The skies did not clear much over the weekend. Venus was very bright in the West on Sunday afternoon and could be spotted well before dark. I decided to set up the SV80 for a quick look. A thunder storm to the northeast was producing a lot of lightning so I decided to call it a night pretty early. Ended up viewing 3 planets, 2 of them well before dark.

From my observing notes:

Venus – Very bright and was easy to find even before the sun had set. Easy to see the phase at 9mm, 7mm, and 4mm. I think it is waxing since it appears there is more of the planet lit than in other recent observations. A purple halo was visible around the planet – not sure if this was because of the atmospheric conditions but if is not something I have noticed before. The halo was apparent in all eyepieces. The sharpest views of the planet were with the 9mm. The 7mm and 4mm views were not very sharp and showed a lot of wavy movement – similar image as looking down hot asphalt.

Moon – Very nice 1st quarter moon. Bright, white. Very sharp views with the 9mm and the 7mm. Some wavy turbulence could be seen at the edge with the 7mm but not bad at all with the 9mm. Very nice detail of craters and ridges at the line between dark and light. Sharpest most stable view with 9mm, the moon filled the FOV of this eyepiece very nice.

Saturn – Found Saturn well before dark in the 9mm eyepiece. Even before the sun went down I could make out the detail of the ring shadow on the planets surface. I was surprise to be able to see a single moon even before dark. Looked nice in the 7mm, but not as sharp. The 9mm was sharp and showed nice detail.

Mars – Not visible until dark. Orange disk in the 9mm. No other details visible. Tried to crank up the magnification with the 4mm but could not get a sharp image.

A satellite crossed nearly directly overhead (maybe a degree or 2 south of directly over head) at approximately 9:07 PM.

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.

The Back Bay Amateur Astronomy club holds a monthly event called Skywatch at the Northwest River Park in southern Chesapeake. Sandy and I have been out there before to just look but this is the first time I have taken my own scope.

I have been trying to learn to better navigate the sky without using the GOTO computers on my CG5 mounts. I don’t have my mobile power worked out yet anyway so I figured this would be a good opportunity to do some star hopping using just a Skymap and a red dot finder. If I got totally lost or was not able to view anything there would be others there to help me get back on track or if I got totally frustrated with it there would be a number of other scopes to look through.

Sandy, Mary Shannon, and I loaded up the Xterra with the SV80BV, the M1 mount, a cooler with a few bottles of water, a couple of camp chairs, and the bug repellent. We arrived at the observing site in the equestrian area of NWR park at about 8:00 PM and set up. I have one cigarette lighter plug in the cargo area of the Xterra so I used that to power the dew heater controller.

I got everything set up and we waited for the sun to go down. Venus and Saturn were the first targets visible well before the sky was even dark. After that I started searching out globular clusters.

We had a really good time. I did not take a count but I would guess there were between 10 and 15 scopes set up – ranging in size from my 80mm refractor to Kent’s monster 25″ dob (the views of M13 through that thing are INCREDIBLE). I learned a lot about navigating the sky. Mary Shannon had a great time learning about the different constellations and stars. Both Mary Shannon and Sandy enjoyed looking through Ted’s 18″ Dobsonian that was set up next to us.

The Skywatch event is open to the public and if you get a chance you should check one out – the schedule is here. We are already looking forward to the next one.

From my observing notes:

Venus was very easy to spot well before dark. Though the scope you could easily see the phase of the planet using both the 22mm and the 9mm eye pieces. The phase is very similar to the gibbious moon phase (somewhere between the quarter phase and gibbious phase) I am not sure if it is waxing or waning. Because of the brightness it was actually hard to observe this as the sky became darker.

Saturn was beautiful as always. The shadow of the rings across the planets surface was very easy to resolve. It was approximately 9:10 PM when we were viewing it so the sky was not yet completely dark. I was only able to resolve the moon Titan.

Below are my two quick sketches I made in my log book of the phase of Venus and the location of Saturn’s moon Titan.

A BBAA member walked by (sorry I do not remember who) and said that Albireo would look good through my scope. He showed me where to look, and he was right. Albireo is a double star, it is the head of the constellation Cygnus. The double contains one larger blue star and a smaller gold/yellow star.

Messier 4 (M4) Very faint but it was easy to find by centering on Antares and slowly moving the scope to the west using the 22mm. The 9mm brought out more detail of the bright core and was able to resolve individual stars around the core.

Messier 80 (M80) Was also fairly easy to find by centering on Antares and slowly moving the scope up to about half way between Antares and Acrab (Beta Scorpii) in constellation Scorpius. It has a bright core, but I could not resolve individual stars to the core. Also tried with the 7mm Nagler.

Messier 57 (M57), the Ring Nebula, is found in the constellation Lyra about halfway between the stars Sheliak and Sulafat. M57 resolved as a fuzzy bluish thick walled bubble with the 9mm.

Messier 20 (M20), the Trifid Nebula, and Messier 21 (M21), an open cluster. This was one of my favorite targets of the night. Both M20 and M21 could be seen in the same FOV of the 9mm Nagler. I was able to resolve the dark lanes that separate the Trifid Nebula.

