A third night of Vesta

It was clear again tonight so I set up the ETX for another look at Vesta. This time it was just above the 8th mag star near the pair of 40 Leo and Gam Leo and formed a right triangle with that pair with the hypotenuse between 40 and Gamma. It appeared to be a bit brighter than the 7th mag SAO 99092 below 40 Leo. It was again visible in my 7x35's. It's getting closer to passing between the pair but not quite. Perhaps tomorrow?

A second look at Vesta

Vesta was visible again tonight. It was smokey at 9:30 and Vesta kept popping in and out of the haze but it was clearly visible in my 7x35's. Gamma Leo was visible unaided as was dimmer Eta Leo but I had to use binoculars to split the double Gamma Leo and 40 Leo pair. Vesta forms a right triangle with the pair with Vesta just below 40 Leo by about 15'. Vesta should be right in between the pair tomorrow night and will be a nice sight if it is clear.

Viewing Vesta

Finally after a month of clouds and moonlit nights we have a clear night with no moon! And to top it off, the asteroid Vesta is currently moving through Leo and up at 10:30 in my backyard observatory. I hauled out the ETX-70, set it up, and quickly homed in on Gam Leo and... there it was! Vesta! I decided to make a sketch and managed to snag a few 8th magnitude stars in the field. Even Vesta kind of came and went at times but it looks like I can pull in mag 8 at least on a good night. There was plenty of light polution as usual but it was cool and clear with no clouds although there may have been a bit of smoke from Reynosa across the border or some other source of haze. 40 Leo was clearly visible next to Gam Leo and I will have to try to catch Vesta in the coming days as it slides between the two stars. The weatherman is predicting clear skies for the next few nights so I may be in luck.

A new year and finally a clear day

From the looks of my last blog, it looks like we've had a bleak winter so far for observing. Most of December was either cloudy, lit by a full moon, or occupied by a cruise to the Yucatan. January hasn't been much better. It finally cleared off this weekend and I was able to set up my ETX and check out Mars, coming up about 8:00pm. It made it over the top of my neighbor's shed about 10:00 and I was able to get a good view with my 10mm ep and 2x barlow. I appeared as a not so crisp reddish ball about the size of the letter 'o' in my eyepiece. Since the diameter of Mars is only about 14" that gives me a good idea of what to expect the next time I try to split a double with the ETX. The Autostar did a good job of holding Mars in the center of the FOV even at high power (70x). I was not able to make out any detail on Mars.

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.