by Tom Campbell
| Observer | Tom Campbell |
|---|---|
| Location | Iola, Kansas (Long: 95°24'W Lat: 37°55'N) |
| Equipment | 8" Discovery DHQ dob |
| Eyepieces | 1.25" Plössls - 25mm (49x), 15mm (81x), 10mm (122x), 6.5mm (188x) |
| Time | 8:00pm - 11:30pm CST (01:00-04:30 UT) |
| Transparency | Mostly Clear (7/10) |
| Seeing | Stable (8/10) |
| Weather | Temperatures in the low 60s, dropping as the evening progressed. There was a slight breeze. |
| SOLAR SYSTEM | Sun, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn |
|---|---|
| CANCER | M67 |
| CANES VENATICI | M51 |
| COMA BERENICES | M64, M85, M88, M91, M98, M99, M100 |
| GEMINI | Castor (Alpha), Wasat (Delta) |
| URSA MAJOR | M81, M82, M109 |
| VIRGO | M49, M58, M59, M60, M61, M84, M86, M87, M89, M90 |
Having my first clear day in quite a while (and on a weekend, no less), I decided to take advantage of the situation. After breakfast, I set up my telescope outside to view the Sun. This was only my second opportunity to use my homemade Baader solar filter. Dozens of sunspots were visible, of varying sizes. The most striking was a pair of large oval sunspots that touched each other at one point, making a butterfly shape. Around this pair was a single penumbra, roughly circular. Also visible was a slight limb darkening and a few snake-like rivers of faculae.
My neighbor's boy came over and offered me a donut in exchange for a peek through the telescope. I wasn't hungry enough to accept the donut, but I let him take a peek anyway. He said he didn't know that the Sun had freckles. Because of the gray appearance of the Sun through my filter, he also thought that the Sun looked similar to the Moon, with the sunspots being craters. Obviously, the Moon has many more craters than the Sun had sunspots today, but who am I to say that his analogy is wrong?
I've been needing to take a new set of pictures of all my astro-gear for my website, and since my big telescope was out already, I thought I'd bring down the rest of the gear and snap a few digital photos. Ignoring the strange looks from a few of my other neighbors, I captured some nice images of my stuff. Unfortunately, I forgot to get one with myself in the picture. Oh well, that will ensure that my camera doesn't break.
The afternoon was devoted to lawn work and cooking out supper. Immediately after the cookout, I decided to use the time before sunset to clean my primary mirror. It had a lot of dust on it. This was the first time I had cleaned it since I bought the telescope over a year ago, and I was a bit nervous. I took a bottle of canned air and blew as gently as I could across the mirror's face. I held the can horizontal and a several inches away so that any liquid propellant from the can would deposit itself on the mirror. This cleaned up some of the smaller dust particles, but the mirror still looked pretty grungy.
So I filled the kitchen sink with enough lukewarm soapy water to completely cover the mirror, and swirled the water around. This took care of most of the dust, but there were still a couple of large black particles that wouldn't come off. I believe they were flecks of dried paint from the interior of the telescope tube that had flaked off and landed on the mirror. As carefully as I could, I gently applied a damp all-cotton cloth to the area, slowly increasing pressure until the flakes came off. Then I removed the mirror from its soapy bath, held it upright in the sink, and gave it a gentle water rinse.
I started to blow-dry the water off the mirror (at low power), but it looked like it might start leaving water spots, so I rinsed the whole thing again with water and let it dry naturally. When I had finished, the mirror looked much better than it had when I began, so I think I did the right thing by cleaning it. I don't believe I damaged the aluminum coatings, but any damage I may have caused won't be as much of a problem as the dirt that was on it before.
I also wanted to view the planetary alignment again. After all, I may not be around in 2040, when all five naked-eye planets are visible at the same time again. I brought out my telescope a little bit before sundown, to give it plenty of time to reach ambient temperature. I attached my 10x50 binoculars to my old 60mm refractor tripod and pointed them at Venus, Saturn and Mars. Even at 10x, the binocular field of view was large enough to fit all three of them. My dad and younger brother were home, so I had them take a look. I pointed each of the planets out, and then the ground below us. Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Six planets visible at the same time is pretty impressive.
I was hoping to look at the Messiers in the Virgo Cluster tonight. Once they were out of the way, I'd only have a couple of more Messier objects left on my list. The skies were forecasted to be partly cloudy tonight, and sure enough, a cloud bank seemed to be coming my way from the southwest. While waiting for the twilight skies to darken and the clouds to make up their mind, I took a quick peek at some bright favorites.
| Jupiter | Gemini | Planet | 8:55pm CDT |
|---|---|---|---|
| RA: 0650.4 | Dec: +2309 | Mag: -2.0 | |
| The two equatorial belts were easily visible as wide, orange bands, and the
two temperate belts were also obvious as pencil-thin lines across the face
of the gas giant. Europa, Ganymede, and Io were all gathered on the western
side of the planet, while lonely Callisto was way out on the eastern side.
