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 | 10:00pm - 11:30pm CDT |
| Transparency | Extremely Clear (10/10) |
| Seeing | Moderately Stable (7/10) |
| Weather | Temperature in the upper 50s. There was little to no breeze. |
What a difference a day makes! Last night, I was all set to observe the occultation of a star by the asteroid Antigone. The sky was partly cloudy all day, but by nightfall, the clouds had thickened and completely shrouded the night sky. I'll have to try for my first asteroid occultation some other time.
As if to make up for the cruelty the night before (or perhaps to mock me further), tonight's sky was crystal clear, about the best I had ever seen it. The Milky Way was glorious, extending well into Cassiopeia even from my rather light-polluted backyard. I couldn't pass up the opportunity!
The one problem I noticed was the dew. It fogged up my eyepieces almost as soon as I took them out of the eyepiece case. I was in for what turned out to be a long battle with the moisture, but I was determined not to let it stop me.
| Enif | Pegasus | Double Star | 10:00pm CDT |
|---|---|---|---|
| Epsilon | RA: 21 44.2 | Dec: +09 52 | Mag: 2.4, 8.4 |
| This is a wide double, even at 49X. The main component is an extremely bright yellow star. The bluish companion is quite a distance away and is several magnitudes fainter. The separation is so wide and the magnitudes are so far apart on this pair that they almost don't even look like a binary system. However, the color contrast is nice and makes this pair worth an occasional look. | |||
| M 15 | Pegasus | Globular Cluster | 10:10pm CDT |
| NGC 7078 | RA: 21 30.0 | Dec: +12 10 | Mag: 6.4 |
| While I was in the area, I thought I'd take another peek at M15. At 49X, it
doesn't quite want to resolve with direct vision. Averted vision, however,
revealed a smattering of stars along the outer edges.
81X provided a much better view. The outer stars could be seen with direct vision, along with a bright, fuzzy core. Further increases in magnification revealed more and more stars toward the center of the cluster. Around 188X, the cluster was starting to become difficult to keep into focus. | |||
| Little Andromeda | Pegasus | Spiral Galaxy | 10:20pm CDT |
| NGC 7331 | RA: 22 37.1 | Dec: +34 25 | Mag: 9.5 |
| Both arms are obvious in this galaxy, along with a small, but not quite
stellar core. Compared to the bright core, the arms are rather faint. 81X
seemed to be the optimum magnification tonight for viewing the arms of the
galaxy, although 122X showed the core a bit better.
This is called the Little Andromeda galaxy. Although it does bear a reasonable resemblence to its namesake (except for its much smaller size), I can think of many other spiral galaxies which would match M31 just as closely. Perhaps it is the fairly close proximity to M31 in the sky that earned this particular galaxy the name. Or perhaps it is because of the other fainter galaxies right next to it (none of which were visible in my telescope). | |||
| Double Cluster | Perseus | Open Clusters | 10:30pm CDT |
| NGC 869/884 | RA: 02 19.1 | Dec: +57 08 | Mag: 5.3, 6.1 |
| At my lowest magnification, 49X, the pair of clusters is slightly larger
than the field of view. However, the central cores of both clusters fit
nicely.
Tonight was about the best view of this cluster I can remember experiencing. The stars are tack-sharp pinpricks of light, and faint stars can easily be seen even when they're right up against bright stars. The longer I stared at the clusters, the more stars I could see, as fainter and fainter ones popped into view. Hundreds of stars are visible in each of the clusters. In one of them, a bright yellow star is in the middle of the cluster, almost dead center. The second brightest star is offset about halfway out from the center. The remaining stars are at least a magnitude dimmer than these two. At 81X, either of the two clusters will fit completely into the field of view, but barely. However, these clusters are much more enjoyable when viewed as a pair. | |||
| Almaak | Andromeda | Double Star | 10:40pm CDT |
| Gamma | RA: 02 03.9 | Dec: +42 20 | Mag: 2.3, 5.5 |
| This is a pretty double. It is fairly tight, and 81X offered up the best view. At this magnification, both components could be cleanly separated with a nice obvious gap between them. The primary star is a brilliant yellow, while the dimmer companion is pale blue. Both stars glisten brightly in the field of view. In fact the primary appeared to be almost blindingly bright. At 49X, the pair can still be split, but the colors blend together into an annoying glare. | |||
| M 34 | Perseus | Open Cluster | 10:45pm CDT |
| NGC 1039 | RA: 02 42.0 | Dec: +42 47 | Mag: 5.2 |
| This is a large open cluster, located halfway between Gamma And and Algol in
Perseus. It barely fits into the field of view at 49X. The cluster is
somewhat square or diamond-shaped and rather sparse. It consists of several
pairs of stars, with most of these pairs being near the center of the
cluster. The pairs are at different angles, creating the effect of a
pinwheel in the middle of the cluster.
