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: | 9:25pm - 12:00am CDT |
| Transparency: | Mostly Clear |
| Seeing: | Unstable |
| Weather: | Temperature in the 50s. There was little to no wind. |
Taking advantage of the cloudy weather all week, I created an observing list that combined all of the other smaller observing lists I had been working on. It includes all of the Messier objects, the 100 Best Non-Messier Objects (as voted on by the sci.astro.amateur newsgroup), the Astronomical League's Double Star list, and some others that I heard were worth looking at in a telescope of my aperture. When I finished it up, I had an observing list about 350 objects long, and knew that my year's work would be cut out for me. Now, if I could only get the clouds to clear out...
The weather forecast said that it would be partly cloudy all weekend here, with a good chance of rain on Memorial Day. Not very promising. This evening, however, I could still see quite a bit of blue sky between patches of clouds, so I went ahead and set up my telescope and waited for darkness to fall, hoping that I could glimpse a few doubles between patches of clouds.
When it started to get dark, Boötes was relatively free of clouds, so I started there.
This is a nice wide double, and would be a good target for small aperture telescopes. The main component is pretty bright (magnitude 3.5) and has a definite yellow cast to it. The secondary star is much fainter (magnitude 8.7) and has a blue-white tint. This pair reminds me a lot of Albireo (b Cyg), except that the colors aren't as intense.
Next, I swung over to p Boö, but couldn't find it because a cloud bank had started overtaking the constellation. About this time, I was reminded that I had to get up early in the morning. Should I wait it out, or should I pack it in, and be satisfied that after a week, at least I got to see a few stars in the sky?
The clouds seemed to be moving east fairly quickly, and to the west was clear sky, so I decided to wait a few minutes and just enjoy the naked-eye beauty of the crescent moon peeking in between the trees.
As soon as the opportunity presented itself, I took aim at p Boö once more. This is a fairly tight double. At 49X, I could tell that the star was slightly elongated. 81X gave a strong suspicion of the companion, but it really wasn't cleanly split until I increased the magnification to 122X. Both stars are bright white, with the secondary being about a magnitude dimmer (5.8) than the primary (4.9).
My best view of this cluster was at 188X. Both stars were obviously split, and yet the magnification was small enough that it still took a while for them to start drifting out of view. A third, fainter star is in the same field, and makes a long, thin triangle with the actual binary. This third star is somewhat bluish in color, and helps to enhance the viewing of this double.
When I looked up from the eyepiece, I was treated to a pleasant surprise. I couldn't see a single cloud, from horizon to horizon (or rather, from treetop to housetop). I sure am glad I decided to wait it out!
The only other two objects on my list in Boötes that I hadn't yet observed were NGC 5248, a mag. 11 spiral galaxy, and NGC-5466, a mag. 9 globular cluster. I spent several minutes looking for each of these, but didn't have any luck. The same upper-level winds that blew away the clouds were probably wreaking havoc on seeing. But at ground level, there was just the slightest of breezes, with the temperature slowly dropping into the upper 50s.
Hercules was rising higher in the sky, and M13 beckoned to me. Whenever it's up, I always try to take at least one peek at this beauty every night I'm out observing. This was no exception. Even at 49X, the outer stars were sharp pinpricks of light. This is about the highest in the sky M13 has been this year when I've viewed it, and from light polluted skies, altitude is everything. While I was in the neighborhood, I thought I'd take another try at tracking down the elusive (for me, at least) NGC 6207 galaxy, which lies only about 1/2 degree to the northeast of M13.
Armed with star charts, and a wide-angle shot of M13 that clearly shows this galaxy, I zeroed in on the right spot. I could just barely see this small galaxy in my backyard skies. A really faint smudge appeared in the eyepiece at the proper position. I can see why I overlooked this one before. Based on the pictures I had seen of this galaxy, it appeared to be nearly as bright as some of the brighter stars surrounding M13, so I was looking for the wrong magnitude of object. With averted vision, I could barely see the direction that the arms were facing, but the galaxy kept popping in and out of view with the seeing.
