketch I made on 4 Dec 2010. Tonight's view was virtually the same except a bit brighter due to better seeing.

Pleiades and Jupiter

Today I worked out a process for editing my scanned astro-sketches using GIMP 2.6. I made a couple more sketches tonight, one of Jupiter and four moons, and another of M45, the Pleiades. It was a bit smokey and Jupiter was just about to set below the house so I didn't get a chance to observe very long, about 9:30 to 10:20. I've been wanting to sketch M45 and think I got a pretty good result. I'll process the sketches and post them later.

setting up shop

It wasn't too cold, mid 50's, and no moon, clear, so I thought I'd start setting up shop in the backyard observatory at GGG tonight. I set up and leveled my little ETX table but didn't bother setting up the scope. I opted for a chair and 7x50 binocs instead and focused on the Perseus/Cassiopea area just northeast of the house. Limiting mag was about 7. I easily found the double cluster and the major stars of Perseus and all 5 bright stars in Cas. The dc didn't come close to its brilliance in CO this summer but at least it is fairly high. I may try it with the ETX in a few days. There was a lot of smoke in the air and it smelled bad outside so I quit early. I hope every night isn't 'burn trash' night this year.

More moon and Jupiter

The moon is almost full but I decided to setup again tonight in front and see if I could snag a sidewalk visitor or two. I did meet Floyd Smith, a neighbor and first year resident of GGG out walking his dog. It took three tries to marginally align the ETX, not a good night. It wanted to use Vega which was behind a palm tree, and after I started on my second try, the power went off. I finally took the timer of off my outlet and at least stopped that little aggravation. The third time was better: I got Vega ok but missed Fomalhout but found Jupiter ok as well as the Moon. All four moons were on the same side but IO and Europa were overlapped too close and I could not split them. Calisto was barely visible just to the south of a line between Jupiter and the other three moons. Ganymede and the two overlapped moons were plenty bright and easily seen. I was able to make out one cloud band on Jupiter just fine with the yellow filter. Moving on to the Moon, there wasn't much of a terminator but Cardanius and it's companion crater Krafft were obvious, very clear and high contrast. Grimaldi, the dark circular plain, was obvious as were two craters just to the north: Hevelius and Covalarius. The yellow filter kept the brightness down enough so that it wasn't painful to look at the moon but it wasn't as comfortable as first quarter.

Jupiter's Moons and our own

It was exceptionally clear, calm, and warm outside tonight, and my old computers weren't cooperating, so I decided to haul out the scope and see if I could find Jupiter and the moon. I was rewarded with a fine appearance of the ISS and when I turned to Jupiter about 7:00 I was rewarded with a smaller satellite crossing the FOV while I was focusing the ETX. Pretty cool. I found Jupiter after a quick and dirty alignment and experimented with my four filters. The yellow one worked best and at least one cloud band was clearly visible. Ganymede and Callisto were clearly visible but Io and Europa were aligned and very close to the planet's glare so I could only barely make them out. I was using my 10mm ep so things were fairly large. The 10mm and yellow filter seem to make a nice pair with the ETX and Jupiter. I had no problem keeping things in the FOV. I next turned to the moon and it was also nice at 35x and a yellow filter. Not so bright that it hurt and Bullialdus crater and it's companions A, B, and C were clearly visible along the terminator. Bullialdus A is only about 14 mi wide. Copernicus was also a fine sight. I couldn't find my portable map so had to use my laptop's Virtual Moon Atlas.
It may be time to reconsider deep sky stuff and start paying more attention to the moon. I thought I might be able to snag a walkup or two but no such luck. One guy came by as we were watching the ISS go over. Turns out he had worked on it at Houston so wasn't particularly impressed. Ho hum.

