Balcony observing report

3-7-01 to 3-11-01

by Jim Feldhouse


03-07-01 to 03-11-01 equipment: pronto & 25mm Meade SuperWide & I3 25mm/15mm (so very low magnification, 20x to at most 50x)

I have been doing some observing from my balcony lately. Conditions on the balcony range from "horrid" to "really horrid". naked eye limiting magnitude approaches 4, as long as you are above the ~40 degree light bubble, the really bad part of it anyway. Vega's bright enough to get thru the light bubble, but the rest of the harp is eliminated until roughly 45deg.

The conditions were only horrid the 1st night because so many lights were out in my apartment complex. a couple helped along by the lightbulb-gremlins. sadly the landlord had an attack of motivation and came and replaced ALL the lights, even the ones that had died of natural causes. the lightbulb-gremlins are considering their next move...

Anyway, since there is so much of the sky I have yet to explore, I was still able to hit some of the brighter messier targets. I can only see from the eastern horizon almost to the zenith, minus the above mentioned light dome. but since I have no bedtime alot of stuff passes thru the area.

I waited till the moon moved over the roof, and it turns out scorpio was just peaking over this hill to the south. I looked at Mars and was unable to resolve it into a disk, even at 45x (11mm) I could only see a disk using extreme imagination. I didn't try the I3 on it, too bright.

I was getting used to the refractor's mirror image field and movements, so I just started bouncing around the scorpio area with the I3 looking at stars & such when I stumbled upon this globular. I had no idea where I was (didn't really know how to gauge where the pronto was pointing.) also I don't know the sco-oph area very well.

I thought it might be M4, but it didn't quite seem in the right place, it wasn't near antares or really any bright stars. so I drew a picture of the faint stars in the area, and thought I'd figure it out later.

I ended up touring alot of globulars I hadn't seen before over the next 2 nights. I wasn't able to resolve any of them except maybe a smidgeon of M12. I am plenty spoiled by my 16" when it comes to resolution, but it was still fun to find the new (to me) globulars.

new: M5, M10, M12, M56, M92 less new: M3, M13, M71 cleary I barely scratched the surface for this area of of the sky upto Sag. I like to take my time, its not like the others are going anywhere.

It turns out the mystery one I found was M10, the stars in the field of view were distinct enough that my drawing helped me ID it.

Some of the globulars were only visible in the I3. one of the I3's strength in this situation is that it doesn't require dark adaptation, which isn't going to happen in my neighborhood unless PGE shuts down more often.

Some other highlights were when I stayed up to nearly dawn on saturday morning, and caught the teapot rising over the hill. I was really tired, but knew there was so much good stuff there I just pointed and looked around. This area is totally new to me and I stumbled upon plenty interesting looking things. I did 1 drawing of a particularly looking object, a small mostly circular area of nebulosity with a bright center, right next to an open cluster. I was kind of thinking this was M20/M21 when I drew it, but when I compared my drawing to pictures later, it turns out it was the lagoon (M8).

I revisited M57, and tried barlowing up with the I3 to see the ring, no such luck. M27 was visible BARELY without the I3, but NOT visible with the I3. Much like M97, I3 just doesn't seem to work on certain planetaries.

I visited a couple open clusters in Cygnus, M29 & NGC 6910, dawn & the light dome made for not so good views.

Last night, 03-11-01 I went out to spy on Leo galaxies before the moon rose. As the sunlight went away, I was able to make out NGC 2903 with the I3, without I3 help, I couldn't see it.

M96 area was still in the light dome, so I moved over to M81/82 almost out of view overhead (balcony on top of me) I drew a picture of the M81/82 area. I could cleary make out M81 and the small thin "tear" of M82. I was interested in if I could make out the 2 nearby neighbors though. (3077 & 2976) no such luck, even later IDing things in my drawing I hadn't seen them.

Next when I moved on to M96 area, I was unable to see much of anything. I, eventually, barely made out M96, but M95 at just a little bitter dimmer was not discernable. nor M105.

Anyway, I am basically convinced the limit of my pronto/I3 off of my balcony is roughly magnitude 10.5 for globulars & galaxy nebulous objects. I can see stars down to at least 11.5/12, at least from about 45 degrees up.

I also experimented alot with using the I3 in combination with an infrared filter I made from Wratten #87 gelatin. skyglow totally disappears from view, but I think the 760nm cutoff of #87 is too much. I think a 700nm cut off of #89b will still make the skyglow go away, but will leave more of the desired object's near infrared/red light remain for viewing.

Anyone know why skyglow doesn't show up in near IR? (or does it?)