So there I was with my scope mounted on a shiny new mount all ready to reach to the outermost parts of the universe and what did I get. Cloudy Skies for the next 3 nights, that’s what.
Qua's Quest Knowledge, Beauty, & Meaning Under the Night Sky
Dave Get's His First Scope
Date: April 1st, 2002I'm a newcomer to astronomy and have just started to develop an interest at the ripe old age of 57!
I've just returned from a business trip to Russia and while I was there I bought a Intes MK-67 scope for $150 in a market. It came with a couple of lenses (15mm Erfle and 25mm Plossle, a 3x Barlow, a star diagonal and what seems like a set of extension tubes. These tubes screw together to make a length of about 9 inches (one of the segments has a very thick lens in it) and one end fits into the back of the main scope tube at the focussing rack) while the other end takes the eyepiece.
At this time I don't have a mount for the scope. It is fixed to a fairly sturdy Camera tripod. I wonder what sort of mount I should get for it. I've read various opinions ranging from EQ2 to EQ6. I assume the higher the number the sturdier (and more expensive) the mount. While I would like a motorised GOTO mount I am a bit put off by the high cost of these.
At my stage of development (complete novice) I also wonder if I should lay out for an expensive mount or if the camera tripod will be OK. My main desires at the moment are to look at the moon, planets and some galaxies. Ultimately I would like to do some astrophotography but I guess that is some way away at the moment.
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Patience is a Virtue I must try and develop
Date: April 2nd, 2002
These will be the ramblings of a complete novice in astronomical terms as he attempts to find his way around the sky and see some of the things that so far have been confined to the pages of books for him. I am sure there will be many times when I write something that, to a non-novice, is obviously rubbish. If (when!) you notice that I have done this I would be very grateful if you would tell me so I can learn along the way (but please be gentle with me)
If you have read the topic above you will have realised that at the moment I have a telescope (MK-67) but no mount or tripod for it. I have been using a camera tripod with singular lack of success.
Well, the good news is that today I ordered a mount and tripod. The bad news is that it will be 3 weeks before it is delivered.
On of the good things about the internet is that it is very easy to compare prices and models of anything from a whole host of retailers at the press of a button. The downside of this is that I managed to confuse myself completely. However I managed to fight my way through the information overload that I had given myself and ordered an EQ5 mount (apparently the EQ5 has replaced the EQ4 here in the UK or so I was told) I also ordered dual drives and the appropriate mounting rings for my scope. I was amazed at the difference in price from retailer to retailer going from a high of $800 to a low of $600 for the whole order. When I think that I paid $150 for the scope it seems crazy (but necessary!)
Now I have to wait for 3 weeks before I can really get stuck in. Initially I was a bit disappointed with the enforced wait but now I have decided to look on the bright side and use the waiting time to gain a bit of knowledge. If we ever get clear skies again here in the UK (it has been cloudy for the last three nights) then I will get out in the back garden with a pair of binoculars in one hand and a star map in the other and try to find my way round the sky in a fairly broad way.
I’ve also been reading a couple of the astronomy magazines (Astronomy Now a UK mag and Astronomy plus Sky and Telescope both US mags). I can forsee an immediate problem. I love gadgets! Any sort, any type I love ‘em!! Reading some of the adverts in these magazines it seems to me that astronomy is one of those hobbies that has more than its fair share of things that will revolutionise my life and make my hobby more fulfilling. Fortunately at the moment I don’t understand what most of the gadgets do but as my knowledge increases I will have to put a lock on the credit card.
Just writing these few lines is making me feel quite excited. I love the feelings you get at the start of a new hobby. There is the fear that there is so much to learn that it sometimes seems impossible combined with the excitement of reading about new things and the huge satisfaction when you learn or understand something completely new.
Anyway I’m off now to look at the star chart for this evening. I’m sure there will be a break in the clouds sometime tonight!
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...and I missed the football on TV!!
Date: April 3rd, 2002
What is it with looking at the stars? I was all set to watch the soccer game on TV tonight as Liverpool (who I support) were playing and it was a fairly important game. Then the skies cleared and the stars began to appear. The result was that I watched about 3 mins of the game and 87 mins of stars!!
I was out in the back garden just as the sun was setting. I was determined that I would sit in the back garden with a pair of binoculars and slowly work my round some of the sky. They say that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Well within about thirty seconds of Venus appearing in the twilight I had the telescope out and was frantically trying to find the planet.
