Observing Report 7/20/2013 – 7/21/2013

The SBAS held our monthly meeting last night at LSU-S, during which we discussed a multitude of business-related topics, mostly about our budget, but the highlight of the meeting was a presentation given by one of our members and one of my good friends, Joey Matheson. He had been waiting for the opportunity to purchase an Observa-Dome dome in Natchitoches located at the high school. It went to auction recently and he snagged it at a heck of a bargain. There has been a 14″ scope inside of this thing and now, it’s his…and ours.

Courtesy of Bing Maps

We are planning on transporting it (somehow) to our main observing site and while Joey will still own the dome, it’ll be there for club use. I can’t wait to give it a try.

We also discussed the possibility of fixing a C14 that has some focus issues, but they want to buy an expensive Hotech collimating device to get it back up and running. From what I understand, it was giving us a double image, in addition to other focusing issues. Imagine having a C14 at our disposal. The SBAS is on an up swing, assuming we can raise some much needed cash to keep us afloat.

After the meeting ended, I drove on out to the Worley under an almost full moon to do some observing. After setting up, I discovered I had placed my tarp near some rabbit droppings, so I had to remember that for the rest of the night so as to not step in it in the dark. I also had an armadillo pay me a quick visit before I packed up and left.

I leveled the scope, got aligned with Deneb, checked my alignment with Polaris and a few other objects, and set out to mess around with whatever the sky could offer. I also set up my binoculars on the tripod for some quick viewing. Not long after that, our club president and another member showed up to do some observing too.

Observing log:

Saturn: 150x and 300x (8mm/2x). Really crisp. Cassini was easy. Additional A/B ring detail (gradient). Surface detail. Three moons. I should’ve recorded video for stacking.

Cat’s Eye Nebula: Fleeting view of central star with direct vision. Slight slanting of its edges. 150x and 300x. Found with setting circles.

Moon: Aristarchus. Schroter’s Valley. Reiner Crater & Gamma. 25mm and 8mm with variable polarizer.

Doubles: Split Mizar and Albireo with binos. Split Izar at 150x in 8mm TMB.

Dumbbell: Viewed for fun to see how bad moonlight could kill it. Big smudge. No arching. No filter required. Didn’t try with a filter. Surprising, but not unexpected.

I could barely see the Eastern Veil with an OIII filter when it was closer to the Zenith. Prior to that, it was not visible at all.

I found two Caldwell open clusters (see below). Hunted for a couple Caldwell Cassiopeia galaxies (NGC147, NGC185), but couldn’t visualize them. Identified the location. Couldn’t overcome the moonlight. Same with a Caldwell nebula in Corona Australis. Right location. No visual confirmation.I also tried searching for NGC40 again, but I still could not see any signs of a planetary nebula anywhere in that field of view.

Found M31 in binos, then in 8×40 finder, then in 32mm eyepiece. M31/M32 were easy. M110 was barely visible with my skyglow LP filter.

Caldwell Objects:
NGC7243/Caldwell 16: Open cluster in Lacerta
12:35am. 48.6° az, 52.8° alt
Found by starhopping straight up from 4 Lacerta. Obvious cluster, despite being located in a very rich field. Cluster itself was narrow at top and widened out with a noticeable gap between two patches of stars within the cluster. The smaller patch had six or seven prominent stars shaped in a pentagon-like formation. The bottom larger half had 10-12 prominent stars with many more faint stars scattered in between. When viewed together, the cluster resembled a snail. Observed in a fairly moonlit sky. Viewed in 32mm ep (37.5x).

I will revisit this cluster because Struve 2890, a 9th mag double star, sits in the middle of the cluster. (It pays to review the SkySafari description ahead of time. Obviously, I did not do this prior to observing tonight.)

NGC6885/Caldwell 37: Open cluster in Vulpecula.
12:52am. 122.8° az, 79.6° alt
Difficult to hone in on because it was near the Zenith. Used Albireo as a jump point and navigated down. Obvious open cluster in 32mm ep against background stars. Located next to another cluster, NGC6882. There was a clear gap between the two clusters, a very apparent dark patch. 6882 was essentially three visible stars with the brightest one in the middle. C37 was above it in the eyepiece. C37 resembled a broad X without a star in the center. Imagine the Under Armour clothing X logo. The brightest of the six visible stars was on the right side of the field (20 Vulpecula). There were four stars on the left and three on the right. The other stars around it were apparently also part of the cluster, so all of C37 resembled a W or an M, depending on how you view it.