At 188x, the Great Red Spot was easily seen near the eastern edge of Jupiter. Although a more accurate description would be the Great Pale Gray Spot. Although I had observed Jupiter many times before, this was the first time I happened to catch the GRS transiting across the face of the planet. | |||
| Castor | Gemini | Double Star | 9:05pm CDT |
| Alpha | RA: 0734.6 | Dec: +3153 | Mag: 1.9, 2.9 |
| At 122x, this is nicely split. One star is slightly dimmer, and both are white or blue-white. | |||
| Wasat | Gemini | Double Star | 9:30pm CDT |
| Delta | RA: 0720.1 | Dec: +2159 | Mag: 3.5, 8.2 |
| This double is interesting. The yellow-white main star is much brighter than the close orange companion. 122x seems to offer the best view. After viewing it at this power, I could go back down to 81x and see it, but I missed it the first time. | |||
| M 67 | Cancer | Open Cluster | 9:40pm CDT |
| NGC 2682 | RA: 0851.4 | Dec: +1149 | Mag: 6.9 |
| The best view of this open cluster is at 81x. It nicely fits into the field
of view and dozens of stars are visible, of varying magnitudes. Many of the
brightest stars are of about the same magnitude, and appear white or
blue-white. The brightest star is on the edge of the cluster and appears
yellowish. The shape of the cluster is irregular, but somewhat circular. In
the center of the cluster, a group of five bright stars forms a cross or
kite.
The clouds were directly overhead now, filling the entire southern half of the sky. But it looked like they were thinning a bit. Just in case, I decided to turn my telescope to the north and adjust my eyes to a few bright galaxies. | |||
| M 82 | Ursa Major | Irregular Galaxy | 9:50pm CDT |
| NGC 3034 | RA: 0955.9 | Dec: +6941 | Mag: 8.4 |
| This irregular galaxy looks a lot like an edge-on spiral galaxy. At 188x, it is long and thin, extending about 2/3 of the way across the field of view. Next to one of the 'arms' is a fairly bright star. The middle is slightly wider than the edges, and is slightly brighter. There does appear to be a little bit of mottling throughout. | |||
| M 81 | Ursa Major | Spiral Galaxy | 9:55pm CDT |
| NGC 3031 | RA: 0955.6 | Dec: +6904 | Mag: 6.9 |
| This is a bright spiral galaxy. At low powers, it fits into the same field
as M 82. The spiral arms couldn't be detected, giving it the appearance of
an elliptical galaxy. The core was stellar, with the brightness fairly
rapidly diminishing toward the edges. It didn't appear to be quite oval at
188x, but it was difficult to tell for certain.
A couple of field stars are near it, about equal in brightness to M 81's core. In photos, these two stars are within the boundaries of the galaxy's borders. I'm not sure whether they are actual foreground stars, or whether they are hot spots within the galaxy. | |||
| M 51 (Whirlpool) | Canes Venatici | Interacting Galaxies | 10:05pm CDT |
| NGC 5194/5195 | RA: 1329.8 | Dec: +4714 | Mag: 9.0, 10.5 |
| This has always been a favorite target for me. Seeing a face-on view of two
galaxies colliding is fascinating. The spiral galaxy has a bright,
non-stellar core, whereas the irregular's core does appear stellar. The
roundish spiral arms of the larger galaxy was visible, but the dark lanes
separating the arms wasn't detectable. The best view was at 122x.
Sure enough, by now, the clouds had nearly dissipated. I might yet be able to salvage my original observing plans. I moved my telescope so that the Virgo Galaxy Cluster was out of the trees and began again in earnest. | |||
| M 60 | Virgo | Elliptical Galaxy | 10:24pm CDT |
| NGC 4649 | RA: 1243.7 | Dec: +1133 | Mag: 8.8 |
| The core on this galaxy is stellar. At 81x, not much detail is visible. | |||
| M 59 | Virgo | Elliptical Galaxy | 10:26pm CDT |
| NGC 4621 | RA: 1242.0 | Dec: +1139 | Mag: 9.8 |
| This elliptical galaxy is a little fainter than M60, and somewhat smaller. It is also a bit more elongated. This isn't a very impressive galaxy, but a stellar core was noted. | |||
| M 58 | Virgo | Spiral Galaxy | 10:28pm CDT |
| NGC 4579 | RA: 1237.7 | Dec: +1149 | Mag: 9.8 |
| This galaxy is easy to find, as it lies in a nearly straight line with M60 and M59, except about twice the distance. There is a distracting bright star nearby, much brighter than the galaxy itself. Even though it is a spiral galaxy, the arms were not visible, and it appeared to be elliptical. This galaxy is about the same brightness as M59. The core appears stellar, but only with averted vision. | |||
| M 89 | Virgo | Elliptical Galaxy | 10:33pm CDT |
| NGC 4552 | RA: 1235.7 | Dec: +1233 | Mag: 9.8 |
| This galaxy is larger and slightly brighter than M58. It has a stellar core, and is definitely elliptical in shape. | |||