Earlier in the day I had discovered that I could move the finder scope onto the other side of the tube. As I have bad sight in my right eye I had been going through incredible contortions to see through the finderscope so this move was definitely going to make my life easier. It wasn't until I tried to find Venus that I realised that an important extra task when moving the finderscope is to realign it with the telescope!
Despite this small setback I fairly soon had Venus centred in the eyepiece. I'm not sure it was really worth it as all I could see was a fairly small image of something white that resembled a three-quarters moon. Unfortunately I am still only able to use the 25mm eyepiece as any greater magnification on my shaky tripod is a joke. Additionally there was a sort of orange peel effect over and around the planet. I assume this was air turbulence or something similar.
By this time Jupiter had appeared and I found it fairly easily. All four moons were showing plus I could see two distinct bands one around the equator and one about a third the way down from the top. [QUESTION: when you are describing what you see, is it convention to describe it as seen through the eyepiece (ie inverted) or do you describe it as though you had seen it with the naked eye?]
The view of Jupiter was so good that I decided to try and see it with the 25mm EP plus the 3x Barlow lens. Have you ever tried to find an object in the sky with a shaky tripod which has very stiff controls in both vertical and horizontal directions and also has a major backlash problem in both directions? It must be the most frustrating thing on earth. Just occasionally Jupiter whizzed through the eyepiece and was gone before I could do anything about it. I managed to get it into view in the bottom third of the EP but before I could focus properly it had disappeared again. If we had a cat I would have kicked it there and then. However I consoled myself with the thought that things would be better once my new mount arrived.
After all that, just to make me feel happier again I had a look at Saturn which is guaranteed to chase the blues away. I think I saw two moons. There was one a short distance away to the south west (as seen in the eyepiece) and the other was almost diametrically opposite and about eight times the distance away. [Question: how do I know in this instance if they are moons or just another star? I am assuming that they were moons because they appeared more distinct and disk like than a normal star – is this logical?]
I then searched for and found (!!) the Pleiades which were stunning. I wassn’t really sure initially that they were the Pleiades but comparison with a picture in one of my book confirmed them. I am still having some problems translating a star chart into what I actually see in the sky also the difference in view through the finderscope and through the telescope with the star diagonal takes some getting used to – I expect/hope practice will resolve the problem.
After all this I decided that I really should have a look round using the binoculars so I focussed on Jupiter and from there managed to find Betelgeuse, Bellatrix, Rigel, Sirius and finally Procyon.
So all in all an excellent evening. (and Liverpool won the game!)
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Shooting Stars and a Glass of Whisky
Date: April 5th, 2002
Clear skies again tonight so it was on with the jacket and out with the telescope.
After a quick look at the planets I was just wandering around the sky looking at who knows what (somewhere a bit to the south of Jupiter) when suddenly a shooting star passed through the eyepiece. It took about a second to cross the diameter of the EP and was just like a pinpoint of light moving across the sky. This is the first time I have ever seen a shooting star and it was just fortuitous that I was looking thought the scope at the time.
For quite a while I have believed that I couldn’t see Polaris from my back garden because of houses in the way. This was causing me some concern as I wasn’t too sure about setting up my EQ mount when it eventually arrives (only 2 weeks and 5 days to go but who’s counting!). I discovered tonight that I can see it just over the roof line of the house. I identified it by following the two pointer stars in the Big Dipper. Just to make sure that I really was looking at Polaris I got it in the centre of the EP and left it there for 30 mins. As it hadn’t moved at all after this time I assume it is Polaris.
I spent quite a bit of time this evening just looking at patches of sky without knowing what I was looking at but just enjoying the view. It is amazing sometimes that when you initially look through the scope you don’t see anything much. However I have found that if you take a deep breath and relax then suddenly stars appear from nowhere. Some of them are almost ghostly in that they are there one moment, gone the next then reappear some seconds later. At times I wonder if I am imagining seeing some of them.
I think it is fairly fortunate that I am able to just go out in the back garden and look at the stars because I have noticed a strange increase in the number of things which I now regard as essential to have around me when I am star gazing. Here is the current list
I’m adding the kitchen sink tomorrow.
I’ve been reading about the Telrad Finder on the ‘net and it certainly seems to be extremely useful. I am seriously thinking of buying one. Has anybody got any experience of using this and if so is it really as good as it seems?
