More Vesta and M101's supernova

M101 was just about to go behind my house tonight but it was very clear and dark, if a bit dewey tonight so I thought I'd try for the supernova that popped up the other day in M101. I finally got it in the eyepiece; for such a big thing it was a bit hard to find and I practically had to fall off the deck to see it above the house. It has a low surface brightness and is barely visible in my 8" dob with a 27mm ep. I got it, switched to a 10mm and noticed several flickering pinpoints of light in the body of M101. I saw one particularly bright, relatively speaking, just a bit north of the galactic center. That could have been it but I wouldn't care to bet on it! M101 was a nice sight anyway and well worth looking for again.
I next swung around to check out Vesta, with the 8" this time. I've been watching in binoculars, and at mag 6, Vesta is easy to pick out. It's getting close to Psi Cap. There is a little three star hockey stick between Psi and Omega Cap that is visible in my 7x50's and Vesta makes the 4th corner of a box with those three. It is noticeably brighter than the elbow of the stick diagonally opposite Vesta, not quite as bright as the end closer to Omega and brighter than the end closer to Psi. That puts it at about mag 6. I checked it out with my 27mm ep but Vesta really shown forth when I popped in the 10mm. It was smack in the middle of a pentagon of five 10th mag stars! Very pretty. One of the stars was a bit brighter and is in my CdC catalog identified as 9.98 mag SAO189710. Vesta is about the same angular distance from it as TYC6926-00302-1 is from its companion: about 2.5 arc minutes. If the sky stays clear, it'll be fun to watch it get closer to Psi Cap. It should be out of the pentagon in a few hours but I don't think I'll be up to watch. I'm kind of tired after dancing for 5 hours and walking all over tower grove park today!

Vesta and Ceres

After suffering through the heat and humidity of earlier August and a full moon to boot, tonight was finally great seeing. Temperature was in high 60's, no moon, clear and sharp skies. The milky way was visible all the way to Casseopia. I decided to check on Vesta which I've been watching before the moon got too bright, and also see if I could snag Ceres who is also in the neighborhood. Vesta was still pretty bright and has now moved over next to Psi Cap and it makes a nice group with Omega Cap although not nearly as bright as those two. It's about a magnitude 6 now.
Ceres was another matter. It's fairly dim and in an area I'm not that familiar with: Cetus. It's not far from Beta Cetus or Diphda the second frog. Now I wonder what is the 'first frog'? Diphda was easily visible peeking out from behind an oak tree but I decided to hop from Fomalhout instead since the stars seemed a bit brighter in that area. From Alpha PsA I went 'up' to a group of 3 stars about 2 binocular widths: 86, 89, and 88 PsA. From there, east about a half binocular width to 98, 99, 101 PsA and then over about a binocular width to a group of five stars making what I call 'the snake'. It looked like the head of a snake poking up out of the grass: 103, 104, 106, 107, 108 PsA. That was all pretty easy. Now it got a bit trickier. The snake is about a half field width in my 7x50's. If I center 108, 2Cet pops into view making about a 120 degree angle with the snake. If I center 2 Cet, 6 Cet pops into view almost in a direct line from 108 PsA. If I center 6 Cet, I get a little arc of three dim mag 7 stars with Ceres just below the arc. It's a bit dimmer at almost mag 8. 6 Cet, the little arc and a dim little three star 'hocky stick' form a line with Ceres just below the middle of the line about as far as the size of the arc.
I finished off the night by checking out Jupiter which was rising in the east. I could sometimes make out Ganeymede in the glare if I held the binocs against a post.

Sunspots are back!

I read yesterday that sunspots are back after a several year hiatus, so this morning I set up the ETX-70 with its solar filter and got a look at my first sunspot in quite awhile. It was tiny with a tail, like a tadpole. I believe this is sunspot 1263 that has been in the news the last few days and has caused some nice aurora activity in northern Minnesota and other northern states. It's at about 11:00 in the image shown here. I shot this with my Sony point-and-shoot held up to the eyepiece so the spot is a bit fuzzy. I was pleased to be able to see it at all! It was a good thing I looked when I did because a few minutes later, a big cloud covered the sun for most of the rest of the day.
The past few nights with the exception of last night, have been pretty good and I've enjoyed watching Vesta march its way across Capricorn. The moon is about at 1st quarter tonight and there were clouds by Capricorn. If conditions are right when the moon leaves us again, I'll have to check out Vesta and Ceres which is supposed to be in the neighborhood as well.