Behold, Comet 103P/Hartley 2

The cover of this month's S&T mentioned a visible comet was currently passing through Perseus so I decided to try to see it from our dark MO skies before leaving for the light polluted valley. I went out last night about 11:00 after we got back from Nashville and saw a dim grey blob about 25' in diameter about where S&T's chart said it should be. It was barely visible in my 7x50's but clear in my 8" dob. Tonight I went out about 8:30 with the moon still pretty high and about a quarter moon so the sky was pretty bright but cloudless and still. I was able to see 4th mag Eta Per unaided and most of the brighter stars of Perseus. The blob I saw last night was gone but seemed to be located between a pair of 7th mag stars near NGC 1444. A serpentine asterism of dim stars leading to a pair of stellar points that included 1444 along with Lam Per and 43 per were also in the field of my 7x50's. Current orbital elements for 103P/Hartley 2 placed it right on top of the stellar companion to NGC1444 but I didn't see any fuzzy blob there. The stellar companion was identified by CdC as HD 23800, a 7th mag star. If nothing else, I was able to figure out how to enter the orbital elements for a comet. The main 'trick' was to construct CdC's Perihelion T figure from several values in the orbital elements: 20101028.2598 comes from T 2010 Oct. 28.2598 TT. If all goes well, I'll try to continue to monitor Hartley 2 down in the valley. This one isn't as impressive as some in the past but comets are always cool!

M79 - the last and final

I couldn't sleep and it was nice and clear with no moon at 4:30 so I decided to go for it. Armed with my trusty 7x50's and 'distant suns' iPod app I slipped into my sweats and into the cold. There was Orion and Lupus, big and bright. I could see m79's companion HR1771, a mag 5 star, unaided. With my 7x50's I could make out a dim glow just to the north of it: M79! I quickly grabbed my 8" dob, noticed M79 clearly in the 9x50 raci, and bingo, there it was, a nice bright globular. M79 is only a few 1000 ly's away so it's one of the 3 brightest globulars in the Messier collection. I'm wondering why I never saw it before, particularly as it is so easy to find next to Orion. Maybe it's just dwarfed by all the goodies in Orion. I'll have to try for it again in the valley when it will be out at a much more opportune time of night. 4:30 is for the owls.

Two of the Final Three: M1 and M77

After our square dance Saturday night, the stars were nice and bright and there was no wind (finally) so I decided to try for M77. I've been watching for it during the past several nights as the moon has been waning. Tonight was the night. I decided to move my observatory to the south lawn in order to get around some trees that have been growing and obscuring the view from our deck. It worked out well. I put down our fiber mat that we use with the casita and that made a nice base to work on. Cetus was fairly bright although not as nice as in Colorado or the Mojave. I pointed the 8" red dot finder a little to the left of a line from 84 and Delta Cetus, fine tuned with the 9x50 raci and bingo, right on target. M77 was a faint fuzzy but clearly a galaxy. It's a barred spiral but I couldn't make out any particular structure. It was fairly large in my 27mm ep and the field stars matched CdC just fine. After admiring M77, I decided to go all the way and try for M1 in Taurus. I found Aldeberan and the 'V' of taurus ok but zet tau was behind a tree. I finally decided to move the scope a bit and get a clearer shot. I found Zet Tau which was visible unaided and set my red dot just above Zet Tau and then fine tuned with the raci by centering just to the left of the midpoint of a a line between Zet Tau and HR1831. Once again, I was right on target and the crab nebula presented itself as a nice size fuzzy that looked vaguely like a crab. Both of these were plenty bright for the 8" and I had no trouble viewing them. At times I was able to convince myself that I saw them in my 7x50 binocs but that might be a stretch. I finished off with a peek at the moons of Jupiter and saw three on one side and one on the other. I convinced myself that I was able to see the three in my 9x50 raci by blocking Jupiter's light with the cross hairs. Jupiter was quite bright and I could almost see a shadow cast by it's light. The Pleades was also beautiful as usual. Aldeberan was low and twinkling like crazy but a pretty red nevertheless. The Moon cooperated by staying below the horizon the whole time. I quit about 1:30 am. That leaves only one more Messier: M79, a globular just below Orion and will need to wait until later in the year. I'll see if I can find it with my ETX70.