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Hide & Seek Plus A Humbling Experience
Date: April 16th, 2002
Early in the evening I was playing with a planetarium program on the computer when I realised that i couldn't see Saturn! Further investigation revealed that Saturn was hiding behind the moon and this event (my first special astronomical event) was due to take place at around 9.30pm that evening. On a side note, I really must make an effort to find out and learn the correct terminology for things like this. For the moment I will call it a Saturnalian eclipse!
A mad dash round, to gather all the paraphernalia that I nowadays seem to regard as essential to star watching, and I was soon out in the garden with the scope pointed towards the Moon. Sure enough there was Saturn about a moon diameter away from our nearest neighbour. I could also see what I assume is one of the moons of Saturn sitting between the planet and the moon.
Not having managed to delve into the murky art of astrophotography yet (although I can see that it is only a matter of time before that happens) I decided to make a couple of sketches of what I saw.
I am a lousy artist, as the accompanying sketches vividly demonstrate, but they are all I have to remind me of the scene.
These sketches are as seen through the eyepiece. Is this the correct way to present them or should I reverse them so that they are what would be seen with the naked eye?
Very slowly the two celestial bodies came together. At 21.52 the moon preceding Saturn disappeared from view and the outer ring of Saturn first touched the edge of the moon at 21.59. Two minutes later and saturn was completely hidden.
I fully intended to wait until the planet appeared on the opposite side of the moom but unfortunately my neighbour's house roof got in the way. I wonder if he would have any strong objections if I removed it!
Now for my humbling experience which I hope and pray has happened to somebody else and I'm not the only idiot on the planet.
I was looking at Castor and Pollox when I suddenly realised that there was what appeared to be a huge shower of metorites flooding down through my eyepiece. The excitement was immense until I realised that I hadn't tightened the clamp properly on the tripod and the telescope was slowly rotating and tilting up towards the zenith.
Another of my hobbies is woodworking and it is apparent that i shall have to rapidly use my skills in this area to make myself an adjustable height seat if i am to be able to watch the sky for any extended lenght of time.
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Suffering for the Hobby
Date: April 26th, 2002
I am so cold that I can hardly type this - but who cares, I have seen Comet I/Z!.
I've just returned from a week's business trip to Germany and found an email from ~T in my inbox. It was in response to my recent posting about my inability to find comet I/Z and gave me a few directions to help. Probably the most helpful instruction was that 'it looks like a large fur ball through binos'
Thus stimulated I grabbed the binos and scope and dashed out into the back garden (in shirt sleeves) It's a nice clear night out there but I didn't realise that it was quite so chilly.
I found Polaris and Deneb easily enough (Deneb was just above the TV arial on the house) From a star map I had seen that the comet should have been about midway between Polaris and Deneb. It took me quite a while to find the 'fur ball' with the binos and even longer to find it with the scope but find it I did.
On reflection I think I had two problems that made it difficult for me to home in on I/Z. Firstly i still hve some problems in converting the distances on a star map into distances in the sky and secondly i think I was expecting to see the comet as I have seen it in several photos all of which were taken with considerable larger magnification than I have at my disposal. Just wait until I get my mount - 4 days and counting!
I hope I continue to get that immense feeling of satisfaction when I eventually manage to focus in on something for which I have been searching for quite a while. I suspect it is one of those things that make astronomy such a satisfying and fulfilling hobby
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Work for Idle Hands
Date: May 6th, 2002
With Southern England seemingly shrouded in cloud every evening/night at the moment (and despite ~T whetting my appetite with tales of meteor showers clearly visible in Utah) I decided to make this a construction weekend.
Wandering around our local town on saturday I spotted a web cam on sale for a fairly low price so I bought it. I have read a fair bit recently on the internet about converting a web cam for use in astrophotography and In fact Cor's articles on here look as though they could help me a lot.
Anyway I rushed home with the camera and set about it with a screwdriver and electric drill!! It was very easy to take apart and remove the lens. I then superglued the canister from a Fuji film onto the front of the camera . The Fuji canister is exactly the right diameter (1.25") for mounting on then scope. and voila I now have a camera for astrophotography. Only problem I can't see anything to photograph with it at the moment.
Part of Sunday and Monday have been spent in making a variable height observing seat. I can't claim any credit for the design (it was all available on the internet) but I now have a very nice comfortable seat that accomodated by backside at heights from 12" to 36" above ground level in increments of 2". Again I just wish there was something in the sky for me to look at so i could use the seat.
