surprising skies at 200 power (Blue Mountains)

9:15 PM, 6 August 2010. Glanced at Venus as the skies started to darken and as I set up in the THO. Saw Mars and Saturn naked eye about 10 minutes ago. A large triangle. It's almost a right-angle triangle with Saturn at the 90 degree point.

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

While the telescope tripod was still collapsed, I thought I'd try the new Orion bag. It is a bit big, designed for a telescope, but it fits tripod well. I like the padded divider; didn't know about this feature. There is lots of extra room. I loaded it with tripod triangle and music stand. Finally! The triangle is taken care of, 21 years after getting this telescope! There is still room inside the big blue bag. It is light weight. This will be so good for carrying large bulky items. And, again, I really like to idea that I will now avoid losing small parts, bolts, nuts, the special Lee Valley cam clamp handles. I also put C8 dew shield in the new bag of holding. The bag is a bit bulky though; it took up a chunk of floor space in the THO.

Out on the observing pad, I viewed planets with the gang. I looked through Steve's stabilised binoculars—Canon 12x36 IS-II. We could just fit Venus and Saturn or Mars and Saturn but not Mars and Venus. Not all 3.

The mosquitoes were already bad.

I thought I'd try the new 9x50 finder on the triple conjunction. It was not mounted; that I'll need to be do in the daylight. I just hand-held it, leaned against the roof. It was great! Immediately, I enjoyed the right-angle (or rather, image-corrected) presentation. Very pretty the planets. Like with Steve's binos, I could not fit the hypotenuse but I could see the other pairs.

9:28. In The Shack. I was just about ready to begin my setup.

This was my first opportunity to try the Sony Linear/PCM voice recorder. I set it to wide (stereo) mode (via one of the side switches). I thought I'd try the VOR (voice actuated) mode (thinking that later it will be too time-consuming to listen to dead air on playback). By watching the REC red LED I could tell it was working: it flashes when on standby; and burns steady when recording.

Going for polar alignment now. Turned the roof so I could see Polaris. Unpacked the tripod and triangle from the bag and set up. I remembered to screw in the polar axis shaft before mounting the equatorial mount to the tripod. But I forgot to immediately add the counterweights. That was dumb. I guess I was focused on getting the optical tube assembly off the floor before I tripped over it. Once again, I noted the tripod alignment marks on the concrete. I should make my own.

Steve came by to suggest I look at the setting planets. He must have seen the THO roof pointed away from west. I took a look. Mars and Saturn were almost horizontal. I spotted a star to the left. Steve said it was Spica but it didn't seem bright enough to me, or the right colour. He was looking further to the south than I was. I was seeing Porrima...

I looked through the polar alignment scope but I didn't see a bright star. Panned a bit. No luck. Tried again. Weird. Picked the whole tripod up. No joy. Then I found the mount was set to 40 degrees elevation. Wha? That's why I wasn't seeing Polaris! When did I do that?!

I put the tripod on my hockey puck dampeners. Tightened up the legs. Checked the level.

9:46. I was leveled. Polaris was close to centre. I checked the recorder. Ha ha, I noticed that it could record for another 23 hours! Did a bit more quick prep. Not quite done yet.

10:00. I was anxious to look at Saturn. Wow. Just took a look through the 36mm eyepiece. It's not that dark yet. The ringed planet was very colourful being less than 10 degrees up.

We're gonna have a great night.

Got all my eyepieces out. Er, the team's eyepieces... The stock Celestron Plössl 26mm that came with the 'scope. The Meade orthoscopic 18mm I hijacked from Mom's Edmund. The no-longer-new baader Hyperion 36mm wide-field 2". The Celestron Micro Guide ocular with reticule on loan from Geoff. And the brand new Tele Vue Type 6 Nagler 9mm. It is getting a bit crowded in the triangular tray...

When I opened the eyepiece case, I found the CMG already in the upper tray, out of the box. That actually was a good thing. If I put the CMG back in its box in the lower compartment, it meant there would be room in the case for the new Tele Vue. Whew. I don't have to change the case!

I tested the battery in the CMG. It was good.

I tested the batteries in the tripod tray light. They were weak (although it was sufficient later in darker conditions).

I did not get out the dew heating equipment for a couple of reasons: we may not get to dew point; and I was probably well protected inside THO. I did however need to retrieve the custom power supply from the case.

