As observing sessions go, Monday served up one of the best early morning skies that I have seen in what feels like a long time. I had been itching for a chance to get back out since my last session on Friday night so I could hunt down M3 in Canes Venatici as well as take a better look at M35 in Gemini. With crystal clear skies above and the temperature dropping to -3°C conditions, apart from the constant light pollution just couldn’t have been better.
I kicked things off at 01:50 UT and set about resuming my search for Messier 3, which I had failed to observe from my previous session. Canes Venatici was now high in the sky and well away from the dreaded orange haze that bogs down the horizon, so I felt my chances of netting an observation of M3 where extremely good. Using the 10×50s I slowly swept down about 10° from Cor Caroli and back again. I did this a few times until my eye’s finally settled on the distant globular cluster, which through the small bins looked rather hazy and indistinct. To tell the truth I was a little dubious of what I was seeing so I decided to go a bit deeper and set up the 25×100s on the tripod. I really wasn’t prepared for what I was going to see - I’ve only observed one other globular cluster: M56 in Lyra and I have to say M3 completely blows it away! Using direct vision the cluster looked almost spherical, extremely dense and relatively bright with a diffuse glow but it took on a whole new dimension when using averted vision. The cluster’s brightness really jumped out at me and I could make out what I would describe as a coarse, almost grainy texture. This was an extremely rewarding observation and I spent the next fifteen minutes tracking this wonderful DSO across the sky.
Finally moving on from M3 I turned to Gemini to take in my second observation: the open cluster M35 which had previously impressed me and which I desperately wanted to return to with the bigger bins. This cluster definitely has the astronomical WOW factor and through the 25×100s it was transformed into a truly dazzling sight. Like all amateur astronomers, The Sword Handle in Perseus never ceases to leave me in awe, but in my opinion M35 gives it a pretty good run for it’s money. I was so completely mesmerized by the view that I totally lost all track of time.
Eventually I manged to pull myself away from M35 and spend a few minutes just ambling across the early morning sky with the old MK 1 eyeball. As I did so I spied Cancer riding high in the heavens and suddenly took a notion to take in an unplanned observation of Messier 44: The Beehive Cluster. My last observation of this DSO was back at the end of November and that was with the 10×50s. This time around The Beehive took on a whole different shape that revealed the cluster in all it’s scintillating radiance. The FOV was just filled with white/blue stars that shimmered and danced in the crisp morning sky, making for a truly fantastic sight.
Looking at my watch I was amazed to see that it was coming up for 03:00 UT. It felt as though the time had just flown by and I didn’t feel that I wanted to end things, but I was getting tired as well as cold. However, before I packed my gear up I saw Saturn towards the south just over the roof tops and decided to have a quick look. I knew I wouldn’t see much planetary detail or the rings, but there was a chance I would see some of the moons. Through the 25×100s all I could make out was the planetary disc of Saturn (as expected), but not far from it sat a small orange/red ’star’ that I instinctively knew to be the moon Titan. I was so delighted as this was the first time I had directly observed any of Saturn’s moons. I soaked up the view for a few more minutes and took the time to make a rough sketch that I later used to create the digital render above.
All in all I’d say that this was probably one of the best observing sessions that I have had in a long time and hopefully the first of many more to come. I’m planning to track down M13 and M92 in Hercules on my next outing, so hopefully I can get back out quite soon. Of course that all depends on what the weather has got in store for me . . .
Tags: Cancer, Canes Venatici, Cor Caroli, Gemini, Lyra, M3, M35, M44, M56, NGC 869, NGC 884, Perseus, Praesepe, Saturn, The Beehive Cluster, Titan
Posted in Astro Art, Observing | 2 Comments »
While Thursday night offered up a mediocre sky with some pretty bad transparency, Friday night exceeded my expectations by delivering an almost spotless sky. The transparency was slightly better but the difference from the previous night was marginal. I wanted to make the most of the clear skies by pursuing M3 in Canes Venatici as well as returning to my search for comet 144P/Kushida and Messier 52 in Cassiopeia.