I hope to knock out NGC40 soon, but I’m mainly gunning for a better view of IC342/C5.

Star Party Recap 6/15/2013

We had a star party at the Worley this evening. The event was one of our usual monthly public star party routines. Mother Nature had other plans, however, but that did not stop a number of avid astronomers from putting on a good show.

By 8pm, plenty of clouds had moved into our area. Storms were to our south. The western sky was off limits. The eastern sky was blue and uneventful. The Moon was caught between the two and Saturn wasn’t bright enough to spot with the naked eye yet.

Our Moon always provides us with star party options because the general public can be blown away by craters at low or high power. Today was especially exciting because the Lunar X and the Lunar V were visible.

A 6″ dob was set up to show the lunar surface at low power, but me being me, I had to put on a show. I went for the Lunar X and Lunar V in the same field of view at 150x. The clouds made it possible to view it all without a ND moon filter. I made sure everyone who stopped by had a guided tour of Lunar X and V, but that wasn’t enough. I had to show something else.

That something else was Saturn. With my setting circles, I was able to find Saturn through the clouds at low power and boost it to 150x. Any more magnification and the planet was lost to subtle movements and cloud interference. The views were splendid for the first half of the star party. Saturn was crisp. Cassini was there. The planet’s shadow was visible along that beautiful round edge. No filters were needed.

Then clouds killed Saturn and the Moon. I was left with nothing to show, unless I wanted to put Vega in the field of view and gaze at its sparkly sparkle. (I’m not a fan of sparkles.) Visitors were leaving as the clouds engulfed our already limited sky, but one more surprise was in store for us. A satellite flare was about to wow those of us paying attention.

A new group of people headed right for my setup. I was off chatting with a fellow club member about other things when they came calling for something fantastic. Saturn made its return for about four or five minutes, but it soon vanished into the cloudy darkness. I grabbed my laser pointer and began explaining Vega, its contribution to Lyra, followed by Deneb, Sadr, and the cloud-veiled northern cross. That’s when the satellite flare hit right underneath Vega.

I explained to them what a satellite flare was and did it again minutes later for a few other people who had seen it, as well as those who were not quite as fortunate. I looked up satellite paths in Sky Safari and discovered it was probably KIKU-7 (ETS-VII).

Not bad for a cloudy star party, eh? Lunar X. Lunar V. Crispy Saturn. Satellite flare.

Fun with astrophotography

As a dob owner, astrophotography is on the list of things I don’t get to do very often. My manual base limits me to short exposures (if I actually owned a DSLR), planetary, solar, and lunar imaging. Since the start, I have been taking some fantastic shots with my iPhone 4S. Some of my best lunar work was done within the first few weeks with the scope, in fact.

Saturn and Jupiter have been difficult to shoot, however. Saturn would turn out okay and Jupiter was just too darn bright. I learned to use a variable polarizer, a color filter, or both in order to cut down on that glare. I learned that I could hold the phone ever so slightly to the side so the camera didn’t get direct light, allowing more detail to appear in my shots.

But then I got the Orion Steadypix cradle for my iPhone. With this cradle, I have been able to take decent photos. The real payoff has been with video. No more are my videos shaky and difficult to focus.

So where did that take me?

The old routine was repeated, producing even better results.

1. Shoot video on iPhone (.mov).
2. Import to Macbook Pro.
3. Import into iMovie.
4. Upload to YouTube/Export to Quicktime.
-Cropped versions yielded larger images.
-Uncropped versions were nice, but too small to impress.

5. Export video to image sequence, selecting the number of frames per second to extract over a short period of time, picking only the better section of video as the source.
6. Start up VMWare Fusion running Windows.
7. Run Registax 6 and process what I could.

