AstroTalk Posting: What I Wanted
What I Got

AstroTalk Posting: What I Wanted

Sooner or later I'm gonna get some clear skies - just gotta happen, after all it's happened before!

And when it does I need to be ready. That's right, ready! I hate stargazing. It's so boring to just keep looking at the same old studies - I like tracking down new stuff! So what new stuff should I track down?

Well there were a few things I missed through 150mm Argo last year...

At the top of the list: NGC1300 in Eridanus. Sure I saw it in a ten inch - but it didn't exactly reach out with those spiral arms and slap me in the face!

Also there's Aldabaran's 11.5 mag, 32 arc second separated "phantom" secondary. And Mu Aries' 12.5 magnitude secondary. And Gamma Eridanus 13th mag one arc minute separated secondary. Never managed very close and hugely disparate Omicron Persei either!

Open cluster NGC1245 in Perseus was tough, but I eventually located it. That was when I fell in love with the "on the edge" open clusters - a sprinkle of stars emersed in faint star haze. BUT those take really solid nights! (5.5ULTM plus)

Another double on the verge of resolution was Alpha Leporis' 12 mag companion. Alpha Prime easy enough to find - just beneath the hunters feet.

There's also a tough series of faint nebulae near M78 - NGC2064, NGC2067, NGC2071 and NGC2022. The brightest of these is NGC2071 - but it looks like star haze so you really gotta pay attention.

An even tougher crew, Bright Nebulae NGC2185, NGC2316, NGC2183, NGC2182 and NGC2170 - all located between one and two degrees west of Gamma Monoceri. No more than light mounds through Argo from China Ridge last year.

Some new stuff too: Theta Auriga needs a looking at - a tough close disparate double plus a potential candidate for "Intriga Aurigae".

And I still have not caught any whiff of Stephan's Quintet. (No, not even Stephan's Solo).

Come on sky, you can do it!

What I Got

It's now 10:30pm, Wednesday, January 9, 2002. Argo is tucked in and I'm at the keyboard. Fifteen minutes ago I had an 180x Jupiter in Argo's sights. Fuzzy edge and two bands - ugh!

The sky didn't start out that bad. Around 8:30 a cold front moved in and stars turned from reasonably self-contained points to blobs. Very early on (5:45) had a look at Saturn - nothing to write home about (well, I am writing this anyway) but at least Cassini showed some definition. At that time, judged the seeing at about 6/10. There were indications that it would improve - and it did for a while - then the cold snap.

As mentioned in the previous post, I am not much of a stargazer. I personally prefer putting together an observing plan and seeing it through to "putzing around the sky". Sure I don't mind the occasional unplanned night out, or on nights where planned observations are on track, acting a bit capricious or opportunistic, but altogether I like having a direction and a sense of purpose.

So tonight was the night I was supposed to get back on track and cover some ground - and I did! But the sky was less than cooperative - so most of my efforts remain inconclusive.

Long before skydark (6:00pm or so), Saturn had been viewed twice. Polaris-B could be held direct. The Iota Cassiopaeia triple was (messily) resolved and the 12.2 magnitude field star could be held with moderate aversion. A check of Capella verified Argo's collimation - all at 210x.

Saturn showed a less than pencil sharp Cassini, an indistinct southern SEB frontier, decent edge focus, posterior ring shadowing, two moon's direct and another couple on eyemove.

By 6:30, I was holding stars direct and unaided down to magnitude 4.8 (glasses on, of course). Turned Argo on Aldabaran in hopes of seeing the closer 11th magnitude companion. Caught hints of something leading and to the north. - I shall return.

As the sky darkened further, took a look at Epsilon Ari. At 70x, this 1.4 arc second matched pair appeared elongate. 120x revealed a saddle, and 180x resolved it completely.

From Epsilon tracked down Mu. The sky at this time was still fairly bright - so for the next 10 minutes or so I followed it until I caught hints of Mu's 12.5 magnitude 20 arc second distant secondary - then bailed. (I had the good fortune of resolving this elusive disparate pair the previous evening through sucker hole laden skies.)

While searching for Mu, came across Pi. This matched pair was easily resolved at 180x. A brightish come could be seen leading the matched pair across the sky. The three stars do very much look like a group...

Last evening - under 4.6 skies - had tracked down edge-on galaxy NGC7331 in a lowering Pegasus. The idea was to assess the view then attempt something of Stephan's Quintet. It was obvious from the start that the Quintet was out of order. Despite decent sky stability, had a hard enough time just determining 7331's axis of orientation! Since the galaxy is a nominal 200mm study, this should not have been the case. So tonight, under 5.0 ULM conditions, I revisited - and no problemo! Core and extensions visible and no question about the galaxy's general north-south major axis. Why I could even determine that the western face was more precisely delineated than that to the east.

All this says that even a couple tenths of a magnitude in sky transparency can HUGELY effect the quality of view - especially on less than aperture-optimal deepsky studies.

