Two nights rolled into one

Going to fill in some of the blanks with one post.

Woke up at 4:30 on Monday morning to get a leg up on my first views of Jupiter. There it is was making it way up to the east. Four moons were visible with two on each side. Had quite a bit of atmosphere and the ep's have seen better days but was a joy to look at the Jovian Giant of our solar system through the C8. I managed to knock off four globular clusters before it became too light to play, M4,M80, M62 and M19.

So went out after dark and setup to grab a few looks. Found what I thought was Ceres and went and woke up Donna to show her. The reason I and she confirmed this as Ceres as it was not a pinpoint of light when focused but showed as a reflected object and did not look like a star. Next up was M104, the Sombrero Galaxy. Spent time using the different ep's and we were able to pick out the dark line of dust using averted view. Brought in NGC 4699 and NGC 4697, fuzzies of different sizes basically. Moved to M64 the Blackeye Galaxy and could only resovle so much. Last up was M5 to show what a globular looked like once again.

A big list from the next night 3/31 as I worked on the Virgo Cluster. Looked at 15 Messier's and a few NGC's. Will do these in my next post.

Sunday Hike

We went for hike up into Sabino Canyon State Park. Wanted to do something different so we headed up Phoneline Trail but took the turn at Blacketts Ridge Trail. It turned out to be a pretty much straight up with switchbacks. Saw a couple of different lizards, not sure what species. Also encountered quite a few blooming cactus and took some pics of those. Five hour and 5.6 miles not a bad Sunday hike.

Saturday night viewing.

Earth Night 2009, 03/28/2009.

There were many options for viewing going on this evening with the AAMM up north of Tucson, Flandrau on the grass at the U of A, SAS down in Arivaca and TAAA setup at Sabino Canyon. We did go up to Sabino and although I wanted to setup I kind of got the feeling that we were not welcome to setup, only hangout and view. We are going to join TAAA we just have to spend our limited funds wisely until I can come up with a job. So we decided to setup at home and observe both Earth Night and the sky from outside our condo as this afforded us the most scope time. But first, time for dinner lol, I cooked Panko coated Tilapia in the skillet using EVOO, Donna cooked some Red Potato's with EVOO and garlic. As dinner was cooking I setup the telescope on the west side of the condo right outside our bedroom. Using this time to allow the scope to cool down but we did get in some good views of the crescent moon during this time.

Now that dinner was out of the way and it was very good if I do say so myself, but onto the meat of the evening. Shut down everything in the house including the computer in anticipation of the lights out from 8:30 to 9:30 rolling blackout. I did cheat though as I had the laptop and telescope plugged in outside so as to be able to track and also run Stellarium to get RA/Dec settings for the various objects were were going to look at this night.

I knew this was the night to look at Messier objects and so we started with M45 The Pleiades and then moving to M42 and M43 the Nebula's in Orion and as much as I try I can not get NGC 1977 to show. Pulled in NGC 1981 an open cluster just above M42 and M43.

Was time to move south and I did an RA/Dec alignment on Sirius to view some of the clusters around Canis Major. M41, M46, M47, M93 and M50. I know a lot was missed but lights to the south make it had to see some nights. We did take a walk up the road to see if the dimming of the lights in Tucson were noticeable and could not really tell but I do feel that there was a slight dimming of the glow overall but that is just my opinion.

Turned the scope around to the north and used Alkaid the star in Ursa Major that is at the end of the handle to do a RA/Dec alignment. Time to go galaxy hunting. First up was M82 (mag 8.4) also called The Cigar Galaxy. M81 (mag 6.9) Bode's Galaxy was next to be seen. Both of these were looked at with all the ep's. Staying in this part of the sky but moving to the east next up was M101 (mag 7.7) the Pinwheel Galaxy. Next up was M51 the Whirlpool Galaxy and this one is nice because you can see both NGC 5195 (mag 9.6) and NGC 5194 (mag 8.4) that make up M51. M63 (mag 8.6) the Sunflower Galaxy was on tap, from there it us a small jump to M94 (mag 8.2) galaxy in Canes Venatici. Things got a little dimmer with NGC 4449 (mag 9.4) galaxy being a faint fuzzy in the ep. To round out the circle of galaxies was M106 (mag 8.3).

Time for some Globular's. Went to Arcturus to get a RA/Dec alignment and went to M53 (mag 7.7) and M5 (mag 6.4) globular clusters. It is amazing the view you get of these when they are focused in and you advert your eye to use the rods of your eye to really pull in the faint points of light. M5 (mag 7.7) globular cluster was next followed by M64 (mag 8.4) the Black-eye Galaxy. Moved to NGC 5466 (mag 9.1) globular.

Izar a star in Bootes is actually a dbl with star A being mag 4.7 and star B a mag 7.0 with only 6.9" of separation. It took the 17mm and 1.8x barlow for a 216x magnification to show the separation. Donna had to use her better eyes to fine tune the focus.

