More Garrad

After watching Garrad a couple more times from Sam A Baker park on 26 Sept etc, I decided to try again tonight with my 8".  I checked earlier with my 7x50's but could not see it.  The half moon was still up so I wasn't too concerned.  Later about 10:00 the moon was setting and I tried with the 8" dob.  After a bit of fiddling I managed to get it in the eyepiece.  It wasn't visible in the 9x50 finder but was plain in the 27mm ep.  It was about half way on a line between HD 347950 and HD 165866 with a short tail pointed easterly.  Very nice and comet-like.  Earlier I showed off the moons of Jupiter to our friends Jan and Steve and their friends CB and Joan from St. Louis.  That capped off a very nice day of music and wine at Peaceful Bend Winery and a campfire with brats and more beer/wine at the ranch.  There was a fellow singing and playing like John Hartford at the winery today.  Very very nice.

Comet Garradd on a chilly September night

I read in S&T's newsletter that comet C/2009 P1 Garradd was visible and high in Hercules in the evening so decided to try to find it tonight.  The sky was clear after a night or two of clouds but it was quite cold at 51° F.  I had to bundle up in my watch cap and insulated coveralls!  The comet was supposed to be between magnitude 6 and 7 so I just used my trusty 7x50's and a comfy deck chair.  Armed with a printout from CdC and S&T's finder chart, I started looking.  Mu, Xi, and Omi Her were naked eye visible and about a field width in my 7x50's so that made a good starting point.  Using those three as a sort of parabolic reflector, about two field widths away is a nice little 'house' asterism of 5-8 stars: 101, 102, 95, and 96 Her are the brightest of the group.  Another field width and 90° north is another bright pair: 106 and 109 Her.  I put this pair and 101/102 on the edge of the field and BINGO there was the comet almost dead center.  At first I thought something might be wrong as I was expecting something as bright as nearby HR6852 at 6th magnitude but instead the comet appeared as an elongated dim patch, dim but plainly visible particularly with averted vision.
If the weather holds out the next few days, it'll be interesting to see if the patch moves noticeably.  This is a similar view to one of my first comets back in the 70's while living on Pauline Ln in Rolla.  I compared that one to a dirty snowball.  Garradd appeared to be elongated so perhaps I'll haul out the 8" this weekend to see what it looks like with a bit more light gathering capability.  Should be fun.

SN 2011FE and a Geosync sat try

The moon and rain were gone finally so I thought I'd try to catch a glimpse of the supernova in M101 again.  I read an article in S&T online that said it was still mag 10 and easy to see so I went out about 8:30 with my 8" dob.  Oops, I forgot that the dipper and M101 were slipping behind the house to the west!  Fortunately it was still above the roof and the fog had not settled in so I got the dob pointed and BINGO there it was, south and a bit west of center of M101.  The galaxy was easier to see tonight than last time and SN 2011FE stood out like a sore thumb.  Not a bad sight for a star that's 23 million light years away!
I thought 'that was easy' and decided to swing around to M11 and try for a geosynchronous satellite.  An article in Oct S&T described how to find them but once again I wasn't able to spot one.  I found M11 ok and that put me at about -6 dec which is about where the Clark Belt should be but no cigar.  The fog was settling in so visibility wasn't good.  Maybe next time when it is clearer.
Jupiter was rising as I quit and made an eerie glow through the mist in the hollow. 

More Vesta and M101's supernova

M101 was just about to go behind my house tonight but it was very clear and dark, if a bit dewey tonight so I thought I'd try for the supernova that popped up the other day in M101. I finally got it in the eyepiece; for such a big thing it was a bit hard to find and I practically had to fall off the deck to see it above the house. It has a low surface brightness and is barely visible in my 8" dob with a 27mm ep. I got it, switched to a 10mm and noticed several flickering pinpoints of light in the body of M101. I saw one particularly bright, relatively speaking, just a bit north of the galactic center. That could have been it but I wouldn't care to bet on it! M101 was a nice sight anyway and well worth looking for again.
I next swung around to check out Vesta, with the 8" this time. I've been watching in binoculars, and at mag 6, Vesta is easy to pick out. It's getting close to Psi Cap. There is a little three star hockey stick between Psi and Omega Cap that is visible in my 7x50's and Vesta makes the 4th corner of a box with those three. It is noticeably brighter than the elbow of the stick diagonally opposite Vesta, not quite as bright as the end closer to Omega and brighter than the end closer to Psi. That puts it at about mag 6. I checked it out with my 27mm ep but Vesta really shown forth when I popped in the 10mm. It was smack in the middle of a pentagon of five 10th mag stars! Very pretty. One of the stars was a bit brighter and is in my CdC catalog identified as 9.98 mag SAO189710. Vesta is about the same angular distance from it as TYC6926-00302-1 is from its companion: about 2.5 arc minutes. If the sky stays clear, it'll be fun to watch it get closer to Psi Cap. It should be out of the pentagon in a few hours but I don't think I'll be up to watch. I'm kind of tired after dancing for 5 hours and walking all over tower grove park today!

