willow springs

Last Saturday night I went to Bob Ayer's Willow Springs property.  I met Mark Johnston, Mark Wagner, and Steve Gottlieb at the entrance.  There was a bank of wildfire smoke to the west and north, and we debated the dangers of setting up and the impact to sky quality.  But in the end we all decided since we had made the effort to come down and may as well head up to the site; we should still have usable sky to the south and east.  As it turned out, the wind shifted direction just after we arrived to the site, and cleared out the haze.  During the night Steve was getting consistent SQM readings of 21.70, so it was really good. 

I used my 20-inch and tried to make some headway on the H2 list but I was a little bit unfocussed in my observing.  I noticed some interesting things on the chart and spent time observing those.  I mooched some views of different things on the others' scopes (MJ showed Copeland's Septet in his 18-inch; MW showed an attractive galaxy and star field in his 18-inch; SG showed some of his galaxy pairs and we spent some time on the Hercules Cluster in his 24-inch).  I shared my 2.1x42 Vixens with MJ & MW and we all enjoyed the view (I liked it when MW exclaimed: "Scorpius just turned into a giant open cluster!").  I was already tired when I started observing, and since Astronomical twilight was not until 10:30pm there wasn't a lot of time to observe before I conked out at around 3:30am.  No matter, it was still a rewarding night.  Here are my recorded observations, all at 205x except the Hercules Cluster at 333x:

SN 2016coj in NGC 4125, galaxy in Draco: 4125 is a bright elliptical core with very faint halo, WNW-ENE 2:1.  Supernova 2016coj was just to the east of the core, still well within the halo; a bright point, brighter than the core itself.  Est. 14.3 magnitude.  To SSE is NGC 4121, small faint roundish patch.  http://www.astronomerstelegram.org/?read=9095

NGC 3065, Gx in Ursa Major: Small, bright round core, stellar nucleus.  Round haze hints of halo.  NGC 3066 3' to the SSE, a little fainter but about as large, round.


NGC 3516, Gx in UMa: Small.  Bright core, very slightly out of round ENE-WSW; very diffuse round halo.

Arp 329, Galaxy cluster in Dra = HCG 55 = UGC 6514: A small, faint mist, shallow-S shaped, 1.2' long, with three condensations seen.  I should have tried higher magnification; these are three of five members of the galaxy chain, 16.88 mag to 18.03.

NGC 3622: Gx in UMa: Need to keep 6.2 mag star SAO 15478 to SSE out of FOV.  2:1 N-S elongation, fairly bright core appears disrupted with a couple bright patches on the west end of the core.  Very faint halo appears a little longer to the south of the core.  Said to be an inclined spiral.

NGC 3735, GX in Dra: Lovely bright long edge on, 4:1 NW-SE.  Stellar nucleus is a little SE of center and is like a ball floating on the halo.  Bright elongated core and uneven brightness halo which fades imperceptibly to the tips.

NGC 4133, Gx in Dra: Face on spiral.  Needed to keep nearby bright star to south (HR 4627, 6.34 v mag) out of the FOV.  Rather small and faint, the core is oval and of uneven surface brightness, faint.  Seems to be a dark lane on the west side.  Diffuse halo is elliptical, NW-SE.  11' to SE near edge of FOV is UGC 7189, 14.8 b mag, a small faint oval patch with brighter core NNW-SSE

NGC 4236, Gx in Dra: Large, long maybe 6:1 NNW-SSE elongation, low surface brightness halo with a gradually brightening core and a sudden sharp stellar nucleus (which could be a fortuitously placed foreground star). Several foreground stars and perhaps fainter non-stellar patches on the SSE tip. Detected with AV and then can hold in DV, there is a bulge in the halo on the SW facing side of the NNW tip.  The "bulge" I find in Aladin using the NED filter are identified as HII regions (the brighter being HK83 16, 17, & 18). One of the brighter "non-stellar patches" on the SSE tip (it is in line with the major axis of the halo) Aladin has as VII Zw 446, mis-identified by Zwicky as a separate compact blue galaxy.

NGC 4250, Gx in Dra: Stellar nucleus, bright oval core NNW-SSE.  Very diffuse roundish halo.  AV widens and lengthens the amount of halo seen.  It is a barred spiral seen face on.

NGC 4256, Gx in Dra: Beautiful, bright long edge on.  Stellar nucleus and tight round core which floats on the long halo, gradually fading to its tips.  Extends 2/3rds the FOV, 5:1 NE-SW.

