September Messier Tour

I was surfing through some astronomy sites this afternoon and ran across Tony Cecce's monthly Messier Tour. This looked interesting even though I've logged all eight listed for September. They are all globular clusters which I enjoy observing: M13, M92, M14, M22, M28, M69, M70, M54. M13 and M92 in Hercules were easy in binocs although M92 was a bit harder and looked more like a star. I almost waited too long and M92 was about to disappear behind the house by the time I got to it. M13 is easiest since it is in the Hercules trapezoid and visible unaided. M92 can be found by spotting a little 'arrow' asterism just west of Iot Her, in fact it forms a rather flat isocoles triangle with Iot and Pi Her. The little arrow asterism points right at M92 which looks like a fairly bright star in my 7x50's. It was just 'below' a small square of 7th mag stars, one corner of which was a pair of stars. M22 is nice in my 7x50's and easy to find at the top of the Sgr teapot. M14 was visible in Ophiuchus but just barely, small and bright. M28, 69, 70, and 54 were all no-shows in binocs but easy enough in my 8" dob. I should probably try again and just look for a dim star where they ought to be. While I was near M22 I decided to try for some of the other globulars in Sagitarius and snagged IC6638 and IC6642, both small and dim even in my 8", definitely no-shows in binocs. I finished off the night with a peek at Jupiter's moons, three of which were visible, all on the same side. A single band could be readily seen. Just before shutting down I glanced over at the Andromeda Galaxy which was big and bright as usual, and the double cluster in Perseus which also was visible unaided, just not quite as bright as it was in Colorado.
Seeing was great, sky was steady, a little breeze, 70 degrees, 45% humidty, no dew, no moon, just a great night for observing.

Starting the Caldwell Catalog

Tonight was such a clear dark night that I just HAD to go out and gaze a bit. It was too early for my last remaining Messiers so I decided to a) see where Pluto was these days, and b) start on the Caldwell Catalog, Sir Patrick Caldwell-Moore's catalog of 109 interesting things to look at. I settled for C13, the Owl Cluster in Cassiopia since Cas is in a good position right now from my deck observatory. It's right near Phi Cas which is visible unaided and that made it really easy to find. I'll have to admit it's pretty impressive and even drew out a 'whoa' from me. It's alternately called the ET cluster or Dragonfly cluster and I saw both figures but prefer ET. While I was in the neighborhood, I moved over to M103. It's also easy to find and is pointed to by a little arc of three stars near Del Cas, the bright star at the apex of the obtuse V in Cas. I counted about 16 stars in the field of my 10mm ep. M103 is definitely better at 100x while C13 was best with the 27mm ep. I saw M103 as an upside-down office worker sitting in an office chair, like a guy getting ready to type up some code. I guess I could call it the Hacker Cluster. I also checked out Sagitarius and the area occupied by Pluto. If I want to try for it, it would be better a bit earlier in the evening before Sag goes behind a tree. All in all it was a good night if a bit chilly and a little dewey, a good night to just lay out and admire the night.

M74 and some really dark skies

We've been traveling through the western states the last couple of months and I took my ETX70 along, expecting to do some viewing in dark skies. Ha! I took it out exactly three times. The first was an impromptu star party at 'the ranch' in Montana with my brother in laws and their wives. The moon was pretty bright so we didn't get to see a lot. The skies are clear, no humidity to speak of, but aren't really all that dark. There's lots of light polution from the nearby town and neighbors. One other time, I couldn't get the thing leveled but the skies were really dark at Great Basin NP. The third time was at Mesa Verde with very good luck. I used the ETX's guided tour and was actually able to see several of the Messier galaxies. The best though was at Doc Hudler's cabin in the Wet Mountains of Colorado. The skies were so dark I saw a black cloud. Yup, with no light polution, clouds at night are actually black. Very startling. The Perseids were wonderful that dark night. I tried for M74 but just couldn't quite pull it out with my 7x50's. When I got back to Rolla, last night, I tried again after the moon had set about 3:00 am. Thin clouds (white this time) were rolling through but I managed to get in a quick peek at M74 with my 8" dob. The star field was right on and M74 was rather large with my 27mm ep but fairly dim. It would be nice to revisit this when the seeing conditions were better. I might be able to see some detail in this face on spiral galaxy.
With M74 gone, that only leaves 3 more Messiers.

My Equipment

Thought I'd add this while I'm at it and figure out later how to make it easier to find. I'm always trying to remember the specs on my equipment!
1. Orion Skyquest Classic Dob 8" 1200mm f5.9
2. Meade ETX-70 70mm 350mm f5
3. 27mm 25mm 10mm 2x barlow

Washed out

We've been washed out in more ways than one lately. It has been rainy or cloudy almost all of May so far and now the moon is coming on strong. Tonight (and last night) it is passably clear but a first quarter moon is just too bright. Arcturus and Ursa Major are high overhead and quite visible as is Spica in the South but dim stars are invisible. I did manage to snag a satellite traveling fast from S to N in the vicinity of Arcturus about 10:51 but heavens above didn't have it listed. I could see it easily with my 7x50's but not unaided. I may try for Scutum's treasures later tonight after the moon sets... and then again I may not!

Fun with the ETX70

The last few nights have been clear with no moon but the last few Messier objects I'm missing aren't visible yet so I decided to see what the ETX could do with a dark sky. It does better than in Texas but galaxies are still a challenge. I was able to see a couple of globular clusters ok but even M83, the brightest galaxy I tried, was visible as only the slightest smear in my eyepiece. M3 and M92 GCs were fine.
First off, I had to find north and found out that 75 degrees of altitude is the right setting for the north star at my latitude in Rolla. I used a small wooden stool from the shop as a table and after leveling it was off and running.
Limiting magnitude is about 9, even at my Rolla home. I checked this by sketching the field around Alchiba, Alpha Corvus, and comparing to CdC.
The ETX works fine with my pocket sky atlas. I could easily see all of the stars in the atlas and then some. I found out though that there is quite a limit to the ETX's database. It seems that some entirely useless objects are there and other brighter objects are not. For example, guided tour tries to point out several galaxies which would not be visible but NGC5466, a globular cluster, was not. I'll need to find the RA,Dec for the NGC's and other objects I want to look at and have them ready next time. I also need to get the ETX70 working with CdC.
Both nights were dry with about 55% humidity, temp in the 60's, light breeze.

M83 down, four more to go

Finally after weeks of either bright moon or rainy skies, a dark clear night. Hydra was up in an almost perfect spot for viewing M83 at 9:30 tonight so I grabbed my 7x50's and pocket atlas and headed for the deck. On a line between Menkent and Gamma Hydrae, there are two small asterisms: one a group of four mag 4 stars (1,2,3,4 Cen) that look to me like a satellite dish on a pedestal with the dish pointed at M83, the other is an arc of three mag 6 stars with a group of two stars off toward the dish. M83 forms a triangle with these two just to the west. It's big and almost covered half the field of my 10mm ep. I thought the view was a bit better in my 27mm ep though and was able to clearly make out the bar and at least imagined I saw one of the spiral arms.
Leo was chasing Mars tonight and Saturn is the olive in Virgo's martini. It was getting a bit damp from the dew so I quit early at about 10:30.