As if this was not enough I received my zoom EP on Friday. (Excellent service from a company called Apogee Inc in the US) Fortunately there was a little bit of clear sky on Friday evening so I tried it out and first impressions are very good. I'll report more flly when i have had a chance to use it a bit more.
My new mount arrives this week so the skies had better clear or else....
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Size Does Matter
Date: May 7th, 2002
Boy do I feel proud!! All alone I searched for and found the Beehive Cluster (M44) Now to you seasoned old pros this may not seem such a momentous occasion but to someone who occasionally has trouble locating Polaris it is akin to the discovery of penicillin!!
However let me start from the beginning.
At last we have clear skies in my part of the world so it was out with the scope while the sun was still above the horizon (I like to be prepared in advance) As the skies darkened Jupiter came into view so I had a look at it through my new zoom eyepiece and sitting on my newly made variable height observing chair. Both worked extremely well. I mooched around the sky for a while without any clear objective in mind until I had a look at the Planetarium program I have on my Palm Pilot. There I noticed the Beehive Cluster so I decided I would try and find it. Taking Procyon as one reference point and Pollux as the other I was able to home in on it surprisingly quickly.
What can I say about it – it was stunning. I’m sure I’m not the first to describe it as a handful of diamonds scattered on black velvet but that was just what it looked like. I spent ages just looking at it and everytime I looked I noticed something else in the cluster. To cap it all, partway through my viewing, a meteor lanced its way through the middle of the scene.
Like most newbie starwatchers I had the feeling that what I needed was magnification and yet more magnification. However looking at the Beehive Cluster I rapidly moved to my lowest magnification eyepiece (25mm) as this gave by far the best overall view of the cluster. In fact I am now working on a way of telling my wife that it is essential for my future happiness that I immediately purchase a 40 or 50mm EP. I always knew that size was important.
Now I need to finish with a couple of very silly questions.
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It's Come, At Last!!
Date: May 17th, 2002After months and months of waiting (actually 4 weeks waiting but it felt like months) my new equatorial mount and drives have arrived. Two parcels turned up a couple of days ago. One large one, which made the delivery guy grunt, contained the EQ mount plus weights etc while the other small one contained the mounting rings and dual drives. What was conspicuous by its absence was any form of instructions for joining all the bits together! Although it looked daunting, fixing it all together was not too difficult.
So there I was with my scope mounted on a shiny new mount all ready to reach to the outermost parts of the universe and what did I get. Cloudy Skies for the next 3 nights, that’s what.
Although it was very frustrating it was in fact quite beneficial not being able to immediately dash outside and point things at the sky. I was forced to play with the mount indoors. I have become very proficient at quickly locating the right hand edge of the settee.
Anyway we got sort of clearish sky last night so I was out there and the mount is brilliant!! I roughly aligned things with Polaris and more by good luck than by skill I got things pretty much dead on as, using the motor drives, anything I pointed the scope at stayed in the field of vision (even at high magnification) for a considerable time. It really is a joy to be able to see Jupiter and the moon for extended periods of time without having to resort to swearing as the camera tripod wobbled.
In truth I didn’t do anything serious last night, I just played with things to find out what I could and couldn’t do. Stability and lack of wobble are the big joys together with being able to move the scope around easily using the motors. I still get some shake when I refocus but that is to be expected (Maybe I should buy an electric focuser!) The highest magnification I tried with an eyepiece was 170x using a 7mm EP and with this detail on the moon and on Jupiter was good allowing for the slightly cloudy conditions. I also tried things with the 3x Barlow but that was fairly disappointing. There was such a reduction in contrast that it was difficult to see anything. Again possibly due to the slightly cloudy conditions. I will give it another go when it is less cloudy. My thoughts are that the Barlow could be good when looking at something bright like the moon or planets but not so good for general starwatching. Anybody got any comments about this?
There are still several things I have to get to grips with such as:
In fact the list is very much longer but these will do far a start!! They are all just teething problems and I am confident I will get them sorted out fairly quickly.
So what’s the overall verdict? It’s fantastic and was well worth waiting for. It will increase my enjoyment many fold. Now if only those clouds would disappear……..
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Indoor Astronomy
Date: May 31st, 2002A combination of too many business trips plus seemingly constant cloud cover during the evenings has meant that I have only been able to look at the stars during the last couple of evenings. Despite this several things have been happening to keep my enthusiasm burning brightly.
