by Tom Campbell
| Observer | Tom Campbell |
|---|---|
| Location | Iola, Kansas (Long: 95 30' W Lat: 37 55' N) |
| Equipment | 8" Discovery DHQ dob |
| Eyepieces | 1.25" Plössls (25mm, 15mm, 10mm, 6.5mm, 4mm) |
| Time | 9:15pm - 11:45pm CDT |
| Transparency | Clear |
| Seeing | Fairly Stable |
| Weather | Temperature in 50s. There was little to no wind. |
O = Open Cluster
The sky was clear once again tonight, so I thought I'd do some impromptu stargazing. Setting the telescope outside just after sunset, I let it get dark enough to easily make out Jupiter. Even at low powers, the giant planet seemed to be boiling. I knew that my telescope hadn't yet had time to sufficiently cool down properly, and Jupiter was fairly low in the sky, but I know that the seeing conditions were causing part of the problems.
I headed back inside until it got fairly dark. Then I gave the sky my official Spring seeing test: The Leo Trio of galaxies. M65 and M66 were poorly-defined and NGC-3628 was barely detectable. Not a great night. But the worst of nights under the stars is much preferable to the best of nights under the clouds, so I decided to make the best of it.
| O M35 [Gemini] - 9:15pm CDT |
|---|
| At 49X, this is a nice open cluster, filling the field of view. There are about 40-50 stars visible at this magnification, forming several chains of stars and some nice doubles. |
| # NGC 2392 (Eskimo Nebula) [Gemini] - 9:30pm CDT |
| At 188X, a light blue tinge is noticeable. The planetary nebula has a bright core with a fuzzy halo around it. A fairly bright nearby star gives the Eskimo the appearance of being part of a binary star system, with one "star" being out of focus. |
| O M48 [Hydra] - 9:35pm CDT |
| At 49X, the cluster takes up most of the field of view. There are several bright stars in the center of the cluster which form a V shape. The rest of the cluster has a somewhat circular appearance, but is fairly loose, and is composed of mainly brighter stars. This makes an excellent object for smaller telescopes. |
| @ M63 [Canes Venatici] - 10:00pm CDT |
| There really isn't much detail visible tonight. It appears to be oval in shape, and the major axis is nearly pointing to the closest field star. With averted vision, I could just barely detect a faint smudge in a direction opposite of the field star. After looking at photos, I believe this was a faint double star. The only other object in the vicinity is the galaxy UGC 8313, and I think it is too faint (mag. 14) for my telescope to detect. |
| # M97 (Owl Nebula) [Ursa Major] - 10:05pm CDT |
|
On a whim, I decided to zero in on this object. I remembered seeing a Telrad
finder chart for it, and centered my Telrad on the spot from memory. Within
seconds, I had my quarry.
This planetary nebula is nearly circular in shape, and was best seen at 81X rather than 49X due to the greater contrast. But bumping up the magnification further, resulted in an image almost too dim to see. Through my telescope, I was unable to make out more than a faint smudge of light. No real details were seen. |
| * M3 [Coma Berenices] - 10:15pm CDT |
| This cluster was small enough and low enough that I couldn't really resolve it much. The best power was 188X. Even then, only a few individual stars (along the edges of the cluster. |
| : m Boö (Alkalurops) [Boötes] - 10:25pm CDT |
| This is a nice, bright, pretty, and wide double. At 49X, the separation appears slightly smaller than Albireo. Both stars are white in color, but the companion is slightly fainter, which gives it a grey-white appearance. |
| : e Boö (Izar) [Boötes] - 10:35pm CDT |
| At 188X, I could just start to make out the companion star, right at the edge of the diffraction surrounding the primary. The companion is much fainter than the primary. The bright primary is yellowish-orange, while the companion appears to be somewhat bluish-grey. |
| : x Boö [Boötes] - 10:45pm CDT |
| This is a pretty little double. The bright primary is yellowish-white, and the much fainter companion is orange. This makes an interesting color contrast. While the stars are fairly close, they are wide enough that even at 81X, they can easily be separated, and at 49X, the companion is suspected. |
| : q Boö [Boötes] - 10:55pm CDT |
| At 81X, I can barely make out the faint companion. The separation is pretty wide, but the faintness of the secondary makes this one a bit difficult. The primary is a bright white-yellow star and the companion appears to be somewhat bluish. |
| : i Boö [Boötes] - 11:00pm CDT |
| This is another pretty double, easily split at 49X (my lowest magnification). The primary is a fairly bright yellow, while the companion is a little fainter and is pale blue. This reminds me of a faded version of Albireo (except these stars are a bit closer to each other). |
| @ M101 [Ursa Major] - 11:05pm CDT |
|
While I was in the area, I decided to look for M101. Using Alkaid, Mizar,
and q Boö as triangulation points, I was quickly able to locate the dim
galaxy. From my light-polluted backyard, it appeared extremely faint and
washed-out. Even at 49X, I had to jiggle the telescope in order to make sure
I was actually looking at something besides a reflection. With direct
vision, the galaxy disappeared completely.
The galaxy did appear fairly large and roughly circular in shape, but no other details were visible. |
| * M13 (Great Hercules Cluster) [] - 11:10pm CDT |
|
By this time, Hercules had risen high enough in the sky that I decided to
take a look at one of my favorite Deep Sky Objects (DSOs). At 49X, I could
just barely resolve the edges of the cluster into individual points of
light, and the interior looked mottled. But of course, this cluster is
bright enough and compact enough that it can really take magnification well.
So I decided to try each of my eyepieces and compare the views.
At 81X, the edges can definitely be resolved, and I could make out stars about halfway into the central glow. Kicking the power up to 188X, the cluster definitely begins to show its own personality. Although still roughly globular in appearance, it begins to show little streamers of stars pinwheeling out from the center. Some stars could even be resolved about 3/4 of the way in. At 305X, the cluster takes up most of the field of view. You can definitely see some stars even in the most central part of the cluster. Little strings of stars appear to be haphazardly placed in front of the fuzzy central ball. A truly awesome sight! |
| # M57 (Ring Nebula) [Lyra] - 11:35pm CDT |
| I've been eyeballing Vega through the treetops for the last couple of weeks. I finally couldn't resist taking a sneak peek at the Ring Nebula anymore. I waited until it cleared the trees, then took aim. At 49X, it looks similar to how my 60mm refractor shows it. But increasing the magnification to 81X, I could definitely tell that it was ring or donut-shaped, with an obvious dark patch in the center. At 188X, the planetary actually appeared slightly oval. At 305X, no additional detail was seen. I know this is going to be a great object to view later this summer! |
Not a bad night, after all. Despite the problems with galaxy-viewing, I was still able to record some good observations of clusters and doubles. I learned long ago, that as far as the sky is concerned, you take what you can get.