viewing from THO (Blue Mountains)

I was warm. Sweating in my RASC pullover. In the 18° air. No doubt exciting mosquitos in a 5 km (100?) radius. I remember this happening last summer. I need to move more slowly. Slow down. I opened all the floor vents to let the air move through the THO observatory.

Instrument: Celestron 8-inch SCT
Mount: Vixen Super Polaris
Method: star hopping

I had not done any of my normal observing planning. I.e. I had not selected any particular targets. My main objective, really, was to start using Geoff's calibrated eyepiece on some double stars.

And wouldn't you know it. In my haste to leave the city, I forgot all my new double star materials! In particular, the Double-Star Measurement Made Easy article by Thomas Teague. I had carefully read this article, making notes. I wanted to use his second method, one that seemed relative easy but that yielded accurate results. I had already built a spreadsheet in my palmtop to assist with the calculations. Ironically, this article was in the July 2000 Sky and Telescope magazine which I had signed out two weeks ago from the Troyer Library—here at the CAO! I even forgot to transfer the actual documentation PDF I had previously downloaded from the Celestron web site.

Oh well. I resigned myself to just winging it.

I resolved to use June 2009 The Evening Sky Map as a guide...

I was pleased to see that the ASUS netbook was able to connect to the CAO wireless router. Barely. The signal strength in the THO was very low and occasionally I'd get very sluggish response. I briefly tried searching for Teague's article but while in the S&T archive, it is not available for free.

I considered doing immediate updates to my blog again but I didn't want to spend all my time at the computer. And without a proper chair it was a little uncomfortable. I had forgotten to bring my lawn chair. Didn't think to get one from the house.

It was challenging observing. With my "push-to" telescope, if I chose a target, but then took too much time planning my star hop, by the time I'd get there, clouds were covering that region of the sky. Tried finding some interesting doubles in Cepheus but had to scrub.

12:22 AM. I turned to Rasalgethi, α (alpha) Herculis. I enjoyed the yellow and blue colours. I put my Celestron 2x Barlow in front of the Celestron Micro Guide. I estimated the separation to be 1-1/3 ticks on the Scale Division rule in the centre of the reticule. I turned off the clock drive to find west in the field. And then I guestimated the position angle 100°. I did a little sketch to help me with the PA.

I left the notes as is, to do the calculations and checks later. [I calculated the separation to be 6.86". Haas says it was 4.8", with a position angle of 103°, in 2003.]

1:42. Once again, I had put my two portable weather stations to use. The Oregon Scientific was inside with me, muggy; and the OneWorld was outside, dewy, with the bugs. Inside it was 16.4°C and 73% humidity; outside: 13.8° and 99%.

Overhead was clear. OK. Let's go for Messier 39 (M39). Eye-catching in the finder. Should be a good binocular subject. Viewed with the baader planetarium 36mm at 56x. It is a large, loose open cluster. Pretty, fine, blue-white stars with the yellow or orange sprinkled in. But it was cropped in the 1° plus field. I need less power! I checked the telescope specs spreadsheet in my palmtop: minimum recommended power for the C8 was 29x. Time for a walkabout... I visited Millie on the observing pad and then Dietmar in the Warm Room. While in the GBO, I grabbed the Tele Vue 55mm Plössl. This offered a more satisfying view, at 36x, of the cluster. The TESM said it can be spotted naked eye! Really?

I was getting frustrated chasing sucker holes. So, I popped out of the THO and headed over the observing pad. Millie, unencumbered by walls, could quickly turn any which way. She was getting stuff done. A good polar alignment and GOTO helps too. It crossed my mind to close up the THO and use the ultra fast 'mount in the GBO...

I laid prone on the seat of the picnic table and took in the whole sky. At times it was difficult to distinguish between the Milky Way and high clouds. But, gradually, happily, it was clearing. I pointed out Jupiter rising!

I tried to use Millie's Celestron binos but had trouble. I wondered if they were dewing up...

2:10. Back in the THO. It was clear in the north-east. Found δ (delta) Cephei. Wow! Very pretty. Very wide pair, wide even at 55mm (Haas says 40.6"). Yellow and blue. Apparently the main star of the pair is a famous variable star. I didn't think to note it's current magnitude...

2:27. The Jovian planet and moons were calling. And I recalled that Neptune was in the mix. I viewed them all at low power. I put the Tele Vue 10mm Radian (also nabbed from the GBO) on the last planet in the solar system (yielding 200x). Dark blue. Hard to resolve.

I sketched the wide field view (mirror-reversed). Neptune is nearest to the West marker. The four moons are in a straight line of course, with Ganymede above and left, then, down and to the right, Europa, Io, and finally Callisto.



2:52. While in da 'hood, I decided to check some doubles in Capricornus. Viewed α¹ (alpha 1) and α² (alpha 2) Capricorni. Wow. One is a yellow-blue double. Other is a single yellow star. Unless that distant blue is its companion. There are some other field stars here. I better view this again and make some better notes and do a sketch...

β¹ (beta 1) and β² (beta 2) Capricorni is interesting. Yellow-blue-blue flattened isosceles triangle. (I didn't realise I had already viewed this pair.)

I tried to split π (pi) and ρ (rho) again. No joy. This is weird. Haas lists them so they should be easy for me... I'm not very happy.

3:42. Tried for 16 Cygni. I observed a wide pair of faint white stars, easily split with the 36mm (Haas says they're 39.1" apart). I tried to further split the stars into sub components. No joy.

My back was sore. I was yawning like crazy despite having drunk some coffee. I decided to lock up. I couldn't go any longer. I couldn't wait for sunrise...

Millie had gone to bed some time before.

I popped into the GBO. Dietmar was packing up too. Something was wrong with his guiding. I could see the trails in the photos. We locked up with my keys.

Hey, hey! As we walked back to the house, I saw Mars and Venus rising over the mountain. No sign of Mercury though. Still, we enjoyed the view.

4:30. From my bedroom, as I turned out the light, I looked out the east window. Still couldn't see Mercury.