The moon and jupiter

The moon is getting bigger so tonight I decided to set up in the front where the view of the moon and jupiter is best and the light polution greatest in hopes of snagging a 'walk-by' or two. There weren't many walkers out and the ones that were seemed to be more interested in their dog's business so I was left to my own devices. I aligned on Vega and Altair which were both bright in the west and had no problem. I was set up on my Workmate which gives a good solid base but is a bit too high and not perfectly level. No matter, it worked just fine. I used the car to block some of the light from a nextdoor street light and that worked good too. The moon was nice with my 10mm with or without a 2x barlow. I used a green filter to cut some of the light. The trio of Theophilus, Catherina, and Cyrillus were most apparent. It took a bit of getting used to the LR shift between my ETX and my guidebook but it worked out ok. I was also able to make out Posidonius. Several much smaller craters were also visible but I did not attempt to identify them tonight. I also checked out Jupiter and was able to see all four moons with my 10mm ep at 35x. There were no other stars nearby in the FOV.
All in all I called the night a success and quit as the moon was slipping behind a palm tree across the street.
Last night we were driving back from Zapata through McCook and stopped just north of McCook. We were able to see the milky way and make out most of Perseus but the entire southern sky was washed out due to skyglow from McAllen and Mission lights.

Beaten back by M74

M74 in Pisces is starting to become a monster. I've been out several times with my ETX70 with no luck. I can find the spot without a problem but can't quite make out even a hint of M74, a very dim galaxy. I suspect light polution is the culprit but still haven't found a good dark site. I was able to see about 30 stars from my backyard observatory tonight. It was cool, clear, with no wind after a light rain earlier today so the seeing was pretty good. I saw about 30 stars in M45 which was also visible unaided in the eastern sky. The field around M74 in my 27 mm ep consists of a fairly bright parallelogram with Eta Psc forming one corner and a dim pair of stars including 104 Psc the opposite corner. 101 Psc and HR457 form the other two corners. Eta Psc is in line with a pair of 7th mag stars and I was able to barely make out a couple of 8th mag stars in the field. I convinced myself that I was able to occasionally make out a pinpoint of light in the vicinity of where I knew M74 lay but no hint of a glow.
M33 was also elusive although I was able to see it previously in Rolla with my 8" dob.

Double Cluster in Perseus

I stumbled upon this pretty open cluster by just slewing my ETX70 into a dark area of the sky toward the north. The 'identify' function said it was NGC884, part of the double cluster. At first it looked like two or three open clusters with a 'tail' of about 6 or 7 stars. The fuzzy on the left looked like a circle of dim stars. Very nice with my 27mm ep. The other fuzzy is NGC869. Stock 2 is nearby but I didn't look for it as I was unaware until I saw it in CdC after shutting down for the night.
M31 was nice and a bit larger with no moon but still pretty dim in the ETX. Uranus and Jupiter had all slipped too far west by the time I had the scope setup so I missed the planets tonight. M45 was high and bright, even with no scope. Lots of stars were visible including all of Casseopia's 'W'. Not a bad night at all. Nice 69 F, clear, moonless evening in south Texas.

First Light in the Valley

We finally left rainy MO and arrived in the RGV last Tuesday night to beautiful, warm, clear south Texas skies. Except for a couple of cloudy nights, it has been wonderful ever since except for the nearly full moon and the usual high light pollution. I spent part of today getting my ETX 70 setup, put my stand back together, leveled it, and made a small improvement by adding a handset holder out of a couple of screw hooks. Tonight I decided that full moon or no I was going to look at something. Capella was visible so I decided I'd check out Auriga. I initialized the scope after fiddling with the power a bit. The newly leveled stand works great and the handset cradle even better than that. I pointed the scope in the general direction of North, approximately level tube, and aligned on Capella. It was right at the edge of the field. I centered it and everything after that was right on. The limiting magnitude tonight was about 7.7. I sketched the field around Capella and M31 and got them fairly close. A red light would be handy. I simply counted stars in the fields around a couple more of the brighter stars in Auriga and that agreed pretty well with CdC with the magnitude limited to 7.7 to that was about right. It was a nice clear, cool (60F), moonlit night so perhaps it'll be a bit better later on with no moon. It was an ok night and I even got serenaded by a Dia de los Muertos celebration going on at a nearby Fiestahall.

