HGSP 2013: Night #4

The final night of HGSP was the public night. I’m not sure how many people showed up, but we had a nice flow of people going by. People rode a haywagon down to the air strip to view the comet. Had I known only one person was there with a telescope, I might have taken my gear there. Unfortunately, I didn’t have anyone to hang around my gear to keep tabs on things and I had to keep my eye on an SBAS member’s Z10 while he did his own comet observing over there.

Once the sun set, things picked up quickly. In a panic, I made dinner, coffee, and a meal for later while members of the public walked around. I set up my gear while food was cooking. I set up my 8 for viewing Jupiter. I set up my binos on a tripod for viewing the moon, the Pleiades, and the Double Cluster. I later put my 8 on the Double Cluster, the Beehive, the 37 cluster, the ET cluster, and even the Christmas Tree Cluster. I made sure to also boost the power on Jupiter and the moon just like I do at SBAS star parties. It really blew people away seeing Jupiter and the moon at 300x. I love doing that.

People asked how much the scope was. One kid knew his stuff and started telling me things about Sirius, the moon, and a few other things. I shared info about the age of light coming from the moon, Saturn, and Spica when all three are in the same patch of sky together. I certainly kept people entertained. Of course, they all wanted to see Saturn, but it was more of a midnight object and public night supposedly ended around 10pm.

But things really ended for most of us by that time because clouds killed off the fun. It took a while, but shortly after midnight, things started to clear up, except for our southern sky. I hit up Saturn again, but the wind kept me from capturing any good video.

I tried searching for a small planetary in Cepheus, Caldwell 2, but I couldn’t peg anything with that planetary look and feel. This one will be difficult, folks. I’m going to need a good horizon to find Caldwell 2.

NGC2506/Caldwell 54: Open cluster in Monoceros. Difficult to locate because it was in a rich star field. Faint fuzzy open cluster in 17mm. Resembled an H or a square. Extended out to the right like it had a tail. Almost looked like there was some nebulosity in it spread out among the central stars. Two bright stars at the top left, bright triangle on the right, a rectangle at the bottom, and the tail I saw came off on the top right.

NGC2477/Caldwell 71: Open cluster in Puppis. Straight over from a very bright star low on the horizon (Naos/Zeta Puppis). Sparse open cluster outlined by 10-12 bright stars with a Y shaped concentration of stars, or perhaps a seagull distribution. Arched from the top, left to the middle, thickened, and then curved back to the left and down. After I stared some more, I noticed what either looked like a big E or a cross in the cluster. Filled the field in my 17mm. Way too many stars to count inside of this cluster, though.

NGC 4889/Caldwell 35 (& NGC4874): Two galaxies in Coma Berenices. Starhopped from the corner star of the L, Beta Com, and worked my way up the L. I attempted to find this object on the previous night, but was unable to find it. On Night #4, however, I came across the correct pair of stars and right below them sat two galaxies. Together with the two stars, it formed an L, ironically. The first galaxy was just an NGC galaxy, but the second was the Caldwell. In the eyepiece, both galaxies were to the right of the two stars. Both were faint and small. No cores. Both were about the same size. Seen at low power (37.5x). I did not attempt to boost the power on either one because I often lose faint galaxies when more glass gets in the way.

I was the last one to really pack up. The clouds had driven most people to call it quits. I ended it with some hard work and knocked off a few Caldwell objects. Hopefully, I will be able to return next year.

HGSP 2013: Day/Night #3

Daytime:
Friday was very windy. Most of us spent the day battling that wind, whether it involved rescuing a canopy gone wild or watching telescopes shake and shimmy. One scope actually took a dive. Luckily, it sounded as though all that the tumble resulted in was a loss of collimation and no major damage.

I did some solar observing again. The sun was still loaded up with sunspots, but with the wind, it was not any fun keeping things steady, so I stopped observing for a while and came back to it later.

When things calmed down, I aligned to the sun with my leveled base. With some spotty accuracy, I was able to find Jupiter, Sirius, and Capella mixed in with the blue sky. That’s right, folks. Don’t forget that some of these objects have good visual magnitudes. They are actually visible during the day. I found Mercury and Venus this way, but depending on the time of year, lots of bright objects can be found if you are aligned.

Earlier that day, my girlfriend and I took a tour of the park. We drove around the circle and caught some great views of the lake. We even saw an eagle over the fountain area on the lake.

Photos of the gardens are available in my Picasa web album.

Night:
I waited for the moon to set before doing any serious observing. It was my girlfriend’s last night at the star party, so I made sure to spend some time helping her finish the challenge list I gave her.