On the equipment front I have continued to get used to my new mount although I am still having trouble locating some of the knobs in the dark and am also having great problems with working out what direction is what. I guess familiarity will correct these.
I went round to visit an old work colleague who has a small observatory in his back garden. He has a 10 inch Newtonian. It was a very useful visit although it was too cloudy for us to look at any stars. He helped me a lot especially in the area of aligning the mount. He also very kindly gave me an old 40mm EP which he had spare!
I tried it out the following evening during a short time when the clouds parted. It certainly helped me a lot in terms of giving me a larger field of view and thus a better overall feel for where I was looking. Unfortunately there was a lot of dust and specs in the EP. Resisting my first temptation to rub the lens with a damp handkerchief (!) I got in touch with ~T and asked for advice. It always pays to go to an expert because I now have an eyepiece that is probably cleaner than it was when it left the factory.
For any newcomers out there, here is the procedure which ~T recommended and I followed to the letter.
- You will need the following: reasonably pure iso propyl alcohol, cotton wool buds, lens tissues, a blower brush and a steady hand. I got all except the latter from a local photographic store who sold me a lens cleaning kit for very little money.
- Unscrew the barrel from the bottom of the eyepiece so you have access to both sided of the lenses.
- Use the blower brush to blow as much debris away as possible
- Dampen a cotton wool bud with the alcohol and gently dab it onto the surface of the lens taking care not to flood the surface or go too near the edge.
- Take a clean lens tissue and gently wipe the alcohol over the surface of the lens.
- Repeat for each lens surface and reassemble the EP I had to repeat this procedure twice before I got rid of all the dust etc but it was well worth the effort.
I have also invested in a Telrad Finder. Whoever invented this device has my heartfelt thanks and congratulations. It is absolutely brilliant for somebody at my level and, I suspect, for those with a lot more skill than I currently possess. I have had considerable trouble actually finding a specific star in the heavens and then getting it lined up in the eyepiece of the scope. Gone are those days!! I will admit to a couple of moments of self congratulation when I lined up a star in the Telrad and then looked through the eyepiece to find the self same star perfectly centred in the eyepiece.
So, most of my astronomy has been indoors over the past couple of weeks unfortunately. However I have been able to get outside and actually practice the art on the last two evenings. How did I get on? I’ll tell you in my next missive which will be on the site shortly
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Seek and Ye Shall Find - But Not Always!
Date: June 2nd, 2002With clear skies over Southern England for the last three evenings I have had the first extended opportunity to give the Mak and it’s new mount a decent tryout.
Over the three evenings I have experienced excitement, satisfaction and disappointment in roughly equal proportions.
Before I tell you about my trials and tribulations let me first of all tell you about a purchase I’ve made. I came across a set of Burnham’s Celestial Handbook (3 vols) in a second-hand bookshop and bought them. Really excellent books, full of far more info than I need at the moment but very readable and will, I think, serve me for many a year.
So, what about my outdoor experiences. First of all aligning the mount with Polaris was fairly easy and I guess I did it accurately enough as subsequently stars stayed in the field of view, with the motor drives on, for many, many minutes. Using the setting circles was a different story however and I gave up on them after struggling for a while. I will return to them at a future date.
I decided to spend most of my time looking around Ursa Major. There were two reasons for this. Firstly there seem to be a reasonable number of Messier objects in the vicinity and I wanted to see them and secondly (probably most importantly) I know where to find this constellation.
In hindsight I’m not sure it was a wise decision to look at UMa. Anybody who can get Alkaid centred in their finderscope without doing themselves permanent damage from the contortions required has my utmost admiration and should have no difficulty with any of the positions in the Kama Sutra.
Anyway eventually I managed to find my way round the Plough with minimal trouble. Seeing the double star at Mizar for the first time was exciting. However my main aim was to find and look at some of the galaxies in that region. Specifically I wanted to see the Owl Galaxy plus M81 and M82. And I also wanted to look at M51 (Whirlpool Galaxy) just south of Alkaid (At least I think it is south, I’m still having directional problems in the sky!!, anyway it is a bit nearer the ground than Alkaid)
I searched for hours and although I am sure I have had one or more of these objects centred in my eyepiece during the search I was not able to see any of them. Even using the Telrad finder circles and searching the sky around the area I thought the galaxy was in was no help. It was incredibly frustrating and disappointing but I am sure that my problems stem from not knowing what to look for. Many years ago we used to take the kids on holiday to the seaside and while they played I would walk up and down the beach looking for fossils. Invariably I wouldn’t find a single fossil on the first day but thereafter, as my eyes became attuned to what a fossil looked like in its natural habitat, I was able to find them easily. I think it is probably the same with galaxies. Once I have found and recognised a couple it will be much easier to identify others – I hope!
