some deep sky (Pontypool)

Finally... It finally worked out that when a Deep Sky Observing Session (DSOS) by the RASC Toronto Centre was going to happen, and in fact was called a "go," I could (personally) go, and I didn't have to be anywhere early the next day, and I had a working car, and I had the energy and wherewithal. At last!

Instrument: Questar 3½-inch Mak
Mount: equatorial table-top legs
Method: star hopping

I left the city on time. As predicted, the bulk of the rush hour insanity had abated. There was only some minor lane reduction work in Whitby that impacted my progress. I made the Long Sault Conservation Area (LSCA) by 8:15 or so. An astronomer was ahead of me. Some cyclists were squeezing in one more ride.

I immediately unpacked my portal picnic table, lawn chair, astronomy box α, the Centre's Questar, and dual gel cel deep discharge battery bank (which I had offered that Jason could tap into). Ready to conduct an experiment. The air was cooling off so in short order I put on long pants, long sleeve shirt, and RASC vest. Others astronomers were rolling in, RASC members, and civies too, the general public.

Jack (member) and Bill (non) peppered me with questions as dusk fell. Jack had his new telescopic telescope, a collapsible 12" Sky Watcher Dobsonian. He assembled it at the east edge of the parking lot. Bill had his relatively new Meade 125 ETX. He settled in near me.

Oh. I was interested in learning about the little Meade.

It was clear. The temperature was around 11°C. The wind had died down.

9:32 PM. Spotted Venus just over the trees. I put the Questar on it and at high power (80x) could see the gibbous phase. Clear in Questar. Although, my little table was prone to shaking. I let people take a look. Jeanie and Bill enjoyed the view. The bright stars, Arcturus overhead, Vega to the east, Spica to the south, started appearing.

9:46. Just viewed a bright satellite. First caught it very near Spica heading due north, brighter or possibly the same as Spica (~1) but less than Arcturus (~0). Lost it (and got distracted) around zenith. Heavens Above says the USA 129 flew over starting at 9:43 and finishing at 9:49 on a generally S to N path with a maximum elevation of 88°. The predicted bright was 3.1. No way. It was way brighter than that. The database entry has that maximum brightness can reach -0.2 at perigee when 100% illuminated. Yeah. That's more like it.

More people arrived. Stu set up his tracking Dob on the other side of the lot, north of Jack. Jason set up near me so he could reach my marine power tank. Steve arrived with his new iPad and GPS-sensitive astronomy app. Wow. A true portal experience. Like the smaller iPhone version I had seen some time back, this dynamically panned with movement, a window on the sky (oops, sorry, Mac people). I aimed it down. Ha ha! We tried to imagine the Earth being transparent. It was like a super-duper x-ray machine! OK, enough of that gadget; back to the real sky.

Could see more stars in Leo—hey hey, look at the that! Mars and Regulus, Mars above, pale orange. The view of Mars near Regulus was fantastic! Beautiful naked eye view. The colours were incredible. It would have been interesting to attempt to photograph them. I wondered if the colours would have held up. Later Jason put his refractor on the pale orange world and blue white star. We encouraged him to use a longer eyepiece to improve the view. Simply spectacular.

Turned to the ringed planet. In the Questar, I could see Titan to the left of Saturn (mirror reverse). Tried desperately in the 3½" aperture to coax out more moons... Alas, they would not come out. Regardless, the view was breathtaking.

10:00. As the sky darkened the view of Saturn improved. The ring shadow became more prominent, or darker, although still a razor thin line. All reported no trouble seeing that. I could see the equatorial belt easily. Others struggled with this feature.

10:09. Conditions check: the OS said 76% humidity, 8.1°C temperature; OW said 66% at 8°C.

We double checked our location. I think Steve looked it up on the iPad. 44° 33' 0" by 78° 44' 30". (Later pinpointed the spot on Google Maps: 44.049863 by 78.741983. That's pretty well bang on.)

Stu had a look through the Questar.

Bill was fiddling with the Meade.

Jack came over to ask for some help. He could not seem to find objects. Wasn't 100% sure if the finder scope was aligned. He wanted to see M13. I flashed Hercules with the green laser, showed the Keystone, and pointed out where I knew the Greater Cluster to be. I sighted along the big OTA but could see he was off by about 5°. I wiggled the open truss around until it looked about right, looked through the finder. Ah ha! There was M13 pretty well dead centre. Looked through the eyepiece. Voila.

I looked like a hero! But I was just lucky I think.

Jack was pleased.

I suggested he change the tension on the handle bar knobs. They were way too tight. The azimuth action was beautifully smooth.

Headed back to the centre of the parking lot. Bill was still struggling with the Meade. I asked if I could have a go. We started from the top. Powered it up, walked through the menu, and initiated the two star alignment process. The 'scope moved toward Spica. But it was way off, by 5° or so. So I slewed manually and centred. Star 2 was off again. Slewed, centred, and tested an object. It was pretty close. I was satisfied it was working. I asked Bill how we could "sync" but he had no clue what I was talking about. I briefly scanned the manual to no avail.

It was around then that Bill kicked the tripod. OK. Well, that's an opportunity to practice! So I got him to run through the process.

Lots to learn, my friend.

I saw a bright meteor, heading from E to SW. At the time I noted the path but I forgot to write it down...

They enjoyed viewing double stars. We looked at Mizar and Alcor naked eye. Then Mizar A and B, Alcor, and Sidus Ludoviciana between. Then off to Albireo. Lovely.

Helped Jason spot the Ring Nebula. He exclaimed, "That's it?!" He admitted that he's a bit spoiled by Hubble photos...

11:50. I was feeling a little chilled. I checked the weather stations. The dew was high! The OS said 94%. I suggested everyone get out the dew shields and heaters.

Bill grabbed his from the car. He had never used it before. So, we got more learnin' done.

It occurred to me that my efforts at getting some personal observing in had been somewhat thwarted. Still, I was happy to help people. I decided to sit down to finally do some drift tests, so to confirm the field of view sizes of the Questar eyepieces. I fiddled and fuddled for a while but was having a hard time starhopping. I stuggled with mirror-reversed laterally-inverted images. I wondered if I should have a small mirror handy. That might be helpful. Tried some more but I was getting foggy. Was a little uncomfortable (not having put more layers on).

I packed up.

Stuart and I chatted with Jeanie and Bill and then other non-members. Curiously, while we pitched the society, we both forgot to handout flyers! DOH!

I left around 1:00 AM.

§

I took the Questar and my portable table so to conduct an experiment. It was partly successful. I wanted to see how stable the view would be.

But my little plastic portable picnic table shakes and vibrates. Even if you sit still, you can see your heartbeat in the eyepiece. The whole table flexes and shifts as you move. So, at high power, if you lean one way to examine an object, and then shift to the other elbow, the object drifts out of view.

So, the table is OK for spreading out gear. And hiding under. Especially with the umbrella. But a separate table for the portable 'scope would be best.

While I had my lawn chair there, I didn't use it. I could have sat in the lawn chair and not touched the picnic table. That would have likely offered better views.

§

Another experiment, albeit impromptu, was running two 'scopes off one of my deep discharge batteries. It worked out well.

I ran the Questar at 120V off my 400W invertor.

Jason ran his equatorial mount at 12V.

The battery did not run out! Although it reported low the next morning.

Had the second battery on standby but we didn't need it.