September Messier Tour

I was surfing through some astronomy sites this afternoon and ran across Tony Cecce's monthly Messier Tour. This looked interesting even though I've logged all eight listed for September. They are all globular clusters which I enjoy observing: M13, M92, M14, M22, M28, M69, M70, M54. M13 and M92 in Hercules were easy in binocs although M92 was a bit harder and looked more like a star. I almost waited too long and M92 was about to disappear behind the house by the time I got to it. M13 is easiest since it is in the Hercules trapezoid and visible unaided. M92 can be found by spotting a little 'arrow' asterism just west of Iot Her, in fact it forms a rather flat isocoles triangle with Iot and Pi Her. The little arrow asterism points right at M92 which looks like a fairly bright star in my 7x50's. It was just 'below' a small square of 7th mag stars, one corner of which was a pair of stars. M22 is nice in my 7x50's and easy to find at the top of the Sgr teapot. M14 was visible in Ophiuchus but just barely, small and bright. M28, 69, 70, and 54 were all no-shows in binocs but easy enough in my 8" dob. I should probably try again and just look for a dim star where they ought to be. While I was near M22 I decided to try for some of the other globulars in Sagitarius and snagged IC6638 and IC6642, both small and dim even in my 8", definitely no-shows in binocs. I finished off the night with a peek at Jupiter's moons, three of which were visible, all on the same side. A single band could be readily seen. Just before shutting down I glanced over at the Andromeda Galaxy which was big and bright as usual, and the double cluster in Perseus which also was visible unaided, just not quite as bright as it was in Colorado.
Seeing was great, sky was steady, a little breeze, 70 degrees, 45% humidty, no dew, no moon, just a great night for observing.

Starting the Caldwell Catalog

Tonight was such a clear dark night that I just HAD to go out and gaze a bit. It was too early for my last remaining Messiers so I decided to a) see where Pluto was these days, and b) start on the Caldwell Catalog, Sir Patrick Caldwell-Moore's catalog of 109 interesting things to look at. I settled for C13, the Owl Cluster in Cassiopia since Cas is in a good position right now from my deck observatory. It's right near Phi Cas which is visible unaided and that made it really easy to find. I'll have to admit it's pretty impressive and even drew out a 'whoa' from me. It's alternately called the ET cluster or Dragonfly cluster and I saw both figures but prefer ET. While I was in the neighborhood, I moved over to M103. It's also easy to find and is pointed to by a little arc of three stars near Del Cas, the bright star at the apex of the obtuse V in Cas. I counted about 16 stars in the field of my 10mm ep. M103 is definitely better at 100x while C13 was best with the 27mm ep. I saw M103 as an upside-down office worker sitting in an office chair, like a guy getting ready to type up some code. I guess I could call it the Hacker Cluster. I also checked out Sagitarius and the area occupied by Pluto. If I want to try for it, it would be better a bit earlier in the evening before Sag goes behind a tree. All in all it was a good night if a bit chilly and a little dewey, a good night to just lay out and admire the night.

M74 and some really dark skies

We've been traveling through the western states the last couple of months and I took my ETX70 along, expecting to do some viewing in dark skies. Ha! I took it out exactly three times. The first was an impromptu star party at 'the ranch' in Montana with my brother in laws and their wives. The moon was pretty bright so we didn't get to see a lot. The skies are clear, no humidity to speak of, but aren't really all that dark. There's lots of light polution from the nearby town and neighbors. One other time, I couldn't get the thing leveled but the skies were really dark at Great Basin NP. The third time was at Mesa Verde with very good luck. I used the ETX's guided tour and was actually able to see several of the Messier galaxies. The best though was at Doc Hudler's cabin in the Wet Mountains of Colorado. The skies were so dark I saw a black cloud. Yup, with no light polution, clouds at night are actually black. Very startling. The Perseids were wonderful that dark night. I tried for M74 but just couldn't quite pull it out with my 7x50's. When I got back to Rolla, last night, I tried again after the moon had set about 3:00 am. Thin clouds (white this time) were rolling through but I managed to get in a quick peek at M74 with my 8" dob. The star field was right on and M74 was rather large with my 27mm ep but fairly dim. It would be nice to revisit this when the seeing conditions were better. I might be able to see some detail in this face on spiral galaxy.
With M74 gone, that only leaves 3 more Messiers.