M76 (Little Dumbell) and Open Cluster M34

Two more Messier objects snagged tonight. This was a near perfect night, no moon, cool in the 40's but not too cold, no wind, clear, and dry. I decided to try for a couple more northern Messier's in Perseus which was up nicely above my deck. I scanned the area with my 7x50's and M34 popped right into sight. A nice view even in binoculars, it was wonderful in my 8" 25mm ep. I'm sure I've seen it before though, just didn't log it. It reminds me of a big black and green garden spider in its web. Very nice with some color evident. I also found my two mag 4 landmark stars between Del Cas (Ruchbah) and Almaak (Gam And) while scanning earlier. M76 was a bit harder to find though. It's right near a fairly bright mag 6 SAO 22551 so I centered it in my 9x50 finder and bingo, right on target. M76 in my 25mm ep is a non-descript grey fuzzy patch, a bit rectangular, without much in the way of other features. There were several small dim stars along one edge that looked interesting though.
While I was in the area, I gave the Andromeda galaxy a quick peek both with binoculars and unaided. It was easy to see unaided but spectacular in binoculars. A real 'wow' factor.
The patch of stars around Alpha Perseus was a glowing mass with unaided vision tonight. I've never seen it quite like that. It actually rivaled the Pleaedes.

A sight for Dia de los Muertos

Finally, a clear night, and what a night it was. I winterized my Casita this afternoon and the sun barely stuck its nose out from behind the clouds that have been with us for the last two weeks or more. It was a prelude to a clear night sky! I listened to Astronomy's podcast earlier in the day and decided to try for NGC7789 in Cassiopeia. I was able to barely make it out with my 9x50's as a foggy patch between Sig Cas and Rho Cas above Bet Cas high in the north above my wife's new pergola. I hauled out the 8" dob for one last look before we head south for the winter and snagged it easily. It seemed a bit brighter in my 9x50 finder and was spectacular in my 25mm ep. It even reminded me a bit of our old high school mascot, the Trojan. It looked like a laughing skull facing down and to the left with a fancy headgear like a Roman legionaire (or a Trojan) might wear. It appeared as a foggy white patch against a black background with lots of faint stars highlighting the mouth, eyes, etc of the skull. A very nice view just before Halloween or Dia de los Muertos in the Valley.
Jupiter was shining bright to my rear so I swung the scope around for a quick peek. It was bright enough to hurt my eyes so I just glanced at the moons: all four were lined up on one side of Jupiter in a southerly direction.
Tonight was also the inagural appearance of my new Denver Observer's Chair. I finished it a few weeks ago but had not had an opportunity to use it. Since I had the scope pointed at a high angle, it came in handy. It worked well at both high and low settings as advertised. I need to add the stair tread and hose in order to make the seat adjustment a bit more stable though. It had a tendency to fall all the way down with the least provocation. It didn't try to dump me though and worked out just fine.

Another 'Mercury Morning'

Six thirty a.m. in the Ozarks and it is another 'Mercury Morning'. That's when the sky is clear, sun starting to come up in the east, and Mercury is strutting his stuff. The air even seems a bit more metallic. This morning was special in that Venus and Saturn joined the show in a nice linear parade up the sky. Venus was high, about 40 degrees or so, followed by Mercury by about 5 degrees, and close by was Saturn, only two and a half degrees (about half a binocular field) from Mercury. I was confused at first since Mercury was quite a bit brighter than Saturn which was just barely visible to my unaided eye. Both Saturn and Mercury were clearly visible in my 8x50's and easy to find but I probably would have missed Saturn without binoculars. It would alternately brighten and dim as the haze boiled on the horizon. If the sky remains clear and I can drag myself out at 6:30 it will be fun to watch Saturn catch up and pass Mercury over the next several days.