NGC188 was the first Caldwell I went after. It’s an open cluster near Polaris. I could barely see it in my home skies. At Hodges, it was more apparent, but still quite difficult. Very very faint open cluster. It did have brighter stars along the outer edge, but the more I stared at it through the eyepiece, the easier it was for me to see the more faint stars in the main body of the cluster. The cluster resembled a square or a slightly larger rectangle.

Took a look at M97 next. It was very easy to spot the Owl’s nebulosity, but I could not draw out either of the eyes. The best view was in my 17 mm eyepiece with the Zhumell urban sky glow filter, not UHC as I had expected. I was also able to find Messier 108 adjacent to Messier 97. 108 was not very impressive. Nothing but a short very slender galaxy. For me, 97 without 108 just isn’t any fun. Whenever I’m looking for M97, I feel like I must make sure 108 is there as well. Call it an obsession of mine.

While I was near Ursa Major, I dipped down into Draco to get another Caldwell, NGC4236/Caldwell 3, an irregular galaxy. I starhopped from Kappa Draco and 6 Draco, a concise pair of visible stars, up. I found a large faint galaxy. Averted vision helped. The galaxy was above an arc of about five stars. The fuzzy part of the galaxy was definitely a decent size and almost spanned from one end of the U to the other diagonally.

NGC2775/Caldwell 48: Galaxy in Cancer. I starhopped from the star Zeta Hydrae to Omega Hydrae, diagonally up, finding a very small and unimpressive galaxy. The core was faint, but I believe I was able to see it with some patient persistence. I chose not to push any power on the object for fear of losing it altogether.

Whale Galaxy/NGC4631/Caldwell 32: Located in Coma Berenices. Hopped from 37 Com to an arc of stars on the left and worked my way up. The galaxy was very needle-like. It had a broad white center with faint edges. The core was not very concise.

NGC3201/Caldwell 79: Globular cluster in Vela. Found this one 12 degrees off the horizon. Starhopped from Alheren to P Vela, but I used the zig zag of Hydra to pan down to the right area in the sky using the chart from SkySafari. It reminded me a lot of Messier 71. Really faint at low power. Might have resolved a few stars, but it was very difficult. I blamed it all on the location off the horizon. Used my Orion Zoom eyepiece to push things to 11mm (109x) and only then was I able to resolve some of the outermost stars. Not much was visible on the inside of the cluster. The right edge seemed to be broader than the left. Otherwise, it was fairly round in shape.

NGC3132/Caldwell 74: Planetary Nebula in Vela. The name of this object is the Eight-Burst Nebula. I expected this object to have some character, but I was somewhat disappointed to discover it was a clean cut planetary with a central star and small halo, very similar to the Eskimo, albeit larger in size. I was able to see the three stars of Antlia, so I navigated to q Velorum from Alherem and diagonally worked my way up.

NGC5005/Caldwell 29: Spiral galaxy in Canes Venatici. Just another one of those small, unimpressive galaxies. It appeared to be spindle shaped with a very simple core and faint edges which did not extend out very far. I navigated to this galaxy from Cor Caroli, down to a broad double, and then to the right.

NGC4559/Caldwell 36: Spiral galaxy in Coma Berenices. It was a very easy starhop from Gamma Coma Berenices. At low power, it really did not resemble a regular galaxy. There was an irregularity to it on the right side and it was very difficult to discern its edges. I saw two stars on the bottom of the field that bordered the outer edges of the galaxy. Averted vision improved visualization of the core, but not by much. Although small, it was much wider in the center than many of the other unimpressive galaxies I viewed that night and probably twice as long.

I found the Needle Galaxy (NGC4565/Caldwell 38) in the same area, starhopping from Gamma Coma Berenices across a series of small doubles. Very, very, very thin galaxy. Very thin. Did I mention this galaxy was thin? The core almost bulged out away from the galaxy it was so thin. Averted vision helped to better visualize either end, but the core was the more interesting area to stay focused on.

NGC5248/Caldwell 45: Spiral galaxy in Boötes. Very difficult galaxy to find. I first tried starhopping from Upsilon Boötis, but also tried to starhop from Virgo instead. After crossing back and forth a few times, I finally found 5248. At low power, it did not resemble many of the galaxies I had already viewed during this session. It had a more round appearance, despite that it was still quite small. I couldn’t visualize its core, but the surrounding fuzziness was a dim smudge and its edges were ill-defined. I noticed a widely spaced pair of stars at 10 o’clock, another pair at 4:30, a star at 3, one at 3:30, and a few others, so since there wasn’t much background clutter to sort through, the galaxy was easier to find.

