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jonathan

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Blog Entries posted by jonathan

  1. jonathan
    Despite the almost full moon and several inches of frozen snow on the ground, I decided to get out and see what I could see using the new Binocular tripod mount bracket I'd just purchased from FLO. The snow was crunchy under foot, like someone had sugar-coated the ground.
    I printed off December's sky map and set my sights for M37, described as 'Very fine star cluster'.
    After spending some time reading the star map the wrong way around I finally figured out which part of the sky I should be looking at, but by this time a large bank of cloud was approaching and some smaller clouds were making their way across my field of view.
    I think I was in the right area, I may even have found Auriga, but M37, M36, and M38 eluded me. I assume the moon was just too bright, almost everything but the brightest stars were washed out, I couldn't even find the Great Square of Pegasus or Jupiter (probably mostly due to the cloud).
    It started to snow just as I was packing up, although by the time I got inside I noticed it had cleared again. I'd had enough of freezing my nuts off anyway - next time I should wear my thicker cords!
  2. jonathan

    Battery update

    By jonathan,

    Expected delivery at the suppliers for the AGM battery I am hoping to buy is 5th December, just two weeks to wait.
    Until then it will be binoculars and the ST80.
  3. jonathan
    Having studied M42 through my Celestron 8SE with the supplied 25mm and Celestron X-Cel 10mm eyepieces last winter I was curious to see how well the ST80 could display it using the same eyepieces, as well as the standard ones that came with the telescope; I was pleasantly surprised at how good the views were.
    From memory of last year's viewing through the 8SE I remember the view being much larger, though that could have been through the 38mm (2mm, won't fit the ST80).
    I was able to clearly make out three stars at the centre, and the three stars in a line leading to the outer edge of the nebula. The classic bird shape was distinguishable using averted vision, along with the sharp-edged black area at the 'top' (as seen through the telescope).
    I could certainly see a lot more than was possible with my 8x42 binoculars so the telescope viewing was well worth the effort.
    Also tonight using the same eyepieces I viewed Jupiter and could clearly make out two rings using the X-Cel 10mm, also Pleiades and Betelgeuse for good measure.
    This viewing was over a moderately light-polluted part of the village - above the local pub and my neighbour (who always has some exterior lighting on until late), and the main road with street lighting, although there were no direct lights shining at my observing spot; taking all of that into account I was suitably impressed with the ST80's performance tonight.
  4. jonathan

    The Moon

    By jonathan,

    I had admired the moon yesterday as it was a new crescent, with Venus and Jupiter still close by from the recent near-miss conjunction (from my location), I decided to have a go with the telescope tonight.
    I had the telescope set up before sunset, the moon and Venus were clearly visible, as the sun set but it was still light I also noticed Jupiter and Mars so I had a look at both - Jupiter was looking very nice, several bands visible and four moons in a long line (still only just dusk, daylight practically); Venus was in half-phase but still amazingly bright in the daylight. The moon looked good too, just the crescent was visible at this time, stunning to see the whole moon in the 38mm. I decided to turn the NEQ6 off and come back outside after dark.
    I switched my attention to the earth-shine lit shadowed portion of the moon, it was visible with the naked eye and through the scope was a dim mystery, the usual dark areas and major craters just visible through a purple-ish haze.
    Had a bit of a random scout around, looked at one or two star clusters but the seeing just wasn't up to par for regular stars. There were a couple of funky light shows from the brighter stars close to the horizon as their light played like a multi-coloured disco ball through the earth's atmosphere, it looked crazy!
    I was hoping that Saturn would make an appearance before 10pm but it didn't, blocked by buildings and hedges no doubt. With the seeing not brilliant it would not have been as good a view as the one I had of Saturn recently anyway.
    With the moon all ready to set I decided to pack away, there had been hardly any dew to speak of but I sense it was just beginning to come on as I was packing up, my filter case top was covered in it.
  5. jonathan
    I decided to get The Big One out (8SE, NEQ6) as this may be the best and darkest skies I get before the Autumn.
    Took the scope out and began setting up about 10pm, didn't wait long for cool-down as it was so (relatively) warm outside anyway, there was no dew so I just used the dewshield - no heaters! Only the second time I have not had heaters on and got away with it.
    I primarily went out to see Saturn and managed to get some great views of the magnificent giant, among the best I've ever had. I convinced myself that I could make out the Cassini Division this time, a black line just visible around the edge of the rings, most noticeable across the disc of Saturn itself. I have not seen this before due to poor seeing conditions when ever Saturn was up. I could also see a band across Saturn.
    I fancy I could make out three or four of Saturn's moons too, if the bright one I saw is actually a moon and not a star.
    After being awed by Saturn for a while I had a quick look at Mars, it appeared to be in a slight phase, not a complete disc.
    I also viewed what I think was Arcturus and Vega, with short trips back to Saturn as it made it's way across the night sky.
    By this time my eyes were getting a bit bleary and I found myself sitting in the chair 'resting my eyes' for a few minutes! Been a hot day at the office..
    I decided to try and end the night on a high so consulted Turn Left at Orion to see if there was something interesting that took my fancy... M13 looked like it could be an easy target, and it was. I located the Keystone as described in the book, sure enough by the top right star was a fuzzy patch in my binoculars, soon found this in my eyepiece with the help of the red dot finder and regular finder. A fairly impressive globular cluster!
    One last look at Saturn and then it was time to call it a night.
  6. jonathan
    Almost September, the dark nights are already here, the dark evenings are fast approaching.
    Currently busy paying back my student loan, but once that is done I shall be purchasing either an Equinox 80 or Evostar 80ED, I keep swaying to one or the other, but either way it should be an excellent replacement for my ST80 (which I will probably have to sell to make space). This will be used on the CG-4 for visual and, if I am brave, a dabble in wide-field astrophotography, mostly star field views but perhaps planets too.
    I'd also like to try a TAL 100RS on the CG-4 mount, that should be excellent for planets and the moon. I know the 8SE is probably it's equal or better, but the factor of size comes into it - the 8SE and NEQ6 are very big and heavy, and I can't always be arsed to get them out!
    I have a bashed toe at the moment so have not been willing to do much for the past week, I may get the CG-4 out this week (weather permitting) as the toe is showing signs of slowly healing, but the last thing I want to do is bash it again.
  7. jonathan