A Gaggle of Galaxies, M33, M110, M31, and M32

At last! A clear, moonless night in midMO. It has been nothing but moonlit, cloudy, or moonlit and cloudy nights, it seems forever. Tonight, however, after we got home from our usual Wednesday night square dance in Ozark MO, the clouds parted and we had a perfectly clear, dark sky night. M31, our neighbor the Andromeda Galaxy was easily visible to my naked eye. The Pleades were also starting to peek up over the trees; fall is in the air. I've seen M31 before and it always seems like it should be brighter in the telescope. Tonight I recognized its companions M110 and M32. CdC shows these on top of M31 which confused me earlier. They are close but distinct blobs in their own right in my 8" dob. M33 the Triangulum Galaxy was dim but easy to see in binoculars. It's HUGE. It's quite a sight in the 8" with 25mm ep. I finished off with a quick peek at Jupiter to see how its moons were doing. I saw all four but three were on top of Jupiter, very close. Almost an hour later, Io was closer but two others (Europa and Ganymede) had moved away from Jupiter a bit. Callisto was far away, opposite the Europa/Ganymede pair. The two cloud bands on Jupiter were nice tonight.

Two more in Cassiopea

The moon was almost full last night but it was otherwise clear so I decided to try for the two Messiers in Cassiopea, M52 and M103. Both were fairly easy to find even though I was just barely able to make out the five brightest stars in Cas unaided. M52 was off the end of the southern-most end of Cas, the acute angle end of the W or the upper end at the time I looked. It was about the same distance as the length of the leg of the W. M52 looked like it's picture except much dimmer in my 8" with 27mm ep and an almost full moon. It was so bright out that I didn't need any additional light to set up or take down. While I was getting dark adapted, Mr Coon decided to come see what was going on. Before he could climb into my lap, I asked him what he was doing on my deck and he waddled off into the moonlight. We're building a pergola on the deck and all of his usual dinner food (cracked corn) was missing. He had to raid the compost pile last night. M103 was next and it was a bit harder to find than 52 but not much. There is a group of brighter stars in the middle of the cluster that sort of looks like a minature version of Orion and 103 is very near Del Cas, the northern most bottom 'point' of the W on the obtuse angle end. It also looks a lot like its picture.
All in all it was a fine night even with the moonlight and a quick and dirty look at two northern Messiers. It'll be good to revisit these in a darker sky.

Globular Cluster M30

Globular cluster Messier 30, at about 26,000 light years distance and about 90 light years across, took a few nights to get around to looking at but I finally snagged it around midnight tonight. Capricornus was fairly high in the sky and M30 is just below it on a line between Jupiter and Eps Cap. It's fairly bright and I was just able to make it out in my 9x50 finder. It was a nice dense globular in my 8" at 40x. I tried for Pal12, another globular which is nearby but couldn't make it out. I took my 7x50's out earlier to see if I could recognize Barnard's E, a dark nebula in Cygnus. It's easy to find, near Tarazed in Aquila, but harder to recognize as an E. I was able to see dark patches over that area of the milky way and once convinced myself that I saw a rather fat E but it was a stretch. Good old familiar Coathanger cluster was also nearby and I peeked at it several times. I followed Bakich's directions for finding it from Vulpecula which is closer but I liked hopping from Altair better. I thought I was going to get a glimpse at the Andromeda galaxy tonight but it stayed behind the tree while I was out. Pegasus was starting to rise above the tree though and it won't be long before Andromeda appears again. Jupiter was a fine sight as usual with Io hidden in its glare. I thought I saw a tiny shadow but couldn't be sure. To complete the evening I even downloaded the DDE code for CDC and tried out/modified the demo code to control CDC via DDE. I may have to work out some spreadsheet drivers for CDC.