My first target for the night was Kushida and after searching for a few minutes with the 25×100s I landed on the star HP 19148 and the small triangular asterism where I would find the elusive comet. However, if you are an suburban backyard astronomer like me then your chances of catching this comet are pretty slim. At magnitude 10.8 Kushida is a fairly dim target for light polluted skies, but I persevered nonetheless and resorted to using averted vision (as I had originally done) to try and pin it down. If uncertainty had harassed my very first observation of this comet, then I was in no doubt this time around. Through the large bins Kushida took on an extremely diffuse star like appearance that winked in and out of view and showed very little detail. I spent between 23:00 - 23:10 UT struggling to take in the tenuous view but under my illuminated skies this was as good as this comet was going to get.
I soon turned my attention to the constellation of Canes Venatici and began my hunt for Messier 3, an easy globular cluster lying 33,900 light years away from Earth. With a magnitude of 6.2 M3 should have be quite an easy find for the 25×100s, but as I swept down from Cor Caroli the sky just disappeared in a haze of orange murk. Hoping that a lower magnification would ease things I turned to my Bresser 10×50s, but even they failed to penetrate the artificial brume that clung to the eastern horizon.
Reluctantly I abandoned my search for M3 and turned to Cassiopeia to resume my search for Messier 52. However I just couldn’t resist another look at M35 in Gemini and spent a few moments soaking in the light from this gorgeous open cluster before moving on to Cassiopeia. Still using the 10×50s I swept out from Ι Cephei in the constellation Cepheus instead of using Caph in Cassiopeia as a starting point and within a matter of moments I had the faint glow of Messier 52 within my FOV. As open clusters go M52 did not look as substantial when compared to M103 - even using the 25×100s I have to say that M103 delivered a far nicer view. With averted vision the open cluster even showed some real granularity and gave up some of the stars hiding at it’s core which made for a really thrilling observation.
By this time it was 23:44 UT and I had to cut my session short, but I was delighted that I had finally seen Kushida and wiped Messier 52 from my observing list. I’ve made plans to return to Canes Venatici and take in a sucessful obsevation of M3, I also want to take a closer look at M35 in Gemini so hopefully the clear skies will continue into the weekend.
Tags: 144P/Kushida, Bresser 10x50, Canes Venatici, Caph, Cassiopeia, Cepheus, Cor Caroli, Gemini, I Cephei, M103, M3, M35, M52, Strathspey 25x100
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The last few weeks have been tough: 144P/Kushida has been virtually non-existent and my deep sky observing has just gone straight out of the window. However, much to my relief Thursday night offered a clear spell, albeit a short one. The sky transparency wasn’t all that great, but I certainly wasn’t complaining - you take what you can get under these kind of circumstances.
I decided that I wasn’t going to squander any of my precious time chasing after Kushida when I could be catching up with my deep sky observing. My targets for the night were Messier 35, an open cluster in Gemini and Messier 103 and Messier 52, both open clusters in Cassiopeia. I set up the tripod from about 22:40 UT and was just finishing mounting my Bresser 10×50s when a cloud layer rolled in over the western horizon and quickly obscured the sky. To add to that, it also began to rain so I had to pack up and head indoors to wait and hope for the skies to clear.
Somebody up there was listening because within half an hour the clouds had drifted away leaving behind them a reasonably clear sky. I headed back out at around 23:20 UT, this time just with the 10×50s hand held and immediately trained them on Gemini. By using the stars Tejat and Propus as a guide, M35 wasn’t at all hard to find and instantly jumped out at me from the 7° FOV. At a magnitude of 5.3 M35 is a fairly bright DSO and under suitable sky conditions the open cluster can even be made out with the naked eye. Through my bins the cluster offered a wonderful view with some subtle granularity, but that could possibly have been down to the atmospheric conditions. After spending some time studying M35 I moved on to Cassiopeia, but not before stopping to take in some of the sights in Auriga. Namely M36, M37 and M38 which for me are just some of the finest distant open clusters observable in the night sky. If you’ve not looked at these three open clusters before, do so - you won’t be disappointed.