My Equipment

Thought I'd add this while I'm at it and figure out later how to make it easier to find. I'm always trying to remember the specs on my equipment!
1. Orion Skyquest Classic Dob 8" 1200mm f5.9
2. Meade ETX-70 70mm 350mm f5
3. 27mm 25mm 10mm 2x barlow

Washed out

We've been washed out in more ways than one lately. It has been rainy or cloudy almost all of May so far and now the moon is coming on strong. Tonight (and last night) it is passably clear but a first quarter moon is just too bright. Arcturus and Ursa Major are high overhead and quite visible as is Spica in the South but dim stars are invisible. I did manage to snag a satellite traveling fast from S to N in the vicinity of Arcturus about 10:51 but heavens above didn't have it listed. I could see it easily with my 7x50's but not unaided. I may try for Scutum's treasures later tonight after the moon sets... and then again I may not!

Fun with the ETX70

The last few nights have been clear with no moon but the last few Messier objects I'm missing aren't visible yet so I decided to see what the ETX could do with a dark sky. It does better than in Texas but galaxies are still a challenge. I was able to see a couple of globular clusters ok but even M83, the brightest galaxy I tried, was visible as only the slightest smear in my eyepiece. M3 and M92 GCs were fine.
First off, I had to find north and found out that 75 degrees of altitude is the right setting for the north star at my latitude in Rolla. I used a small wooden stool from the shop as a table and after leveling it was off and running.
Limiting magnitude is about 9, even at my Rolla home. I checked this by sketching the field around Alchiba, Alpha Corvus, and comparing to CdC.
The ETX works fine with my pocket sky atlas. I could easily see all of the stars in the atlas and then some. I found out though that there is quite a limit to the ETX's database. It seems that some entirely useless objects are there and other brighter objects are not. For example, guided tour tries to point out several galaxies which would not be visible but NGC5466, a globular cluster, was not. I'll need to find the RA,Dec for the NGC's and other objects I want to look at and have them ready next time. I also need to get the ETX70 working with CdC.
Both nights were dry with about 55% humidity, temp in the 60's, light breeze.

M83 down, four more to go

Finally after weeks of either bright moon or rainy skies, a dark clear night. Hydra was up in an almost perfect spot for viewing M83 at 9:30 tonight so I grabbed my 7x50's and pocket atlas and headed for the deck. On a line between Menkent and Gamma Hydrae, there are two small asterisms: one a group of four mag 4 stars (1,2,3,4 Cen) that look to me like a satellite dish on a pedestal with the dish pointed at M83, the other is an arc of three mag 6 stars with a group of two stars off toward the dish. M83 forms a triangle with these two just to the west. It's big and almost covered half the field of my 10mm ep. I thought the view was a bit better in my 27mm ep though and was able to clearly make out the bar and at least imagined I saw one of the spiral arms.
Leo was chasing Mars tonight and Saturn is the olive in Virgo's martini. It was getting a bit damp from the dew so I quit early at about 10:30.

The (Almost) Final Four

I'm down to five. It was partly cloudy today but mainly cleared off by 9:00 so I decided to try for the final four in Coma B and Virgo: M61, M85, M88, and M91. I had tried to find these previously but had no luck. Tonight I found out why! All but 61 are in an area almost devoid of bright stars and they are super dim, all lying about 60M light years away. Armed with my pocket sky atlas I was able to hop from either Vindamiatrix in Virgo or Denebola in Leo using some of the very dim stars that the PSA shows on its chart. It took awhile though. I was out from about 9:15 to 10:45 and by the time I started hunting for M61 at the end, I was getting kind of punchy and making dumb mistakes. It was also a bit hazy from a few light high clouds moving through. At first, even fairly bright mag 4 stars would kind of come and go but it cleared up toward the end and I rewarded myself with a nice crisp view of Saturn, who was in the neighborhood, to round things out. I was able to sketch all four along with whatever stars were in the FOV of my 27mm ep but they were all nondiscript fuzzy blobs in my 8" dob. Getting to the right spot was difficult but once I had the scope pointed to the correct location, they were all four readily apparent and the sketches even match the pictures at SEDS fairly well!
M85 is closest to Denebola and there is even an Aquila-like asterism nearby that points the way to 85. M88 and 91 are closer to Vindamiatrix so I started there to find them but kept getting lost in the dim starfield along the way. There are a pair of very dim stars that bracket the two galaxies and I was finally able to find those and zero in on my targets. M61 was the easiest as the visible star 16 Vir makes almost a right triangle with Zavijava and Zaniah, two of the bright stars making up Virgo's cup. By the time I got to M61, it had cleared up enough that I could make out 16 Vir unaided, pointed my red dot at it, and zero'd right in on M61 with my 9x50 finder. It was also dim but perhaps not as much so and fairly large.

