Archive for the 'The Suffolk Sky' Category
July 12th, 2010 by Hersey
Date: 7/9/2010
Time: 9:15 PM – 11:00 PM EDT
Scope: Stellarvue SV80BV FL: 750mm
Eye Pieces: 22mm Panoptic, 9mm Nagler, 7mm Nagler
Mount: Stellarvue M1 Grab and Go Alt-azimuth
Location:Backyard, Suffolk, VA
Weather: Warm and cloudy.
Moon: None
It was pretty warm and mostly cloudy. A few breaks in the clouds as they passed allowed some views of Venus and Saturn. Around 10:00 PM it cleared up a bit to allow me to look for a few Messier objects. I was able to view M3 and M94. I looked for M51 but was unable to find it.
Not really the best night for star gazing, but I just felt like getting outside and looking up for a bit. I did not have an observing plan, I just used the July Sky Map to locate a few objects.
Since the conditions were not really good for deep sky observing I am happy that I was able to find a few things. By 11:00 PM the clouds had pretty much taken over the sky so I called it a night.
From my observing notes:
Venus was low in the west. Very bright. The phase appears to be a little over half, approaching gibbous. It was easy to see the phase in the 22mm, 9mm, and 7mm.
Saturn was very nice in the 7mm. Shadow of rings across planet surface showing good contrast. Only one moon was visible – Titan. I was able to see the ring shadow and moon in all eye pieces but the views were the best in the 7mm Nagler.
Messier 3 (M3) – From the bright star Arcturus I slowly worked to the west with the 22mm Panoptic until I was able find the fuzzy globular cluster. I could not resolve any individual stars at 22mm, 9mm, or 7mm. Just a faint fuzzy object with a brighter core. Going to have to revisit on a night that is darker and more clear.
Messier 94 (M94) – I was very surprised to be able to find this. I scanned between the two stars that make up the constellation Canes Venatici with the 22mm Panoptic. Very faint, small, with a faint border around a bright core.
I spent a bit of time looking for M51 but was unable to find it.
July 6th, 2010 by Hersey
Finally got the chance to try out the new to me Orion StarShoot Color Deep Sky Imager (DSI) II I picked up on Astromart Classifieds a while back. Saturday and Sunday night were both nice. Clear skies and cooler than it has been. A few clouds rolled by later on Sunday night, but still a great night.
For all images I used PHD for guiding, MaxIm DL Essentials for imaging with the DSI, and Deep Sky Stacker to stack the exposures.
On Saturday (7/3/2010) I set up to image through the Celestron 6″ SCT with a f/6.3 focal reducer while using the Astro-Tech 66ED to guide.
Early in the evening I used Venus to get the two scopes aligned and to test focus of the imaging camera and the guide camera.
After doing the two star alignment on the mount I used the polar align routine on the hand controller to make sure I had my alignment down. Not bad, had to make a few minor adjustments.
I then redid the two star alignment using Spica and Arcturus for my alignment stars and Antares, Deneb, Albireo, and Vega for my calibration stars.
The first target for the camera was the globular cluster Messier 4 (M4). It took some work to get the globular in focus, and I think I am still a little off – something I am going to have to work on a bit. The first set of images were over exposed, I changed the screen stretch to MaxVal and that fixed that. I ended up with 10 60 second exposures.
I then moved on the Messier (M80). I forced calibration in PHD after moving to each new object. I ended up with 10 decent 60 seconds exposures and stacked them to get the image below.
Messier 22 (M22) is a great globular cluster to observe visually and I think if I can increase my exposure times a bit it will be a great one to photograph as well. The image below is 12 60 seconds exposures stacked.
This one was not on my plan, but Mary Shannon had seen M57 at the SkyWatch on Friday night and wanted me to try to get a photo of it. Messier 57 (M57), also known as the Ring Nebula, turned out to be my favorite image of the night. My guiding was off, I think I have an issue with balance, but the 7 30 second exposures look pretty good stacked.
Sunday (7/4/2010) night was a bit warmer with a light breeze. I decided to image through the Astro-Tech 66ED with an Orion Skylight filter and use the Celestron 6″ SCT to guide. I just wanted to get a feel for the difference in imaging between the two scopes.
I went through the same alignment process as the night before. Again using Spica and Arcturus to align and Antares, Deneb, Albireo, and Vega for calibration. I did not do the polar alignment routine, the GOTOs to the calibration stars were pretty much dead on so I figured it was probably still in good alignment.