My recent attempts with Registax have improved tremendously to the point where I also submitted the final product to filters in Instagram and an iOS app called Photogene²

Here’s what I have to show for myself. (Note: Most of these were uploaded to Instagram, however, larger versions can be appreciated a little more.)

Public Star Party Recap 5/27/2012

We held our monthly public star party at the Worley on Saturday. Among the visitors were a few distinguished guests, including a local meteorologist and a charter member of the club. Thanks to one of our younger members/attendees, an elementary school class attended the star party. It was a great enthusiastic crowd to work with. I had lots of fun. Hopefully, I didn’t step on too many club member’s toes in the process.I started out showing people Venus at high power as a nice crescent. With the sun setting later, we had limited options. At that point in the evening, we didn’t have much of a star party. We had more of a moon party. Another member had their binoculars on Venus before I even knew where it was. Venus put on a bit of a show for everyone who had the chance to take a look, especially since it was a crescent. Venus gave off a rainbow of light and I assumed it had to do with water in the air splitting light into the color spectrum. Since Venus was low in the sky, its light had to go through our atmosphere and anything that was below 12 degrees off the horizon, including any moisture. I also explained why Venus was a crescent and tried to advertise the upcoming Venus transit as much as I could. I ended up spending a little bit of time explaining how my telescope gathered light, not because people asked right away, but because Venus was low enough to the point where kids were looking down the tube instead. Kids love mirrors, apparently.

People were eager to see Saturn, but Arcturus was visually more present, so several people kept asking what it was, just hoping I’d tell them it was Saturn. The line for Saturn at the club 12″ telescope was just so long that with all the kids running around, I wanted to keep things active, so I pulled it up in mine at 300x and helped people find Cassini and the three moons that I could visualize. At 300x, I was still able to keep Saturn in the field long enough for people to get a very great view without having to readjust. Our club had a good setup with the on-site 6″ reflector, including a drawn out diagram of Saturn and its moons. I believe the school kids most definitely got a fair helping of valuable information at this party regarding Saturn.

When the Saturn madness cooled off a bit, I put the moon in view and gave people both low and high power views, letting them hog the eyepiece as much as they wanted. There was a nice group from the Ukraine who got chances to see both the moon and M13. I made sure to show them the keystone of Hercules so they knew where they were looking in the sky. Another member with a 9.25″ SCT had a very crisp spectacular view of M13 up later in the evening and I believe he was also showcasing the Ring Nebula at one point. The night wasn’t offering too many good views of things with the moonlight washing out faint fuzzies and the blanket of wet air that apparently comes with summer down here. The usual objects were all we had to go for and since M3 was so high in the sky, it was easier for me to just have M13 up so kids could have a go at an eyepiece within their reach. (Maybe I should invest in a small step ladder.)

Galaxies were not popping at all. I showed a few people the Ring Nebula later in the night to compensate, making sure to explain where the constellation Lyra actually was. I tried for the Owl, but it was almost impossible to see. At the very end of the night, a very nice woman came up to ask if she could see a galaxy. The Sombrero was the only one I could pull out that looked like anything and I kept her attention so well that she also got to see the Ring Nebula and M13.

After the guests had left, I had a chance to look through the 6″ under the roll top and also through the 12″, although I had previously seen quite a bit through it at the Hodges Gardens star party where I first met Joey. I had already seen Jupiter, the Cat’s Eye, M13, and a few other DSOs through the 12″ at the HG party. I had even seen Saturn, but on Saturday, Saturn was indeed a sight worth seeing. One more knowledgeable member put us on its Crepe Ring. I could barely make it out in my own scope, but that innermost ring was just a faint gray smudge, more apparent at the curves on either side than across the middle. The rings also set themselves apart from the planet with a nice crisp line. The Cassini Division was obvious.

Some guests arrived later that night with two of our long time members. One was a Physics guru and the other three were more medically inclined. I spent a while showing them M4, Saturn and its moons, the Dumbbell, the Ring, M13, the Sombrero, Lagoon nebula, Swan nebula, Butterfly cluster, and Ptolemy cluster. I let them pan across the Sagittarius star cloud as well.