Dug out my portable weather stations. I put the OneWorld outside for external conditions; the Oregon Scientific I left inside. Both came from box sitting inside the THO so then the OS I thought should already be at ambient conditions.

I had brought my "extra" Velcro straps from home. Tossed into the general items box. In the THO, I decided to use a couple of them to secure wiring around the tripod. I suspended the CLA receptacle and DC-DC adapter just under tray. Never done that before. It was neat and tidy, off the floor, eliminating a trip hazard.

I have been concerned for some time with the power cord going to the controller. It feels like it is prone to being pulled out, disconnected. I have a cable guide on the side of the controller but this is not ideal either. It seems to be putting a lot of strain on the connector. So, tonight, I just attached the data and power cables together, near the controller, by two separate Velcro straps. And I felt it would work!

I was getting my night vision. I dropped the brightness of THO red lights lower still. The sky was looking amazing. I stuck my head out the roof. Holy cow, horizon to horizon, spectacular dark, clear sky. Milky Way going overhead.

Venus had moved behind the tree by the house. I could see it if I moved about. Mars and Saturn were still visible. It was clear that, in fact, they are not horizontal.

I knocked the cheapo hygrometer with magnet off the triangle tray. Before I stuck it back on, I examined the gauge. It was reading 80% humidity! Is that right? That seemed way too high. For inside the THO. Damn thing. But I suppose that's what you get for $4.

I checked the view in the eyepiece. The tracking was holding up. I had a satisfactory polar alignment.

I set up the adjustable height astronomer chair.

So to complete the floor vacuuming, I decided to keep the shopvac in the THO. I moved it to a corner, out of the way. I put the new finder scope away. For now.

Unpacked new eyepiece. Got it ready for first light!

As I began to unpack the computer, it occurred to me, that in a weird way, I missed the old big bulky trunk case for the C8. It offered a table surface. I would often use it in the field to put stuff on. I recalled using it in previous sessions in the THO. I do think I need another table surface in here. The trunk is slightly high. Something level with the arms of the lawn chair might be ideal. Maybe I could borrow something from the house...

I fired up netbook computer. Plugged in power supply. And the crazy bright blue LED shone right in my eyeball! WILHELM SCREAM! Steve complained about green LEDs on Celestron gear.

Huh. Got a wifi signal. But then I had the portable computer atop the podium, near the roof opening, while facing west, toward the house. It's the metal roof that screws things up... Still, I realised that I should not assume it would work all night.

Asked Steve his impression of the sky. He agreed it was very good. William was out on the pad too. Steve shut off the parking lot light after I described where the switch was.

10:24. I was already getting a sense that using the DVR would be faster... I wouldn't have to fumble for pen and light. More time at the eyepiece, hopefully. More to the point: I could capture my thoughts and impressions without leaving the eyepiece.

It suddenly occurred to me that I would still need to do manual typing of my log, and my audio notes, as I had not yet trained the Sony with the Dragon software. Kicked myself for not bringing it up...

I moved the recorder to a spot over the door. It just seemed in the way on the podium. But at that location, I was not sure the VOR was working... Moved it again.

I downloaded my blog companion pages, so to have local copies. And on examining my Messier life list, I discovered I had not viewed M94, one of the suggested targets from Skymaps.com! I checked for it's location in Canes Venatici in the Pocket Sky Atlas but I didn't notice it. Couldn't see it at first. Used Stellarium. Ah. It's almost exactly between α (alpha) and β (beta) CVn, Cor Caroli and Chara.

Weird. It felt good to be star hopping again! I've been using the C14 on the Paramount a lot. Getting spoiled by the Ferrari of mounts. "Too easy?" Well. I've paid my dues. A go-to mount is obviously fast. So you can spend more time observing; less time hunting. But I do enjoy the journey (most of the time). It's good practice.

I tried something a bit differently than what I've done before in the THO: I pivoted the telescope first before moving roof. I could see a portion of the target constellation. If I can do that in the future, it might speed things a bit.

10:41. Just did a pit stop on α, the double star. It's a beaut.

I noticed that α (Cor Caroli) and β (Chara) were close enough to fit in the (old) finder.

Kept scanning for the fuzzy. Couldn't see it. When, suddenly, I realised it was below where I was looking; not above. A pitfall of hopping: going the wrong direction.

