The rising of the Crow

The last few nights have been clear after we returned to MidMO and I decided to squeeze some observing in between visits from Grandkids and visits to Mom and Dad. The ISS was due over at 8:32 this evening so I got everything set up before that: 8" dob, 7x50 binocs, warm clothes, charts, SW receiver (for WWV), comfy chair, etc. The temperature was comfortable when I started but dropped to 49 by quitting time after 'the crow' rose in the east. Saturn was also visible just north of Spica a few degrees but it was behind a *$#@ tree. Maybe later. Venus was also still up at 10:30 shining brightly in the West. I had read Alan Whitman's column in the April S&T on the Coma Cluster so I thought I'd visit that area tonight. UMa was high and cleared that 'other' nasty old tree so I thought I'd have a clear shot. I did and snagged M51 and its companion NGC5195 easily. The two galaxies made a consipicuous triangle with two 7th mag stars and made a nice sight in my 25mm ep with the 8". Next I moved over to M63, another galaxy that I had seen before but worth visiting again although it wasn't as bright as M51. Two nearby 9.8 and 9.5 mag stars were consipicuous in my 10 mm ep. M63 appeared somewhat elongated along a NE to SW line. Next I searched for Coma Berenices. The constellation's stars are dim but I was able to make out the fuzzy patch of stars making up Bere's hair and found what I thought was Beta CB as well as the pair of pairs bracketing the Coma Cluster. M3 and M53 are two nice globular clusters and it has been awhile since I've seen a good globular. I really like watching the little pinpricks of stars popping in and out of these interesting objects so I went after M53. I was able to find the right area with my 7x50's but when I switched to the dob's finder, it was behind the bird feeder. Rats, foiled again. I quickly switched to M3 and found it lurking alone in a sparsely populated area. It took awhile to find but my patience paid off. Its amazing how fast time flies when I'm listening to WWV while observing! The minutes just flew by. And, speaking of flying, the ISS appeared on schedule and I was even able to track it with my 8". I didn't see any detail but was able to keep up with it (barely). Mars was also calling my name so just before quitting, I turned the 8" on the red planet. It was big but too bright to make out any surface detail. A filter may have helped but it was getting late. I noticed Corvus starting to climb in the SE and decided it was time to quit. We head off to Paducah KY tomorrow after taking the car into King Auto Glass for a new windshield (south texas struck again) so the day will be starting early.
I should mention that last night we also did some observing with the grandkids (Issac and Joseph, Stacie and Linda's two boys) but no scope, just eyeballs and a green laser. I think the boys were more interested in the 'light saber' but we enjoyed looking at Orion and his two dogs. The star of the show though was Venus paired with the Pleades in my 7x50 binoc field. Quite a pretty sight. The shadow cast by Venus was also rather spectacular.

Stars in the park

Tonight was one of those exceptionally clear nights in south Texas with no moon, and it was Thursday on top of it. The night hike started an hour later due to DST so I met Javier at 7:00. There was a Master Naturalist class in session so we waited until 7:30 to set up. I showed Javier a little about the Celestron hand controller and we aligned on Jupiter, Venus, and Mars. It's disturbing how much I had forgotten about the scope since I last used it! It wasn't really dark by the time the first group showed up at 8:15 but dark enough to make out Jupiter's moons and M42. Later we switched to M45 and even glanced at Mars for a bit. A few from the class dropped by about 9:00 and we shut down at 9:30 after a good evening of viewing. The mosquitoes were thick but our Off managed to hold them at bay. Javier and I saw the HST about 8:15 and several saw meteors throughout the evening but I managed to be looking the other way every time. 'Jesse' and I had a long conversation about telescopes in general and he expressed an interest in getting something for home.
I tried to spot Garrad in the little 3" without luck. Later I tried with my 7x50's from my backyard observatory but still no luck. I could make out 38 UMa easy enough but no comet. The Celestron behaved pretty well though, even though we managed to kick and move it around quite a bit. The legs extended about 1/3 seemed to work out best. Javier was impressed with its 'tour' feature.
In the heat of quickly changing eye pieces and keeping things moving I managed to 'lose' one of the 25mm ep's. I found it in the bottom of my bag after returning home and gave it a good scolding for hiding from me.