I went through many of the same things with our club VP and the Physics guy until about 3am. Our VP was able to find M4, but I showed him how to find M80 from there. The Milky Way was visible and the Ptolemy cluster was even a naked eye object at one point. I wrapped up my night finding M32 next to M31. I had seen the Andromeda galaxy numerous times before, but I never bothered to find M32 next to it. I always chased after M110 instead. I was able to see M32 off to the side and put myself one object closer to finishing the Messier list. I only have M77 left, so I must wait a few weeks for it to rise up above the horizon. I also put the two remaining guys on the stick figure next to Cassiopeia, the Owl Cluster, NGC 457.

I’m sure I left something out. Great night. Fantastic kids. Enthusiastic crowd.

Star Party, New Eyepiece, & Virgo Messiers Completed

There is a lot to cover from my stargazing experiences over the past 48 hours. On Saturday night, I went to a club star party/barbecue/meeting and today, I went to a solar party to observe the partial eclipse. So much happened at the star party that I think I should just highlight my findings and some other fun info. I used my new eyepiece at the star party, but I think I should gather my thoughts and write about it in a separate post. I’ll give a recap of the solar party in another post. For now, I’ll just focus on the star party.

So let me just dive right in.

I started out slow because the night sky was iffy at best. Seeing and transparency values were not ideal. Galaxies were just not popping for any of us.

I hit up Venus, the Sombrero, M13, Omega Centauri, Ghost of Jupiter, M51, M101, the Owl Nebula, and the Beehive Cluster. Omega was just a blurry fuzz, but with a 13mm eyepiece, I could just barely pull out detail. Everything else, aside from M13, M104, and the Beehive looked less than impressive. I also visited Saturn and Mars. I could barely see the two caps on Mars, along with some very indistinct brown surface features. Saturn was crisp and three moons were easily visible, Dione, Rhea, and Titan. The Cassini Division and some banding were also visible.

By the time everyone had essentially left, only a handful of us remained. The club president and another club member were neck deep in astrophotography, as was a new member, Stan, who set up right next to me. Joey was off in the back working on his own views with his 12″ and 13″ reflectors. The AP imaging that night was outstanding once the darkness set in. I really enjoyed looking at the brief exposures, so much in fact, that I believe I was bitten by the astrophotography bug. I am tempted to browse small Schmidt Cassegrain scopes to get my fix.

But once the night settled in, the objects I wanted to knock out were coming into view. I started with the Messier galaxies in Virgo. I had already seen M49 and M61, so I started on the other end at M85, starhopping across from the cluster of stars above Coma Berenices.

I found M85 first, moving down and left to M100, M99, and M98. From there, I went left to work my way up Markarian’s Chain, counting my way through M84, M86, the Eyes galaxies (4438 & 4435), 4473, 4477, and then waaay up to M88. From 88, I went to M91, M90, and M89. I backtracked down to M84 and moved across to Virgo A, aka M87. M58 was only a short distance away and the feeling of victory began to set in as I hit M59 and M60.

All of the galaxies were fairly unimpressive, only appearing like the typical gray smudges we all have come to know. The only good thing I had to say about all of the galaxies was how, if something was elongated instead of round, I could tell right away. It was the only way I could keep tabs on the Markarian Chain. 4461 & 4458 could not be visualized. 4438 & 4435 could not be separated from one another, but simply appeared like one elongated galaxy. I decided I would return at a later date to look into whether or not any detail might be seen in any of those, but in that moment, I was satisfied with just finding them all.

By then, Antares was then high enough in the sky to check out M4 and M80, but I jumped into Ophiuchus to go hunting for M12 and M10. Every single one of those globs was easily seen.

I ended up splitting my first double, too. Joey had Izar in Boötes in view on his 13″, but he thought his mirrors were out of collimation. He couldn’t get a good split, so out of curiosity, I went ahead and lined up with the same star. Under high power, I saw what people meant by splitting a double star.

When Sagittarius came up higher, I made sure to check out M22, a glob that is always pleasing to the eye, as well as Trifid, Lagoon, Eagle, and Omega. All of them had good nebulosity, especially in my new eyepiece. Later on in the night, Trifid and Lagoon were visible to the naked eye as a smudge. The Ptolemy cluster was so/so in the eyepeice, but eventually became a naked eye object in the midst of the vast arc of the Milky Way.