Mizar and Alcor is another double found in the handle of the Big Dipper. Mizar is a large blue star and Alcor is a much smaller blue star.

I did not note any specific details about these clusters. Basically a BBAA member (Ted) was calling these off and I was going looking for them. Messier 10 (M10), Messier 11 (M11), Messier 22 (M22), and Messier 15 (M15)

The two planets were suppose to be even closer together in the sky on Saturday night, but heavy clouds in the west only allowed Venus to shine through.

Here is a shot I got of the two on Friday evening at sunset. This photo was taken using my Nikon D60 with a Sigma 105mm.

The Crescent Moon and Venus Through the Clouds

The clouds rolled in Friday afternoon and it stayed cloudy all weekend.  It was a great weekend to just do nothing.  Ending up laying on the couch and watching all three LoTR movies on Sunday.

Venus is a crescent now and you can easily make out the crescent through binoculars. I am hoping to get some NexImage Solar System Imager pics of Venus the next few nights as long as the weather holds out.

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/26feb_prettysky.htm

Tonight was just a quick look.  The weather was calling for a mostly clear sky and I just wanted to take advantage of it, even if it was only for a quick look.

Because of this I decided to setup my NexStar 60 SLT Refractor.  I have not used this scope since I got the C8.  Unlike the C8 the 60 SLT takes about 5 minutes to setup and align, the views are no where near as spectacular, but if you are just trying to take in a quick view, it’s perfect.

I setup the scope and powered it up, selected the two star manual align on the GOTO controller and after setting the location, time, and date selected Betelgeuse for the first alignment star and then Rigel for the second, after I was finished aligning these stars in the eye piece “Alignment Success” flashed on the screen of the hand controller.

I selected M31 on the GOTO controller and the scope moved into position nearly dead on the Andromeda Galaxy.  Through the 15mm lens I could pick up a fair amount of detail.  The bulge of stars in the center fading outward to the left and right of my field of view.

After studying M31 for about 20 minutes, I entered M33 hoping to get a glimpse of a second galaxy. The scope changed position but I was not able to find the Triangulum galaxy in the eyepiece.  After about 5 minute or so of searching I gave up on this one till next time.

Venus is high in the Southwest sky so I entered Planet and selected Venus on the GOTO controller.  The scope slewed around to the planet, it was a little high in the eyepiece, but still not bad.  Venus looks like a half moon and is very bright.  I was able to get a pretty decent view of the planet through the 20mm eyepiece.

I ended my time with M43, this is one of my favorites.  Partly because it is so easy to find and partly because it can be viewed with even a low power scope.  Even with a small scope you can see this nebula and enjoy it’s beauty.

Just before 8:00 PM some high thin clouds started to move in and the moon began to rise in the East.  By 8:30 the light of the moon reflecting off the high clouds was washing out all but the brightest of stars.

It was a nice night early on, cold and fairly clear to the East and directly over head. By about 9:00 PM there were some clouds moving in from the Southwest. A thin layer of clouds covered the sky by 10:00 PM so I called it a night a little earlier than I wanted.

Orion Nebula | 01/03/09 19:10 EST - 6x30secs - Prime Focus

Moon 01/03/2009 - 1/200 exposure - Prime Focus

I need to practice focusing some as most of the shots I took were just a hair out of focus. I also took a few shots of the Andromeda Galaxy but they were just too out of focus.

When I set the scope up early in the afternoon, Venus was visible in full light. I wanted to try out the T-Connector and camera in the daylight to minimize the fumbling at night. I took a quick shot of Venus and here it is:

Venus - Early Afternoon - 01032009 - 1/200 exposure - Prime Focus

Kind of cool being able to see this planet well before dark. Looks like a miniature half Moon.

Even though there are a few clouds, still a very nice end of the year view of Venus, the Crescent Moon, Mercury, and Jupiter

Venus and the Crescent Moon - 12/31/2008

Venus, the Crescent Moon, and a few passing clouds.

Mercury and Jupiter - 12/31/2008

Have a Happy New Year!!!

Jupiter and Mars are very close together in the southwest and I was able to easily get them both in the 105mm’s field of view.  Both planets disappeared quickly over the horizon.

Jupiter and Mars - 5:44 PM EST - 105mm ISO1600 1/10 f2.8

The Moon and Venus are more south-southwest and higher in the sky with a bit more space between them. I was not able to get a good shot of them both with 105mm. The 50mm picked them up quite nice.

Venus and the Moon - 5:53 PM EST - 50mm 1/50 ISO800 f2.8

These are a bit hurried, but hopefully tomorrow night will be clear and I will have a little more time. The Moon and Venus are suppose to meet up in the sky for a conjunction tomorrow night and Mercury and Jupiter should be nearly side by side.

Can’t wait to piggy back the 105 on the scope!

My wonderful wife also got me the t-connector and t-ring to be able to do prime focus photography through my C8.  I am looking forward to a good clear sky and some time to try that out!