Open cluster M39

Another clear, cool, dry night and I just had to go out for a look but decided to just bring binoculars with me. I went on a hunting expedition for the open cluster M39. It is a bit north of Deneb so I followed a couple of small chains of stars to Pi1 and Pi2 Cyg and Rho Cyg. M39 was obvious in the middle of these three fairly bright stars. I was able to spot the three markers with unaided vision, but not M39. It was a pretty obvious sight, well separated from the rest of the milky way in this region. I was even able to convince myself that the bright patch of milky way near Deneb looked like North America. It looked fairly decent to unaided vision but dissappeared into the rest of the milky way through 7x50's. I just stretched out on a deck lounge chair and admired the view for the most part. Capricornus eventually peeked out from behind the tree along with Jupiter but I didn't see anything that looked like M30. I quit and went back inside about 10:00 just after spotting a mag 4 satellite headed NW near the zenith. I tracked it until it dissappeared over the house and quit for the night.

Dumbell Nebula and 5 other gems

This was one of those rare Missouri summer nights when the sky is clear, no moon, cool (63F), and dry (77%), no dew, light breeze, when I could have stayed out all night. I wanted to finish up some Messier objects in the south (M72 and M73) but had to wait an hour until they came out from behind an oak tree. While I waited, I went after four gems near Cygnus that I had missed the previous summer: M27, M39, M56, and M71.M27 and 71 were both near Sagitta which was visible to my unaided eye and were easy enough to find. M27, the dumbell nebula, was visible in my 9x50 finder and nice and bright with a pinched in waist appearance. M71 had a funny little 'bug eye' asterism of 6 or 7 dim stars just to the west of it. M39 was at an awkward angle for my dob (nearly overhead) so I decided to save it for another day. M56 was a dim fuzzy patch with many stars in the field. There were two parallel linear runs of 4 and 3 stars north of M56 or at least what I thought was M56. M72 and M73 were both easy enough to find once I identified dim Capricorn. They are about midway between Jupiter's current position and Alpha Cap. I first spotted the obvious globular cluster M72. It's small and dim but definitely a globular although I was not able to resolve individual stars. M73 is just outside the FOV of my 25mm ep, in the direction of Jupiter and it's Sagitta-like asterism is hard to miss although I don't think I would have noticed it had not M72 been nearby. If I don't give it a good look, it does appear to be a bit nebulous at first glance. I finally packed it in about 11:40, satisfied with a good nights work after a weekend of hell trying to dance C1 in St. Louis.

M23, M19, and M62

After several days of thunderstorms and clouds the sky finally cleared this evening and I decided to finish off Sagitarius by snagging M23. I grabbed my 7x50's just after twilight and watched the stars come out in the south off my deck. Scorpius was plainly visible and Sagitarius was beginning to roll into position. I decided to use Nu and Xi Ser as 'pointers' since M23 lies along the line between the two and just about the same distance from Xi as Nu. I wasn't able to see much in binocs but the Small Sagittarius Star Cloud was very obvious as were several other clusters I had visited previously. I grabbed the dob, set my red dot on the position of M23, and it was right smack on target. It was everything previous reports said it would be, definite 'oh' material. I saw 4 or 5 strings of stars, sort of resembling a string of lights on a Christmas tree. I counted at least 68 stars in the FOV of my 25mm ep. After wandering around the vicinity and alternating between binocs and the dob, I decided to finish up with M19 and M62. I'm sure I saw these earlier in the year but had not marked them in my log so I revisited them. Both are dim small globulars. It was getting pretty dewey by this time and I think my RACI was all clouded up so I relied on my red dot. M62 was fairly easy to spot but it took a few tries to get M19 right. I finally snagged it a bit closer to Theta Oph than I thought and decided to quit for the night before everything got soaked good. Visibility was excellent otherwise and I spent several minutes just tracing out some of the dimmer constellations in the area. At one point I was being 'buzzed' by some sort of flying night creature. I never saw what it was but it sure was noisy.