Despite this setback I have had immense fun just looking at and identifying the stars. Seeing Cor Caroli for the first time and realising that it was a double star was very satisfying. Slowly I am becoming more familiar with some (very small!) areas of the sky. Star names that only a month or so ago sounded strange to my ears are now friends and I can walk outside the back door, look up and find them.
Don’t get me wrong, there is still a huge amount of learning that I have to do and I still don’t let myself think of the immensity of it, but I feel that I am making a small amount of progress. Probably more importantly I am having a hell of a lot of fun doing it.
Just at the moment the sky has gone into an early lead and is winning 1-0 but it’s early in the game and I will fight back strongly
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Oh To Be In England Now That Summer's Here
Date: June 23rd, 2002I like living in England. I like the people, the atmosphere and the lifestyle. However as a would-be astronomer was there ever a worse place to live (except maybe underground)? My last contribution to this page was exactly 20 days ago. Why? Because we have had 20 days of unbroken cloud cover during the evening and night. since I last wrote anything. Some of the days have been brilliant blue skies. As soon as dusk arrives so do the clouds.
Anyway in order to keep my spirits up here are a few of the things I have been doing.
I have star hopped my way from one side of the sky to the other and back again. All using a star chart and all theoretical of course. However hopefully some of the things I’ve learnt may stick with me when I do eventually get to look through a scope again.
I’ve been trying to get to grips with setting circles. I think I must be the world’s expert at aligning a telescope on the corner point of the roof of my house and then moving, via setting circles, to the other corner of the roof. One thing at least is that I now have very little fear of using setting circles and I think understand them fairly well.
One thing I have done which I hope will be of practical value in the future is to plot the viewing horizon from my back garden. I spent a pleasant hour with the scope lining it up on the top of the house, the surrounding trees etc and then plotting the compass point versus the altitude. The picture at left shows the output.
It should mean that I can now compare a star’s position on a star map with my horizon chart and tell if I will be able to see it from my garden
If all this sounds like making work for idle hands then that’s exactly what it is. I’ll bet Hubble never had to resort to such things.
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Going to Bed with a Smudge and a Smile
Date: June 26th, 2002At last, beautiful clear skies with hardly a cloud in sight, as evening drew on, meant that I had an anxious wait to see if it remained clear until it got dark. Fortunately, although a few clouds appeared, they quickly dispersed and I had my first evening at the eyepiece for three weeks.
I’ve made some marks on the patio which show me where to place the tripod so that it is reasonably well aligned with Polaris. I’ve decided that unless I plan on using the setting circles or as and when I try my hand at astrophotography, it is not worth the hassle of accurately aligning the scope.
During the last 3 weeks cloudy conditions I had made some overlays for my star charts which equate to the field of view through the finderscope. This I believe will assist greatly with my stumbling attempts at starhopping. Tonight was to be the test.
I spent some time just playing and focussing on things I knew I could do. It was almost a bit of displacement activity before I got to my real task for the evening which was to locate M13 in Hercules. I knew I didn’t have a whole lot of time between the sky getting dark enough to see and identify the stars and the moon rising which was likely to make finding anything fairly difficult.
Now comes the humbling confession part of the report. I spent ages looking for M13 just south of Zeta Herculis. I swept the sky in that area from every direction using every eyepiece in my collection but all to no avail. Just before despondency set in I had another look at the star chart and found that I should have been looking south of Eta Herculis rather than Zeta. How stupid can you get!! Maybe I shouldn’t have had that glass of whisky earlier in the evening.
However I quickly realigned the scope to a position 2.5 deg south of Eta Herculis using the Telrad finder and looked into the 40mm EP. There slap bang in the middle of the field of view was M13! It’s hard to describe the feeling of satisfaction and excitement and I just sat and looked at it for several minutes. If I’m honest the view was less than spectacular. By now the moon had started to rise and all I could see of M13 was a smudge in the sky but it was a smudge that I had found all by myself. I wasn’t able to resolve any of the components of the object (even at different magnifications) although a couple of outlying stars were very visible. I suspect a combination of the moon and the ambient light pollution contributed to this difficulty. Whatever, I know where it is hiding now and I will look again when conditions are more favourable.