No Garradd tonight

The last couple of nights have been pretty good seeing. Last night at our fish fry I was able to treat our friends to the pretty sight of Venus and Jupiter low in the west accompanied by Mercury even lower but shining brightly in the palm trees and Mars rising above the house in the east. It was clear enough that I decided to try for comet Garradd. No such luck last night. Tonight I came better prepared with my chart. I was able to make out the big dipper high in the north and Polaris above my neighbor's house but the neighborhood lights and a half moon made it difficult to see much else. In binoculars I was able to find Kocab (BetUMi) and Gamma UMi with it's dim companion. From there I slid just a bit east to find HR5589 and HR5691 and their dimmer companions which make a distinct trapezoid and point at the position of Garradd but no comet. It's just too bright for my 7x50's to pick out. I thought I was able to occasionally make out a pin point of light where the comet should have been but it was more stellar than a comet should have been. I'll have to try later when the moon is gone and Garradd rises higher toward UMa. I'll also have to try setting my scope up and using that or one at the park.

Clear skies (again) at Bentsen State Park

The weatherman was foiled again and we had clear skies in the valley finally instead of the promised rain for today. I headed out about 5:30 to meet Roy R. and Jack H and set up the Celestron and Orion scopes as usual. I was early enough to read the manual and play with the hand control a bit before the sun went down so was able to do a bit more with it tonight. I'm still not able to read the dim red light and had to use a white flashlight to see the display but that's ok. Venus and Jupiter put on their usual good show and Jupiter was in a better position earlier on. The four moons cooperated nicely as well. Jack led the group of about a dozen adults on a tour of the visible constellations and led into my view of Jupiter and the Orion nebula. We weren't able to see M31 as it was behind a tree from the celestron's position but we were able to find it in binoculars. Favorite overheard conversation: her:"we are all made of stars honey", him: "no we're not", "yes we are"... Several also commented it was the highlight of their night. One fellow from Chicago stayed later and chatted with us awhile and I was able to show him that Venus has phases. Venus is about half lit right now. By the time we looked, Venus had dipped into the murk and was boiling like crazy but we were able to convince ourselves that it was half lit.

The Celestron behaved nicely. Alignment was flawless and it behaved fine until I kicked the tripod hard enough to knock it off position. I realigned quickly and was back in business. It was dead on the few times that I slewed to another object. I'll need to get a better list of objects lined up next time. The tour is ok but many of the objects were too low or behind trees to actually see.

More sidewalk astronomy at the park

Everything finally converged and we had a great night for star gazing in the park. Roy R. led the night walk tonight and I set up the Orion and Celestron scopes up in the courtyard. It was crystal clear tonight so I was able to give both scopes a pretty good workout. I'm not yet familiar with the Celestron's hc so I was limited in what we could look at with it but found the moon, venus, and jupiter just fine with it. Alignment is a breeze and seems to be pretty accurate. I used the 'skyalign' mode that requires one to center three bright objects in the ep. The hc then figures out what they are and that's it. I used the moon, venus, and sirius which was visible about dusk. The hc did not list jupiter at first since it was near the zenith and out of reach by the scope. It moved enough by 7:45 that we were able to see it and three moons just fine. Europa and Io were actually aligned so all four were visible, it just looked like three. Calisto was particularly bright. Mare Crisium was an obvious feature on the moon. Wrinkle ridges in the mare were very apparent. I tightened up the 3" mount and it behaved much better. I was able to slew it around to both the Orion nebula and andromeda galaxy fairly quickly. I wasn't familiar enough with the Celestron hc to find anything except planets with it. I need to get out early saturday and play with it some more.
I had both scopes set up low in case young children showed up but everyone was older tonight. Older and better informed! We had some nice discussions on how far it was to venus etc, why the moon was in a different orientation here than in Minnesota, whether we were going to crash into the Andromeda galaxy, and how far were Jupiters moons from Jupiter (I didn't know that one).
Shirtsleeves were fine early but it was cool enough later for a long sleeve shirt. Two chairs worked out fine. Some viewers sat while looking but most just stooped over. Several had binoculars and used them.