Galaxies Galore

A temperature of 67°F and a humidity of 48% with light winds, no moon, and clear sky made for a perfect night of viewing here in midmo. Last night was hazy but tonight was ideal. I took advantage of the good viewing to snag a few of my Messier holdouts: M81, 82, 102?, 87, and 90. M81 and 82 in UMa are in an area north of the Big Bear with few bright stars so I've avoided these in the past. Armed with my new pocket field guide though, I was able to zero right in on the area of interest. 24 UMa is just about diagonally opposite Dubhe and Phecda in the cup of the dipper and makes a handy place to orient. I found the pair easily after that. M81 aka Bode's nebula appeared as a bright fuzzy blob while M82 aka the cigar galaxy looked like a fuzzy needle in my 8" with 27mm ep. Both were well within the fov and made a nice sight although my rommate wasn't able to see both of them. After admiring these two I decided to try for M102? The question mark is there because Messier apparently mis-identified this one. A likely candidate is NGC5866 in Draco which appeared as a tiny, fuzzy dim irregular blob in my 8". I used iota draconis as my guide star which was just barely visible unaided. Nudge about a binoc fov toward Alcaid in the dipper's handle and look for a triangular group of three 7th mag stars. M102 is near the closest of these to iota draconis.
By the time I finished admiring M102, Virgo was high above the backyard oak tree and I slewed around to tackle the Virgo Cluster. The last time I visited this area I saw too many galaxies! The star field is too dim to get a good fix on the faint fuzzies and they can be hard to identify. M87 and M90 are two of the harder ones. After a few trips back and forth between binocs, 9x50 finder, and my pocket guide, I realized that the reason I didn't find these two last time was that I had the wrong star field! This time I started at Denebola in Leo, slewed a bit toward Vindamiatrix in Virgo (that's the northermost tip of the 'cup') and looked for the first fairly bright star, 6 Com which is barely visible unaided at mag 5. It is part of a distinctive asterism that looks a bit like a 'T'. About a degree toward Vindamiatrix is a dim group of 3 mag 8-9 stars barely visible in binocs. Another two degrees down and look for a triangular group of 3 very dim stars. M87 is very near that group. M90 is a bit to the left in a box-like group of four dim stars. All of these 'guide' stars are very dim in binocs or my finder. Both M87 and M90 were faint smudges, much like many of the other faint smudges in this area!
To add icing on my cake tonight, our pack of coyotes decided to howl about 11:00. It sounded like they were in the front yard!

Into the lion's den

Another good night for backyard astronomy and it wasn't nearly as cold tonight. I decided to pick up some Messiers in Leo that I skipped last night: M65, 66, 95, and 105. The areas around M105 and M65 are full of nebulosties and it can be difficult to identify which is which. These are all very faint, small galaxies which made it all the more difficult. M105 was the first and it has another almost on top of it which made it fairly easy to identify. M65 and M66 are fairly close and fit into my 27mm ep FOV. There was a fairly bright star in the field to the north which turned out to be SAO99552, a magnitude 7 star which also shows up on my field guide. There was a small lambda like four star asterism that 'pointed' to M66 that wasn't in my CdC catalog. This is part of the 'Leo Triplett' galaxy group which I was surprised to find out looks a lot like my little sketch I made of the two galaxies. This area was quite a bit more interesting than the area around M105 probably because there were more bright stars in the fov. M65 and 66 are about 35 million light years from earth which is considerably farther than the objects I saw last night. Those are in our own Milky Way galaxy.
After snagging these five I switched over to M44, the Beehive cluster, and Mars which were both bright in my 7x50 fov. By this time there was a bit of haze starting to form. I was able to see Mars through my 10mm with 2x barlow but still could not see any detail.
All in all it wasn't a bad night although it started out nasty when I knocked my red dot finder loose and had to reset it in the dark.
It always amazes me when I see satellites pass through my fov. Seeing sats is one thing. You can almost always see a few mag 3 or 4 satellites on a dark night in a half hour or so but when I almost always see one by looking through a narrow field eye piece, I realize that "hey, there's a lot of stuff up there!". These of course are much dimmer at about mag 8 or 9.