In the heart of the cluster lies four stars that roughly form a triangle, with three of the stars making the baseline and the other star the third point. The central pairs of stars are the brightest members of the cluster, with the outer ring (or diamond) of stars being of a similar magnitude. The remaining stars between are dimmer. | |||
| Great Andromeda Galaxy (M 31) | Andromeda | Spiral Galaxy | 10:50pm CDT |
| NGC 224 | RA: 00 42.7 | Dec: +41 16 | Mag: 3.5 |
| At 49X, the galaxy has a nice, large, fuzzy core. The large spiral arms makes a hazy glow stretching out from both sides of the core, easily extending past the field of view. I couldn't detect any sign of the main dust lane. | |||
| M 32 | Andromeda | Elliptical Galaxy | 10:55pm CDT |
| NGC 221 | RA: 00 42.7 | Dec: +40 52 | Mag: 8.2 |
| This galaxy appears as a small fuzzy patch of comparable brightness to the central core of M31. Even at 305X, the galaxy is bright enough to be seen clearly. It is definitely oval in shape, having a core that is almost, but not quite stellar. No real detail could be seen. | |||
| M 110 | Andromeda | Elliptical Galaxy | 10:57pm CDT |
| NGC 205 | RA: 00 40.4 | Dec: +41 41 | Mag: 8.0 |
| This galaxy appeared as a barely-detectable smudge of light, on the opposite side of M31 as M32. It is quite a bit larger than M32. 81X seemed to offer the best view tonight. It is much more elongated than M32 as well, giving me the impression of a spiral galaxy rather than elliptical. The core is pretty diffuse, and is only somewhat brighter than the outer portions. | |||
| NGC 752 | Andromeda | Open Cluster | 11:00pm CDT |
| RA: 01 57.8 | Dec: +37 41 | Mag: 5.7 | |
| This open cluster is large, filling the field of view at 49X. The stars are fairly randomly distributed. At one end of the cluster, there is a bright and wide pair of stars of equal magnitude. About halfway from the center is the third brightest component. Most of the stars are single, with only a few pairs and short chains. One particularly noticeable chain of stars is a small arc of four stars, with a fifth star offset a little between the second and third star. | |||
| Blue Snowball | Andromeda | Planetary Nebula | 11:10pm CDT |
| NGC 7662 | RA: 23 25.9 | Dec: +42 32 | Mag: 9.2 |
| At 81X, this little planetary looks exactly like its name suggests: a little
puff of blue light, noticeably wider than the surrounding stars. It's almost
perfectly round.
At 188X, there appears to be a pinprick-sized hole right in the center. Actually, it may just be fainter than the surrounding nebula, and not really a hole. At 305X, there does appear to be some mottling in the center, but still nothing real definite. Unlike most planetaries, this one is easy to bring into good focus because of some dim field stars nearby. Overall, this is a nice planetary, and is fairly easy to locate. | |||
| Gamma | Aries | Double Star | 11:20pm CDT |
| 5 | RA: 01 53.5 | Dec: +19 18 | Mag: 4.8, 4.8 |
| This is a nice "headlight" double. Both components are pretty close together, and have identical magnitudes. Both are brilliant white in color. The best view seems to be at about 121X, where the stars are nicely separated and are the brightest objects in the field. | |||
| Lambda | Aries | Double Star | 11:25pm CDT |
| 9 | RA: 01 57.9 | Dec: +23 36 | Mag: 4.9, 7.7 |
| This is also a pretty double. The main component is yellow-white and the fainter secondary is blue-white. The pair has a nice and wide separation at 49X. | |||
| NGC 6939 | Cepheus | Open Cluster | 11:35pm CDT |
| RA: 20 31.5 | Dec: +60 38 | Mag: 7.8 | |
| This is a dim open cluster. At 121X, it still can easily fit within the
field of view. Perhaps two dozen stars are visible in the cluster, whose
shape is somewhat irregular. One side of the cluster seems to be a pretty
straight line of stars.
A galaxy should lie within the same field of view as this cluster, but I'm not able to make it out tonight. I'll have to try again from a darker sky. | |||
It was nearly time for bed, but I wanted to take one last look around. I noticed the Pleiades just clearing the housetops in the East, and grabbed my 10x50 binoculars for a quick peek. Once again, the dew raised its ugly head. No sooner had I found and focused on the cluster, than one of the objectives fogged up. By the time I wiped it off, the other objective had fogged over. After a few rounds of this, I put the binoculars back in my case, packed up, and headed inside for the night.
Despite the less-than-ideal conditions, I still had a pretty good night, making a bit of progress on several of my ongoing observing projects.