I had to wait a little longer for Sagittarius to rise so I could go after some other Messier objects, so while I waited, I rested my eyes and my head after that mad dash through the Virgo galaxies. Believe me. I had a headache. I hit up the Ring Nebula and went back into Sagittarius for a while to enjoy the huge open star cluster.

Once things improved, I went ahead and found the gap between Aquarius and Capricorn, an area I spent entirely too much time staring at a few weeks ago. M72 and M73 live in that corner of the sky and because both are tiny, finding them was something of a chore. I made several passes through the sky with my wide field eyepiece, starhopping until I didn’t recognize where I was staring, forcing me to start over. Eventually, I came across this one object that looked bigger than a regular star, so I assumed it was a tiny globular cluster, but after looking closer at it, I realized it was the Saturn Nebula, a planetary nebula. After closer inspection, I saw the lines coming out at either end, giving off an appearance like it had rings. Beyond that, I couldn’t see a bright central dot or any other detail.

Since I had found that object, I went right for M73, an open cluster that looks like a small triangle. From there, M72 was a cinch, although the glob was still very small. Found and found.

I set out to find M55 and M75 next, two globs to the left of Sagittarius. With my new eyepiece, I was able to peg M55 right away. It was large. I don’t know how I missed it in my previous attempts. It looked like a fuzzy version of M22. I starhopped from the opposite side to find M75, a much smaller looking glob. Done.

After that, I went for M30. Although SkySafari said it was ~18 arcminutes large, it really looked half that size and very unimpressive.

At that point, I recognized my successful night. I had narrowed my Messier list down to only three objects.

As the night came to a close, I went for M31. It wasn’t fantastic and the core was more fuzzy than distinct. It can only improve from here on out. With Andromeda up, Cassiopeia was nearby, although upside down, placing the wonderful Double Cluster at the bottom closer to the horizon. It was not the ideal way to view the pair, but I’m hoping as Cass moves higher in the sky, things will improve. I also showed off the stick figure in Cass, the Owl Cluster.

A night at the observatory

I drove out to the Worley last night and arrived around 10:30pm. I thought the night was going to be ideal. The sky was clear and the values on my Clear Sky Chart were decent. Things didn’t really end up looking so well at all.

When I arrived, someone was already there, but I didn’t see them lurking about, so I figured the car was either just parked there and left or they were inside the observatory working on something. As it turned out, it was another club member who uses one of those small dome observatory deals. I hadn’t met him yet, so I introduced myself and recognized his name from CloudyNights posts he has made. He mentioned the upcoming star party. I plan on attending. You’ll have to come back on Sunday or Monday to read about it.

I brought my brother with me last night because this was the one spot where I knew I could see Omega Centauri without any obstruction, other than a low light dome. The light dome left Omega looking more fuzzy than distinct, so my brother didn’t get to see the crisp individual stars like I’ve observed. He did get a feel for the approximate size of the object because I showed him M13 to compare the two. I also let him see both globs via the finderscope.

I brought my small pair of binoculars with me this time, a simple 8×21 set that I use when I need light gear when I’m out and about. I could see Omega in them, but I question whether or not I could really spot M13. It didn’t have the same fuzzy appearance as in my finderscope. Still, this pair of binoculars should allow me the chance to familiarize myself with binocular viewing of the night sky, something I know very little about. I can also use these binocs as a quick finderscope for objects low on the horizon. Since the image isn’t flipped like in my finderscope, I could really get some use out of these things.

I bounced around, checking out the Ring Nebula multiple times, but I mainly chased after some galaxies. For the longest time, none of them were all that visible, but eventually, things started showing up a little better, albeit comparable to what I’d see at home. I showed him the Leo Trio, something he has already seen before, as well as M51. I tried finding the Sombrero, but I couldn’t find that group of stars, even with the aid of my setting circle. I also tried finding the Owl Nebula, but it was very very faint. A UHC filter brought it out, but not well enough to see more than a smudge. Overall, I was disappointed. FWIW, the Ring Nebula wasn’t all that spectacular either.

