A "Quickie Observing Report"

by Michelle Stone

For the past several years, I've only observed with one of the instruments that I build, a Plettstone reflector. I love these things. Of course, I'm terribly biased. However, due to the conflict between what has now become my profession and what used to be fun, I've not been observing as much as I used to. I recall that the first year that I had a large scope, an 18" Obsession, I had it out 100 nights. Now I'm lucky if I get out 20 nights or so a year to just observe with my big scope.

I acquired a new Stellarvue 80mm telescope last week in hopes that I could just step outside and do some quick observing a few times a week. I also have secured a quick isostatic mount that sits atop one of my tripods. This will allow me to put a couple eyepieces in my pocket, grab the scope and set it up in just a couple of minutes.

I know that many of the observing reports we read include the use of only large scopes. I thought that it would be fun to include something oriented to smaller telescopes. Not only is there gobs of stuff in the heavens to observe with a smaller scope, but there are many people for which a small telescope is most suited. I have also decided to go back to basics and use a chart most suited to small telescopes.

So, this evening, I grabbed my scope and my copy of "The Observer's Sky Atlas" by E. Karkoschka as my guide and stepped outside for a quick observing session (what follows is a Quickie Observing Report... or QOR). I would be looking at targets in Cetus when it got dark. But until then, I observed some favorites.

Jupiter was first on the list. After all... who can resist with a refractor? I threw in my 5mm eyepiece and set my sites on the Jovian world. A 480mm FL telescope with an 80mm objective is not the ideal instrument to observe the planets with on my selected mount. No... ideal it isn't. But it can be done and I had a lot of fun trying to count the bands. The moons were in a nice alignment. Ganymede, Callisto, and IO were lined up on the east and Europa was on the west side of the planet by the time I finished around 10PM or so.

As I waited for Cetus to clear the trees, I checked out M36, M37, and M38 in Auriga. These open clusters have always been jewels in any scope large or small. They did not disappoint me this evening. Open clusters are especially fun in a refractor. And these are quite pretty.

By then, Cetus had mostly cleared the trees. But not quite. So I picked up my scope and mount and moved them several feet to the west to get a better view.

NGC253. The great galaxy in Sculptor. Okay, it's not in Cetus. But it is directly below Beta Cet when Cetus is in the south. It's the easiest time to pick it out. I popped in a low power eyepiece, a 13mm and started looking. Oh yeah... I'm getting used to the fact that a 13mm eyepiece is a "low power" eyepiece. But yes it is... 36X. Or as JRF would say 36 diameters. Fortunately, 253 is a monster and very bright. It never ceases to amaze me. Hanging directly south, the galaxy is tilted NE to SW. Of course in the eyepiece of a refractor, it's just opposite of that. In my observation, the galaxy had a very even surface brightness. I did not see the mottling I'm acustomed to and I looked for some time. The view was nevertheless quite breathaking with the very bright pinpoint stars in the field.

NGC288 is just a little south and east of NGC253. This is a fairly unremarkable globular cluster but it is fairly bright and easy to find. I could resolve a few individual members, but for the most part, it was pretty much a smudge.

NGC247. I moved the scope northerly to find NGC247. This is a fairly large spiral galaxy measuring some 20 arc minutes across. Oddly enough, this galaxy is a bit easier to see with low power, making it a perfect target for smaller scopes. The galaxy is featureless but still a nice find with several stars in the field of view.

37 CET Located just above the back of the whale, Cetus, this delightful double has a separation of almost 50 arc seconds. Both stars appeared white (my guide identifies them as blue), a large and a very small one. It reminded me of Polaris with a less colorful and bright presentation. I can't believe that I spent several minutes observing this double.

53 CET Just where the tail leaves the body is this double separated by almost 150 arc seconds! Both stars appear very similar in brightness and color although there is a difference of almost two magnitudes.

I finished up my quick observing session with some quick peaks of Mars and M42. In the small scope, I was not able to see any detail on the planet. M42 did give up some wonderful detail however and I spent several minutes tracing the whisps of gas. There is something very satisfying about pushing a scope around in this gigantic and most visible nebula.

I had only intended to observe an hour. But it quickly turned into 3 hours. Wonderful! What fun!

Telescope Used: SV80S
Eyepieces Used: TV 27Panoptic, 13mm Nagler, 7mm Nagler, 5mm Nagler
Charts: The Observer's Sky Atlas by E Karkoschka

Michelle