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.