| M 90 | Virgo | Spiral Galaxy | 10:35pm CDT |
| NGC 4569 | RA: 1236.8 | Dec: +1310 | Mag: 9.5 |
| This is about the largest of the Virgo galaxies that I've seen so far. It appears to be pretty elongated, and is fairly faint. It does appear to have a nearly-stellar core. | |||
| M 91 | Coma Berenices | Barred Spiral Galaxy | 10:40pm CDT |
| NGC 4548 | RA: 1235.4 | Dec: +1430 | Mag: 10.2 |
| This is a faint galaxy. There are some faint field stars nearby, but even they are brighter than the galaxy. At low power, it is just a dim elongated smudge. The arms themselves could not be seen. Increasing the magnification reveals a brightening of the non-stellar core. | |||
| M 88 | Coma Berenices | Spiral Galaxy | 10:43pm CDT |
| NGC 4501 | RA: 1232.0 | Dec: +1425 | Mag: 9.5 |
| This is a pretty bright galaxy. It is elongated with a brightening, but non-stellar core. No spiral structure could be detected. | |||
| M 87 | Virgo | Elliptical Galaxy | 10:33pm CDT |
| NGC 4486 | RA: 1230.8 | Dec: +1224 | Mag: 8.6 |
| This galaxy is pretty bright, and it looks almost like a globular cluster. It is mostly spherical. There is a field star nearby which is brighter than the galaxy itself. The core looks stellar. | |||
| M 86 | Virgo | Elliptical Galaxy | 10:50pm CDT |
| NGC 4406 | RA: 1226.2 | Dec: +1257 | Mag: 9.2 |
| Both M86 and M84 easily fit in the same field at 49x, and are nearly the same brightness. M86 appears to have a stellar core, and has a definite elliptical shape. | |||
| M 84 | Virgo | Spherical Galaxy | 10:50pm CDT |
| NGC 4374 | RA: 1225.1 | Dec: +1253 | Mag: 9.3 |
| The core is visible in this galaxy, as well. It is spherical, or nearly so, and appears to be perhaps slightly brighter than its twin, M86. | |||
| M 49 | Virgo | Elliptical Galaxy | 11:10pm CDT |
| NGC 4472 | RA: 1229.8 | Dec: +0800 | Mag: 8.4 |
| This is a bright elliptical galaxy. It has a barely-detectable stellar core. With averted vision, I could detect a dim star within the borders of the galaxy, near one edge. It is probably a foreground field star. | |||
| M 61 | Virgo | Spiral Galaxy | 11:15pm CDT |
| NGC 4303 | RA: 1221.9 | Dec: +0428 | Mag: 9.7 |
| This is a fairly large, but faint galaxy. It has a bit of brightening near the middle, but not much. It is difficult to discern the exact shape of it due to its faintness. | |||
| M 98 | Coma Berenices | Spiral Galaxy | 11:23pm CDT |
| NGC 4192 | RA: 1213.8 | Dec: +1454 | Mag: 10.1 |
| This galaxy is extremely faint, a long, thin spiral that brightens slightly in the middle. | |||
| M 99 | Coma Berenices | Spiral Galaxy | 11:26pm CDT |
| NGC 4254 | RA: 1218.8 | Dec: +1425 | Mag: 9.8 |
| This is also a faint galaxy. It appears to be elliptical, as the spiral arms aren't visible. It looks like a dim smudge with a slight brightening near the center. The exact shape is difficult to pin down. | |||
| M 100 | Coma Berenices | Spiral Galaxy | 11:28pm CDT |
| NGC 4321 | RA: 1222.9 | Dec: +1549 | Mag: 9.4 |
| This galaxy is faint, and the shape is difficult to determine. With averted vision, it appears there may be a stellar core. | |||
| M 85 | Coma Berenices | Spherical Galaxy | 11:31pm CDT |
| NGC 4382 | RA: 1225.4 | Dec: +1811 | Mag: 9.2 |
| This galaxy shares the same field with NGC-4394. M85's core is stellar, and about the same brightness as a nearby field star. Even though it is classified as spherical, it appears somewhat elliptical in shape. With averted vision, a foreground star can be seen right at the edge of the galaxy. | |||
| NGC 4394 | Coma Berenices | Barred Spiral Galaxy | 11:31pm CDT |
| RA: 1225.9 | Dec: +1813 | Mag: 10.8 | |
| This galaxy is much fainter than nearby M85, and appears to be aligned almost perpendicular to it. With averted vision, a stellar core can be detected. | |||
| M 64 (Black Eye) | Coma Berenices | Spiral Galaxy | 11:40pm CDT |
| NGC 4826 | RA: 1256.7 | Dec: +2141 | Mag: 8.5 |
| At 122x, this is an elongated spiral galaxy. The core is somewhat stellar, and mottling can be seen. There are hints of the 'black eye' dust lane, but it's not sharply defined. | |||
| M 109 | Ursa Major | Barred Spiral Galaxy | 11:55pm CDT |
| NGC 3992 | RA: 1157.6 | Dec: +5323 | Mag: 9.8 |
| This is an extremely faint, and fairly large galaxy. The middle is somewhat brighter, but not stellar. No details are visible, but it does appear elongated. | |||
The dew was really starting to get bad. I would wipe off my laminated star charts and it wouldn't take them but a few seconds to get wet again. I'd had a very productive day, and was feeling good. I decided to pack it in and get some rest.