First light at the park

After last night's debacle with Venus, tonight was a total success. Last night it finally cleared and I went out about 7:30 to catch a glimpse of Venus. I got the ETX all lined up, got Venus in the crosshairs and settled in for a good look. Just in time to see it disappear behind my neighbor's carport! Sigh.
Tonight was the regular night walk at the park. It wasn't clear, far from it, but I thought it might clear at dark like it did last night. So... I packed up my old kit bag and headed south. Melissa drew the short straw and led the party on their night walk while I got the scopes set up. I was optimistic and had both set up. Right on cue, Venus popped out about 6:30 followed shortly after by Jupiter. Oh boy! We're going to have fun. Five minutes later Venus and Jupiter both disappeared behind dark clouds. The clouds appeared just as the sun set and decided to stick around. Both Venus and Jupiter popped out periodically but never long enough to get the scope lined up. I gave up completely on the Celestron since there weren't any stars to line up on. The Orion 3" was at least agile enough to move into position when the opportunity presented. Jupiter was behaving badly and not only popped in and out of visibility, it was too high to reach with the alt-az mount, and the moons were all hiding. Eventually it got low enough to reach with the 3" and came out long enough to snag with the red dot finder. Once I got it centered and focused, all was well. I could see it almost 100% of the time, occasionally even spotting the 2 storm bands. Venus never did cooperate. About 7:30 the night walkers came in and I had a good time showing off Jupiter to about 12 park visitors, a nice mix of adults and kids. Note to self: drop the tripod a few inches and get a step stool for the little guys. Only the taller visitors were able to watch. Even with the clouds and no Galilean moons, everyone seemed pleased and wanted to come back later when it was clear. The night walk was successful too: screech owl, great horned, 3 coyotes, an armadillo, bats, and even a scorpion.
I need to spend some time with the Celestron to familiarize myself with its operation, even if its during daylight. I also need to tighten up the mount on the 3" orion. It's just too wobbly. The Celestron still needs a bolt for one of the tripod legs.
A good plan would be to set up the Celestron on some nice target like Jupiter and leave it, while using the 3" to quickly move to other targets of interest. The mount isn't a dob but it's not hard to move around.
All in all, not a bad night for 'first light'.

A Quadrantid - I think

The annual Quadrantid meteor shower was heralded for last night. It was nice and clear, the moon had set, not too cold (high 40's), no wind, so even though I had a sore throat coming on, I gathered up my stuff and went out back at 3:00 am to take a look for myself. I watched from 3:00 and gave up at 3:30: too cold and not enough meteors to hold my interest. That and I was afraid I'd aggravate that sore throat. It's better today though. I did see one fairly bright one. I'd guess it was at least magnitude 1, maybe even 0 or -1. The limiting magnitude was a bit less than 4. I could usually make out Upsilon Ursa Major which CdC pegs at 3.8 magnitude. Occasionally I even had difficulty with Delta UMa, where the handle meets the bowl. The quad I saw left a trail about as long as the dipper's handle and ran from about the general area of Canes Venatici to the edge of Leo, roughly NE to SW. I was watching in an area roughly 45 degrees in diameter, with loads of light pollution. The worst time was when my neighbor's motion light picked me up and lit up the white fence post just to my right like a beacon. That only lasted a few minutes and then I was back in my nice 'dark' viewing spot. I would have liked to have been out longer and might have if I had a good backyard lounge chair and a blanket. Perhaps if we are back in MO in April and the viewing conditions are good I'll try to catch another shower and try to document it even better.