Eps Cas unaided

We had some rain and a little snow yesterday but today was clear and sunny so I decided to give my light poluted observatory another shot. Tonight I was able to spot eps cas unaided. It wasn't easy and I had to use averted vision but there it was, a mag 3.3 unaided in south Texas. Unbelievable! I was going to try for some of Matt Wedel's objects in Cassiopeia but I stopped at IC1805 which wasn't even on the list. This is the Heart Nebula and I saw it as a faint cloudiness. To find it I started at eps cas and the 4-star Y shaped asterism about a degree NE of eps. About a half binoc field to the right brought me to mag 7.1 HD14010 and its brighter companion. Another field to the right took me to the faint cloudiness of IC1805 or at least that's what I told myself at the time. While looking for some sort of distinctive asterism that I could use as a waymark, I spotted an obviously Scorpio-looking group of 8 stars between mag 6 and 7 that turned out to be where the famous Double Cluster in Perseus is located. The double cluster isn't much in 10x50s and nothing at all like what I remembered in Colorado a few years ago but the asterism was nice. I was getting a bit chilly - it warmed up to low 60s but then dropped again after the sun went down - so I decided to close out with M31 again. I found it fairly quickly by using the bright triangle of Cas to point the way and once again M31 presented itself. It seemed somewhat brighter tonight and I was able to make out a small arc of three mag 7 - 7.6 stars nearby. Mag 5.3 32And was clearly visible in the field and is near the SW extent of M31 but I could only see the center portion of the galaxy.
That was enough for one night. I opened up the garage door, turn on the lights, packed up my observing chair and gear, and called it a night. Very nice.

Stars in the NE

It's been awhile. It is so blasted light polluted in my neighborhood of Mission Texas I get depressed whenever I step outside at night. Needless to say I don't step outside at night very often if I can help it. Tonight was an exception though. It has been very clear and not too warm so I thought I'd see what I could see. I had been inspired by an earlier episode of Startalk that featured an interview with a Hawaiian navigator (Nainoa Thompson) and the voyages of the Hokule'a. Mr Thompson navigates in open ocean for 1000s of miles the old way - without instruments of any sort.  After setting up my trusted reclining observing chair, my 10x50s and SkySafari in my lap, I waited to see what might reveal itself as I allowed my eyes to accomodate. It was 7:30 and about as dark as it was going to get in my driveway. Capella soon popped out low in the northeast. I watched for Mirfak and eventually was able to make it out above and to the left of Capella. Once I had Mirfak, or Alpha Persei, in my sights, I pulled up the binocs for a closer look. "Not bad for Texas" was my first thought. I was able to pick out nearby HR 1059, a dim magnitude 6 star, but not any of the magnitude 7 stars in the field of view. Undaunted, I searched for the Queen of Ethiopia about 20 more degrees to the north. I was able to eventually make out 4 of the 5 bright stars of Cassiopeia unaided. I wasn't able to see the 3.3 magnitude Segin although I did finally convince myself that I could occasionally glimpse it. Bright Vega and dimmer Deneb a bit farther to the West completed the night's arc across the sky from East to West looking North. A limiting naked eye visibility of magnitude 2 sure makes for a dull night sky but it is what it is and I tried to make the best of it. I finished off with a win by grabbing a glimpse of our neighboring galaxy. Andromeda was easy enough to find using the stars of Cassiopeia as pointers and surprisingly bright in my 7x50s. It was close to the zenith at 8:00 so at least there wasn't quite so much murk in the way. It was enough to cheer me up and at least the mosquitoes weren't hungry tonight!