10:50. Messier 94 was faint. Very faint. Stretching outwards with a bright centre. I was viewing it with the low power eyepiece when I saw a bright satellite go through the field. Did some drifting to figure out west—around the 3 o'clock position for the current orientation—therefore north was down. I saw a bright star to the north, fairly close to the smudge; and a faint star to the west, half the distance. It was difficult to say for certain if I could see any detail.

I turned the lights down more (counterclockwise to dim). I found my keyboard light, the custom one with the 660nm deep red LED, was still too bright. Certainly when over a sheet of white paper! I moved the controller so it (and it's bright red LED) wasn't facing me.

I started going up in power, gradually, on the Messier object. Installed the 26mm. That was weird. I didn't see anything in the field! Dropped back to 36mm and found it was way off target. I re-centred and quickly put back the 26mm. It didn't seem much better at 77x. Even trying averted vision. I changed to 18mm.

Still not convinced the VOR of the DVR was working well. I moved it to triangle tray. While my voice was louder, it got noisy when changing eyepieces. I could also hear mount's motor drive. I found the VOR was still cutting out. It's partly that I'm speaking very quietly. I changed the recording level to Super High from High. I started a new audio file and turned off VOR. Now it will record everything... The amber display of the recorder is perfect.

Here we go! First light for 9mm Tele Vue Type 6 Nagler. It was a fantastic field of view! It is 82 degrees, right? I rotated eyepiece to get a better view. Man, M94 is very faint. I did panning and used averted vision to coax out more details. It seemed to me to resemble a spiral galaxy. But it is so faint. I tried to get a shape of the very tenuous object.

It occurred to me it would be better to view in 5 or 6 months when higher in the sky. This galaxy is probably circumpolar but it would likely be a lot better to view in winter when it would be higher up. Now it is low and sinking.

Regardless, that was an interesting experiment. One more Messier to my list. Although, I plan to return. A worthy quarry for the new eyepiece. It did pull out some more detail.

Removed the 9mm. I like the shaft recess lock.

I put in the 36mm. Hey! It is parfocal! That will be handy!

Viewed M94 in Stellarium. Found it to be ellipse shaped, galaxy, mag 8.2, it is 11' in size. Big. I saw the bright star to north, HIP 62700, and fainter one, mag 11.1. It still bugs me that Stellarium does not support field rotation.

Seeing M94 was cool.

11:10. Remembered to do a naked eye magnitude limit test with Ursa Minor. Used the little chart thing on my large log sheet.

No prob with η (eta) Ursae Minoris, which is mag 4.95! Seeing star 11 UMi is mildly challenging as it is very close to γ (gamma) aka Pherkad, so a bit difficult to split naked eye, but I can see it, and it's mag 5.0. By the way, they are 17 minutes of arc apart. I can see star 4, mag 4.80. Oh ho. Very good. Just stared at UMi for a while to get dark adapted and spotted 5.5 and 5.7 stars. My little UMi chart on my sketching sheet stops at mag 5.1... Used Stellarium for the fainter ones.

(Two years ago I saw down to 5.9 mag...)

Turned the VOR back on. And noticed the beep tone is shut off while recording. Makes sense. According to the level meter, it is picking up some noise (discovered later it was the netbook, the cooling fan).

Cooling off. Checked portable weather station outside: 11.2°C and 57%. Tried pinging the Davis weather station. But bad signal. Metal roof blocking.

Decided to take a break. Needed to go to the house to get on another layer and my toque. I grabbed my red night vision goggles... And stepped outside.

Wow! Look at that whole sky!

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11:30. I fooled myself. Stepped out of the house and to the Observing Pad and wondered what had happened. Couldn't see many stars and Jupiter was dimmed. Oops. Still had my dark red laser enhancement goggles on. Ha!

Back from break. Good tracking: M94 is still near centre of eyepiece in the 36mm.

Remembered the fuzzies in Lyra. I made a note to visit a bit later, when it's not so high.

Realised I forgot to look at Mercury. It was at max. sep. this evening. Will have to try again tomorrow. I want to see it naked eye.

I was feeling tired. I had been standing a lot. Unfolded the lawn chair and took a break. Yawning like crazy! I rested for a bit. Need to remember to drink water when I'm tired like this.

Steve reported a visitor, possibly a 'coon. He could see his eyes. I had heard something slightly earlier.

Closed up my car. In part, to get the blood flowing.