The quality of tonight's 7331 view encouraged me to shift that half degree south-southwest and make an attempt on the Quintet. Sure enough, at the very limits of my imagination, I could see a faint concentration of "light mounds" accompanied by fuzzy stellar cores - this in a rather star poor 70x region. Obviously, I can make no claims on the Quintet, but I can say that it will require darker skies before I may.

After viewing 7331, turned up the M76 Double Planetary. Viewed it at a variety of magnifications using the OIII filter. Found that 70x gave the best view in terms of surface brightness versus image scale and background sky darkening. Meanwhile, the Ultrablock filter made it possible to define frontiers and detect star-like core points in both planetaries. Still the view - at best - was comparable to that seen through fellow SCAC club member Dan's FS102 the last time I had a chance to look through his scope (albeit under better seeing).

Also revisited M31. The hope was to catch NGC206 - and I believe I did, but d**n is it hard getting a handle on this knot! The galaxy's spiral arms are quite extensive, effectively what you are looking for is a brightening against a brightening. Then of course, there are all those faint stars which can easily deceive the eye. Add in a less than pristine sky, and this thing is either in your eye or in your mind...

Straight above lay the Celestial Triangle. Two member stars, magnitudes 5.3 and 5.4, could be held with the slightest aversion. Had no trouble turning up M33 in the finder. In contemplating this sprawling face on galaxy, determined that 70x - and not 52x -gave the better view of its faint spiral arms. Also noted that the southwestern spiral was more easily caught than the northeastern. NGC604 did not seem especially problematic. It's location near an easily identified "Orionish" asterism helps out here.

Made an intensive effort to turn up NGC891 between Gamma Andromeda and M34 in Perseus. Sky in that location at best 5.0 ULM. No luck. Noticed a half dozen M34 member stars were easily resolved in the 7x35mm finder however - but did not take the time to visit through the main tube. The wider Gamma Andromeda pair is quite beautiful and easily resolved. I continue to see gold instead of blue in the secondary. Sky conditions would not permit a high magnification check of the primary for signs of incipient resolution...

With Aries turning the corner and heading west, I knew I had to make haste and shift over to the south viewing station. Eridanus would also be past culmination and I had unfinished business with face-on tenth magnitude spiral galaxy NGC1300. Had no trouble tracking down the locale. All the many fourth magnitude stars that make up the Tau Eridani series were visible. Quickly located Tau-4 in the finder, slewed north to a wide finder pair, centered on the dimmer of the two then shifted south back toward Tau-4. Amazingly, there were several times when I detected a large "light mound" in the field about 20 arc-minutes from the guide star. But the background sky is so poor some 30 degrees above the horizon that it is difficult to feel confident. Incidentally, the dimmest star visible unaided in that region was 4.8 mag Tau-8. So like NGC891, NGC1300 needs superior transparency for definitive recognition. Both galaxies are optimal for a ten inch scope through 5.5 ULM skies, but neither is especially easy to locate through a six inch.

Several disparate doubles from last year's observing plan are found in this same part of the sky. I visited them all, saw hints of faint companions - but nothing definitive. Star's involved: Gamma Eridani, Alpha Lepori and Rigel. Both Gamma and Alpha hinted at very faint stars to the southwest. Rigel may have had a brightish star hanging right outside it's bloated spurious image. Aldebaran, Mu Ari, Gamma Eridani, and Alpha Leporis are all unresolved disparate pairs from last year's observing plan.

Alnitak was also visited. No resolution was possible on the brighter close pairing. Meanwhile, the more distant 10th mag come could just be held direct at 120x. Northwest of Alnitak, the Flame Nebula (NGC2024) showed only a single large lobe of faint luminosity at 52x.

I made a break from plan and hung out with The Great Nebula for about 15 minutes. (Jeff stargazes!) At 70x, and with stars visible unaided down to near magnitude 5.0, it's blue green hue was obvious. In fact the four Trapezium members also showed lovely color variations. Trap-A appeared gold, B - amber, bright C - a brilliant warm yellow, and D - silver-blue. Splendid!

Had no trouble locating M78. But the sky just didn't seem to have the punch. In fact, couldn't even distinguish which of two stars in the same field was enshrouded in the dimmer NGC2071 nebulosity. So, without any hope of success, made a desultory check for other even dimmer fuzzies in the region. Decided there would be no run on the Gamma Monoceri crew, if NGC2071 is not obvious these will prove impossible.

So I returned with Argo to Backyard Boulder Creek's north viewing station for a quick check of Theta Auriga.

Theta is said to have an unusual "color sense" about it. As such it is a candidate for a class of stars of especial interest or intrigue to the eye. theAstronomer had realized this when attempting to resolve Theta's 1 arc second disparate companion. So I dutifully took a look - not expecting to notice anything especially "intriguing" under the conditions. But as I averted my vision, I noticed a kind of silvery metallic caste to its "aura". Can't say I've noticed anything like it before...

Knowing the sky stability, I didn't expect much of Jupiter. And my low expectations were fulfilled - fuzzy limb and two ill-defined belts.

That was it for Jupiter, and for me.

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