Vesta and Ceres

After suffering through the heat and humidity of earlier August and a full moon to boot, tonight was finally great seeing. Temperature was in high 60's, no moon, clear and sharp skies. The milky way was visible all the way to Casseopia. I decided to check on Vesta which I've been watching before the moon got too bright, and also see if I could snag Ceres who is also in the neighborhood. Vesta was still pretty bright and has now moved over next to Psi Cap and it makes a nice group with Omega Cap although not nearly as bright as those two. It's about a magnitude 6 now.
Ceres was another matter. It's fairly dim and in an area I'm not that familiar with: Cetus. It's not far from Beta Cetus or Diphda the second frog. Now I wonder what is the 'first frog'? Diphda was easily visible peeking out from behind an oak tree but I decided to hop from Fomalhout instead since the stars seemed a bit brighter in that area. From Alpha PsA I went 'up' to a group of 3 stars about 2 binocular widths: 86, 89, and 88 PsA. From there, east about a half binocular width to 98, 99, 101 PsA and then over about a binocular width to a group of five stars making what I call 'the snake'. It looked like the head of a snake poking up out of the grass: 103, 104, 106, 107, 108 PsA. That was all pretty easy. Now it got a bit trickier. The snake is about a half field width in my 7x50's. If I center 108, 2Cet pops into view making about a 120 degree angle with the snake. If I center 2 Cet, 6 Cet pops into view almost in a direct line from 108 PsA. If I center 6 Cet, I get a little arc of three dim mag 7 stars with Ceres just below the arc. It's a bit dimmer at almost mag 8. 6 Cet, the little arc and a dim little three star 'hocky stick' form a line with Ceres just below the middle of the line about as far as the size of the arc.
I finished off the night by checking out Jupiter which was rising in the east. I could sometimes make out Ganeymede in the glare if I held the binocs against a post.

Sunspots are back!

I read yesterday that sunspots are back after a several year hiatus, so this morning I set up the ETX-70 with its solar filter and got a look at my first sunspot in quite awhile. It was tiny with a tail, like a tadpole. I believe this is sunspot 1263 that has been in the news the last few days and has caused some nice aurora activity in northern Minnesota and other northern states. It's at about 11:00 in the image shown here. I shot this with my Sony point-and-shoot held up to the eyepiece so the spot is a bit fuzzy. I was pleased to be able to see it at all! It was a good thing I looked when I did because a few minutes later, a big cloud covered the sun for most of the rest of the day.
The past few nights with the exception of last night, have been pretty good and I've enjoyed watching Vesta march its way across Capricorn. The moon is about at 1st quarter tonight and there were clouds by Capricorn. If conditions are right when the moon leaves us again, I'll have to check out Vesta and Ceres which is supposed to be in the neighborhood as well.

A Vesta Fiesta

The last few nights have been wonderful. We've had a record heat wave during the daytime but the nights have cooled off into the low 80's and with a light breeze and low humidity have been wonderful for viewing. Last night the milky way was gorgeous, and again tonight. I decided to try for Vesta since it is near opposition and bright. Capricorn was up nicely in the SE although it took a lot of back and forth with my pocket sky atlas and 7x50 binoculars to convince myself it was really Capricorn. By midnight, my eyes had become dark adapted enough to clearly make out the bat-wing shape of Capricornus without binoculars. Earlier, I had updated my asteroid elements and had plotted the position of Vesta with Ciel. Armed with that information and my pocket sky atlas I began to look for something that wasn't supposed to be there. Right now, the stars from Zet and 34 Cap to Eta Cap form a kind of upside down ice cream cone, with a single scoop formed from 33 and 35 on one side with three non-descript stars on the other. The apex of the cone is Zet Cap with one side formed by 27 and Phi Cap, and the other by Chi Cap and Vesta. The clincher was a small group of 4 stars in the atlas that look like an L, 7, or a checkmark. These are all mag 7 with no mag 5 or 6 stars nearby. Bright Vesta is right next to the middle star of the leg of the L (SAO190147), a mag 7 star that stands out nicely from brighter Vesta.
Vesta is the brightest asteroid and large with a diameter of 330 miles. The Dawn spacecraft began orbiting Vesta on July 16, 2011 and is sending back images. It will continue taking data around Vesta until July 2012 when it will leave orbit and head for the dwarf planet Ceres.