More gems in Sagitarius

Another clear night in midMO and this time I was able to get started shortly after dark. Before it got too hazy around 10:30 I was able to snag M20, M21, M24, M25, M55, and M75. Most were pretty easy to find. Three passing satellites were an interesting sideshow to the main event. One that passed by a globular cluster looked as if one of the cluster's stars came to life and crawled away. M75 was the hardest and also the smallest and dimmest. At a distance of about 67,500 light years, M75 is one of the more remote Messier objects and lies well beyond the galactic center. I found it by tracing a line from eps Sgr through Zet Sgr and about twice the distance between the two. Look for a group of four stars that looks like the four corners of a rectangle except that one of the corners fell out. The remaining diagonal points toward M75 in one direction and M55 in the other. Both are nice globulars but M55 is brighter. It was dim but nice in my 10mm ep and I was able to make out a dozen or more tiny component stars in the cluster. M8, the Lagoon Nebula, was also pretty with a cool dark lane through it. I was able to see it fairly well in my 7x50 binocs.
Jupiter and its four moons and twin bands rounded out the night which was finally capped off with a view of Neptune nearby and to the east. Neptune was quite dim at about mag 8 and a close companion to slightly dimmer SAO164675 which followed behind as they rapidly moved through my FOV. Calisto and Ganymede were on one side of Jupiter while Io and Europa were on the other.
The night started out with good seeing. I was able to make out all nine of the brighter stars of Sagitarius unaided and was even able to see the four stars making up the 'teaspoon' although I would call it a hocky stick. But what's a hocky stick got to do with a teapot?

After a long dry spell

It's been a long dry spell, or rather, a long moonlit, cloudy spell. It's been either cloudy, moonlit, or traveling it seems forever. We got back home after a square dance last night about 11:00 and it was clear so I just HAD to try for a few of the gems in Sagitarius. Sgr was already starting to disappear behind a tree but I was able to snag M54, M69, and M70 before the moon got up to high and spoiled things again. At least it was dry, cool, and only a very slight breeze. Very nice night all in all. It must have been a bit hazy as only the brighter stars of Sgr were visible unaided. All three globular clusters were fine subjects in my 8" dob with 25mm ep though, and fairly easy to find.

Jupiter, Neptune, M11 and M26

What a night! We went square dancing in Laurie, had ice cream afterwards, came home and watched Taken (GREAT MOVIE), then went outside to snag Jupiter and Neptune in the same FOV, and both Messiers in Scutum: M11 and M26. What a haul. M26 was easy to find but kind of ho hum. It makes a nice 45 degree right triangle with eps and del sct and is almost as nice in the 9x50 as it is in my 25mm ep. M11 is another matter though. I pushed the 8" up to 120x and M11 was like a box of diamonds on velvet. Dozens of pinpoints twinkling away. Jupiter was well up by 2:00 (about 30 degrees) and I was able to easily see two bands and three moons. Neptune was less than a degree away in the 25mm ep looking like a small blue dot. The night was perfectly clear and cool at 63F. At 85% humidity it was a bit damp though. All in all it was one of those nights that wanted me to stay up all night and soak it up.

M10 and M12

Tonight was another clear, warm, wet night and I decided to subject my 8" to a wet bath outside. I spent part of the day making a new mount for my new daisy red-dot sight and it worked well. It's a vast improvement over the old wiggly sight. My left eye is gradually clearing up and I could finally see with both eyes! How nice to be able to actually read my charts in dim light again. I decided to try for a couple of Messier objects in Ophiuchus that I've been missing: M10 and M12. They were both fairly large and easy to find. I'm surprised I haven't seen them before. M10 looked interesting with lots of stars to set off the glow of the globular cluster. There was even a hint of Lord Rose's dark lane. After admiring these two I turned to some recent snags: M107, M80, and M9. As soon as I remembered where M107 was, the rest was easy and they are all three much nicer in the 8". I next went after the Butterfly cluster in Scorpius and it was positively beautiful tonight. All in all, an excess of dew aside, it was not a bad night. The sky was very transparent, fairly steady, and quite dark as the moon had gone away for the night.