The first target was Messier 10 (M10). Here are 16 60 second exposures stacked.
Then on to one of my new favorites to observe Messier 20 (M20) the Trifid Nebula. It was hard to find in the camera at first, the nebula does not show up until you increase the exposures to 10 seconds or more, because of this it took some work to get it close to center. I ended up with 21 60 second exposures and I think it turned out great.
I still had a problem with guiding. It wanted to drift south and the guider could not keep up. Not sure if it is a polar alignment problem or a problem with balance. Going to have to look at this a bit more. The PHD test moves the mount fine E & W RA and N & S DEC so I think the guide pulses are being sent. Going to have to research this a bit more to figure it out.
Both the 6″ SCT and the AT66ED produced decent images with DSI. With the wider field it was easier to locate and center images in the AT66ED. I still need to work on fine tuning my focus but I am pretty happy with how the images turned out. I learned a lot about the camera, the scopes, and the process plus I really enjoyed taking them (that’s what really matters).
July 2nd, 2010 by Hersey
Date: 7/1/2010
Time: 9:15 PM – 11:00 PM EDT
Scope: Celestron C6-SGT and Astro-Tech AT66
Eye Pieces: 22mm Panoptic, 9mm Nagler, 7mm Nagler, 4mm Radian
Weather: Cool and clear
Moon: None
Alignment Stars: Arcturus and Spica
Calibration Stars: Antares, Deneb, and Altair
My observation plan was to observe a few globular clusters. I was looking for targets to possibly image over the weekend. The sky was very clear, I don’t think we have had skies this clear since early spring.
Since I had to get up early the next morning I did not get to spend as much time out as I would have liked. I spent most of the session observing M13 and M92. I also took a quick look at M4, M5, and M80.
From my observing notes:
Messier 13 (M13), the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules, was the first on my list/plan. Was able to see the cluster with the 22mm Panoptic in the C6 and I was able to resolve individual stars on the outer area of the cluster. The heart of the cluster was fuzzy without detail. At 9mm I could resolve individual stars closer to the center of the cluster and the 7mm Nagler showed even greater detail of what appears to be 100s if not thousands of stars.
With the 7mm Nagler in the AT66 the view was similar to the 9mm in the C6. A wider area but good contrast and I was able to see individual stars close to the center of the globular. I tried the 4mm Radian but had a hard time focusing. The scope was pointing nearly straight up which caused the Crayford focuser on the AT66 to slip from the weight of the eye piece – no issued with 7mm Nagler (which is considerably lighter). There is a tension adjustment on the focuser but it requires a small allen wrench and I did not want to fiddle with it in the dark.
Messier 92 (M92) – With the 7mm in the C6 I was able to resolve individual stars. This globular cluster seems much more compact. More stars in a smaller area. Did not take up as much of the FOV in the 7mm eye piece as M13.
I got a quick view of M4, M5, and M80 with the 9mm Nagler and the C6. I did not spend the same amount of time on these that I did on M13 and M92. The one note that I did make about M4 was that it appeared to not contain as many stars as M13 and M92.
I had great views of each of these globulars and I think M4, M5, and M80 will be on my list of targets for imaging this weekend.
Before ending the session I took a quick look at Saturn. The planet was much lower in the sky, near the horizon, so I did not have the same issue with the 4mm Radian slipping in the AT66. I could easily resolve the ring shadow where it crossed the planet. The 4mm in the C6 also allowed me to see some good detail.
June 29th, 2010 by Hersey
A quick thunder storm moved through southern Suffolk just a few minutes ago. It pretty much looks like it just grazed us with most of the storm to the south and east. The bright sun in the west mixed with the rain to the east produced a nice rainbow. Here are a couple quick pictures I snapped.
Check this out, if you look close you can see the sun light reflecting off the rain drops.
This rain is suppose to bring us some cooler temperatures and lower humidity for the next several days. Look likes this weekend is going to be a good one for observing and imaging.
June 21st, 2010 by Hersey
Date: 6/19/2010
Time: 9:30 PM – 11:30 PM EDT
Scope: Celestron C6-SGT and Astro-Tech AT66
Eye Pieces: 22mm Panoptic, 9mm Nagler, 25mm Plossl, 32mm Plossl
Weather: Warm, Humid, Few Passing Clouds, Breezy, Bright patio lights from neighbors
Moon: 1st Quarter
Alignment Stars: Spica and Arcturus
Calibration Stars: Vega and Antares
Did not really plan out my session. Even though I had a nap earlier in the day I was still kind of tired from being out in the morning, but I did not want to let the clear sky go to waste.