Saturn was a good show, though. Everything about it was crisp. The rings were nicely visible with Cassini, but I could only make out two moons. My brother believes he saw Enceladus in addition to Rhea and Dione. Mars was so/so. At extremely high power, I could see the polar cap and my trained eye could make out brown spots. Even my brother could see them once I mentioned it. One was likely Mare Acidalium, but I am unsure as to what the other might have been. I did also note that Mars was not full. The western edge was shaded, making it look more like a waxing gibbous moon.

Let’s hope Saturday night’s star party will be better than last night. Otherwise, I’m out of ideas. I’m not sure what I’m going to chase after if I can’t see anything. The other club member said seeing was not very good. I had a feeling humidity had something to do with our lackluster night. On the drive home, fog was forming in low lying areas and it wasn’t even 1am yet. When I packed up, the condensation was already on my telescope tube.

SBAS Star Party Recap (4-28-2012)

Last night was the first star party I’ve attended with the Shreveport Bossier Astronomical Society. The star party itself took place at the Worley Observatory south of town, but earlier in the day, the members also held a solar party at LSU-S. The star party kicked off around 8ish, but I arrived there around 6:45pm to get set up, introduce myself, and allow my telescope time to acclimate. The previous star party supposedly had around 200 visitors, so I was not sure what to expect.

After getting set up and introducing myself, a few familiar faces showed up, including Joey and Don. If you read my Hodges Gardens recap, you’ll remember that Joey was the guy with the 12″ scope he finished for SBAS and Don was the guy from the Baton Rouge AS who set up the Hodges Gardens event. I briefly checked out the inside of the observatory, but didn’t have time to look at the telescopes in there. Instead, I went back out and watched everyone set up, waiting for the sun to go down so I could take a swing at a few familiar objects.

Before everything started, I discussed what I should expect with a few members. Within minutes, I was told I should probably have a low power view of the moon in my XT8. Slightly miffed at the simplicity of the task, I decided to go with my 17mm eyepiece which gives me about 70x, essentially placing the entire moon in view with little room to spare. I put the moon filter on that eyepiece, but I kept my variable polarizer ready for other uses and barlowed my 6mm with my 3x and screwed on the Skyglow filter. I was prepared to show people low and high power views without even hesitating because I knew what my XT8 could show them.

People started trickling into the parking area, headlights on. Orion was low in the sky and I could barely make out the three stars across its belt, let alone the stars hanging down toward M42. The setting sun all but washed out the nebula, so I knew I couldn’t wow anyone with that image. Instead, Venus was high in the sky and Mars was there too. It was also announced that shortly after 9pm, we’d get a pass-by from the International Space Station.

Before I knew it, I was neck deep in random visitors wondering what I had to show them. The line was short at first, but quickly became a stack of people. I showed some the moon at low power and some of the more eager visitors got a chance to see things at 400x. I offered a few more some looks at Saturn later on. Quite a few others were eager to see Mars.

The moon was a great performer. Some people didn’t even know what they were looking at until I told them. The craters at the bottom were receiving the right amount of light for some fantastic contrast and the Montes Apenninus, one of my recent favorite spots, became something I would show people at high power.

Mars was not as friendly. Of course, I emphasized how fast it would move through the field, so I hyped people up before viewing, preparing them to jump to the eyepiece so they wouldn’t miss a thing. The only part of Mars that was grossly apparent was its northern polar cap. I could barely see some dark mares, but I didn’t emphasize that because I felt a trained eye was required. Otherwise, Mars was glaring and blurry.

Saturn really got people going. Someone had shown them Saturn, but at low power, so I jovially dismissed their preview and said they should step on up and see it at high power. They were blown away. I made their night. I mentioned the Cassini Division to some and moons to others. Many people a good look at Saturn if they stopped by my setup.

In the middle of everything, I started showing people galaxies and globular clusters. I showed a few people M3. Some got to see M13. With galaxies, I wasn’t sure what to hit up. I gave a few people glimpses of M81 & M82. I showed a few people M51 and its companion. The highlight of my night, however, was being able to show some people the Leo Trio. Even with the almost half moon showing, NGC3628 was barely visible and all but one person who got to see the galaxies could not make out the faint fuzz of that galaxy. Even a few children got a glimpse of that one. I felt awfully proud that I was able to show people a triplet of galaxies many telescope owners have difficulty with. I doubt they will ever get to see the Leo Trio like that any time in the near future, although I think a couple of the club’s experienced members were on top of galaxies for visitors.