1:00 AM, 7 August 2010. Really tired. Going after fuzzy near Burnham 648 in Lyra. Map 63. I star hopped to HIP 93017 A. Tried to see the B star but couldn't. The surrounding triangle of stars is visible, above 12.5, below left 12.7, bottom right 13.3, more to the left 12.8, top right 12.5. I looked at the bright star above 93073. Looked opposite it but didn't see any nebulosity. Checked my previous notes but they were not very detailed. I thought it was opposite the bright star. Nothing. Wondered if it was a comet. Where would it be now?

Considered borrowing an eyepiece to get to around 300 or 350x, again to try to split 93017. Asked Joel if the GBO was open. It wasn't. So, I loaded up the Ultima doubler. Still, with the TV 9mm, somewhere around 440x, I could not see a companion. Just faint diffraction rings. Son of a gun.

Not able to split the Burnham 648. It is noted at 0.8" and it's possible it has moved closer to the primary in the meantime.

1:30. Viewed the Ring Nebula with the new eyepiece. Wow. Messier 57 (M57) is really cool. Very interesting. Could detect shape with this, that it is not round. Really nice.

I need a bit of a better plan. I should go through the Skymaps.com list (in the daytime) and note which ones I haven't seen. For example, I should revisit M94 earlier in the evening. Now I'm doing a lot of checking, and back and forth. Losing time at the eyepiece.

Heard them talking on the pad about Moon rise. I told them the time from Stellarium, given the local landscape.

1:50. Chilly. 11°C now. Learned that I had not seen Messier 30. So I decided to try for it. It's in the Bat! Stellarium showed it crossing the meridian. So it was the perfect time. Planned a star hop from ζ (zeta) Capricornus. Page 77. A little open C-shape of stars surrounding ζ. There's 41 Cap just over there. Easy hop.

2:22. Heard a cow on recorder. Viewed M30 (aka NGC 7099). Started with the 36mm. Unmistakable. It's a globular. Densely packed. I wondered if it was far away (28,000 light-years away, according to wikipedia). There's a bright orange-white star, quite far away, about 20 minutes away. There are a number of stars right around the cluster.

Very nice. Oh. At 220x it is really good. The 82° field was enjoyable. Not an Ethos 100° but there's still a "swimming" in space feeling.

There's some interesting stuff going on. I already knew it was a glob. Things happening around it. Looks like arms or streamers coming out of it. The wikipedia image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope is telling: there are groups of bright stars in straight lines emanating from the cluster creating the effect of radial arms.

2:26. I saw that Jupiter was really high and bright. That reminded me that the comet, 10P/Tempel 2, should be visible!

I spotted β Ceti (aka Diphda, at mag. 2). About 20 degrees up. The comet should be to the left and slightly above.

It occurred to me that it was pretty quiet out on the observing pad.

2:35. Ha ha. I found comet Tempel 2. Very faint (despite being near its maximum brightness). Easily missed. I found it by panning.

Offered a look to Steve. He didn't see it at first. I focused with my eyeglasses but it dead centre and then suggested he pan. He saw it. It ain't no Hale Bopp, he remarked. He returned to the pad to pack up.

Decided to finish off with Jupiter and the new ocular.

Oh. Definitely spotted 3 moons. Checked Stellarium. Learned the Io was behind. HIP 1127 is beyond Callisto. The 11 mag star right beside Callisto I could not see; the -2.6 mag planet was washing it out.

2:43. Used the new eyepiece. Lovely. Huge. Wow. Holy cow. This is the magic number for planetary: 200.

I could see clearly that the GRS was not visible. It was that clear. I saw a dark storm above the NEQ.

Great view. Rock steady seeing now.

I'm done.

Wrapped up. Rotating the roof to home. Retrieved the OW from outside, covered with water. It reported: 6°C, 84%. Doesn't seem right. Inside reading from OS: 64%, 9.1°C! That was kinda nippy. Closed the roof flap. Powered off the mount. Shut down Stellarium. Checked batteries on Sony recorder: half way.

Time check: 2:56 AM.

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I was surprised by the sensitivity of the microphone(s) on the Sony recorder. I could hear the motor of the clock drive. I could hear Steve and William out on the Observing Pad. I could hear distant cows!

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This blog entry seemed much longer than normal. Even though a medium-length session. Must be a product of the audio recorder. I captured so much more detail. I will have to précise in the future...

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Phil said he liked the detail in the entry. Said he felt like he was there...