Finding M103 in Cassiopiea was no hard task as the open cluster sits quite close to the star Ruchbah, but at magnitude 7.4 M103 is not as vivid as M35 in Gemini and is not quite as dense. I’d have to agree with Harlow Shapely who classified M103 as a loose and poor cluster, but while M103 lacks the pizazz of M35 it still makes for a noteworthy observation. Messier 52 on the other hand proved to be a harder nut to crack as it remained elusive to me no matter how many times I swept out from the star Caph towards the constellation Cepheus. Visibility really wasn’t tack sharp and some thin fractocumulus clouds were impeding my view so my lack of success was probably down to that.
As the conditions steadily declined I decided to wrap things up and return to M52 at some future point when the weather proved to be far more agreeable. I’d also like to return to M35 and M103 with the 25×100s but that’s for another time. For the moment I’m happy I was able to get out and score two DSOs off the list and take in some satisfying observations.
Tags: 144P/Kushida, Auriga, Bresser 10x50, Caph, Cassiopiea, Cepheus, Gemini, Harlow Shapely, M103, M35, M36, M37, M38, M52, Propus, Ruchbah, Tejat, Weather
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It’s been almost a fortnight since I posted any fresh material up here, but it really has been an on-going battle with the weather. Saturday night offered some respite from the stormy conditions that hit the east of Scotland by late afternoon and I was able to get out for half an hour with the Bresser 10×50s to take in a view of Messier 41 in Canis Major. The hazy visibility and the local light pollution really didn’t do this beautiful open cluster any justice, but it was still nice to get out and do some star gazing for a change. In addition to this I’ve also been doggedly trying to pursue 144P/Kushida as it glides through the constellation of Taurus, but I’ve had very little success with this elusive comet. My last observing session was over two weeks ago and since then I’ve only managed to snatch the odd hour or two during the last couple of nights, but still to no avail. Bad sky transparency and general light pollution have ensured that my runs at Kushida have become a frustrating chore rather than an exciting challenge. Still I am optimistic that I can grab a decent if not better observation of this ghostly comet as it slowly reaches perihelion in the next few days.
Even although the weather has proved to be a thorn in my side when it comes to observational astronomy, I have found myself becoming more and more interested in it as a subject. The formation of cloud systems particularly interests me, which I have began to photograph over the last week or so. On the back of this I decided to start a new project called White Light which is built upon the open source photoblogging software Pixel Post. White Light join Flickr (you can view my photostream over at http://www.flickr.com/photos/photonjunkie/) will serve as a testing ground for my photographic skills and as a to showcase for some of my more interesting ’skyscapes’ which I hope you will enjoy. While I try to harmonize my passion for astronomy with my new found cloud obsession, I really do wish that the weather would clear up just enough so I can catch a glimpse of Kushida. As someone once said: “Of all ills that one endures, hope is a cheap and universal cure.” I guess I’ll be clinging on to that cheap and universal cure then . . .
[Post edited 07.02.09]
Tags: 144P/Kushida, Bresser 10x50, Canis Major, M41, Taurus, Weather
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For a brief time on Thursday evening the clouds melted away and allowed the blue sky to shine through unsubdued. Making the most of the opportunity I got out and took some wide field shots of the rising gibbous Moon. As I did so, the remaining clouds played across the sky and helped (I think) add a sense of depth to these two shots.
The two exposures above were taken in JPEG mode at 1/80th of a second using a focal length of 70mm with an f/stop of 5.6 and an ISO of 100. Both images were then processed in Photoshop CS2 where I adjusted the white balance, applied some mild noise reduction and used two soft light layers to increase the contrast. All though I like both shots, for me the first one is my favorite - there’s a certain scale and intimacy to it that really does grab me.
We’re due for another perigee Moon (the point of closest approach) on Saturday evening, so fingers crossed that the weather will be kind and allow me to get back out to do some imaging. Here’s hoping!
Tags: DSLR, Moon, Perigee Moon, Weather
Posted in Astrophotography | 2 Comments »
