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.