The mysterious asteroid

[Kn4fty]

Saturday night presented one of the clearest nights here in quite a while. I set my 8" newt, Copernicus, up and polar aligned. My first target for the night was comet 64p Swift Gehrels. I swung from my reference star to it's coordinates. Unfortunately my luck with comets this year has been bad. I rest and swung back to make sure I didn't screw up my coordinates. At mag 11.5 it should be well within the ability of my faithful friend. But alas I was to remain cometless. 

I then went in search of my next target, M 103. I was quickly on it. The 4 brightest stars popped right out and appeared to have a haze around them. Since I hadn't been out long, I stayed at the EP as my eyes night vision improved. The haze slowly changed into stars. Many quite obvious, while others needed averted vision. A few were even stellaring in an out. It was such a beautiful little open cluster. I just observed for a bit before I did any sketching.

My next visit of the night was to Juno. I set on Aldeberon as my reference and then dialed in Juno's coordinates. Hmmmm nothing there but stars. I matched up the starfields of not just Juno's position, but also the surrounding areas to confirm the right place. I looked and looked, but no Juno. She should be obvious since she has a mag of 8.09 and a nearby star is 8. She should only be slightly dimmer, but still noticable. I stayed at the EP for a couple hours trying to see if it would appear even if only stellaring. Nothing... Then the stars began to dim and dim and dim.... What in the world is going on?? I look at the EP and noticed it was fogged up. After clearing the lense I look in the scope again, but everything is still dim. I ponder this for a bit trying to figure it out. I remove the EP to look it over. It looks ok. I happen to glance towards the focuser and see it! My secondary is fogged up! In over 20 years of observing, I have never had a secondary fog up. After clearing the mirror, I pop the EP in and use RA to bring Juno's position back into view. Still no Juno. In that particular direction is a small light dome from an expressway. It's hardly noticable. Could that be the problem? Everything looks brighter around me. No, I don't think so. It's never been and issue in the past and all looks brighter since I'm dark adapted. I started to think about sizes. Juno only has an apparent diameter of 0.3 archseconds, hmmmmm. I throw the 26mm EP into a 2x Barlow and try again. Wait... I'm seeing more things..... There it is! Right where it should be! A tiny speck in Juno's position! It was a long hard fought search, but I found that gorgeous little rock right where she should be! I immediately set to sketching the view. I wasn't going to miss the moment of victory! I'm still befuddled why at it's magnitude that it wasn't obvious, but it didn't matter since I found it.

It was now time to find my last subject for the night, M1 Crab Nebula. I went back to Aldeberon and plugged in M1's coordinates. There it was hanging like a fuzzy oval among the stars. It was just noticable. I tried my broadband and narrowband filters to see which gave a better contrast. It was close, but the BB won out. I kept the 26mm EP in since it was such a gorgeous scene with it hanging there surrounded by stars. Frankly, it was so mesmerizing I forgot I had other EPs hahahaha. I finally pulled myself out of it's power and did a quick sketch. By this time it was getting late and my eyelids we're starting to droop. I packed up my gear and said goodnight to a gorgeous sky.

 

[Stu]

Good session there, you did persevere well to catch Juno! Not sure I would have spent a couple of hours at it but good on you!

I struggled with M1 for years, until I tried it under a decently dark sky for the first time and caught it straight away!

[estwing]

nice catch....M1 is fantastic under dark skies, detail can be stunning, clear skies.

[Kn4fty]

Thanks y'all. It was nice to see. I didn't see a whole lot of detail, but I was using my lowest power EP, so it was small. As to Juno, I knew I was in the right place and my stubborn streak took over lol. I can be so stubborn that I could make a mule cry!

[Davey-T]

Have you had a look for Hygeia ? lurking in Pisces ATM bit higher up than Juno in this neck of the woods.

Dave

[Kn4fty]

No I haven't. I'll stick it on my list! Thanks for the heads up. What's it's current magnitude?

[Stu]

2 hours ago, Kn4fty said:

No I haven't. I'll stick it on my list! Thanks for the heads up. What's it's current magnitude?

Looks like mag +10.4

[Kn4fty]

Thanks Stu. I appreciate it much! I'll be checking it out on the next clear night off I have.