Quick viewing of Gemini and M35

It's one of those rare combinations of weekend evenings and clear skies, though it was still too cold to do any long-period stargazing (mid 20s, no wind at least).

I started out wanting to split some binary stars but, for the life of me, I could not split ANY of Gemini's binary stars. Bad seeing maybe?

Instead, I looked at my Urban Sky Checklist and picked out M35, an open cluster. This is my first open cluster outside of Orion and I could not find it, at first, when I was using my 12.5mm eyepiece. Switched to my 25mm eyepiece and there it is. Definitely go medium to low power for open clusters. Unfortunately, I left my sketchpad inside the house (doh!) but definitely worth coming back to.

Winter stargazing in the US midwest is hit or miss (mostly misses)

Here is how my typical winter session goes, so far:

1) AM: check Clear Sky Chart. clear skies this evening!
2) PM: on the way home, Brr, it's cold.
3) after arriving: take the scope out, look at Jupiter with my son, go back inside to have dinner.
4) Afterwards, either of two things may happen:
     a. go back outside. clouds!? what!? or;
     b. ooh, clear skies. Start observing and wondering why the seeing is so bad. Turns out that my eyes are watering so much from the cold dry air. After 30 minutes, boots freeze to iced driveway and start to lose feeling in fingertips.
5) head back inside and thaw by the radiators.
6) browse astronomy forums.

Gamma Arietis (Mesartim) double star

A nearly full moon plus local light pollution pretty much blotted out the majority of the stars in the sky. Orion was the only one that was recognizable, despite the moon being just next door in Taurus.

So I starhopped away from the moon, going through Aldebaran, through the Pleiades, and then onto Aries. There, I was able to find and split Gamma and Lambda Arietis.

The sketch below is of Gamma Arietis, a double star of nearly identical magnitude 7.7" apart.

Tonight, I also discovered that even a light breeze can induce vibration on my scope on the stock mount. Seriously considering getting an equatorial mount. But first, I need a field table of some sort. It sucks to be spending minutes rummaging inside my bag while my subject is slowly drifting out of view.

Quick Sketch of Jupiter

Conditions: mid 20s F with the wind chill. break in the clouds.

Somehow, there was 2 hour break in the clouds in the early evening, despite a cloudy forecast. I took the telescope outside for a quick look.

It was a waxing gibbous moon, with Jupiter right next to it. Venus was also just above the roof line of the neighboring houses, but I did not resolve any disc. That thing is bright, by the way. Maybe I'll view it through an ND filter to cut the glare.

It was surprising to see how bright the moonshine is after a few minutes of letting my eyes dark-adapt. It reminded me of my childhood when we would have rolling blackouts in the evenings, all the kids were outside playing, seeing only by the light of the moon.

This is my first attempt at sketching what I've seen.

Pencil on paper. I wasn't confident enough in my ability to sketch in the negative (pencil marks representing bright areas). 

I saw two stars in the same FOV, so I made another sketch to include them. HIP 8887 is a magnitude 8.05 star and I had to use averted vision to keep it visible.

Frantic New Year's Dawn observing - Saturn

I've been clouded out so often and for so long periods of time that I usually have to wait for consecutive days of clear weather so as not to get my hopes up.

Last night (Dec 31, 2011), Clear Sky Chart was predicting a window of clear skies from midnight to 6AM of Jan 1, 2012. I say to myself, "That can't be right because we are expecting 8"of snow later that same day." I went to bed.

I woke up around 6AM the next day, took a peek outside my window and .. I .. see.. stars. I quickly jump out of bed, dress up as warmly as I can, check Stellarium to see what's up (Saturn!), grab my scope and head outside.

After 5 minutes of twisting my head around, trying to identify the constellations, I found Saturn and Spica (in Virgo).

Saturn was clear, though small, even with my 12mm + 2x Barlow. Makes one realize that this planet, though comparable to Jupiter in size, is much farther away. Didn't see any of the moons.

Did some starhopping around Bootes and Virgo (wasn't able to split any of the double stars) until the clouds start to roll in from the West, lit up by the pre-dawn Sun. Total observing time was just under 40 minutes.

Never will I doubt Clear Sky Chart again.

Quick Christmas viewing

I was visiting relatives for Christmas and, at the last minute, decided not to bring my telescope with me (despite the lure of clear skies). I also had a hidden agenda of trying to see who amongst the people is or had been interested in astronomy, accomplished by subtly dropping hints about my new and blossoming interest.

It turns out that my own brother-in-law has a telescope sitting in storage. It was a Bushnell 60mm refractor. Yes, one of those. At that point, though, I'll use a wine bottle to look at the stars for being so deprived.

Moon was out of view but Jupiter was nice and high and Orion was just peeking above the roofline. We set up on the curb in front of the house and had the kids line up and take a look at Jupiter. We also had the wives look and enjoyed the ensuing "oohs" and "wows". It felt like a small victory.

First Light on my beginner scope - Orion Spaceprobe 3

My beginner scope is an Orion Spaceprobe 3 Altazimuth Scope. After agonizing over which beginner scope to get (ranging from the mini-Dobsonian scopes to the130mm Newtonians), I went with this both from a price standpoint and having a tripod mount ( I have no convenient tables/surfaces to set a mini-Dob on).

I received the scope last week but did not really get clear skies until today. Lesson learned on the hardships of winter stargazing near the Great Lakes. Even then, the skies did not clear up until 10PM today and it was below freezing with the windchill.

Realistically, especially during winter, 95% of its use will be in the backyard. I have to contend with neighbors' garage security lights, headlights from the occasional car passing by, even my own bedroom light that I forgot to turn off before I went out.

Obviously, with houses and garages and trees all around me, I really only have access to a small portion of the sky, mostly on the east-west direction. I am glad I did not go with an equatorial mount (I was tempted to) because it would be hit-or-miss trying to find Polaris with all the obstruction.

December 18, 2011
First Light
Clear sky and cold winter weather.

Charts/Reference:
Nightwatch Chart 16 for Orion, sky and telescope sky chart

Jupiter
Jupiter and 3 moons visible using the 25mm eyepiece. Banding on Jupiter was visible. Switching to the 10mm eyepiece made the banding more distinct.

Orion Constellation
Distinguished 3 of the quadruple stars in Alnilam (with 10mm eyepiece), just below Orion's belt. A meteor went through field of view.
Orion Nebula (M42) - my first nebula. breath-taking. Even with urban lights. 10mm eyepiece resolves the quadruple star in the middle of the nebula.
Failed to resolve the double star Rigel.
Failed to find M78, between Betelguese and Alnitak.
Resolved the double star Mintaka.

After a last look at Jupiter, around midnight, I called it an evening (my feet were getting really cold and ice was forming on the driveway).

No clear skies forecasted in the next five days.