Mars and Mercury back in the Valley

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.

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.

Uranus and 44 Psc pairing

I was reading through my email yesterday and noticed a blurb in S&T newsletter that said Uranus was going to be near a star for the next few weeks.  Tonight was clear (but COLD) so I decided to take a quick look with my 7x50's to see if I could even find Uranus.  Armed with SkySafari and my iPad I found Fomalhaut and Deneb Kaitos in the SE sky.  Both are prominent and bright.  Uranus is above Deneb Kaitos about 15 degrees.  Iota Ceti is about half way and a bit to the right and visible unaided in my semi dark sky. Just above Iota Ceti is a dim trapezoid of 5 stars, two on top, three on bottom that is just barely visible unaided but unmistakable in my 7x50's.  There is a small linear array of 3 dim stars just to the east of the trapezoid that is also unmistakable.  The top of the trapezoid points to Uranus in the direction of the linear array.  A medium size triangle of 3 pairs of stars is prominent just before arriving at Uranus.  I could not make out 44 Psc, the companion star, in my 7x50's but was able to see HD 2004, a mag 8 star nearby.  It was fairly easy to find Uranus and I was hooked.  I hauled out the 8" dob and quickly found my target.  Bingo, the 25mm ep split the pair nicely.  Switching to a 10mm ep clearly showed the pretty blue green color of Uranus.  44 Psc appeared white to me.
It was 11:30 before I made it outside so Uranus was a nice 55 degree altitude in the SE sky, clear of any obstacles and the moon had about set.  Nearly perfect viewing.  Earlier I watched the BBC episode of Horizon that dealt with infinity.  Very interesting show.  I had a hard time watching it though as it is in HD on youtube which doesn't work well on either my iPad or desktop.  I switched to a lower res on the desktop and it came through just fine with no stalling.  The show went through a lot of the history behind the concept of infinity and a number of the paradoxes surrounding it.  The end segued into cosmology and the notion of an infinite universe which was REALLY weird.  I learned about the largest named number, Graham's Number which was new to me.  Still don't quite understand where it came from. (note: I do now.  neato!)
The past month I've had to content myself with watching the planets dance.  The main one now is Venus in the morning which is still a wonderful sight.  

A Trio becomes a Quartet

It was another beautiful cool clear night so I went out to check on the trio at 8:30 and, sure enough, the moon had joined it to make a quartet.  The moon washed out Spica for awhile but Mars and Saturn were visible unaided and eventually Spica popped into view as well.  I decided to stay out and tried my hand at some Sgr Messiers with my trusty 7x50's until about 11:00.  Most notable was the big globular in Sgr, M22.  M28 wasn't as noticable but it was visible.  M8 and M20 added to the view as well.  M54 was also visible but just barely as was M69.  I tried to see what the limiting magnitude unaided was and was able to see Eta Cyg, a 4th magnitude star in the neck of Cygnus.  Some 5th magnitude stars in between Eta and Sadr were also occasionally visible, just winking in and out of visibility.  The sky is pretty dark, but my eyes aren't what they used to be!

Mars, Saturn, Spica Trio

After almost two months of smokey western skies washed out by full moons, I'm back at it in Missouri.  Our travels to MT, WA, OR, ID, WY, and NE this summer was almost a bust astro-wise.  July's new moon was spoiled by pretty much overcast skies in the northern cascades.  Campgrounds are also typically forested so observing is difficult at best.  Our one night in Craters of the Moon was great though, even though it was pretty much washed out by the moon.  After an interesting talk comparing the geology of Idaho to the geology of Mars, Judy noticed a distinct triangular pattern in the west just after sundown.  It turned out to be the Trio of Mars, Saturn, and Spica.  This added to the dawn spectacle of the Jupiter/Venus lineup that I had been watching off and on all month.  Tonight, even though there were some clouds in the west, I drove up to the little hill just north on our driveway to see if I could spot the new waxing moon along with the now familiar trio.  The moon popped in and out of the clouds but the trio required my 7x50's at first.  By 8:50 though it made a nice naked eye sight.
I did make a welcome addition to the observatory's bag of tricks though:  a new iPad 2.  I quickly downloaded a $3 copy of Sky Safari (S&T Apr 12) and have been putting it through its paces ever since.  It's a great program and I haven't yet exhausted the capability of the el-cheapo get-acquainted version.  I may just spring for the pro version this fall.  I've mainly been using it for daytime exploration and nighttime naked eye and binocular observing.  If the skies stay fairly clear tonight, I may try for some more interesting targets with my 8" dob.
Well, they did and I did, and I 'discovered' a new way to point the scope.  I just shine my laser pointer through the focuser (without an eyepiece).  It works great, particularly near the zenith where pointing usually involves some gymsastics on my part.  I've been wanting to see the Ring Nebula again and I found it fairly easily using the new technique although I had forgotten how small it is!  Next I used Sky Safari's Tonight's Best feature and checked out Albireo, the Beak of the Bird.  It's blue and gold colors got a 'wow' out of me.  I finished off with the Great Hercules Cluster.  Had a bit of a problem finding Hercules and wandered around in a random trapezoidal pattern for awhile before I found the right one.  Start at Deneb, proceed to Vega, and extend just a bit to the right to find the familiar trapezoid, and the cluster is along the western-most side.  It was about to disappear over the house but I got to it in time and it got another 'wow'.  It's a beautiful huge splat of tiny stars.
Now I need to make some sort of adapter to hold the laser pointer in line when it is in the focuser.