Spindle Galaxy (NGC3115/Caldwell 53) in Sextans. Elliptical galaxy. Hopped from a pair of stars in Hydra (Lambda & Upsilon 1) below Alphard. Had this galaxy in three diagonal hops at low power in my 32. Very small galaxy, elongated and narrow, with a pinpoint core. Bright compared to the stars around it. Averted vision showed brighter fuzziness extending out away from the core, hence its name.

My girlfriend’s accomplishments included locating M53, M3, M101 (She beat me to it), Leo Trio, M44, M35/2158, Double Cluster, M81/82, M42, M1, Kemble’s Cascade and NGC1502, M46, M95/96/105, the Rosette, the Christmas Tree, the Eskimo, and she split Beta Monoceros into two stars. Didn’t have enough oomph to get the triplet.

With my scope, I helped her see most of the goodies in Sagittarius and around Antares, M64, M97 and M108, the Ghost of Jupiter, M104, M51’s spiral arms, the Veil, the North America Nebula, the Ring Nebula, and the nebulosity in the Rosette. She even got to see Omega Centauri.

HGSP 2013 Observing field (video)

Here is my video footage of the observing field from HGSP 2013. Enjoy!

 

 

My photos of HGSP are available in my Picasa Web Album.

HGSP 2013: Night #2 – Part Two

To be legit with the Caldwell list, I’m not using any push-to setting circle assistance. I use SkySafari Pro as my chart and starhop my way to each target. The only time I’m going to resort to push-to is when I’ve already starhopped to the correct area on my own. Recognition of the correct field is paramount in starhopping, but once I know what an area looks like, to save time, setting circles will be used to get me where I’m going.

When I started chasing down some Caldwell objects on my list, I quickly became sidetracked on my way to the Silver Needle Galaxy near a star in Canes Venatici. I ended up finding a few other galaxies before heading over to the original target.

I found the Cocoon Galaxy (NGC4490) and it’s neighbor, NGC4485. The Cocoon was angled toward the nearest bright star, Chara (Beta Canum Venaticorum). The other galaxy was angled in the other direction, forming a V. The Cocoon was brighter than 4485, 4485 only consisting of its core and slight fuzz. The Cocoon had a nice bright core, but the galaxy itself was a thin sliver. Viewed at 32mm/37x.

Moving horizontally from Chara, I incidentally found NGC4449/Caldwell 21, an irregular galaxy in Canes Venatici. Not much to say about it. Small galaxy. Bright core, but elongated. Not a lot of extra fuzz around it to visualize.

From there, I then went after the Silver Needle Galaxy, NGC4244/Caldwell 26. Definitely looked like an elongated needle. It reminded me of NGC891 in Andromeda. There was not much of a visible core and the ends went in and out of view with averted my vision. (I didn’t make a note of what eyepieces I viewed this galaxy in.)

One of the targets I failed to mention as a goal was the Antenna Galaxy, or rather, the Antennae Galaxies. These two galaxies interact and the astrophotography of them is astounding. The visual experience is not quite as amazing, but it is still neat to chase after galaxies that are interacting.

So that’s what I found next. Adjacent to Corvus, I starhopped from the top corner star, Gienah Corvi, over to where the two galaxies were. The hop was not very difficult. The two galaxies were there, one larger than the other. They are NGC4038 and 4039/Caldwell 60 and 61. They were nothing more than two close fuzzy spots that did in fact form something of a V. No tails were seen spreading out like I’ve noticed in the AP shots, but I’m not operating Hubble quality here, after all. Cores were visible, but vague, which made sense considering that they are both interacting with one another.

By then, it was quite late, so I located Omega Centauri about 11 degrees off the horizon in my 16×32 binoculars. I put the XT8 on Omega to enjoy the show. It was very granular in appearance, individual stars popping out of the cluster with ease, even those close to the core. Omega was not quite as bright as I remember it being last year. There may have been some haze between myself and the night sky that low on the horizon that interfered with the possibility of a crisp Omega Centauri. Still, the longer I stared, the easier it was to draw out even more stars inside the cluster.

After I knew where Omega was, I could also find it with the naked eye, just like last year. This time, I knew how to pinpoint its location by finding Nu/Mu in Centaur, dropping down to Alnair, and then drawing a horizontal line to the right. Omega fell almost exactly on that line.

