First the Fire, then the Ice

[Hayduke27]

It's been a while since I have posted a report, mainly because I have had little to report.  Work is busy, which is good on many levels, but I have had a minimum amount of time to spend looking at the sky.  That being said, I broke the ice a little over September and October with my solar telescope.  Having owned it for just about 2 years now, there has not been a lot to see, as the sun has been so quiet.  However, these  recent months have kicked up the solar activity levels a notch.  I have seen my first sun spots, seen my biggest and most abundant prominences yet, and being able to pop outside during the day for 20-30 minutes was far more conducive to doing around my work schedule.  As I use my solar scope more, I keep learning how to finagle the adjustable filters and focus to tease out the different features.  I then compare what I'm seeing to online solar telescope live images, and to my delight I am able to make out pretty much all of the major features I see.  It's been a delight, and kept me writing in my stargazing journal.  It also makes me very jealous of all the people who are getting to enjoy the auroras right now!  Talk about a bucket list item, I have to see the northern lights someday!  OH!  And as I P.S. to this part, I observed a satellite transit the sun one day, could clearly see it's little robot shape.  It was quite a cool surprise!

 

So having already griped about my lack of time to get out under the night sky, I will say the upside has been that the paychecks have allowed me to treat myself, and I just bought myself a nice Oberwerk Binocular Telescope.  I just had the bug, started out by trying a cheap pair of big Celestron binos that came uncollimated and no good, and after returning them I decided to just treat myself.  My Oberwerks arrived on Tuesday, which of course was cloudy and raining into the night (until the snow started).  Wednesday and Thursday, however, were both nice and clear, and I made it out for some excellent viewing

 

As most of you know, it is amazing to pull out a big light bucket of a telescope and really get some good resolution of some far away objects.  However, as many of you also know, sitting back with a small set of binoculars, reclined in a chair, and just casually sweeping around the sky is so easy and casual that it can be preferred to setting up all of the telescope kit on certain nights.  I almost always end my telescope sessions with a little casual sky-surfing with the binoculars, and it is just plain fun.  Having experienced this so many times, I decided to pull the trigger on the big Oberwerks to sort of combine the increased resolution and magnification of the telescope with the ease of binoculars.  Long story short, I haven't been disappointed.  Though it's been chilly (-8*C, cue the ice!), I have some highlights from the evenings of 11/3 and 11/4:

 

My first note using the new binoculars was that it took me a minute to be able to see a single image clearly through them!  I don't know if it was the binocular adjustments or my brain getting used to it, probably both, but I spend a frustrating 15-20 minutes looking at 2 Jupiters and not knowing what to do about it.  I finally decided to turn away from the giant planet and just look around casually, swinging the binos around on the tripod and taking in the dimmer objects in the sky.  It took me no time to find Andromeda, and BOOM!  Just like that I was seeing a clear single image.  I think my brain finally clicked.  I had no more problems with double vision, including a return to Jupiter later that evening.  I found M33 with ease and enjoyed the view, scoped out Albireo, always a favorite, and jumped over to the Ring Nebula.  Though small, it was easily recognizable and really gave me joy being able to just star hop to it on my own.  I was able to pick out the Eastern Veil Nebula, and maybe saw the Western part too but it was far harder.  Jumped back through Jupiter and Saturn and then ended the night in the Double Cluster in Perseus.  A great first light with the new binoculars.

 

Night 2 brought more goodness.  I had a small observing list this night, but even so as I got set up I couldn't help but begin with Venus.  I could immediately see the phase of Venus, with the left side shaded, which brought great satisfaction.  I watched it set over the mountains, then moved through the southern nebulas including M17, the Omega, M8, the Lagoon, M20, the Trifid, and M16, the Eagle.  M17 showed the most nebulosity, M8 is always pleasing because of the cluster of stars in there.  The others I found readily but were not as notable. I jumped around through the globular clusters M22, M28, M2, M15, and M13.  All were clear and easy to find, but I couldn't resolve any stars.  They were just blurry spots, but I was happy to find my way across them!  I have read a lot of talk about Almach lately, and to memory didn't know that I had seen it.  I swung the binoculars that direction and was able to spilt the stars, enjoy the contrasting colors.  It very much struck me as a smaller, tighter Albireo.  From here I had it on my list to just surf around in Cassiopeia, which I did.  So many sights to see there, but the most notable was when I happened across Caroline's Rose.  It wasn't on my list, and I wasn't even looking for it or aware I was in that piece of the sky, but as soon as I saw it I knew what it was.  It's always been a favorite, and though I couldn't make out the little veins in the stars that the scope gives me, the shape was there and I could see a rose!  A lovely sight!  I finished in Perseus, enjoying the main constellation, the Double Cluster, and finishing with the small but bright galaxy NGC 1023.  With frost on the binoculars, I retired.

 

My take-aways from my binocular observing so far: big binoculars are a really fun way to explore the night sky.  I'm glad I have a telescope too, for when I really want to focus in on something, but for star hopping and exploring I love the binos.  The amount of satellites I see with the binos is staggering.  It's like the magnification is just right for being able to pick up the smaller satellites, but also gives me a wide enough FOV that they commonly cross my view.  Plus, with the binos I am easily able to track them and see what they are up to (usually just spinning and zipping along).  I'm sure I saw a satellite at least once every 5 minutes, and at one point I had 2 satellites going different directions cross in my FOV.  What are the chances?  Probably pretty good these days, ugh.  So many satellites.

 

So there it all is.  I have been wanting to post a report, and I've done it.  Thanks to everyone who made it through to the end of my long winded narrative, and I hope to be a regular again soon!

Edited November 5, 2021 by Hayduke27