NGC 4291, Gx in Dra: Bright round core, round faint halo; slight mottling in outer edges of core.  Lies as one corner of a rectangle with three foreground stars.  With 4319 and 4386 in view.

NGC 4319, Gx in Dra: Fainter than 4291, has an elongated rice grain shape N-S core and a faint roundish halo.  Markarian 205 quasar is a stellar point just S of core, 1 billion light years away!  To the north on edge of FOV is NGC 4386: Bright round core with elongated halo piercing it, NW-SE 3:2.
Abell 2151, the Hercules Galaxy Cluster: Observed near zenith.  I started out with the string of galaxies comprised of 6040A/B, 6041A/B, and 6042. It was easy to find and brighter than I recall at Fremont Peak. The A/B pairs were more clearly split, and IC 1170 popped out consistently with AV, and I could barely hold it DV. I used this group as my home base as I searched around the area – I could find it easily enough. Letting the sky drift a little to the east, I could easily make out NGC 6045 following a wedge of stars, the two ends of which were hazy patches NGC 6043 and NGC 6047, respectively. 6045 had a very slightly brighter elongated core and very faint halo; stare as I might I could not see the small 6045B attached to the following tip, however I glimpsed it very briefly in Steve’s 24-inch scope.  I could see much more definite splits of all the A/B pairs in Steve's scope.  Back to my scope: NGC 6050A followed this group and appeared as a small round mist with a pretty bright core; 6050B (IC 1179) appeared as a small bulge to 6050A’s halo. NGC 6054 was very faint & small, with a NE-SW elongation just detectable. IC 1182 and 1184 following it were faint small non-stellar patches, forming a triangle with 6054. IC 1178 and 1181 appeared as a slightly larger than small irregularly round haze with two very hazy slightly brighter areas for their cores. NGC 6044 was very faint, small, round. I missed more galaxies, some of the ICs and PGCs. I felt I was straining a bit to detect the very faint small glows about – I have to get more used to viewing these very faint objects.

NGC 6026, Planetary Nebula in Lupis: Central star seen easily.  Faint small round shell.  OIII makes shell disappear at first but can bring it back with more contrast by blinking.  Inner part of shell is brighter, with a thin diffuse haze around it.  OIII loses the CS

NGC 5986, Globular Cluster in Lup: Bright, pretty large; string of resolved stars runs E-W along the northern half.  Bright star at NE edge.  Highly concentrated and compact.  About 50 resolved stars in front of grey mass.

NGC 6072, PN in Scorpius: Pretty bright, brighter central glow; overall diffuse and round.  Ill defined edges; greenish color.  OIII enhances view and reveals mottling in the shell and an inner ring structure.

HP 1, GC in Ophiuchus:  Haute-Provence 1, mag. 12.1, size 1.2'.  According to one "Dennis" who posted his image of the object in IceInSpace: "Discovered by Dufay, Berthier and Morignat in 1954. Independently rediscovered by van den Bergh and Hagen in 1975. Globular Cluster HP 1 was discovered by Dufay et.al. (1954), and sometimes referred to as "HP" for the Haute-Provence Observatory where the discovery occurred (e.g., Sawyer Hogg 1959). This designation was mutated to HP 1 as more globular clusters were discovered at that observatory in the 1960s by Terzan.  Until recently, it was thought that HP 1 is situated close to the Galactic Center, but recent estimates have put it as far as about 20,000 light years beyond, to a total distance of 46,000 light years from us."  In my scope it appeared as a very faint, small irregular splotch at the western rim of a shallow upturned arc of 5 stars.  The greyishness began to turn grainy with AV, hinting of some resolved stars

At this point I was too tired to focus on chasing particular targets, though the sky was chock full of them.  I put in my lowest power eyepiece (1 degree TFOV) for some sweeping through the Milky Way.  The grey sky background became grainy with resolving stars.  Dark cracks appeared in the graininess, dark nebulae or just gaps in stars.  Then, a giant globular cluster came to view, bright, concentrated, and well resolved, with streamers of stars radiating out into that dense grainy Milky Way field.  A sight I hope not to forget.

surprise transit

Last Tuesday night I had a nice night in the back yard with the 12.5-inch.  I was expecting to see two Galilean moons come out of eclipse from Jupiter's shadow, one a half hour from the other.  Instead I saw a bright disk just beginning a transit.  I must've hit a wrong key on the S&T Jupiter app and have pulled up the wrong day's events.  It was Europa, which begin its transit at 9:00pm just as I started observing.  It was contrasted with the North Equatorial Belt.  Seeing was quite good and there was a slight haze in the sky; using 340x I saw some light purple festoons sweeping into the Equatorial region from the NEB.  The North Polar region was a light brown and pretty solid all the way to the NEB.  The South Polar region was a darker brown and had a gap between it and the SEB.  There was a long wispy streak running nearly the width of the planet in the SEB, close to the gap just mentioned.  Two large dark barges in the NEB. 

The moons displayed colors: Io was yellowish, Calisto was smallest and a deep orange, Ganymede was the largest and a nice orange color; it showed the most albedo variation, with the southern half showing a darker orange than the northern. 

I moved on to some double star splitting in the area, and came back to Jupiter an hour later.  By this time I could still see Europa in transit because it was still contrasted with the NEB.  It was not a little more than halfway across and was at the root of the largest festoon.  I waited longer to see if I could witness the shadow egress...but as of 10:37 it still hadn't started, and I needed to go inside.  I found out later I would have needed to wait until 11:34pm.

Here's a summary of the double star splitting, same magnification:

STF1536: Quite close; very bright yellow white A and brownish B, split in A's diffraction ring.  Last separation was 2.1". 

STF1540: Yellow A and reddish B; wide separation.  A 3rd star about 3x distant related?  [not].  28.2" sep.

STFA19: Bright yellow A, bluish B, very widely separated (89.4")

75 Leonis: Red in finder, orange in scope (this was a carbon star diversion)

65 Leonis: Thought this might be a quadruple but seems it is not.  Brighter yellow A and a blue B, widely separated.  -- Seems I did not split this!  Checking current separation, it would be a very close pair at 2.7". 

55 Leonis: Not split or a very wide pair.  -- Not split; current separation 1.1"

S 617: Yellow A, blue B, wide separation (35.2")

STF1476 (in Sextans): Tight white of equal brightness; low in the sky seeing a bit poor.  (2.3", 7.08 and 7.82 mags)

STF1527: Not split (2012 separation is 0.3".  Interesting, since 1822 measure was 3.7" -- must have highly elliptical orbit.  Should be one to watch over the years, increase in separation.

STF1547: Bright yellow A, 3x fainter red B.  Wide separation. 

88 Leonis: A favorite!  Yellow and blue pair.  A has to spectroscopic pairs

h4433 / 81 Leonis:  Bright yellowish A, very faint bluish B, wide separation (55.1"; 5.6m / 10.8m)

β1282: very bright A, several stars around it; which is the pair?

STF1517: Very tight, hair split small orange stars of equal magnitude.  Wow!  (Stelle Doppie says current separation is 0.7", A mag 7.54, B 8.02; so I must've hit it on a good night.)

fremont peak night of May 29

I went up to Fremont Peak the night of the 29th, where I met Peter N. and Dave C. We were very fortunate the weather turned in our favor. The marine layer and good seeing combined to make the trip up the Peak totally worth the effort. Sky was about 21.30 SQML.

All three of us watched Io start to transit Jupiter, its bright disk still visible contrasted against the North Equatorial Belt. It was a fun way to spend the time until it grew fully dark. Peter pointed out how one could tell the relative size of the moons from their disk sizes, which I hadn’t noticed before. 
I continued through my AL H2 and PN lists. Despite darkness coming so late in the evening, I made many observations which I am still sorting through. Here’s some of the more striking, all in my 20-inch:

NGC 5850, barred spiral galaxy in Virgo, 205x: Lies at the eastern end of an east to west row of four galaxies in the field. Pretty large, with a brighter round core and a very faint round halo with extensions seen sweeping from the eastern end headed northwest, and from the western end headed southeast. Elliptical NGC 5846 is next in line to the west, with a bright round core but a very diffuse halo, with extensions which seem to sweep from the east and west sides to the north; 5846A appears as a nonstellar patch involved in the southern rim of 5846’s halo. NGC 5845 is a very small faint elliptical patch further west. SO galaxy NGC 5849 is on the far west of the field, and has a stellar nucleus with a small, very faint halo. 

Globular cluster NGC 5053 in Coma Berenices, at 205x appeared as a large grey cloud of unresolved stars, very much like the smoke from a spent firework. Resolved stars are in a loose concentration generally radiating from the center. The grey arms spread in all directions but are longer and denser east to west.

Elliptical NGC 5129 was small, with a stellar nucleus and a bright core, elongated 3:2 north to south. Barred spiral NGC 5132 was to the north-northeast, fainter, small, stellar nucleus and a round halo with a slightly brighter bar appearing as a NE-SW condensation within the halo. Elliptical NGC 5136 was to the southeast edge of the field, very faint, averted vision needed to clearly discern 3:2 W-E elongated halo and to brighten the core. Three excessively faint nonstellar patches surrounding a star just southeast of NGC 5129 I find today are 13th magnitude 2MASS designated galaxies.

Sc Spiral NGC 5523 was very striking: Pretty large, low surface brightness halo, 5:1 west to east elongation inclined spiral, with a slightly brighter core. Some mottling noticed in the halo, hints of spiral structure. 

NGC 5529 was a pleasant surprise: A lovely long Sc spiral seen nearly edge on, 6:1 or more WNW-ESE. Long core is brighter on the southern edge (dark lane across the north?). Halo fades imperceptibly to the tips.

NGC 6210, “Turtle” Planetary Nebula in Hercules was visible in my 80mm finder as a rather bright star. At 333x the inner shell is bright green, slightly oval shape NW-SE, with a diffuse edge. With averted vision, a fainter larger rectangular outer nebula becomes apparent. More time with averted vision brought out very faint extensions to the corners of the rectangle, two tending north and two tending south, which are the Turtle’s “legs”. No head, though.... OIII seemed to enhance these extensions. Without filter, the central star shown through the inner shell very briefly with averted vision as a bright button, just following the geometric center—held about 20% of the time. 533x revealed some additional mottling in the shell but oddly I could not see the central star – must have lost the seeing.

When Peter mentioned he was looking at the Hercules Cluster (Abell 2151) it reminded me I had planned to look at it too. I used a finder printed from Paul Alsing’s website. Suffice to say all were near threshold objects, and took all my concentration to see at all. The finder helped me confirm the star fields and then observe the objects. Using 333x, I saw NGC 6040 as a very faint longish streak with 6039 as a extremely faint condensation at its tip. NGC 6041 barely split from 6041A; IC 1170 was not seen. NGC 6042 was relatively easy as a very faint patch. Nudging the scope a little east, NGC 6045 appeared as an extremely faint streak; but MAC 1605+1745 was not seen. NGC 6043A was a very faint patch, as was NGC 6047. NGC 6050 was an excessively faint slightly larger than a patch haze, and 6054 were excessively faint very small haze. This was the hardest I’ve worked for an observation yet. 

From around 2am I spent time in M101 and found all the objects noted in Howard Banich’s S&T article “The Determined Observer’s Guide to M101,” with the exception of SN 2011fe. It was wonderful to explore this amazing object.

I spent the rest of the night viewing galaxies in Ursa Major’s handle until finally I had enough. Last looks at Mars and Saturn, then a little rest in my car before dawn broke and it was time to head home.

The above is what I posted at TAC. Following are the rest of the observations, mostly at 205x:

NGC 4271, Gx in UMa: Small, faint. Brighter round core and stellar nucleus. Very faint round halo. One foreground star NE and another WNW hear halo's edge.

NGC 4290, Gx in UMa: Galaxy near miserable old M40. Bright core, bar NE-SW, with a round faint diffuse halo; overall small. NGC 4284 to W in FOV, stellar nucleus, small brighter halo, ESE-WNW 3:1, very faint halo need AV to see better.

NGC 4605, Gx in UMa: Pretty large and fairly bright. Core is very large with mottling and knots, a couple of dark lanes. Small kernel of nucleus. Very faint halo, wider at tips, 3:1 NW-SE

NGC 5007: to the SW of a bright field star, best to keep it out of view. 5007 is small and faint, round halo with a bright core. There are three galaxies in view arranged in an arc around the star (HD 114504), NGC 5007 to the SW, UGC 8234 (13.8B) to the NE, and UGC 8237 (13.7B) to the NNE.

NGC 5020, Gx in Virgo: Bright stellar nucleus with fairly bright elongated core NE-SW. Surrounded by round diffuse halo.

NGC 5129, Gx in Virgo: Stellar nucleus + bright core, 3:2 elongated N-S. AV shows more halo. 5132 barred spiral to NNE is fainter, small, 4:1 bar seen with stellar nucleus, and hint of round halo. 5136 to SE edge of FOV very faint, AV only, diffuse 3:2 halo W-E, brightened core.

NGC 5204 Gx in UMa: Large, diffuse glow, rather peanut shaped, 4:3 N-S. Much mottling and many condensations or knots. Diffuse edges to halo, can't tell where it stops.

NGC 5308, Gx in UMa: Small bright round core with sharply bright nucleus, pierced by long thin halo. Small but very pretty. 4:1 NE-SW

NGC 5430, Gx in UMa: Stellar nucleus and brighter core, which is small and elongated NE-SW, with a round, irregularly bright halo. Barred spiral.

NGC 5440, Gx in CVn: Bright elongated core, oval shaped NE-SW, 3:1. Diffuse halo needs AV to bright out distinctly. Foreground star on SW tip.

NGC 5443, Gx in UMa: A 4:1 nearly edge on spiral, NE-SW, with a bright core and rather bright halo of uneven brightness -- I seem to see a dark lane or cut-off along the NW side. Two pairs of foreground stars at each tip.

NGC 5444, Gx in CVn: Round, small, bright core with a faint diffuse halo. 6.5" SSE is 5445, and 2.78' SE is 2MASXJ14031472+3505520 (16.2 mag) a small very faint round patch with faintly stellar nucleus.

NGC 5445, Gx in CVn: Bright, small, 3:1 elongation NNE-SSE, stellar nucleus and faint diffuse halo.

NGC 5447, KNT in M101: An oval glow at the SW tip of M101's spiral, orientated NW-SE.

NGC 5462, KNT in M101: A condensed oval brightening on the far tip of the E arm of M101. Also saw all objects (except SN 2011fe) on Howard Bainach's "Determined Observer's Guide to M101"

NGC 5490, Gx in Boo: Stellar nucleus, bright core, slightly elongated N-S faint halo defined. Small. Fainter M+03-36-064 to the NW, brighter center with AV. NGC 5490A = Arp 79 to NE, stellar nucleus with faint small round halo, little detail

NGC 5523, Gx in Boo: Pretty large low surface brightness halo, long, 5:1 W-E, slightly brighter core. Large diffuse halo. Some mottling noticed in halo, hints of spiral structure. Three foreground stars trail off to the east from the eastern tip

NGC 5533 Gx in Boo: Stellar nucleus and small bright oval core, with very diffuse halo. NNW-SSE elongation

NGC 5548, Gx in Boo: Bright small round core but not stellar. Very faint diffuse round halo, can't tell any edge.

NGC 5585, Gx in UMa: Pretty large, diffuse halo with ill-defined edges. A brighter core and a small bright nucleus. 4:3 NNE-SSW with a foreground star just at the SSW of the E tip of halo, and another at the NE tip. Some mottling of halo suggests structure

NGC 5590, Gx in Boo: Round, small, stellar nucleus and bright core, faint round halo. NGC 5588 is to the NW, and a fainter twin of 5590

NGC 5600 Gx in Boo: Stellar nucleus, bright disturbed core -- bean shaped with round edge to the NE; faint round halo with mottling and brighter arc seen with AV on NE rim. Halo fairly well defined. In triangle of stars

NGC 5687 Gx in Boo: Small. Small oval bright core, diffuse halo, also oval. 4:3 E-W. Three foreground stars in a row N-S, two of which are superimposed on the W halo.

NGC 5831, Gx in Virgo: Fairly bright, stellar nucleus, fairly bright core with diffuse round halo. Small.

NGC 5838, Gx in Virgo: Stellar nucleus, bright core, elongated 5:1 NE-SW, diffuse halo gradually fades. Bright star to S; helps to keep it out of the field. Stars at either tip of halo.

NGC 5854, Gx in Virgo: Very similar appearance to 5864. 3:1 elongated NE-SW with bright core and some knots in it. Thin halo fades gradually to edges.

NGC 5864, Gx in Virgo: Long bright core 4:1 NE-SW, just stellar nucleus, thin but well defined halo. Nice with AV. Two foreground stars involved on southern rim

NGC 5879, Gx in Draco: Bright, pretty large 3:1 N-S. Stellar nucleus and bright extended core. Halo expands with AV, no defined edge or tip. Foreground star superimposed on NW edge of halo

NGC 5970, Gx in Serpens: Bright core, stellar nucleus, 3:2 E-W, pretty bright and large halo, some knots / concentrations. Bright field star to NNE, and a row of 7 stars between it and 5970. IC 1131 is 8' to SE; bright small core with very faint thin halo, 2:1 NW-SE.

