Wednesday morning (22.04.09) offered me the perfect opportunity to return to the beautiful double star Albireo in the constellation of Cygnus. I kicked things off at 02:30 BST, and spent a fair amount of time just observing the system with the 12mm plössl which easily revealed the rich amber/yellow of Albireo A and, the vivid blue/green of the smaller Albireo B.
After about twenty minutes I decided to push the magnification up, but just as I was getting ready to insert the 6mm plössl something sped across the field of view. It all happened so fast that I just didn’t really get a chance to identify exactly what it was I saw, but if I were to guess I’d say it was a meteor — perhaps a Lyrid?
Although the higher magnification of the 6mm eyepiece compromised the seeing the view was wonderful nonetheless, and at times both stars resolved clearly in the eyepiece. While Albireo A retained most of it’s yellow hue the smaller B companion suffered some colour reduction, but it’s blueish/green glow was still vaguely evident.
Despite the alluring quality of this double star system I was beginning to succumb to the cold, but I didn’t feel ready to just pack up so I turned my attention to Messier 27 in Vulpecula. I’d spent some time with this deep sky object just over a week ago with the 25×100 binoculars, and I was curious to see just what the Celestron Omni XLT could pull from it. With astronomical twilight already well on it’s way I knew it wouldn’t be the best of observation to be had, but I persevered regardless.
After swapping the 6mm plössl around for the 25mm, and fifteen minutes of careful searching I finally landed on the diaphonous planetary nebula. My previous observation through the 25×100s revealed the nebula as “an opaque almost spherical white smudge”, but the view through the refractor exposed the subtle graduations as well as the “double headed shot” that the 19th century astronomer John Herschel had described. This really was a beautiful sight, but if it wasn’t for the fact that I was frozen to the core and, extremely tired I would have liked to have spent more time observing M27. Had I stayed out observing any longer the next door neighbors may have found me clinging to my telescope in a delirious stupor — hopefully things won’t ever come to that!
I’m glad I took advantage of the clear skies that morning because the weather since then has offered up nothing, but perpetual cloud along with periodic rain. Providing things clear up over the weekend I’m planning on spending some time working on the Binocular Messier Club list by hunting down a group of globular clusters in Ophiuchus. Hopefully I’ll have some new observations to report quite soon!
Tags: Albireo, Celestron Omni XLT 120, Cygnus, Lyrids, M27, Strathspey 25x100, The Dumbbell Nebula, Vulpecula
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Lying 1200 light years away in the same arm of the Milky Way as our own yellow Sun sits the Dumbbell Nebula. Discovered in 1764 and catalogued as M27 by the French astronomer Charles Messier this deep sky object is actually a planetary nebula — the stellar debris ejected from a dying star.
It was here early on Sunday morning (12.04.09) that I turned the giant binoculars as I attempted to eke out a glimpse of this distant cosmic fatality. The atmospheric conditions were reasonably good, but due to Vulpecula’s +16° elevation the light pollution from the nearby town of Grangemouth overwhelmed the view slightly. Despite this the nebula was still visible against the hazy sky glow as an opaque almost spherical white smudge that brightened subtly when using averted vision.
The realisation that you are actually gazing upon a vast expulsion of superheated gas, and plasma spanning perhaps 1 light year is very compelling to say the least. During the 35 minutes that I spent observing M27 I began to wonder what it would be like to see this spectacle from within the nebula itself. Inspired by that thought I produced the digital render above which shows the view from the desolate surface of a fictitious dwarf planet in orbit around the hot central star. Science fact or science fiction? I’m not really sure to be honest, but it certainly would be an awe inspiring sight to see the Dumbbell Nebula in this way.
Tags: Charles Messier, M27, Milky Way, Planetary Nebula, Strathspey 25x100, The Dumbbell Nebula, Vulpecula
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Time, as they say, waits for nobody and when I look back towards the beginning of the month I am left wondering where all the time has gone. March began (01.03.09 & 02.03.09) by bidding a fond farewell to comet Lulin as it started the long journey back out towards the distant reaches of the solar system. Around this time I also logged the open cluster M47 from the Binocular Messier Club list with the 10×50s, but with an elevation of around +18° M47 offered a rather sketchy observation as it drifted through the southern sky glow. I had also tried to catch two other open clusters in this part of the sky: M46 (which is very close to M47) and M50 in Monoceros. Both remained hidden from view, again due to the sky conditions, but I am going to make every effort to catch these two objects before they disappear into the summer evenings.
Besides my Lulin and Messier observations, the beginning of the month (05.03.09 & 06.03.09) also offered me the perfect opportunity to study the cratered surface of the waning gibbous Moon and score a number of objects from the Lunar 100 list. The most notable objects included the Vallis Alpes, the crater remnant Hipparchus as well as the mysterious Bessel Ray and the ancient crater of Clavius. Aside from viewing a good many Lunar 100 objects I also took the time to explore many features beyond the scope of the list and I made wonderful observations of prominent impact craters such as Reinhold, Herschel, Eudoxus, Aristoteles and many more.
Beyond this point bad weather conditions brought things to an abrupt end for almost two weeks, so it was nearer to the end of March (21.03.09) before I managed out, this time turning my gaze towards two faint galaxies in Canes Venatici: Messier 94 and Messier 63. However, the immediate interference of a neighbor’s extremely intrusive light combined with the neck breaking altitude of +41° put paid to a more in-depth observation. I dare say that I will return to these two deep sky objects in the next few months when they are both in a better position.
Following on from this I then spent some time a few mornings later (24.03.09) hunting down three more Messier objects: the open clusters M29 and M39 in Cygnus as well as the planetary nebula M27 in Vulpecula. I couldn’t have asked for better conditions and I easily tracked down the two open clusters but the urban terrain combined with a low position in the sky unfortunately prevented me from viewing M27. In addition to my deep sky observations I serendipitously caught two satellites through the 25×100s as they shot over the eastern sky. After some digging around on the web I whittled my options down to two possible designations: A0-27 and ITAMSAT 1. I’ve never been very good at catching iridium flares or tracking satellites, so I still have some niggling doubts over the identities of the two space craft, but it seems as though A0-27 and ITAMSAT 1 are my best bet.
To finally wrap things up I took in a short view of Saturn and the cloud enshrouded Titan as they sat serenely under the watchful eye of Leo. Upon making this observation I originally thought that I’d also seen the small Saturnian moon of Iapetus, but later investigation revealed that it was in fact HP 54954, a 9th magnitude G class star about 365 light years distant. So unfortunately, no cigar.
In retrospect March has definitely been a celestial smorgasbord, but as MoonWatch week is upon us UK amateur astronomers I plan to spend much of my time gazing at the checkered lunar surface. Hopefully the elements will cooperate and grant me some decent Moon watching weather.
Tags: A0-27, Aristoteles, Bessel Ray, Bresser 10x50, C/2007 N3 Lulin, Canes Venatici, Clavius, Cygnus, Eudoxus, Galaxies, Herschel, Hipparchus, HP 54954, ITAMSAT 1, M27, M29, M39, M46, M47, M50, M63, M94, Monoceros, Moon, Reinhold, Saturn, Strathspey 25x100, The Sunflower Galaxy, Titan, Vallis Alpes, Vulpecula
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