9pm rolled around and shortly after that, we all were amazed by the ISS moving by, visible to the naked eye, moving from approximately Perseus, up to Polaris, and onward. The ISS looked like a brighter version of Mars with an orange hue. I got brave and decided to chase it down with my dob, zig zagging my way ahead of it so I could focus a little longer. It moved through the field of view in milliseconds. There was a grandfather/grandson duo with me at the time and not only did they get to see the Leo Trio, but I was able to zig zag my way ahead of the ISS in time for both of them to see it zip through the field of view.

I’ve got gusto, folks. Raw enthusiasm.

After things winded down, I saw Vega peeking out, so I went for the Ring Nebula, but it was just too low yet to see any definition. When it got to about 20°, I could see more detail. Later on in the night, it was fantastic. I also went for M53 briefly and went over to look for the Eskimo Nebula. I couldn’t find my landmarks thanks to the moonlight, so I backed off and went looking for the Owl Nebula. I made it pop with a UHC filter after a guy named Reid said he had difficulty locating it that night.

Such is the fate of the star hopping amateur astronomer. We get to see things the trackers can’t. Lucky us.

By 12:30, most people were gone and only a few stragglers remained, all SBAS members. As I walked and talked, I mentioned Centaur should be coming up soon and that I wanted to have a go at Omega Centauri. Terry, an SBAS member, said it was already out. I went to my scope as Greg, the club’s vice president came over. Within about 30 seconds, I had Omega Centauri in my finder scope and switched from my 32mm to a 13mm to put the cluster right in there. Everyone that had stayed behind came out to have a look. Greg hadn’t ever seen it before, so he repeatedly thanked me for showing him Omega Centauri.

Everyone left at that point, except me. I had plans. I wanted to try to knock out some of the early morning Messiers below Sagittarius. Unfortunately, clouds ruined my chances and I quit at about 3:30am. Before that, though, I visited lots of objects in Sagittarius. I hit up M71 in Sagitta and found it quickly this time. I revisited the Ring Nebula and the Dumbbell. By then, I could actually see the Ptolemy Cluster with the naked eye. At home about two hours later, I was able to see it again with the naked eye and I think I was able to make out the haze that is NGC6453. Of course, I hit up all the small nebulae in Sagittarius a few times as they went up higher in the sky. I also gave Saturn another look after the moon set, recording some video since I hadn’t taken any space photos all night.

I tried looking for M55, but couldn’t find it. Same with M75. M2 was in a location where a light dome got in the way. M15 was impossible. So were M72 and 73. I gave up and headed home.

Here’s the video of Saturn I shot without any filters at 300x (8mm & 2x barlow).

Here are some photos of the Worley Observatory before the event.

Moon and Saturn 4/1/2012

After getting accustomed to my new 8×40 finder scope Saturday night, I figured I would give the moon another go and try for a few more objects. I spent a fair amount of time capturing photos of the moon, tried going after Mars, and settled on capturing some of the best video I’ve shot of Saturn thus far.

I’ll share some of my favorite moon photos from the album and you can view the rest on your own. I used Camera+ and made use of the burst mode feature, allowing me to take rapid fire shots of the moon as it moved across my field of view. I ended up taking 343 photos and only decided to show off 61 of them. Tonight’s moon was 9.4 days in, 71% illuminated, and in the waxing gibbous state.

More moon photos from 4/1/2012

When Saturn showed up with its pal, Spica, I fiddled around with filters first, trying my variable polarizer, then the #12 yellow, followed by my #58A green. I transitioned to capturing video and magnified things to about 400x (1200mm focal length, 2x barlowed 6mm eyepiece) using the #58 green filter to produce some outstanding video. At other magnifications, I was able to single out four moons, Dione, Rhea, Titan, and Iapetus. I also tried capturing some stills and then took some still screen shots from the better video images and loaded them into Picasa.