M108 and M97

Tonight started out clear, dry, cool, and still. This was the first clear night after returning from south Texas so I decided to haul out the old 8" dob and try out my new pocket field guide from S&T. UMa was high and bright in the northeast so I decided to try for a couple of Messiers that I haven't found before: M108 and M97. Both were near Merak or Beta UMa and pretty high for the dob. After fiddling with the red dot for awhile, I finally got it positioned on Merak, and doubled checked the alignment by slewing over to Mizar. I was right on target and was able to split Mizar's close companion easily. It looked like M97 was near a little 'hockey stick' asterism according to the field guide and I was able to find that in my 9x50 finder ok. I switched to my 25mm ep and, bingo, there was M97. It looked like a fairly large fuzzy round blob. It kept dissapearing on me as some clouds had started to move through. Next I started searching for M108. It looked like it was near a three star right triangle, a bit closer to Merak and I eventually found it, a nice but dim cigar shaped galaxy. The field guide was hard to see in my red light and when I used a regular flashlight, it was hard to see the DSO's right away. It worked ok for comparing to my 9x50 and would probably work just fine with binoculars or in the valley but nothing beats CdC for use with my dob. I compared the star field I saw near M108 and it was right on with CdC. The 'hockey stick' asterism was plain enough for confirming M97. I also played around with my new green laser and was surprised to find that I could see it easily in my 9x50. I could see it ok in my 25mm ep but it looked odd since the magnification was much higher.
Earlier this evening I used my old 60mm refractor to get a glimpse at Venus and Mercury just after sunset. I don't have a good clear view of the west from my deck so I had to move to the front yard but was able to see both with my 27mm ep. Both appeared as round shapes with no apparent crescent shape. Mercury is almost at the same altitude as Venus today.

A peek at Venus

Caught a glimpse of Venus last evening just before sunset. There was a cloud in the west but Venus peeked out about 10° Alt and almost due west. It was barely visible in the haze and sun glare but easy enough to glimpse unaided. I did not try using binocs. If it's clear in a couple of hours I may try setting up the scope for a peek but that doesn't look like it's going to happen!
My green laser finally arrived from etimeshop. Their email support stinks but their prices are right and the laser works just fine. I'm ready for a starparty and some sidewalk astronomy! Now if I just had a 'droid' with that cool starchart app.

Top of the kite

It was almost too cloudy tonight but the clouds parted just enough to see Vesta for a fourth time. This time it made a kite-like asterism with Gamma Leonis, 40 Leo, and SAO 99075 with 7th mag SAO 99092 as a kind of tail of the kite. Vesta is now above the pair having passed through probably sometime in the late afternoon. It is still fairly bright although I wasn't able to glimpse it in my 7x35's.
My Seymour Solar filter arrived today. It looks servicable enough although the logo sticker was a bit wrinkled. There don't appear to be any pinholes. I'll give it a shot the next time I see the sun. Now if the sun will just cooperate and throw up a sunspot or two to look at. The Seymour is just a dark film in a frame for the ETX-70 and not a hydrogen alpha filter. It'll be good for watching sunspots and transits but not for solar surface features.

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.