At this point Donna was rather cold as the temp had dropped into the low 50's. She bid me good night as I wanted to spend a little more time out. My time out was spent waiting for M13 (mag 5.9) and M92 (mag 6.9) to get up over the condo roof. Clock said 1:30 after finally getting these two and and it was time to pack up and head inside. I know lots of stuff was missed and they will be added to the list one day soon.

All in all a really great night out looking at the sky, we pulled in 21 Messier objects and 3 NGC's along with a double star. .

A Walk in the Park

After an early dinner last night Donna and I went for a walk in Sabino Canyon. Skies were darkening as we entered the park after the 1/2 mile walk to get there. So this night I decided to only bring my camera and no accessories which 99 out of a hundred times I do but I digress here lol. As we are walking up the main road I look to the west and there is but a bare sliver of a crescent moon about 20 degrees or so above the horizon and I do the slap myself in the back of the head move. I knew that I really needed my tripod to do the scene justice as it was getting darker and darker by the minute. It was a pretty site with the Saguaros showing up against the dimming reds, oranges and blues of the western sky. Found a sign and decided to try and take a few pictures, not ideal mind you but for fast and dirty they are ok.

The sky was looking clear but light polluted as is the case even up here. I set up the telescope in a different spot tonight as there are cars now parked in my usual place across the parking lot. Ran my extension cord and covered up the lights with boxes and preceded to look once again at M42 using all the ep's and the barlow. Next I went to M41 the open cluster under Sirius and did a wide field view with the 40mm lens. Decided to pull out the binos and look at M46 and M47 as the sky was almost to bright to find my pointer stars and align the scope as it is a manual mount. I did manage to bring in and find M93 a 6.2 mag open cluster with the telescope. It has a few bright stars close by making it easy to get close to and then do a quick back and forth until it pops into the ep. I know I could be doing a RA/Dec find using the wheels on the scope but I had only done a point to what I thought is north alignment. Next up was Saturn and I spent quite a bit of time using all the ep's and barlow once again. Tonight Saturn had a moon to the right in the ep that was close to Satrun and about halfway between the rings and top of the planet in the ep. As my location did not afford me a view of the north I had limited options and chose M3 a globular cluster and once again spent quite a bit of time using all the ep's. It is way cool to have an RA motor that allows the scope to really settle down and let the faint stars resolve at higher magnifactions allowing a greater depth of view of the cluster. Went in the condo and got Donna as I felt she should see this cluster. Took the scope back to Saturn so Donna could look at the placement of the moon and decided to call it a night as I did not want to fight the light pollution any more.

Prelude to a Dream

This is actually going to be a pre post from 3/25 as I did some sky gazing. Took the telescope out and put it on the back porch before dark so as to allow the mirrors a chance to cool down. Now mind you I am going outside to observe in less than ideal conditions in the parking lot of our condo but it still affords me a chance to do it close to home.

This time of year I always go to M42 aka Orions Nebula as very soon it will be gone from our sky to not return for many months. Used all the ep's and the barlow to look at the nebula, I can sit there for long periods of time just staring at this wonder of the skies. Next up was Saturn and this year is interesting as the rings are edge on to views from earth, once again I used all of the ep's and barlow.

So I wanted to add to my list of Messier Objects and went on a search and found the following globular clusters M3, M53, M5, M92 and M13. Used the different ep's but did not use the barlow as it is just too light limiting at least from here when going in tight to a globular cluster.

Now it was time to find some Galaxies. First up was M81 and M82, followed by M101 and finishing up with M51. Tried different mixes of the eyepieces but I am limited as to what I can resolve. Note to self, buy some more ep's lol.

As I was sitting out there in the dark minding my own business I had the pleasure of seven Javalena's running around and hanging out. They roamed all around me for a good two plus hours doing what Javalena's do. At first I was a little nervous but as the night went on I became less so. I will say that they are fast and in no way would I be able to out run one if I was being chased.

Until next time.

1st one

Ok, what I want to do here is post my observations of the night sky. My other hobby is photography and I do hike or at least try to every weekend. Walking in the mountains and canyons around Tucson allows me to see many wonderful things. I am not really setup to do any astrophotography but I can take pictures of the night sky and also of landscapes and other outdoor objects. If the sky is clear and most nights in Tucson AZ it is I will set up for either a short viewing or a long one if I can get one in.

All of my night sky viewing until recently had been through a Meade 4.5" f/8 reflector. I have now in my possession an older Celestron C8 Orange Tube with special coatings SCT on an Altazimuth mount with wedge. It has a 2" star diagonal, 40mm, 20mm 1.25" ep's and 26mm, 17mm .965 ep's with a 1.8x Barlow.

So this I think will be quite the ride.