M107 in the dew

Another clear hot night so I tried for M107 in Ophiuchus. It was just coming into view in the east past Scorpius at 10:00 so I hauled out the 8" and went out into the hot humid night. M107 is pretty dim so I had to hunt around a bit. It hides out near Zet Oph but the area is dim enough that it's hard to find anything in the 9x50. I did finally get a new Daisy red dot sight and that helped a lot. I was at least able to find Zet Oph! After hunting a bit I found M107 lurking near a right triangle formed by SAO159975 and 2 companions. It was between the triangle and a pretty pair formed by SAO159958 and its companion. M107 is fairly large at about 3'x3' but dim at magnitude 8.1. The night was so dewey, I and all my stuff was wringing wet in about 20 minutes. Not a pleasant night for gazing.

M3 through a bubble

It's been awhile since my last post but it has also been rather cloudy and wet here in midMO, plus I managed to develop a detached retina about two weeks ago. That's all fixed but I still have a bubble left over from the patch job that is slowly going away. In the meantime it makes stargazing a challange! I've been sneaking a peak at the variable R Corona Borialis. It has been rather elusive even in binoculars but tonight I was able to see it fairly well in my 7x50's. I also decided to try for M3 in Serpens Caput. It was high in the south at 10:00 and fairly easy to spot in binoculars. I just followed the chain of mag 5 stars East from 109 Virgo to 5 Ser and M5 is just northwest. It showed up nicely in my 8" although it was a bit more difficult to find since my red dot finder fell off as I was lugging the beast outside. It's time to get a REAL red dot finder.

Three more Coma galaxies

It is still clear with no moon tonight but there were some clouds earlier, it was dewy tonight, and rain is predicted for Saturday so I decided to make another night of it and see what I could do in the Virgo area with my 8". After fiddling around a bit, I went after M98, 99, and 100 in Coma by hopping along a line between Denebola and Eps Vir. About a field width of my 9x50 past Denebola I noticed a 5 star asterism that reminded me of the head of Scorpius. This makes a nice anchor for these three galaxies as all three are near one of the 5 stars: the two ends of the 'head' and the middle of the 'tail". M99 was the best of the three, being a largish blob near SAO100039. M98 is an elongated dim patch near 6 Com.
I finally gave up trying to read my paper charts and set up my laptop outside. That made it much easier to verify star fields but I still wasn't able to find any other objects. This is a rich area but I'll need to be better prepared to be able to find them with my dob. I doubt that they are bright enough to do well with the ETX-70 either.

Virgo cluster with the ETX70

Another clear night after getting back from Paducah and my Legion meeting so I decided to try the Virgo cluster with my ETX. My new leveling table worked great to level the ETX and get it aligned nicely. I was able to spot the xmas tree asterism easily and could barely make out M59 and M60. M68 showed pretty well but not 89 or 90. I sketched the field around M49 and verified it as a dim patch using averted vision. I was also able to verify M84 and M86 but had them reversed for some reason or other. Both were dim in the ETX and I had to use averted vision to see them. After deciding that galaxies aren't so great in the little ETX I went hunting with unaided eye. There is a nice open cluster about 2/3 of the way along a line between the tail of the big bear and the tail of the lion. This unaided eye visible group turned out to be part of Coma Berenices (12 and 13 Com). There was a cute 'snail' asterism looking at me when I examined the area in binocs.
At 11:18 pm it was 63 deg and falling fast. R Lyra was 4.5 using 44 and 47 at 11:28. Beta Lyr was 3.2 using 32 and 38 at 11:38 pm.
Next I fired up the 'guided tour' on the ETX to see what it could do. M4 is a nice globular cluster in Scorpio near a twinkly Jewel (Antares). I could also see M4 in binocs easily. M13 is bright but small with the ETX. It looked like a fuzzy star. M6 was behind a tree at this time but I thought I could see it in binocs. This turned out to be M7 and another above it was M6. I was not able to see the ring nebula in the ETX. It might have been out of the field though.
All in all this was a great night. It was fairly warm right up to the end at midnight, clear, and NO DEW.