From my observing notes:
Messier 13 – The Great Cluster in Hercules – M13 is a globular cluster located in the constellation Hercules, I had to work a bit to get good focus using the 9mm in the C6. Once I was able to get focus it was very easy to resolve the individual stars outside of the clusters center. Also, able to resolve well with the 22mm. Focus was easier to obtain with the 22mm. While focusing on M13 with the 9mm Nagler I did notice a “mirror shift”, this is the first time I have experienced this in any of my scopes (not saying it has not happened before, this is just the first time I have noticed it).
I also observed M5, M10, M92, and M12. Messier 12 was the hardest of these to resolve.
Saturn looked very nice with the 9mm. The shadow of the planet’s rings were easily seen on the planet’s surface. The rings are still nearly edge on so there was no real detail to be seen. Three of Saturn’s moons were easily visible. I looked up the planet in Stellarium to figure out which moons we were seeing and they were Rhea, Tethys, and Titan. I am not very good a sketching but I did draw a small sketch of the moons locations so I could look it up.
The kids came out for a bit to look at Saturn , Mars, and the Moon. My son Johnathan stay out with me for most of the time I was out, which was cool since he is generally not into it.
We tried to look at M81 and M82 but both of these appeared as just smudges. M81 had a bright center but no detail and M82 showed no detail, just a smudge of faint light. I am not sure if it was because of the amount of light pollution or if these targets are just better suited for the 8″ scope. I have observed both of these with good detail in the 8″.
Around 11:30 we were over the heat, humidity, and mosquitoes so we called it a night.
June 20th, 2010 by Hersey
Date: 6/19/2010
Time: 2:00 AM – Sunrise (approx. 5:30 AM) EDT
Scope: Celestron C6-SGT and Astro-Tech AT66
Eye Pieces: 22mm Panoptic, 9mm Nagler, 25mm Plossl, 32mm Plossl
Weather: 66 deg F, Humid, Few clouds early in the session then clear.
Moon: None
Alignment Stars: Arcturus and Vega
Calibration Star: Enif
From my observing notes:
I started out observing Messier 11. This open cluster looked great in the C6 with the 22mm Panoptic. Very easy to see individual stars in the tight cluster. One bright yellow star just off center of the cluster.
Then I turned to Messier 39, another open cluster. This cluster filled the 25mm Plossl eye piece in the AT66 also looked good with the 22mm in the C6. Because of the size I actually liked the wider field of view the 66 gave better.
I viewed several other open cluster – M18, M22, M23, M28, M26, and NGC6633. When observing Messier 28 (M28) I was not able to resolve individual stars even with the 9mm, it just appear to be a faint cloud. I think the humid air and the fair amount of light pollution to the south was probably the reason for the less than spectacular views in the 9mm. NGC6633 was another cluster that really looked great in the AT66 with the 25mm Plossl, the cluster just filled the field of view.
Jupiter was easy to spot. The dark northern gas band was very easy to resolve with the 22mm and 9mm in the C6 (the southern band is missing) and the 4 Galilean moons were clearly visible in all eye pieces and all scopes. The 22mm Panoptic gave me the best views, the seeing was just not good enough for the magnification of the 9mm. Easy to see the 4 moons in the AT66, but no detail on the planet. I observed Jupiter on into sunrise, it was still easily visible in the scope even as the sun began to peek over the horizon.
When the star Capella rose to the north east I started searching the north east for Comet 2009/R1 (McNaught) with binoculars. I was not able to successfully locate the comet with my binoculars.
Very heavy morning dew ended the viewing, I was pretty surprised that I did not have more problems with dew. There was a light dew on the scope but the corrector remained fairly clear with just the dew shield. I am looking forward to getting my dew heater so that my troubles with dew will become a thing of the past.
I think Jupiter would have been visible even in full sun light.
June 18th, 2010 by Hersey
I have had my Side-by-Side Celestron 6″ and Astro-Tech 66m set up a couple of times over the last week or so hoping that the skies would clear. Finally last night – cooler temperatures and fairly low humidity – except for a few passing clouds it was nearly perfect visual observing.