Picot 1, Open Cluster in Boo: 7 bright stars, four of which are in a line W-E and two more to the north, with three more fainter. Supposed to look like Napoleon's hat. Sort of, with imagination…

NGC 5080, Gx: Small, round, fairly faint diffuse halo, brighter core with AV

NGC 5907, Splinter Galaxy. Wow! Halo nearly the length of field; edge on spiral. The bright round core seems to float in the middle of its swirling halo; the halo on the near side has a dark lane the length of the major axis which adds to this effect.

session from last week

I wanted to catch up a bit on a back yard session last Thursday night 5/26.  I started with some astrometric calibration, which I haven't been able to do much of because of a long streak of poor conditions.  I worked on 24 Coma Berenices, which is a pretty orange and blue pair, much like Alberio, and 90 Leonis, My separation measures seem to be ok but my position angle is off by 10 or 20 degrees -- the readings are not consistent.  I must reread how to set up the scale and the pointer, maybe change it to something stiffer. 

I then did some double star wandering, one of my favorite things to do, going double to double in my atlas:

17 Virginis, widely separated, large magnitude difference, with a yellow-white A and a ruddy / brownish B

Anonymous near tip of triangle of stars to the east of Theta Virginis: A line of three stars, could be triple?  The magnitudes progress from brightest A to medium B to faint C -- a Goldilocks triple?

Anon west of Theta Virginis: another wide separation, orange A and 1-2 magnitude less bright blue B

SS Virginis: Nice to see this in better conditions.  Red in finder while centered on Zaniah.  Bright orange in the scope.  Big difference without the moon and in decent transparency.

M61: Bright nucleus, but rest is a haze, just a hint of a round faint glow. 

I ended the night on Jupiter, which was lovely.  Both NEB and SEB had darker barges -- the NEB's were more elongated, the SEB's were oval.  The Southern polar region is darker than the northern, but the northern is more uniform and comes right to the edge of the NEB.  There is a cream-colored gap between the S polar region and the SEB.

seeing through the fog

Early this week the weather predicted clear skies, so I was excited to get a little observing done.  Astronomical twilight is not until after 9pm, and as these were work nights the sessions would be short.  I used the 8-inch to keep pace with my AL Carbon Star and Stellar Evolution lists, which are well suited for this scope.  However both nights were hampered by a thin marine layer blown in during the night.  The waxing moon's light was amplified and washed out much of the naked eye stars, so my star hops were much longer than usual.  On Monday night the moon resided in Virgo, for example, and the only star I could make out was Spica.  I could still star hop to Porimma, and even split it, but I could not find SS Virginis in the glare.  All the same, both nights were enjoyable.  Here are the observations, all at 113x / 0.9°:

Y Canum Venaticorum, carbon star, "La Superba": Orange in finder, bright pure orange in the scope.  By far the brightest in field, est. 5.0, C5 [AAVSO 5.3, C5].  One of the reddest stars in the sky, the brightest example of J-star, a carbon star with large amounts of carbon-13.  19th century astronomer Angelo Secchi gave it its common name.  It is likely in the final stages of fusing its remaining helium into carbon and shedding more material; it is ready to eject its outer layers to become a planetary nebula, with the remaining star to become a white dwarf.

RY Draconis, carbon star: Nice orange with a little yellow.  Brightest in field, est. 7.5, C4 [AAVSO 7.2, C4].  Uncertain period of around 200 days, 6.0-8.0 magnitude range

SAO 157721 (Virgo), carbon star: Very faint yellow orange star at the end of string of two other stars.  In glare of moonlight in thin marine layer.  Est. 9.0, C4.  [AAVSO N/A.  8.5, C2]

V Coronae Borealis, carbon star: Faint, small, faintly red in a rich field.  Est. 9.5-10.0, C5 [AAVSO 10.0, C6]  Long period variable, from 6.9 - 12.6 over 357 days.  To find this I used my 7x35 extra wide field binoculars and could fit all of this beautiful constellation in the field!