Virgo cluster again

Tonight was very clear and cool so I decided to take the 8" out and see what I could find in Virgo again. I had tried previously without a lot of luck. There is a lot here but it's rather dim. I went out armed with my overall chart of 11 galaxies in Virgo (M49, 58, 59, 60, 84 86 87, 88, 89, 90, 91) to see what I could see. I found M59 and M60 right off the bat at the right angle of a triangle formed from the two most eastern stars of the Virgo 'V' or 'cup' (del and eps vir). They are near a small 'xmas tree' asterism composed of Rho and 27 Vir and a couple of other 7th magnitude stars. Both M59 and 60 were easily visible is my 25mm ep. It had been awhile since I used it so it took some time to get used to the orientation of my dob and I had the usual assortment of problems standing on my head to see through the red dot finder, tripping over the battery wire, etc. I found M58 near a diamond shaped asterism of mag 8-10 stars (SAO 100178 etc) to the west. M89 was another small fuzzy just west of a chain of six dim 10th mag stars in a W pattern. All four objects were easy to see but not a lot of detail without study. M90 whould have been on the other side of the 'W' but I didn't notice it. I need to revisit these when I'm not as tired. My Tycho 2 catalog is a good one to use for star fields in this area.
I continued my observation of Lyrae doubles Beta and R. Bet Lyr was brighter than R Lyra tonight. I estimated Beta at mag 4 using 32 and 43. R Lyr was 4.7 using 44 and 47 at 11:30 PM.

Clear skies at last

Finally, a clear night with no clouds, t-storms, rain, etc. I went out after the Daily Show and stayed until 11:45pm or so. Seeing was pretty good but there seemed to be some haze that was reflecting more light than usual. I was still able to see seven stars in the little dipper, 7 in Corona Borealis, Bootes, 7 in Lyra including R Lyra. I intended to try my hand at the 10 star tutorial from AAVSO and was able to find both Beta Lyra and R Lyra. I estimated Beta Lyr at 3.2 using 32 and 38 and R Lyra at 5 using 44 and 54. The log site mentioned in the tutorial did not seem to be active so I left my email and will wait to see what happens. In the meantime, perhaps there will be some more clear nights to practice. I had a good view of Lyra over a tree about 11:00 or so. The moon wasn't up yet. I used my 7x50 binos but mainly just did some naked eye viewing. Just before quitting I switched my view to the south to see Scorpio rising, Corvus, Virgo, etc. It was quite difficult to estimate the brightness of the two variables. It took awhile just to find them and then I had to identify the appropriate comparison stars. It was probably easier to just use my eyes without binos! Most everything was visible with at least averted vision. Binos made it easier to see the dimmer stars like 54 though. I really needed my red light though. I was using a regular flashlight and my night vision was totally ruined after even a brief look at the charts. All in all it was a great night even if it was short and I was glad to get in a little observing, finally. Oh, and to cap it all off, just as I was getting ready to quit for the night, a gorgeous meteor flew from SW to NE just west of Lyra.