    A beautiful sight

    By jonathan,

    Amazing what can be seen in just 30 minutes with a pair of binoculars. Tonight I just decided to pop outside with my binoculars and the little StarPocket scope I picked up for 30p last weekend, had fun identifying the stars with it, then scanned the stars with the binoculars.
    Saw part of a shooting star in the binoculars as I was observing one of the large clusters near Cassiopia, picked out Pleiades with the naked eye - saw about six and a half stars, looked beautiful in the binoculars. Also saw the Andromeda Galaxy, it's looking pretty good now (after 11pm). I noticed a bright star peeking out between some trees, a look in the binoculars confirmed that it was Jupiter with it's moons, which looked like four or five tiny pin pricks in a black sheet of card held up to the light.
    Time to dust off the scopes and think about some cool nights under the stars... the cool nights are here, time to start wrapping up warm and wear a hat.
    Saw quite a bit of dew on my car as I came in tonight, just hope that my dew prevention measures will be up to it.
    Next month I am likely to purchase the Equinox 80, which will replace my ST80 as a grab and go (ish), that should add plenty of interest for me to start off the dark skies season. I will likely buy a motor drive for the CG-4 too, probably dual axis as it doesn't cost much more than RA axis only.
  8. jonathan

    Astro-fast is over!

    By jonathan,

    I finally got my act together, and so did the weather, and tonight I went outside with my 8SE / NEQ6. The skies were relatively clear, just some threatening cloud to the East over the sea but I don't think it ever made land, then just the occasional patch of cloud which came and went fairly quickly.
    Having not really done anything other than binoculars and one session with my ST80, I had to go back to Turn Left At Orion as I had little idea of what to aim for. I flicked to the Autumn section and worked my way through it, page by page; to my surprise, I was finding most of the targets relatively easily, experience shining through there, only one really gave me trouble and that was the first one - M15; this was just too low and in the light pollution from the pub, I had a good go but just couldn't see anything apart from the brightest stars so low over the roofs. I skipped several other targets down that way, South East of the Great Square of Pegasus, not much point in trying under those conditions.
    Had a look at M31, the Andromeda Galaxy, but it didn't seem that impressive, perhaps due to the amount of light pollution from either side of our garden. Annoyingly, neighbours on one side seem to have a security light on full beam all night until 11pm, most annoying, and they're not even out in the yard.
    Almach was my next target, I had actually found this when scouting for M31 and had a quick look then, but found it again for a longer look. Very pretty large blue star with a smaller companion, looks great in the 8SE with 25mm eyepiece.
    Mesarthim is a double star I don't remember looking at previously, very uniform size and easy to see, relatively easy to find too.
    Took me a while to find Eta Cassiopeiae in Cassiopeiae, a double star in the W. At this point I noticed the dew was getting to be quite thick, and my finder scope wasn't showing much; it turned out that it was dewed up at both ends, the eyepiece end seemed to mist up just from my breath or my warm face being near it, and I discovered that my dew heater controller had failed on one of the channels. I switched the cables over to channel 2, and it started to un-dew on the finder scope (and my main scope, which had been without a working dew heater for at least 30 minutes, possibly longer, and was beginning to seriously dew up). Found it in the end, a nice double star in the 8SE.
    I decided to give the open clusters in Cassiopeia a miss tonight, that seemed like a night's viewing all of it's own.
    M34 threw me a bit due to the rotation of the picture in the book, I was looking between Kappa and Algol for a while, but as soon as I realised my mistake I found M34 straight away, a lovely open cluster.
    Finally, the last target for Autumn in the book, The Double Cluster NGC 869 and NGC 884 in Perseus. Found this relatively easily by following the left most stroke of the W in Cassiopeia South, it was just visible to the naked eye and appeared as a dark smudge in my finder scope (which was still half fogged up with dew). It didn't quite all fit into my 25mm so gave it a go with the 38mm wide eyepiece, which displayed it beautifully; both clusters were just in the frame, sharp points of light. The book says that some are red in appearance, and I think I could definitely see this for some of them, although sometimes suggestion goes a long way!
    I wanted something good to finish the night on so I looked out for Jupiter, caught a quick glimpse of the Pleiades but it was best viewed in binoculars. Jupiter was still behind my neighbour's hedge at 10pm so I decided to go inside for a while to warm up. Came back out about 10.30 and it was just clearing the hedge. The 10mm was not too bad tonight, I could definitely make out three distinct bands but the image was slightly dim and indistinct, not the best of seeing conditions. In the 25mm eyepiece it was nice and bright, and I could also appreciate the three bands and three of the moons too. I fancy I could just about make out a dark spot on one of the bands, not sure if it was the great red spot.
    Not too bad for a first time out for a long time. I will be looking at the dew heater situation, it may just be a loose connection in the controller, or maybe something has burned out. I also forgot that I wanted to make a dew shield for my finder scope, so will have to look for suitable thin material to make that out of. Something to keep me busy until the next time I get out, which I expect will be November sometime. Will have to move on to the Winter targets!
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