While in Centaurus, I hit up Centaurus A (Caldwell 77). I had already seen this galaxy last year, but I wanted to revisit it to put more effort into seeing its dark lane. Unfortunately, like with Omega, the view was not as pristine as last year. At low power (32mm), I could barely visualize the dark lane down its middle. In my 17mm eyepiece, the dark lane was easily visible and the two fuzzy sides came out a little more. On the bottom half, I noted a bright star. I was not sure if it was inside the galaxy or simply superimposed upon the view. The dark lane seemed to extend the full length of the galaxy on either side. In the 8mm TMB Planetary II, the dark lane was definitely more prominent, but I ended up losing some of the fuzziness of the galaxy. The easiest way to find this galaxy was to navigate almost straight up from Omega Centauri and slightly to the right.

NGC6144: Small globular cluster just above and Antares. Faint. Reminded me a lot of M71 in Sagitta, only slightly smaller. I didn’t even know it was there until a fellow star partier recommended finding it. (Apparently he has a reputation for knowing many Southern Hemisphere globs.) It did have one small bright star at its superior edge. In the eyepiece it was located at about 11:30/12:00. Good find. Didn’t know it was even there.

By then, Sagittarius had risen high enough for me to glance at the Sagittarius Star Cloud (M24). The bottom edge had something that was not much different than the NGC glob I had just looked at, only slightly larger. If you’ve never seen this star cloud and you enjoy rich star fields, put this area into view. You won’t regret it.

NGC5694/Caldwell 66: Globular cluster in Hydra. It was only 0.8 arcminutes in size, so it was difficult to find. I starhopped from Brachium in Libra (Sigma Librae) across to a line of stars in Hydra. This glob was below a tight double that was slightly to the left. Down and to the right, there were three stars in a triangle, the bottom-most star being the brightest. Coming up from that star, there was a curly-q of three stars. The third was actually the glob. Difficult to pull out at low power. I could see it with the 8mm TMB. Obvious glob at 150x. I could probably visualize the central core. It definitely had a nice fuzzy halo around the center though. I was unable to resolve individual stars inside the cluster.

NGC4697/Caldwell 52: Galaxy in Virgo. I navigated to this galaxy from Spica to a figure S cluster of stars between Theta Virgo and Porrima (Gamma Virgo). The S was visible at 8x in my finder. From the third star at the bottom of the S, I navigated straight down to the small elliptical galaxy. At higher power in the 8mm eyepiece, the galaxy was more oval in shape, the core was visible, and the outer edges of the fuzziness came out with direct vision and no averted vision was required.

NGC3632/Caldwell 40: Spiral galaxy in Leo near Zosma. Small. Faint. At low power, it really resembled a faint planetary. I boosted the power, but that didn’t help. One could probably draw out more in larger aperture scopes.

Had a look at Lagoon, Trifid, Omega, and Eagle. Ptolemy, Butterfly, M22, and the Sagittarius Star Cloud. Sagittarius had risen to a decent height in the sky by early morning and I hadn’t viewed many of those objects for a few months.

In the 4.5 Starblast, I was able to visualize part of the North America Nebula with the hydrogen beta filter and a 32mm eyepiece that gave a 3.6 degree field of view. In the same scope, I had a go at the Veil, both Eastern and Western with an OIII filter. Both were visible, including most of the broom.

I ended the night with the Ring Nebula, boosting it to a very modest 150x.

HGSP 2013: Night #2 – Part One

Everyone wanted to do the comet thing again on Night #2, but I chose to stay at the observing field to really get serious about my Caldwell list. I did have to wait for the moon to set, though, so I spent some time checking out a few of the same things I had viewed the night before until skies improved.

I pushed Jupiter up to 300x. No GRS. Four moons were visible. Lots of bands and the polar region were visible. Not a lot of additional detail compared to normal. One moon on left (Callisto). Two together on right (Europa & Io). One further out on the right (Ganymede).

M42 did great at low and high power. Wings out to the side were broad. More nebulosity showed up above the wings and more nebulosity was visible in the M43 region. I spent a brief moment examining the Trapezium, hoping to draw out some of the more difficult stars beyond the usual four. Couldn’t get any of them to reveal themselves.

After 9:30, I made an effort to find the California Nebula in Perseus. At 9:38, I had it in view in my scope and then put it in view in my girlfriend’s 4.5. My 32mm (14x/3.6° field) with the H-Beta in her 4.5 made for easily detectable contrast, showing most of the nebula. Obvious. I saw a long stretch of fuzz before it faded out from top to bottom of the field. It was very much the same in my XT8. There was more detail along the visible right edge, or rather, the side opposite Menkib. Beyond that, I couldn’t resolve much. The view was more enjoyable in the 4.5, but detail came out in my 8.