So it was to bed with a broad smile on my face and memories of ‘my’ smudge.
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Coathangers and Rings
Date: June 27th, 2002Two clear nights in succession meant that it was out wih the scope again. Tonight I planned to have a look for the Ring Nebula (M57) and Brocchi’s Cluster (The Coathanger)
Fortunately I had sought some advice before starting my search for the ring nebula otherwise I don’t think I would have found it. I started at Vega and then moved south. Using the Telrad it was fairly easy to get the scope centred between the two stars Sheliak and Sulafat as they are 20 apart which is the diameter of the centre circle on the Telrad.
Sure enough when I looked through the EP there was the Ring Nebula just off centre in the field of view. I think I was very fortunate in that I was using an 18mm EP when searching for the nebula. In this EP it showed up fairly well. I changed eyepieces a bit later and under a 40mm it was quite hard to see while with a 7mm I lost so much contrast that I would have missed it if I hadn’t known it was there.
At first glance it looked just like a small fuzzy blob with no ring structure to it. However when I did as my advisor had suggested and used averted vision the ring structure became quite clear. I’ve read a description of the nebula that says it looks like a smoke ring and that is certainly how it looked to me.
Here is a small sketch of what I saw through the eyepiece. Don’t pay too much attention to the direction marked N as that may well be incorrect. I’m still having problems telling which way is up through the scope.
Incidentally does anybody have any tips as to the best way of doing sketches. I find it a bit of a palaver. I wear glasses so a sketching session goes something like this.
Maybe it will get easier with practice
My next quest was to find Briocchi’s (Coathanger) Cluster. Going south from Lyra I came to Albireo and then pointed the scope about 8 deg south of that star. I would like to think that it was a matter of pure skill that the cluster showed up immediately in the eyepiece. However if I’m honest I think it was a piece of amazingly good fortune! Just as I was getting ready to do a quick sketch the clouds came in and ended the session for the night.
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Don't Look and You Will See
Date: June 30, 2002For some strange reason the UK has been blessed with clear skies for four nights in a row so I have taken full advantage with the result that I am exhausted and almost pleased to see clouds covering the sky tonight.
However it has been an exciting few nights. In a previous report I told how I had found M13 (Hercules Cluster ) but only saw it as a hazy cloud. Well, last night I decided to revisit it. Finding it was fairly easy and again it appeared as a hazy patch in the 40mm and 18mm Eyepieces. However the seeing must have been significantly better because this time when I put an 11mm EP in the scope I was able to resolve the cluster into individual stars! I found that if I completely relaxed my eye (almost defocused it) than what was a hazy smear slowly became the most fantastic grouping of stars. It was quite difficult to do and was almost like looking at fog. Sometimes it was there and then if I tried to focus it was gone. I tried the experiment several times with the same result each time. Unfortunately it was impossible for me to even attempt a sketch of the resolved cluster so I had to be content with sketching he view through the 18mm EP.
I don’t know if it is just me (I suspect not and think this may also apply to most new stargazers) but I have found that once I locate a new object, such as M13, I am extremely loath to leave it and sit looking at it for ages. I think there is a certain fear that if I move on I will never be able to find that object again coupled with a great feeling of satisfaction in finding it in the first place. Whatever the reason, I looked at M13 for a very long time before I could persuade myself to search for something else.
The something else was M3 which I knew from the charts was between Cor Caroli and Arcturus. The Gods must have been smiling on me because having moved the scope about two-thirds the way between these stars I dropped straight onto it – talk about luck!! Again it appeared as a smudge in the eyepiece. A short while ago I would have thought the smudge was a bit of dirt in the eyepiece but I’m getting to realise that you should never discount smudges as they are probably what you are looking for. I am pretty sure this smudge was M3 as there is nothing else of a similar appearance showing on my star chart for that area.
With all this success under my belt I decided to look for M29 (a star cluster in Cygnus). It should be fairly easy to find as it is just south of Sadr which acts as an excellent guide star. I really don’t know if I found it or not. I think I did and here is a sketch showing what I saw.
If anybody can confirm or deny that this is M29 I’d be very grateful. The problem is that there are so many stars in that area of the sky that for me it is very difficult to really know what I am looking at. The cluster I’ve drawn was in the right area of the sky but my drawing doesn’t really look like any of the pictures in my books.