Canis Major's neighborhood

Last night was good viewing, but tonight was fabulous! Not a cloud, nor a whiff of wind, a cool 50°F, low 40% humidity, no moon, what more could I ask? I even heard some coyotes at one point. Canis Major was low in the south with Leo starting to rise in the east so I decided to try for some of my missing Messiers in the CMa neighborhood: M41, 93, 47, 46, 50, and 48. I started about 8:52 with M41. It was easily found with my 7x50 binos with α and β CMa in the FOV. With the 8" dob M41 looks like a four legged starfish, very large. M46 and M47 were about 2x the distance between α and β CMa with M47 the brighter of the two. It looked a bit like a golfer teeing off while M46 looked like a dim spider. Both filled the 27mm ep FOV. Both were easy to find in binocs. M50 was a bit harder to spot. It looked a bit like a butterfly with two bright stars off the left wing and a bit of nebulosity off the right. Binocs showed a lot of nebulosity in this region of the milky way. Worth revisiting. At 9:34 a satellite passed just below 11 and 12 Puppis, through NGC 2482 going roughly east to west. 2482 is a loose cluster with an interesting linear string of 5 or 6 dim stars. Any of these open clusters would be interesting to try to sketch, possibly using my ETX70. M93 looked like a small, tight, bishop's hat or a v-shape. M48 is HUGE, almost 1° and filling my 27mm ep FOV. It forms a triangle with the 1,2 Hydra triple, and the ζ, 27, 28 Monoceros triangle. It's almost visible unaided and was easily found with my 7x50's.
My observing strategy of using binocs, pocket field guide, sticky notes to mark pages and object location, and a small hand lens so I can read the field guide under red light seemed to work well. The FOV of the hand lens matches my binocs fairly well. I placed a sticky note with an arrow marking the approximate location of the object I was looking for so it was easier to find in the dark. I was able to match the star fields seen in either my binocs or 9x50 finder with the magnified section of the field guide chart pretty well with a lot less fumbling around as usual.
I need to try using the field guide with my ETX70 sometime soon. I suspect it will make a good companion for use on the road this summer.
I got cold and decided to quit about 9:53 but not until after I took a quick peek at saturn, just under Leo, high in the east. The rings were clearly visible and I believe I even saw a moon or two.

M108 and M97

Tonight started out clear, dry, cool, and still. This was the first clear night after returning from south Texas so I decided to haul out the old 8" dob and try out my new pocket field guide from S&T. UMa was high and bright in the northeast so I decided to try for a couple of Messiers that I haven't found before: M108 and M97. Both were near Merak or Beta UMa and pretty high for the dob. After fiddling with the red dot for awhile, I finally got it positioned on Merak, and doubled checked the alignment by slewing over to Mizar. I was right on target and was able to split Mizar's close companion easily. It looked like M97 was near a little 'hockey stick' asterism according to the field guide and I was able to find that in my 9x50 finder ok. I switched to my 25mm ep and, bingo, there was M97. It looked like a fairly large fuzzy round blob. It kept dissapearing on me as some clouds had started to move through. Next I started searching for M108. It looked like it was near a three star right triangle, a bit closer to Merak and I eventually found it, a nice but dim cigar shaped galaxy. The field guide was hard to see in my red light and when I used a regular flashlight, it was hard to see the DSO's right away. It worked ok for comparing to my 9x50 and would probably work just fine with binoculars or in the valley but nothing beats CdC for use with my dob. I compared the star field I saw near M108 and it was right on with CdC. The 'hockey stick' asterism was plain enough for confirming M97. I also played around with my new green laser and was surprised to find that I could see it easily in my 9x50. I could see it ok in my 25mm ep but it looked odd since the magnification was much higher.
Earlier this evening I used my old 60mm refractor to get a glimpse at Venus and Mercury just after sunset. I don't have a good clear view of the west from my deck so I had to move to the front yard but was able to see both with my 27mm ep. Both appeared as round shapes with no apparent crescent shape. Mercury is almost at the same altitude as Venus today.