This is a fairly difficult star to split. It has a pretty bright primary (mag. 3.5) and a secondary of mag. 5.4. With a separation of only 4.7", the companion was almost lost within the glare of the primary. It took 188X to finally see definite dark sky between the two components. The primary star is bright yellow, and the secondary appears to be a milky white color. Rather pretty, once you get them separated.
At 81X, I could just make out the second component of this binary system. This is a little wider pair, with a separation of 8.9". The difficulty here was with the magnitude difference between the stars. The white primary has a magnitude of 3.1, but the blue-white secondary is only at 8.2. Quite a contrast! Luckily, the second component didn't fall on one of the primary's diffraction spikes. At 122X, the split is more obvious and the companion appears a little bluer. But I much prefer the view at 81X, because the stars seem to glisten more. There are several field stars at that magnification as well. Most interesting was an irregular box-shaped pattern of stars that seemed to fence in the double.
This is a tight pair of doubles, but they are only a magnitude apart in brightness (4.6 and 5.6). Both are white in color, and are only separated by 4.1". At 81X, the pair appears like an elongated star, but at 122X, there is a definite break between them. At 188X, the split is more obvious, but there aren't any other field stars, so the pair looks pretty lonely. So, the preferred view is 122X, where a few more stars can be seen near the edges of the field.
I tried to find the other DSO on my list in Hercules, NGC-6210. This is a mag. 9.3 planetary nebula, which is only 0.3' across, and is supposed to have a few nebulous tendrils, giving it the appearance of a celestial turtle. But this was still fairly low in the sky, and I didn't have any luck with it tonight. I'll try for this one again later.
After a quick peek at the globular cluster M92 in Hercules, I moved my telescope to a more convenient location and turned my attention towards Coma Berenices. The first stop on my list was the spiral galaxy NGC 4565, also called Berenice's Hairclip.
During my starhop to NGC 4565, I came across this fairly bright elliptical galaxy (mag. 9.8), right next to a mag. 8.2 star (SAO 82354). At 122X, I could make out a stellar core, and the edges quickly drop off to nothing, as expected in a galaxy of this type. Basically, this galaxy can be described as hundreds of other elliptical galaxies have: a fuzzy oval blob, with a bright stellar core.
This galaxy appears to be long and thin, nearly edge-on. 81X seemed to offer the best view tonight. It has an easy-to-spot bright core. Once in a while, the outer portion of the arms would pop into view, revealing a rather large galaxy. But most of the time, only little stubs of the arms could be seen, near the core. I definitely want to try this one again, as it looks like it might be fairly spectacular.
By this time, it was obvious to me that the seeing just wasn't going to permit me to get very good views of galaxies or nebulae tonight. So I gave up on my other galactic targets in Coma Berenices. Knowing I would have to pack it in soon, I picked a few targets at random.
This is in a section of the Milky Way containing dozens of stars. The cluster had a generally round appearance, but several other stars (not part of the cluster) with a similar brightness spread out to one side, making the cluster actually appear very elongated. At 49X, the cluster fit into the view nicely, and many stars could be seen. The brightest stars were fairly nicely spread apart, making this a viable target in the smallest of telescopes. Several groups and asterisms of stars could be made out within the cluster. When it gets a little higher in the sky, I may try using my binoculars on this section of sky.
The sky was crystal-clear, and with my light jacket on, the temperature was comfortable as well. I wished that I could spend the entire night outside, but that wasn't possible. Before turning in, however, I noticed Mars shining brightly right above the neighbor's house. I spun the telescope around to take a peek. The crouching I had to do in order to see this low was pretty uncomfortable, but this was the first time in a couple of years that I had looked at the Red Planet. Despite the shimmering of the atmosphere, I could make out different shades across the face of the orange planet.
This was the first peek I've had at Mars with this large of a telescope. The last time I had the opportunity to view Mars, all I had was my 60mm refractor, and a single 20mm eyepiece, which resulted in a meager 35X view. Mars appeared to be no more than a miniscule disk of orange-red light, with no hope at all of making out any features. Tonight, it looked about the same size that Jupiter does. I can't wait for this one to get a little higher in the evening!
I took another look at my watch. Whoa! 1:00am. I better get to bed. 7:00 comes early enough as it is.