My main ongoing failure is my inability to locate M51. Try as I might (and I really have tried to the point of exhaustion) I can’t find it. I’m starting to think it doesn’t really exist and it is just a myth. I can hear the Gods chanting ‘M51, M51’ every time I look in it’s general direction. Why is it that the thing you can’t find suddenly assumes much greater importance than every other object in the sky? I will not give in and one night it will appear in my scope.
If you have been reading some of these reports you may wonder how and why I have selected the specific Messier objects I want to see. The answer is fairly simple. I’m selecting what I think will be the easiest objects (with the notable exception of the mythical M51!) for me to locate. Very early on I realised that I had a problem because I didn’t know what I was looking for or how I could recognise it if and when it appeared in the eyepiece. By selecting ‘easy’ objects I am gaining in confidence and also learning how to recognise things in the scope and it’s working (most of the time!!)
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Come In M51 - You're Time Is Up!
Date: July 5th, 2002I should have written up this report a couple of nights ago but I have been basking in the glory of success and haven’t got round to it until now. For ages (every time I go outside with the scope) I have been searching for M51 (Whirlpool Galaxy) For some reason it has become my bete noir. The more I searched for it the less luck I had in finding it and the more important it became in my mind. I won’t delve too far into the murky depths of my mind but suffice it to say that M51 occupied a significant portion of it!
Anyway recently I bought a new book called ‘Turn Left at Orion’ which gives the newcomer to astronomy fairly specific instructions on how to go about finding specific objects. Not only that but it contains superb sketches of what you will see in the sky, through the finderscope and through the EP. All in all, a superb book. So armed with my book and a beautiful clear night a couple of nights ago I decided that it was M51 or bust!
I followed the instructions to the letter and imagine my delight when I looked through the EP and just on the edge of the FOV I saw a slight haze. I should mention that this was fairly early on in the evening and the sky was not fully dark. Unable to believe that I was finally looking at M51 I moved this hazy bit of sky into the centre of the EP and stared at it for ages.
Finding it actually screwed up most of my evenings observing. Because I wanted to be sure that it was really M51 I decided that I would keep it in view until the sky got really dark and I could confirm it. I needed to keep it centered in the EP because I wasn’t sufficiently confident that having found it I could ever find it again. This involved sitting with my eye glued to the EP for the next hour making slight adjustments to the scopes orientation so that M51 stayed in the FOV ( I forgot to mention that my twin drives didn’t seem to be functioning correctly so I had to use manual control – more on this later)
Just as it was getting dark and I was about to do a sketch at the EP view – what happened? I accidentally kicked the tripod!! Disaster! I frantically centred up on Alkaid again and went from there to 24 CVn and guess what – there was M51 again. The relief was great and I quickly sketched what I saw. There was no evidence whatsoever of arms of the spiral galaxy ( I suspect that I will be unable to see this with my scope) but there was evidence of a brighter spot to the north end of the haze which I assume was NGC 5195
With the glow of satisfaction combining with the glow of the wee drop of whisky I had in celebration, I decided to have another look at M29. If you’ve read the previous report you will know that I thought I had seen M29 a couple of nights ago but I wasn’t too sure. Discussion with Jeff had decided me that I probably hadn’t seen it. Therefore I decided to go and have another look. It was very easy to find with Sadr being so close and such a useful guide star. This time I spent a bit more time looking for the main stars in an area that contains many stars. Having found what I thought was the main grouping I did the attached sketch. Comparing it with the sketch of this object that Jeff had pointed me towards , there are enough similarities for me to be fairly confident that I had actually seen M29.
Next I decided to have a closer look at Albireo. This is the first time I can honestly say that I have seen significant colour in the stars in the sky. Mostly they look like whitish/bluey spots to me. Looking at the double of Albireo the reddish colour of the main star was so obvious compared to the blue colour of the companion that it was astounding. A really beautiful sight.
So an eventful and very satisfying evenings viewing.
I mentioned that my dual drives did not seem to be functioning correctly. Despite aligning the scope fairly accurately I was finding that the drives were not keeping stars in the FOV for any length of time. Yesterday I decided to have a look at the problem. I noticed that there was quite a lot of free movement between the driving cog and the drive shaft on each motor and that the allen screws used to clamp the cog onto the shaft was a bit loose. I’ve tightened these up and everything seems more positive now. The proof of the pudding will come on the next clear night.
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