I spent sometime using the moon as a point of reference to get the C6, the AT66, and the finder scope on the C6 all pointing in the same direction. The C6 was very much out of collimation and I used the collimation instructions that were included with Bob’s Knobs that I installed on the scope to correct this. Collimation was tedious and it took a few tries to get a feel for which knob(s) needed to be adjusted to move the diffraction rings in the correct direction but after I got the hang of it I was able to get the scope collimated – first with the 25mm Plossl and then with 9mm Nagler. I had never tried/worried about collimation, it took a bit of patience and several tries before I got it right, this process should be much easier in the future. I can see a difference between collimated and uncollimated when bringing an object into focus, but once in focus I did not really notice a difference between the two, this is really much more critical for astrophotography than for visual observing. I can also see where this process would be extremely hard using the secondary screws instead of the Bob’s Knobs.
Since it was a school(work) night and I knew that I did not want to be was not going to be out very late I did not go through the usual precise polar and GOTO alignment process. I just did a quick solar system alignment and had the GOTO point the scopes at Saturn. Used the 25mm Plossl to get the ringed planet centered and then replaced the Plossl with 9mm Nagler – AMAZING!!! The 9mm Nagler gave me nice clear view at about 167x magnification with a 0.49 FOV with this little 6″ SCT. I could clearly see the shadow of the rings across the planet’s surface and I counted 4 visible moons. One moon was visible just over the planets rings. I was really amazed at the clarity and wide field of view. Compared to the view through my 8″ using a 15 mm Plossl (135x with a FOV of 0.37 degrees) the view through the 9mm Nagler was just incredible.
I was only out for about an hour before the bugs got bad (should not have been out there barefoot and wearing shorts) but that was OK since I have to be up early for work. If it had not been for the bugs I probably would have stayed out all night enjoying the views of Saturn (and others). Tonight it is Friday, no work tomorrow, and I am looking forward to getting Saturn (and hopefully Jupiter later in the night and then possibly another try at Comet McNaught) back in the scope. If the skies are clear I pretty sure I will be out most of the night.
I am glad I picked up this little C6 and I think I am really going to enjoy the side by side setup – especially after I get a chance to do some imaging.
June 14th, 2010 by Hersey
For the past few months I have been getting things together for a side by side imaging set up. The Celestron 8″ SCT with the AT66 piggybacked works pretty decent but it is really pushing the weight limit of the CG5 mount. I picked up a new to me Celestron C6-SGT (XLT) OTA a few weeks ago to set up a side by side rig that is hopefully a bit lighter and better suited for imaging/guiding.
The Celestron 6″ SCT is considerably lighter and the mount seems to handle the weight of it along with the AT66 better. I am using the Dual Scope Mounting plate and dovetail that I picked up from ScopeStuff.com. The ScopeStuff.com accessories are great quality and very affordable. If you are looking for rings, dovetails, or other mounting accessories be sure to check them out at http://www.scopestuff.com/. I have a couple other things on my wish list that I will be picking up from there.
Had everything setup this past weekend hoping to get a look at Comet McNaught but the skies never cleared. Ended up having to take everything down on Saturday night because of the threat of some severe thunderstorms. Even though I have a TeleGizmos 365 cover, I am not going to leave it out in that kind of weather if I can help it. I am hoping to maybe get another opportunity to get a look at Comet McNaught later this week.
I also have a couple of new TeleVue eyepieces I am looking forward to giving a try. Can’t wait for clear skies…
May 3rd, 2010 by Hersey
This past weekend my son had a cub scout camping trip at Chippokes state park. I took my AT66 and my small equatorial mount along with us. We were able to watch the ISS flyover on Friday and Saturday night. Friday night was pretty neat since the fly over was at just after 8:00 AM, well before dark, and we were still able to see the bright reflection of the station as it crossed almost directly overhead.
The boys were able to view Saturn and Mars on Friday night. After a long day of camping stuff I did not set the scope up on Saturday night – we were all worn out and in the tents sleeping by just after 9. I’ll post some pictures from the camp out on my Facebook page later this week.
One thing I learned was that I rely to much on the GOTO scope, I need some more practice star hopping to locate objects. Planets are pretty easy, but it was taking me too long to locate any other objects (clusters and such) that the boys lost interest. I am going to need a bit of practice locating objects without the GOTO.
The mail man left me a present on Saturday. My C6 SCT OTA that I had bought from a member of Astromart Classifieds.
I’ll have some pictures of my set up with C6 and the AT66 in a few days.
April 26th, 2010 by Hersey
A quick storm moved through this afternoon and I took this with my iPhone from my backyard.
From my observing notes:
