Saturn blowin' in the wind

We got home late last night after Tom and Lana's dance party and I noticed that we had a break in the clouds with Saturn and Spica peeking through. The wind was blowing pretty good but it was warm and I thought I'd take a look at Saturn after its long year off. It has been enticing me the past week, gleaming through my wicked oak tree in back. Tonight it was high in the sky. I hauled out the 8" and there it was! Rings nicely tilted and I spotted Titan right off on Saturn's right. Little Rhea winked in and out of visibility through the turbulence, about half way in between Titan and Saturn. I couldn't see the dimmer moons but they were in close anyway. The wind was trying to blow me over so I quit early. Welcome back Saturn. Goodby Jupiter.

Venus and Galaxy NGC2841

Another clear night in midmo with rain predicted later in the week so I decided to go for one more night before bad weather sets in even though my back was acting up a bit after our trip to Columbia today. For some reason or other the ISS didn't appear as predicted at 20:55 and to make matters worse, I knocked a foot off my 8" dob! A bit of repair work and it is as good as new. While waiting for it to get darker I took advantage of Venus' altitude and turned my scope toward the west. I was rewarded with a nice view through a green filter of a half-moon Venus. To help me decide what to look at tonight, I turned to Sue French's column in the April 2008 issue of S&T and went after NGC 2841 in the Big Bear. This is a spiral galaxy that is tilted so that it looks rather oval in my 8" at about 100x. A Hubble survey of its Cepheid variables determined that it is about 46 million light years distant. 2841 is near Theta UMa or the front knee of the bear. It's fairly easy to pick out, particularly with my Pocket Sky Chart, but was a bit high for comfort tonight. This might be one to try for in the valley next spring with the 5" Celestron.

Coma Cluster revisited

We got back from Paducah about 7:30 tonight after a visit with the folks in their new digs with sister Dorothy. It looks like the carpenter is about ready to start on the new addition to her house to get them some elbow room. It was another clear, cool night so I set up the 8" outside and went back to Coma Berenices and the Coma Cluster. It was behind the bird feeder again but I managed to tease it out this time. In between 31 and 41 ComBer there is a small triangle of three 7th and 8th mag stars with an apex pointed at an asterism that looked to me like a radio telescope or sat dish on a pedestal. Abel 1656 appeared as a textured cloud near the vertex of the triangle closest to 31 ComBer. I could tell it was 'something' as it moved with the star field when I nudged the scope. I was not able to see any real detail but the 'cloud' is fairly large, at least as large as the three star triangle. It probably won't be my favorite target, at least with an 8" scope, but I'm satisfied that I was able to see anything at all! It would be nice to be able to see some of the many many galaxies in this cluster with a larger scope. I quit after about an hour after glancing at Mars and scanning around Corvus a bit.

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.