RR Herculis, carbon star: Small, faint, very red in arc of stars trailing NW to W.  Est. 8.0, C5 [AAVSO 8.5, C5-C8]

SAO 46574 (Hercules), carbon star: yellow-red, brightest in field, in a string of four stars W-E.  Est. 7.5-8.0, C2  [AAVSO N/A; 7.3 - 7.7, C3]

Beta Comae Berenices:  Long hop from Eta Virginis due to poor transparency and moon halo.  Very bright star, yellowish white color.  Main sequence dwarf star.  It is similar to our sun, slightly larger and brighter and only 3 billion years old. 

Spica / Alpha Virginis: Very bright, blue-white star.  It's a spectroscopic binary with orbital period of four DAYS!  Each star is distorted by the other. Both rotate faster than their orbital period, and the highly ellipsoidal orbit may mean this is a very young star system.  It is a polarimetric variable: protostellar material might be entrained between the two stars.

Arcturus / Alpha Bootis, Very bright, yellowish.  Brightest star in north celestial hemisphere.  An orange giant, has exhausted the hydrogen in its core and in active hydrogen shell burning phase.  Jean-Baptise Morin observed it during the day with a telescope, first time for that, in 1635.  A red giant star, 110x brighter than the sun, stronger in the infrared, while being only slightly larger than the sun.  It has a high proper motion of two arcseconds a year, and a possible planetary system. 

Theta Bootis: F-type star Pretty, orange yellow color, bright.  47 light years from earth, so the photons entering my eye are the same age I am!

HD 139341, Bootes: Double star, both type K Blue-white A, slightly yellow B double star.  4/3 the mass of the sun but 11x larger, but only 3 billion years old.  A planet discovered in 2009.

14 Herculis: Yellow-white, ordinary looking.  It is an orange dwarf, 90% the mass, 70% the radius, and 36% the luminosity of the sun, but with 2x the metal content.  Two planets have been discovered to orbit it.

SS Virginis, carbon star: SS Vir was blocked by moon two nights ago, now out of the way; but still a long hop from Spica due to moon halo in marine layer.  SS Vir is a faint orange in the finder and intense orange in the scope.  Est. 7.0, C6.  [AAVSO 6.8, C6].  It is a carbon Mira variable, hydrogen alpha emission increases as it grows brighter in its 361 day period.  radius is 500 sol.

T Draconis, carbon star: Moved scope to other end of yard to clear roof.  Orange red and rather faint, rich field, Est. 8.0-8.5, C7.  [AAVSO 10.0, C6-8].

Wednesday night I had a look at Jupiter.  At the start of my session the Great Red Spot was dead center on the band.  Before going inside two hours later, the Spot had moved so its further edge was just touching the limb, and it was greatly foreshortened.  Very cool to see the change.

Both nights I spent some time looking at the moon's terminator at high magnification.  Really good contrast despite the conditions.  One of these days, I'll learn the names of all these features.

first time using the 30-inch challenger telescope

Monday night I used the Challenger telescope on my own for the first time.  I knew it wouldn’t be a great night transparency wise, but I really wasn’t expecting to accomplish much serious observing.  I just needed time to learn the ropes.  The maritime metaphor is apt: a thick marine layer spread over all the surrounding valleys and looked like a ghostly ocean, its slow swells tinted by the setting sun.  As I stood high atop the wooden rolling steps holding the massive yet smoothly moving telescope in my hand, the wind blowing and the wood observatory creaking, I felt like a sailor atop the rigging of a ship setting off on a voyage.

I made the usual rookie mistakes.  I’d forget to change the secondary’s position after shifting the telescope to different parts of the sky, so I’d have to lower it back down and reset.  Or I’d forget to remove the 3” to 2” reducer from one focuser to the next.  Or I’d remember to change the secondary’s position but left my eyepiece in the wrong focuser.  I struggled to find a good position for the wooden rolling steps, and I rammed the concrete pier more than a few times.  I slowly learned which focuser position would be best for different angles of the scope.  It was weird looking at an object with my back to it and me on the steps looking up.  What is worse, I couldn’t get the key to open the cabinet to retrieve the finder scope eyepiece, so I was left to use just the Telrads to find targets.  The number of objects I can find with the Telrad is limited, but it was enough to get me through the night.  To use the Challenger effectively in the future I will need to learn how to use its digital setting circles.

I started out with the Leo Triplet, just to get orientated; both of M65 & M66 were bright and large, and NGC 3628 showed up well despite the sky not being fully dark. 

