We got back to El Valle last week after a leisurely trip south via Paris and Houston TX. We did some geocaching around Paris and snagged several new counties. We even learned some new local history (Peacock/Lee Feud in 'the corners') and met a local couple from Farmersville (he was from Jefferson City!). After TexPACC we drove down to Houston to visit with old friends and more square dancing. Oysters at the Topwater Bar is always a treat. Got 'home' late Wednesday evening and have been catching up since. Everything around the house was in pretty good shape and today we finished the A/C project that was started last season. Friday was a day to kick off the season with a party in Mexico. We had about 7 couples at Santoni's bar (Santiago and Tony have their own bar now!) at the old El Mar and topped it all off with lunch at Old Town. Last night we had dinner at Las Margaritas, a new place that opened down the road last year. They've expanded and the menu is real Mexican home cooking: a variety of cabrito dishes including goat liver tacos, and grilled goat's head, menudo, barbacoa, and all sorts of different stuff.
Tonight I decided to get back into observing and see if I could snag Mars and Mercury. We've been following Mars all summer but now it's very low along with the always elusive Mercury. I found them tonight about 7:30 low in the west on either side of Antares. Mercury was a bit lower, Mars higher, and all seemed about the same brightness. Mars was a definite reddish hue. The sunset was a typical south Texas red spectacular with clear skies all around. The weekend was cool with daytime temp in the low 70's, night time temp in low 60's.
Monday, October 29, 2012
Monday, October 8, 2012
NGCs near and far
The Oct 2012 issue of S&T's Binocular Highlights on p45 sounded interesting, and we finally had a clear, moonless night, albeit a bit chilly, so I decided to check out the NGCs that were featured: NGC6946 aka the Fireworks Galaxy and NGC 6939, an open cluster. I started with my trusty 7x50s and my favorite lounge chair with lots of warm blankets. I quickly found the right area of Cepheus and in fact the 'hockey stick' was visible unaided after my eyes adapted. I found all the landmarks: a long S shape like an integral sign near Eta and The Cap and a dim right triangle opening up toward brighter HR7818. I was able to see 8th magnitude stars in the integral sign but try as I might, I could not see the two NGCs. Occasionally I convinced myself that I was able to see two dim patches where the elusive targets should have been, but no cigar. Definitely not a WOW factor! Next I hauled out my 8" dob. The targets were transiting at the time and were close to the zenith, a bad location for any dob, and particularly bad on my poor sore back. Standing on my head trying to find my red dot and the targets was no picnic tonight. I finally got the dob pointed correctly and again found the integral sign, triangle, etc and, with a bit of patience, found the elusive buggers with my 25mm ep. 6946 was pretty much a bust in either the 25mm or 10mm ep. At best it was a dim round patch. 6939 was better, a dim open cluster centered in a little kite asterism with brighter SAO 18914 as a tail. It too was a dim patch of light in the 25mm but resolved into dozens of tiny jewels framed by the kite in my 10mm ep.
All the while I was using my iPad and Sky Safari Pro for reference. The verdict isn't in yet on SSP but it does take some getting used to. For example, one of the 'kite stars' is SAO 18910 which is dimmer than a neighbor, TYC 4233-1918-1 but SSP makes the former appear brighter on the display. Another annoyance is that I could not find a way to reverse the image to match what I saw in the telescope. I DID find out how to turn off the 'tilt to engage' compass feature. It's handy except when you just want to display a chart.
I did see a couple of satellites while observing. One swept through my binocular FOV just as I started. It was going S to N passing by Eta Ceph to just west of Polaris at about 8:15pm CDT. It was about as bright as Eta Ceph. A somewhat dimmer object swept through about a half hour later going the same direction in about the same position.
All in all, it was a good night to be out. I even managed to disturb a young possum trying to join me on the deck. The targets weren't the best I've seen but it was fun finding them anyway.
All the while I was using my iPad and Sky Safari Pro for reference. The verdict isn't in yet on SSP but it does take some getting used to. For example, one of the 'kite stars' is SAO 18910 which is dimmer than a neighbor, TYC 4233-1918-1 but SSP makes the former appear brighter on the display. Another annoyance is that I could not find a way to reverse the image to match what I saw in the telescope. I DID find out how to turn off the 'tilt to engage' compass feature. It's handy except when you just want to display a chart.
I did see a couple of satellites while observing. One swept through my binocular FOV just as I started. It was going S to N passing by Eta Ceph to just west of Polaris at about 8:15pm CDT. It was about as bright as Eta Ceph. A somewhat dimmer object swept through about a half hour later going the same direction in about the same position.
All in all, it was a good night to be out. I even managed to disturb a young possum trying to join me on the deck. The targets weren't the best I've seen but it was fun finding them anyway.
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