Venus and Neptune captured

Venus and Neptune are approaching a conjunction on Dec 27, 2008 (tomorrow) but I wanted to take advantage of a clear sky while it's available and see if I could see both in the same FOV. I set up the ETX70 on a rickety card table out front as I did last night, did an Easy alignment about 6:15 and found Venus without trouble. Delta and Gamma Capricornus as well as 42, 44, and 45 Cap were all easily visible. I used my 27mm ep which give me about a 200' FOV. Drawing a line from Venus to 42 Cap there is a line of 3 mag 7-8 'stars' just to the left, starting about half way between Venus and 42 and extending just to the left of 42. Two of these 'stars' (SAO164548 and SAO164538) became reliably visible about 6:54. The third, at magnitude 8, is Neptune. It occasionally flickered into view with averted vision about 6:40 and was reliable at 6:54. By about 7:10 Venus had slipped low enough that the haze began to obscure the dimmer objects. A very dim fourth object (SAO164547) occasionally flickered into view at 6:54. Neptune was dimmer than SAO164548 but brighter than SAO164547 so I put it at about magnitude 8.
The ETX kept the view steady without needing any adjustment during this whole period. The temperature was a nice 74F, there was some high haze but no low clouds, and it was quite windy. While I was in the area I decide to try for M30. Goto M30 produced a field with two visible stars, possibly 41 Cap and HR8247, and M30 **may** have been visible near 41 Cap. It would be worth trying again when it's a bit higher and with a 10mm ep.

Checking out Venus

After way too much turkey, fixings, and wine this afternoon with some of our squaredancing friends, I decided to check out Venus who was screaming at me outside our front door in the west to come look. I set up the ETX70 in front on a makeshift stand consisting of a card table. Not the most stable of mounts! I powered everything up, leveled the tube with a bullseye level, rotated the scope to approximately north, did an 'easy' align using Capella and Formalhout and just accepting the position without checking it. Then I hit 'goto venus', and began a spiral search. Venus showed up fairly fast and I synced on it. Then I put on a 10mm ep with a 3x barlow and focused. It took quite a few turns of the little focus knob but the view was worth it. There was little 22" Venus with a clear half-moon shape. Not bad, maybe there's hope for the ETX yet. The motors hummed along and kept everything at least in the field of view with minimum adjustments required. I stayed out long enough to give my wife a look and even managed to attract a little attention from passersby but clouds moved in before I could do any real 'sidewalk astronomy'.
The 10mm + barlow combo should be good for some double star splitting later on. I was able to see a fairly bright star which may have been SAO164476 in the field along with Venus. The field was too small for it to have been Del Cap (Nashira). I put the 27mm ep on to get a better view before Venus went behind a palm tree but the clouds moved in and I wasn't able to continue. If the clear skies hold, I'll have to try again the next couple of days as Venus wanders through this fairly rich star field.

Stargazing on the longest night

Tonight was clear after several days of overcast skies. Just after sunset I tried to spot Mercury along with Venus and Jupiter but had no luck. Maybe tomorrow? We drove to Hidalgo to see the Christmas lights and ride the trolley. They had added several new clusters, notably the 'China Lights', inspired by this year's Borderfest theme of China. When we came back home, it was nice and clear (and warm) so I hauled the ETX out to my backyard 'observatory' for a bit of viewing. I thought I'd check out the variable star Algol. I got the ETX aligned Capella and Mirphak as usual and then went to Algol. Bang, right on center. Algol seemed a bit brighter than Eps Per so perhaps it's close to its minimum. I wasn't sure of the name of my other 'brightness estimator' star (Gam And or Almak) so I didn't check the brighter star to bracket Algol (maybe tomorrow?). I sketched the field around Eps Per and Mirphak in order to compare against CdC and to practice sketching. My 'sketchpad' (the back of a CdC starchart) was getting a bit damp and limp but I was able to sketch something close to what CdC was showing. The limiting magnitude in the 70mm ETX was about 7.5. I noticed a nice serpentine asterism connected to Mirphak, about 21 stars in an 'S' shape with a head like a snake and Mirphak as the tail. This was part of Mel 20 cluster and was pretty in its own right. While on Mirphak, I hit the Az button on the Autostar and went right through the double cluster! It was a nice group of clusters so I hit the Identify feature on the Autostar and it came up with Double Cluster. Pretty neat. Since everything was working nicely, I decided to try the 10mm ep and checked out the Orion Nebula which was very nice. I wasn't able to see much detail in the Trapezium though. Need more power than the ETX-70 is capable of. I wanted to try for the Andromeda galaxy but had waited too long and it was behind the house. Better luck next time.

Some new eyepieces

The title is true in more ways than one. Since last posting I've had cataract surgery on both eyes, the last being on Dec 5 2008. I specified the multifocal Restor implants against all advice from various astronomer colleagues but am happy with the results so far. My distant vision is about 20/30 without glasses which, for someone who has long been unable to see the big E without glasses, is pretty good. Near vision is good and I can read the fine print on sugar packages. Contrast sensitivity isn't great but not bad and seems to be getting better. Glare isn't a problem either. I had a chance to use my 8" dob over Thanksgiving break back in Missouri and it was pretty good even with just one eye (the right eye hadn't been done yet). I was able to compare vision between the Restor lens and my natural lens. I estimated that the Restor cost me about a half magnitude or so but otherwise was ok. Back in Texas and after completing surgery on the right eye I took out my trusty ETX-70 on a clear night. I wanted to check out my 10 and 25mm Orion eyepieces with the ETX. The 25mm and 3x Barlow require too much refocusing to be of much use with the ETX but the 10mm Orion and 27mm Meade are nearly parfocal and should be good companions. I checked out the starfield around Alnath and then went to M45. I was able to clearly see 8.3 mag SAO76191 with the ETX and didn't notice any appreciable difference between sessions before and after surgery. Only a day after surgery on my right eye I was able to make out individual stars in M45. They weren't quite clear enough to count but it's been a long time since M45 unaided was anything more than a fuzzy blob in the night sky!