by Dan Wright
I went out in the yard. It was midnight and the whole sky was clear. I hadn't seen a clear sky in a long time. I became disoriented. Gemini and Auriga were way over where I didn't expect them; low in the west, and Orion was already gone; down behind neighbor's houses. Leo was high overhead. Took me a couple seconds to realize the bright thing above the moon was Jupiter.
Too lazy to set up a scope (had to work in the morning), so I grabbed Canon IS 15x50 binoculars. Dried off the car's hatchback with a towel, then set my feet apart in a sturdy stance, pressed up against the car, braced my elbows, and fixed Jupiter with a long hard stare.
All four moons were slung off to one side. The binos resolved the planet's disk all wobbly and oblong. Decided to undertake a fussy and precise adjustment of the bino's eyepiece diopter. Several minutes later, with this done, Jupiter appeared as a nice round disk.
Turned to Auriga and swept up M38, M36, and M37 in one stroke. Swiveled like a turret and nailed M35. Flicked my vision up to Saturn -- it was a bundle of honeysuckle rays. As always, my binos showed a general oval shape but no rings.
Noticed that the seeing was pretty steady and the binos were revealing more star-colors than usual (or was it my elevated state of mind?)
Stepped around the car and pressed up solid against the passenger side, then regarded UMA. Performed my usual wild disorganized search for "Bode's Nebula" and the "cigar", a.k.a. M81 and M82. Took forever to find them.
Resolved once and for all to stop bumbling around with these two, and come up with a foolproof way of nailing them. Whipped out my Tapwave Zodiac PDA running "2sky" software and zoomed into this area of the heavens. The software reveals field stars down to mag 11.3, though the faintest star I could actually see in binos on this moony night turned out to be mag 10.
OK, I got it. My plan now and in the future is to use 24 Ursae Majoris as a main reference, then follow a dim asterism of 7th and 9th mag stars resembling a "horn" or "cornucopia", with M82 floating like a treat at the open end.
Cor Caroli drew my attention because I have fond memories associated with it for some reason. I wondered if I could split it with my binos. Yes! I think I split it! I took a guess at the position angle, then looked it up in the software, and my guess seemed correct.
But was I fooling myself? The separation is 19 seconds -- can this be done with 15 power? Does anyone have the equation handy: separation in seconds, that a person can split under reasonably good conditions, as a function of magnification? Must aperture (and its ever-increasing resolving power) be factored into such an equation?
The idea crossed my mind that it was cold -- my breath was visible and I was shivering. But it was a *good* kind of cold, an *observing* cold. I crept carefully down from Cor Caroli toward Arcturus knowing I was supposed to hit M3 on the way. Missed it, try again. Missed it, dang. Got it on the third try, and now I remember that mag 6 star next to it.
Turned to Leo and performed a grand tour. Split Regulus. Appreciated great color contrast in the stars near Algenubi and Algeiba. What was it with my binos, that they were showing colors so well? Hunted M65 and M66 in the hind leg. No way to see 65, but I did see 66, even from the city with the moon at 83%!
Finally broke off my session and went in the kitchen and ran warm water on my hands while shivering and moaning. Funny how I'll get all involved with stuff like this and won't even bother to put on a coat for hell sake. Shut down and locked the house, crawled under the covers, counted my blessings this 44th year of life, and konked out, knowing the sky was hanging around outside even if nobody was observing it.
Posted on sf-bay-tac Feb 28, 2005 15:36:26 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.2 Feb 28, 2005 19:35:28 PT