While I was focused on wide field objects that required filters, I set my sights on the Rosette Nebula. It was actually a naked eye object this time. I tried viewing it in my 8 with an OIII filter and an H-Beta. In my scope, the only visual portion of the nebula was on the left in the eyepiece adjacent to that rectangular box of stars (Caldwell 50/NGC2244). The box of stars should have been the center of the nebula. As I moved out and away from the box, the nebulosity appeared to thicken until I reachec its edge. In the 4.5 with an OIII and a 32mm eyepiece, the Rosette appeared like a circle. Magnificent find.

After viewing both the California Nebula and the Rosette with ease in my girlfriend’s scope, I am convinced that I should probably own a good wide field scope like the Starblast 4.5.

From there, in my 8, I went into Auriga in search of the Flaming Star Nebula, IC 405/Caldwell 31. Nebulosity was seen moreso at home than at HGSP. It was around a cluster of stars, Left > Right in an arc. Nondistinct. Difficult to see. Will revisit.

I went on to search for the Horsehead. Like the night before, the Flame Nebula was just barely visible (I had just seen it in a nice Takahashi). I found the arrangement of three stars below Alnitak and then twisted on my H-Beta filter. I boosted power with a 17mm eyepiece. Averted vision revealed a fleeting presence of what I perceived as the neck of the Horsehead. No head. No nose. It’s possible I was simply seeing things.

HGSP 2013: Day #2 – Solar

After adjusting to the daytime camp, I set up for solar viewing. Many sun spots were horizontally arranged across the sun from end to end. Small speckles of sunspots bridged the two larger regions. I had never seen so many sunspots before and neither had many other HGSP attendees. If you missed it, you missed a great view. I also saw some good faculae around the edges.

Here’s a photo:

I believe it’s time for me to make an effort to learn more about sunspots and solar observing. I cannot answer many questions people have about solar events and since I’ve invested in this handy dandy solar filter, it would behoove me to acquire knowledge on all things solar.

Venus was too close to the sun to have a go. Mercury was too dim and also too close in terms of angular separation.

My level worked out nicely, but I learned that one leg must have been different than another. One side was about 0.8 degrees off no matter what I adjusted. The fit was too snug, so thanks to Leon’s brainstorming abilities, I spun my Orion base around until the feet just dropped into place without resistance, marked the front foot with duct tape, and ended up with a reasonably level base. Two heads were most certainly better than one.

HGSP 2013: Night #1

On my first night back at Hodges Gardens for HGSP 2013, I had hoped to take advantage of my acquired experience since my last trip there. HGSP 2012 was my very first star party and because I had only returned to astronomy only a few months prior, the first night was all shock and awe, but mostly shock. With my Messier certificate and Okie Tex under my belt, I was confident the first night of HGSP 2013 would be a no brainer kind of event. I had my girlfriend with me this time and she had her very own telescope. Everything was lined up just right for a great star party.

Main HGSP Goals:
Comet C/2011 L4 Panstarrs
M51’s spiral arms
PN in M46
NGC2158 near M35
Horsehead
Other H-Beta objects
Rosette Nebula
Caldwell objects
Look for dark nebulae
Omega Centauri (naked eye)

The evening started off with a bang. Comet C/2011 L4 Panstarrs was visible from the front of the park on the hill by the ranger station. Go time was around 7:45pm. The moon was nothing more than a thin crescent serving as the main reference point for locating the comet. I had seen the comet at home the night before in binos and briefly in my XT8. At HGSP, I spotted it with binos and switched to my girlfriend’s Starblast 4.5. I shot some video with my iPhone. It turned out fantastic. Check it out on YouTube. Later on, could just barely detect it with the naked eye just outside the glow of the sun along the horizon, about 10 degrees up.

We headed back to camp after that. My girlfriend’s reaction to the HGSP sky was similar to how I felt a year ago. “Oh crap” was just the tip of the iceberg, but I knew that she was more than ready to handle HGSP like a champ. Besides, she was with the right person. I had given her an observation challenge list, a list similar to what I completed at Okie Tex. I also threw in a few bonus targets to make things more interesting.

The problem with dark skies, or the real glory in dark skies, depending on your point of view, is that light pollution does not interfere. More is visible. Constellations blend in with the background. Familiar landmarks are lost. Panic and awe hit you simultaneously. You’re lost and amazed all at once. This is the duality one might be faced with at their first dark sky star party.

Instead of diving in head first, however, something inside of me lacked ambition. I felt more at ease and as a result, too relaxed. I spent most of the first night doing a free for all, looking at familiar targets and doing random stargazing. I did not stick to any specific lists, nor did I attempt to knock out any Caldwell objects. I glanced at views through other scopes and talked a little too much.