Pushing the limits

Squaredancing was a no-show tonight (there was a county fair going on where the dance should have been) so we ate German food at the Hub along with a nice Dunkel and came home early.  I decided to try pushing the limits of my little ETX (and my eyes) and try for some of the NGC globulars in June's issue of S&T p64.  After I did a two star alignment (it worked first time tonight) on Spica and Antares, I zipped over to NGC5897 in Libra.  There wasn't anything obvious but NGC5897 is pretty dim at 8.5.  The field was pretty empty too but it looked like the area around 5897 according to my Pocket Sky Chart.  There was a little dish antenna grouping of four 8th mag stars with a 5th 'target' that didn't show up in the PSC but it looked like there was a dim fuzzy in between the dish and the target.  Bingo!  Right on ETX.  CdC verified the hit.  Definitely not a 'wow factor' but a tough globular for the ETX anyway. 
Next I headed to 5694.  This is also Caldwell 66 and the ETX was again dead on.  There was a little Z-shaped grouping of four brighter stars that was in the PSC this time and I convinced myself I was able to glimpse a much dimmer fuzzy right where 5694 should be.  Even less of a 'wow' than 5897 but at mag 10.2 an even tougher target for the ETX.  A darker sky might help but my sky is pretty dark.  NGC5634 was not in the ETX's database which was surprising since it was listed as brighter than 5694.
I snagged M53 for sure but nearby NGC5053 was another maybe.  I could occasionally glimpse a fuzzy where it should be with averted vision but then again, I knew where to look and expected to see something there.
I finished up with M4 near Antares and M6 and 7 open clusters.  M6 is delightful like diamond dust on black velvet.  All in all, a good night.  Not too cool and no moon or clouds.  The combination of ETX and PSC worked great once again and I felt more secure about the tripod with the ETX securely bolted to the base this time.  With the battery hanging on its hook though, the assembly is stable as a rock.  I even lightly kicked a leg once or twice with no movement at all.

My new tripod

After seeing an article on building a tripod from recycled aluminum crutches and knowing I had two of the things in my garage junk bin, I began hunting for a (cheap) additional one.  I found one for $2 at a flea market a few years ago.  This month I finally got around to finishing the project.  Wow is all I can say!  It's nice.  I put it to work tonight as a nice, stable, level, portable platform for my traveling ETX70.  I still need to finish (paint) the wood parts and drill a couple of holes to bolt the ETX to the tripod so it doesn't accidentally get knocked off, but other than that it did the job flawlessly.  I even got to try adjusting the legs when my target for training the motors was below some nearby bushes.  After fiddling with it a bit just at sundown, I set it up in my 'observatory' at the end of the deck and waited for dark.  I had a bit of trouble aligning the scope at first.  Not sure why it didn't want to align on two stars.  I finally gave up and used a one star alignment and all was well after that.  I wanted to see how well the ETX would do on globulars so went after M5 and added M4 for good measure.  I found Antares quickly enough and told the ETX to find M4.  Bingo, right on. M4 was a very conspicuous glowing ball forming a nice triangle with Antares and Sig Sco.  I was not able to make out the much dimmer and smaller NGC 6144 globular though.  Next I told the ETX to find M5.  It zipped right to the neighborhood, but no cigar.  I slewed the scope a bit with the handbox and there it was!  Right above a little comma shaped asterism of 5 stars including 4 and 6 Ser.  5Ser is just above and anchors M5 which is another glowing ball somewhat smaller than M4.  I was able to see M4 and the asterism in my 7x50's but not several 8 and 9th magnitude stars grouped with the asterism that I was able to clearly see in my ETX.  The 7x50's compensate for their lack of light gathering capability with a FOV that is about 2x that of the ETX with a 26mm EP.
All throughout this process, the new tripod worked just great.  I tried tapping it in several spots and there was no noticeable vibration.  I might add that I have my 12v power supply hanging from a hook on the tray and that seems to stabilize it very well.  I also get a nice little green spot on the ground from the 9v adapter!  The tray is a simple triangular board made from the same 3/4" plywood at the top and serves well to hold the handbox and other small items.  I used my Denver Chair with the new tripod and it worked great too.  I'm not sure I'll haul it around since it's heavier than the tripod but they do make a nice pair.
Bottom line:  the ETX still requires much more fiddling around to find things than the 8"dob but performs just fine in a dark sky environment and tracks well enough to share the view with others.  I could do with a bit more focal length (for magnification) but can't have everything I guess.  The tripod is definitely part of my astronomy travel bag now.