A peek at Venus

Caught a glimpse of Venus last evening just before sunset. There was a cloud in the west but Venus peeked out about 10° Alt and almost due west. It was barely visible in the haze and sun glare but easy enough to glimpse unaided. I did not try using binocs. If it's clear in a couple of hours I may try setting up the scope for a peek but that doesn't look like it's going to happen!
My green laser finally arrived from etimeshop. Their email support stinks but their prices are right and the laser works just fine. I'm ready for a starparty and some sidewalk astronomy! Now if I just had a 'droid' with that cool starchart app.

Top of the kite

It was almost too cloudy tonight but the clouds parted just enough to see Vesta for a fourth time. This time it made a kite-like asterism with Gamma Leonis, 40 Leo, and SAO 99075 with 7th mag SAO 99092 as a kind of tail of the kite. Vesta is now above the pair having passed through probably sometime in the late afternoon. It is still fairly bright although I wasn't able to glimpse it in my 7x35's.
My Seymour Solar filter arrived today. It looks servicable enough although the logo sticker was a bit wrinkled. There don't appear to be any pinholes. I'll give it a shot the next time I see the sun. Now if the sun will just cooperate and throw up a sunspot or two to look at. The Seymour is just a dark film in a frame for the ETX-70 and not a hydrogen alpha filter. It'll be good for watching sunspots and transits but not for solar surface features.

A third night of Vesta

It was clear again tonight so I set up the ETX for another look at Vesta. This time it was just above the 8th mag star near the pair of 40 Leo and Gam Leo and formed a right triangle with that pair with the hypotenuse between 40 and Gamma. It appeared to be a bit brighter than the 7th mag SAO 99092 below 40 Leo. It was again visible in my 7x35's. It's getting closer to passing between the pair but not quite. Perhaps tomorrow?

A second look at Vesta

Vesta was visible again tonight. It was smokey at 9:30 and Vesta kept popping in and out of the haze but it was clearly visible in my 7x35's. Gamma Leo was visible unaided as was dimmer Eta Leo but I had to use binoculars to split the double Gamma Leo and 40 Leo pair. Vesta forms a right triangle with the pair with Vesta just below 40 Leo by about 15'. Vesta should be right in between the pair tomorrow night and will be a nice sight if it is clear.

Viewing Vesta

Finally after a month of clouds and moonlit nights we have a clear night with no moon! And to top it off, the asteroid Vesta is currently moving through Leo and up at 10:30 in my backyard observatory. I hauled out the ETX-70, set it up, and quickly homed in on Gam Leo and... there it was! Vesta! I decided to make a sketch and managed to snag a few 8th magnitude stars in the field. Even Vesta kind of came and went at times but it looks like I can pull in mag 8 at least on a good night. There was plenty of light polution as usual but it was cool and clear with no clouds although there may have been a bit of smoke from Reynosa across the border or some other source of haze. 40 Leo was clearly visible next to Gam Leo and I will have to try to catch Vesta in the coming days as it slides between the two stars. The weatherman is predicting clear skies for the next few nights so I may be in luck.

A new year and finally a clear day

From the looks of my last blog, it looks like we've had a bleak winter so far for observing. Most of December was either cloudy, lit by a full moon, or occupied by a cruise to the Yucatan. January hasn't been much better. It finally cleared off this weekend and I was able to set up my ETX and check out Mars, coming up about 8:00pm. It made it over the top of my neighbor's shed about 10:00 and I was able to get a good view with my 10mm ep and 2x barlow. I appeared as a not so crisp reddish ball about the size of the letter 'o' in my eyepiece. Since the diameter of Mars is only about 14" that gives me a good idea of what to expect the next time I try to split a double with the ETX. The Autostar did a good job of holding Mars in the center of the FOV even at high power (70x). I was not able to make out any detail on Mars.