I hit up the usual suspects, including M42, Jupiter, the Double Cluster, and M51/5195. M42 was nice, but comparable to the view I get at home. I might have seen some color along the outer edges of the nebula. The central area of nebulosity extended out a little further and its cloudy structure came through, but the dark area in the middle was not quite as noticeable. Jupiter was nice, but I didn’t observe any transits, nor did I see the GRS. The Double Cluster was more vibrant, as expected, revealing more of the low magnitude stars. M51 was okay, but I could not see the spiral arms.

Then, I chased after some old HGSP friends like M35/NGC2158 and then M46 with its planetary nebula. Both open clusters were nice, but it was comforting to see the companion objects more clearly than I did at home.

At one point during the night, I switched from normal stargazing to Horsehead hunting. I threw on my new Lumicon H-Beta filter and went for Alnitak. I could barely see the Flame nebula, so I proceeded to the region where the Horshead should appear. I spent a while staring at that area, changing eyepieces, and blocking out any stray light I could. Unfortunately, no part of the horsehead popped out and the surrounding nebulosity was not visible.

In the later hours, I finally got to see Omega Centauri again. It was still rather low in the sky, so individual stars didn’t pop out, but it was most definitely there. I went to sleep before it had a chance to rise a few more degrees away from the muck on the horizon. Still, I had missed Omega and I was excited to have seen it again. I still had a few more nights to view ‘er.

Comet C/2011 L4 Panstarrs (more photos)

YouTube Video:

Our Setup:

Hodges Gardens Star Party 2012 – Day 3

Day 3: March 23, 2012

This was my last day at the star party and after the previous night, I had no idea what I wanted to see and I was worried about dew. I sat around all day in my tent thinking about what I wanted to see before 2am, but then I began my frantic search for something I could use as a makeshift dew shield. I had two shoe strings packed away just in case I would need something to tie down anything related to the tent. I had my 7’x2′ camping mat I had been sleeping on under my sleeping bag. I rolled up the mat and tied it down. It fit the end of my telescope just fine and it was snug enough to hold. I only had to worry about weight and any interference with my visual experience.

I viewed the night sky in my XT8 until 4:30 in the morning, so the makeshift dew shield worked perfectly. As I said in my recap of Day 2, I ended up seeing two more shooting stars with my telescope and probably six or seven others with my naked eyes over the course of this night.

So about night #3…

My other camping buddy from Mississippi told me about someone who had Shreveport star club experience and that guy just happened to roll in that afternoon. I introduced myself and found out a bit about the SBAS, as well as his nifty self made 12″ telescope. If I remember his story correctly, this telescope was someone else’s project and that man passed away, so Joey took up the task of finishing the job.

I had a new neighbor come in that night as well. I came to find out his name was Dave out of New Orleans. Fantastic fellow. Great setup. The only thing was. It took him about three hours to calibrate his telescope. Like he said to us, he earned it. After all these years of doing the hard work of searching, he deserves equipment that takes the work out of the equation.

The stargazing started the same way as previous nights with the arrival of Jupiter and Venus. Jupiter came up shortly after Venus, so I viewed it for a while until I got bored. I tried looking at Venus while the new neighbor was setting up his elaborate telescope on a heavy duty tripod. The guy with the Z10 had the same Zhumell filter set, so I let him know the variable polarizer was helping smooth out Venus. From there, I waited for things to get dark. I tried finding Comet Garradd, but the sky was still a tad too blue for looking at fuzzies like that. I went back to looking at Jupiter and then glanced at Jupiter through the custom 12″ scope Joey brought down. I spent some time going between an 80A filter and a variable polarizer on Jupiter, but the image was really not all that different from what I see here in Shreveport.

Mars & minor calibration
I swung my scope around to Mars and tried picking out some surface features. I could see the polar cap and one of the mares, but everything was still a little too bright for me to really get anything out of the view. I ended up using Mars to help fine tune the nut on the base of my telescope for controlling my side to side movement. Mars was great because it’s a smaller planet in my telescope and its time inside my viewing field is often very short.

Bode & Cigar
The sky was still not dark enough in my opinion to give M95/M96 a go, so I went in search of other galaxies. By then, things were darker near Ursa Major. I spent a little bit of time finding the comet again and from there, hopped on over to M81 and M82, Bode & Cigar. I fit them into one view and had a look at them in Joey’s scope as well. I thought I could fit them both in my 17″ eyepiece (Didn’t I do that before?), but that was entirely too much power for the task, so I backed off to my 25mm and sat there to enjoy the view.