Bino Doubles

I cheated a bit and used my ETX-70 instead of binoculars but had fun anyway. I intended to seek out bino doubles in Camelopardalus but it had already sunk below my limited horizon (it was behind the house) and so I had to settle for UMa and UMi instead. I was able to snag 4 of the 5 in UMa, all except Wnc aka M40, and the only one in UMi. I had the devil of a time trying to get the ETX to track right for some reason or other. I finally got it to align ok using a one star alignment on Mizar/Alcor and figured out how to set RA/Dec (again). S 598 was nearly overhead and hard to focus but I was just barely able to split with the 27mm ep. 65 UMa was the first and it split right away with 27mm. Limiting magnitude was about 8 with the ETX, probably 3 or 4 unaided. It was a nice night, cool, humidity about 10%, no wind, clear. Lots of light polution as usual in our backyard observatory. Zeta UMa was nice as usual. Struve1831 showed up nicely in a nearly dark field. Pil in UMi was in a nice little 4 star asterism that kind of looked like a dish antenna pointed at a 4th star. At first I thought the 4th was the double but closer examination with a 10mm ep revealed the double as the top star of the 3 star 'dish' (SAO 2556). It was hard to split even with averted vision. 30" seems to be about as good as the ETX will do.

Seriously Ceres

First clear night after a wet week in the LRGV so I decided to see what I could see. Ceres has been hanging out in Leo so I took a look. First problem: it wasn't in the list of asteroids in CdC. I used ephemeris elements from the skychart user's group and added it to the data file. Bingo, right on target. I found it by slewing to one of the stars in Leo that was in the catalog. Next I held 'mode' down for a few seconds to put the controller in RA/DEC display mode and just slewed manually until I got it to the position shown in CdC. There it was, right in the center of the FOV. The star field matched CdC to a 'T'. 40 Lmi was the brightest star in the field, with a small triangular grouping of three 8th magnitude stars just below Ceres. Three other 7th magnitude stars were 'above', 'below', and to the right of Ceres near the edge of my 27mm EP. Ceres seemed to be about 7th mag. NGC3344 was in the FOV but way too dim for my ETX-70. I was just able to make out M81 in UMa later on.
It was warm and a bit muggy at 61. Ceres was high in the east near zenith and unfortunately I set my scope up where a street light shone right into my eyes. Not a very good position!

Comet Lulin

I saw this visitor last night but the sky was a bit dusty and the comet was very dim. Tonight there was little wind and the sky was much clearer. I could see Regulus and 3 or 4 stars of Leo's mane plus 3 stars of his tail. Last night I could only make out one other star besides Regulus. Tonight Lulin was about a half degree from SAO 98931 at a PA of 290 degrees. Both nights it was a bit off from the position predicted by CdC. The comet was very easy to spot tonight. I did a one star alignment on Regulus and the comet was in the field of view of my 26mm ep. I could not make out any tail but the core was about a half degree in diameter. The Beehive cluster was also much clearer tonight. Saturn was a nice view with my 10mm and 2x barlow. The rings were just a razor thin line through Saturn's globe. The night was almost a disaster though. Just after glimpsing Lulin, a line of clouds moved in over the top of Regulus and Saturn both! I amused myself with Saturn as it was peeking in and out of the clouds until they moved on past Regulus and I was able to watch the comet some more. I said goodbye to Lulin about 11:00. If it's still around in a month or so I may try again with my 8" in Missouri.

M42 Great Orion Nebula

It's been awhile but the weather was nice and clear, not too cold, and I decided to check out the occultation of M45 by the first quarter moon. I set up my ETX-70 and aligned on Capella and Castor with no problem but when I selected 'Great Orion Nebula' it slewed to Orion but no nebula. I think it was pointed somewhere near Orion's belt. I then tried several of Orion's bright stars and tried M42 again. No luck. Finally I aligned on Betelguese again and selected M42 from Messier objects. Bingo, right on target. I'm wondering if the named object (orion nebula) is entered wrong in the database. I was able to see Theta 1 and 2 easily but couldn't split the trapezium even with a 10 mm ep. The nebula showed up nicely though. Nair al Saif and NGC 1980 nebula were pretty too. I found the moon and M45 and a dim star near the dark limb of the moon but decided not to wait for an occultation. M45 wasn't nearly as nice with the moon nearby and I didn't want to fool with the moon after my last painfull experience!