Once darkness came I wandered about the sky, practicing how to move the telescope.  Omega Centauri was pale, but it was submerged in low haze.   M68 was bright and broken apart, well resolved to the core.  There was a very faint round haze with a brighter core, just to the side of a nearby star: it was galaxy ESO-506-29.  M4 looked like a dot-to-dot picture of a barred spiral galaxy, with many curving loops and bands twirling away from the core, which has a bright red star just off center. 

Around midnight coyotes started singing to each other from two distant hilltops, and I noticed that the telescope had become pretty well drenched with dew.  I rolled the roof back over it and went into the observatory's classroom for a rest.  I fell asleep in a chair, and surprised myself awake at 2:30am.

By then the scope was dry, and the sky was still and much improved, registering a respectable 21.36 on the SQML.  Summer targets were higher.  There was Daneb, last seen sinking to the west on New Year’s night.  And what is Cassiopeia doing, rising already in the east?

NGC 6528 & 6522, twin globular clusters off Gamma Sagittari, the tip of the teapot’s spout, seen at 118x in the same FOV.   I experimented with different eyepiece combinations and filters while scanning around the summer Milky Way.  What does the core of M22 look like at 1463x?  Like shining from shook foil.

The core of M13 at 915x is a spangle of stars surrounding a small, grayish round cocoon of yet unresolved stars, with many dark paths twisting away from it.  All those dark lanes really surprised me.

M57 was pretty high so I gave it a try.  It was a fat greenish tube, with annular wisps pinched out from the NE and SW rims.  Its companion star was a bright steady button.  I increased magnification to 915x and, while bringing my eye to the center of the eyepiece, glimpsed the shy central star, which quickly withdrew into the dim central nebulosity.  I coaxed it back out with my averted eye.  It appeared for a while as a nebulous condensation, then the small round button of star flashed out, held with averted vision for about five seconds.  Tendrils of nebulosity reached from the inner ring into the dimmer center.  The Challenger’s spot-on tracking really helped because I could concentrate on looking rather than bumping the scope along to keep pace with the sky.  What is more, I was able to see IC 1296 as an extremely faint, small elongated glow off to the west of the Ring while viewing at 281x. 

In the morning I gazed over the marine layer as the sun tinted it, now from the brown brink eastward.  I hiked to the summit to take in the full panorama, and to add my small shadow to the shadow the Peak cast on the ocean of clouds below.

public viewing at fremont peak

I took Valerie out with me Saturday night to Fremont Peak, where there was a large public star party.  Around 60 local community college students were there to complete a lab assignment by viewing and taking notes on at least four objects.  Plus the usual visitors from the campgrounds around the Peak.  There were a lot of astronomers there to help out; all the pads were in use when we arrived, so we set up next to the observatory -- a bad spot, but ok for a public night.

As it grew dark Valerie showed Jupiter to the visitors and could find it by herself in her "baby blue" 6-inch f/4.  Prior in the week I attached screw-on stool legs to the bottom of the base, so the telescope was brought up to her eye level.  I started showing Mizar, the middle star of the handle of the Big Dipper, which is a double star.  Seeing a recognizable star in a new way pleased all the viewers.  Later I switched to M44, and moved Val's scope to it too.  Most people liked it.

I was using the 10-inch f/4.7 Dobstuff I acquired, and I think it will be a good scope.  I could see more of airy disks in the stars as it grew darker and the temperature settled.  I had a really nicely framed view of the Leo Triplet at 39x, 2.1 degrees TFOV.  I asked the viewers to tell me what they saw instead of telling them beforehand.  Everyone picked out the bright smudges of M65 & M66.  I asked them to pretend those were eyes and to look down in the field for a mouth.  They could all see NGC 3628.  They were all impressed to think these were each a separate galaxy.  To me the view was very nice, and would probably be even nicer if without the stray light and with better dark adaptation.

Valerie had been doing fine until an hour into it when she came to me complaining of her stomach and feeling cold.  We took a break in the observatory building to try to warm up.  She had plenty of jackets on and I realized she had a little fever.  She couldn't continue and wanted to go home.  I tore down the scopes and then apologized to everyone to warn them I had to back my car up and have them shield their eyes since I couldn't control the back-up lights.  I started the car, honked, then backed out; and then I started driving away from the observatory very slowly with all my lights out until I reached the ranger's house, enough away from the people to turn them on.  Val slept all the way home and fortunately felt fine the next day.