M95, M96, & a supernova
I went back to look for M95 and M96 after that. I really wanted to see the supernova in M95, but I was worried 95 would be dim just like here in Shreveport. From Mars, I bounced around and found 95 and 96 within seconds. I found 96 first, actually. I remembered that the last time I found these two, M95 was above 96, so I shimmied a short distance and saw it right away. I stared at it with my 32mm eyepiece and dropped down to my 17mm, as I often do. I saw a dot and so I walked down to ask Steve if I was on it. From what he said, it sounded like I was looking on the correct side of M95’s core, so consider SN2012aw found. I went back to M96 for a short while and then went looking for the other nearby pair of galaxies, M105 and NGC 3384. Found both of them right away. For some reason, I really enjoy finding those two more than 95 and 96.

M13, The Great Cluster in Hercules
I walked around for a while after that, checking out views in Joey’s 12″ scope and talking shop with a few others. I watched Dave work on his calibration and shot the breeze with him at the same time. While I was at the 12″ telescope, I mentioned looking for where Hercules was in the sky. I couldn’t make out the top two stars amidst all the extra clutter. Once Joey pointed it out, we actually decided to chase after M13 and while we were at it, we looked at a small galaxy below M13. I had no idea a galaxy was even there. When I climbed up the ladder to look through the eyepiece of that 12″, I had to ask where the galaxy was, but as soon as he said it, I saw NGC 6207 underneath two stars. It was a very small galaxy that wasn’t very bright at all, but no averted vision was required to find it.

Sharing M3, M13, & M51
Also while I was walking around, newcomers and students were roaming around, looking through telescopes. I had no idea people would be doing that on Friday night, but since I realized I had left my own telescope unattended, I decided to hurry back to make sure all of my eyepieces were still there. I also ran into two of these visitors checking out open clusters in the 12″ scope, so globular clusters were brought up and I offered to pull up M53 since I was just getting ready to roam around Coma Berenices. I backpedaled and said I could find M3 for them.

Once I put my scope on M3, I walked back over to find this pair of enthusiastic onlookers and mentioned I had found M3. I loosely explained what a globular cluster looked like to them and how I tended to use averted vision to help see the detail in the center. I also happened to briefly mention Omega Centauri, but when they both looked through my XT8 at M13, I realized I was more than happy to have been the one to help show them something they had never seen before. I then asked if they had seen any galaxies yet and since their answers were No, I went after M51 with its companion and wowed them again. As an afterthought, I probably should’ve put them on M81 and M82. I also think I showed them Comet Garradd. While I was showing them these things, I explained how I had only recently returned to astronomy and that the XT8 was a great beginner telescope.

M104: The Sombrero Galaxy
I hadn’t chased after M104 yet and because it wasn’t one I had seen before, I took the time to glance at a chart to locate this particular fuzzy object. I turned around and looked up to find those four stars in Corvus and drew a diagonal line up to where the Sombrero galaxy should be. It took me a little while, but I finally hovered over it. At low power, the dark line did not show up, but from 17mm on down, it was apparent. There was a line of stars near M104 that formed a right angle with another line of stars and I found this particular arrangement interesting to the point where I assumed it had a name or a catalog number, but from what I can tell, it does not. I’m not even sure if it is considered an asterism.

(Image taken from SkySafari 3.1.1 Pro for iPhone)

The Cat’s Eye Nebula
The next object I chased after was one I have tried looking for at home, the Cat’s Eye Nebula (NGC 6543 ). If you’re not familiar with this object, it is located in Draco and sits between two of the bends in the constellation. Over the past month or so, Draco has been getting higher and higher in the sky, allowing objects like this to escape any sort of low horizon glow. I mentioned the object to Dave and then went about finding it on my own. I used low power first, scanning for something that didn’t look like a star anywhere near other stars. I ended up finding something bright and took it down to 6mm. It seemed to have tapered edges, much like how an outline of the eye might have. Unfortunately, it did not have the nice halo I was accustomed to viewing on the Eskimo Nebula and pictures of the Cat’s Eye on the internet.

The inner portion of the object was very bright and I could just barely make out a much brighter center, ultimately forming the overall picture of what might resemble an eye. I was still unsure about whether or not I had found the object, so I consulted Leon and Joey. We located it on a star map and then put the 12″ on it. They were able to find something, so I had a look and agreed that the object they had in the 12″ was in fact the object I had just seen. Eventually, Dave put his calibrated scope on this one and when I came over, he said that he didn’t see anything that looked like anything at all. I climbed up the ladder to have a look and immediately saw the planetary nebula at almost dead center in his 40 something millimeter eyepiece. He had noticed the bright spot and wondered if that was it. He later looked it up on the internet with his mobile connection and agreed that it was a very cool object.

I noticed the seat on my observing stool was getting damp, so I pulled out my makeshift dew shield I made out of my camping mat, put it on my telescope and went back to viewing the night sky.

Saturn
Saturn was high in the sky and I heard Joey yell out that Saturn looked amazing, so I put my telescope right on it and had a look. Yes, it was absolutely amazing. It was also turned on end and the rings were straight up and down, although not on plane. I pulled out my #12 yellow and had a look. It had contrast, but I couldn’t see Cassini. I pulled out a #58A and had the same impression. My theory was that if I stacked the two, I could reproduce the effects of a #11 yellow-green. Once I stacked them, I could easily make out the Cassini Division at the two ends of the rings. Very neat. Honestly, Saturn was crisp and a real treat over the entire course of the star party.

Clusters in the East
I spent a fair amount of time wandering around in the eastern sky, meandering through open clusters I didn’t feel like identifying. I backed off and went for some globular clusters in the southeast because Antares had risen above the tree line. I knew I could find M4 and M80 right away. I then looked for M107 higher up. Then I went looking for M10 and M12, but I never found either one. I had trouble finding both of those when I was here in Shreveport, but oddly enough, I’ve stumbled onto both in party cloudy skies, so figure that out. I have no idea why those two are such problems for me. Anyway, I ended up finding M14 and two other globs that had a very blue hue to them low in the sky. I’m not sure if those were M19 and M62, but I think the two I found were further to the north than that. Looking at a star map, they could have easily been M69 and M70. I’ll have to revisit this area to really know for sure.

2am was fast approaching and I was still dew-free with my handy dandy shield. I was waiting for two things to happen. I wanted Centaurus to show up so I could see Omega Centauri. I wanted Sagittarius to rise above the trees so I could find all those nebulae and clusters down in there.

Centaurus, Omega Centauri, & Centaurus A galaxy
Centaurus was indeed rising above the trees, so I let a few people know it was there and started looking for Omega Centauri. I had seen it the previous night in two other telescopes, but since mine had a dewed-over secondary mirror, I couldn’t give it a go. Luckily, I hadn’t been hit by dew yet, so I went for it. I thought I could barely see it low in the sky, so I went looking and found it just above the tree line. I also noticed a funny alignment of stars that zig zagged back and forth next to each other. Like the group of stars near M104, I assumed these weren’t named or numbered either. I went back to looking at Omega Centauri for a while longer. Leon came over to have a look since he missed it the night before and after that, asked about a galaxy over in that area. I ended up finding Centaurus A, the Hamburger Galaxy. At first, I couldn’t see the black line running down the middle, but once it rose higher in the sky, I could just barely make out the division. Neat, but not fantastic.

Roaming Sagittarius
Once Sagittarius came up, I swung my telescope over and because the Milky Way fluff was also lurking in that area low on the horizon, I could just barely see nebulosity in Trifid and Lagoon. I had to wait some more.

Trifid looked nice, but not spectacular. Lagoon looked nice as well. I went looking for the Omega (Swan) Nebula and the Eagle Nebula. For me, the Swan looks more like a backwards lowercase h, but I still love finding it. The Eagle was less impressive in my scope and I was certain my filters were a tad dewy, so I looked at that one with Steve’s scope along with a narrowband filter. It had some great nebulosity with that filter, but without it, was unimpressive.

I bounced around some more and found M22, so I shared that with Steve and an outstanding helpful guy named Will. M22 had some really great central stars for a globular cluster. Great cluster.

I found the Butterfly Cluster and Ptolemy’s Cluster, but I couldn’t see the galaxy that was on the edge of Ptolemy. Not sure why. It must come and go.

By then, the Milky Way was just outstanding, spanning across the sky. Of course, I’m sure in even darker skies, it would’ve been even more impressive, but for me, it was just awesome to be able to see it for a change.

I also ventured into a large spread of stars, a large open cluster of some kind, that had a round area of nebulosity inside of it. At first, I wondered if it was just a distant open cluster like what I had found near M35. After looking on the internet just now, the open cluster was the Sagittarius Cluster, M24, and the nebulosity inside of it must have been NGC 6603.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagittarius_Star_Cloud

The dew never touched me that morning and I hopped into my tent around 4:30am after shooting the breeze with a couple of guys on the other end who were working through Messier binoc and double star challenges.

New finds:
NGC 6207
SN2012aw
M104
NGC 6543 – Cat’s Eye Nebula
Cassini Division in Saturn’s rings
NGC 5128 – Centaurus A
Milky Way arched across the eastern sky
M24
NGC 6603