The skies were clear, the seeing was good but some how my observing session early on Tuesday morning quickly became undone. I headed outside at 01:30 UT and set up the tripod and mounted the 25×100 bins. My session, I decided, was going to be split between the constellations Perseus and Cancer; the sole intention here was to grab a few Messier objects to add to the list as well as take a closer look at the double star Eta Perseii and NGC 1499 (The California Nebula).
The first hurdle that became apparent was the position of Perseus. Riding high in the sky I realized that observing was going to be difficult. Not a problem if your a scope user, but if your using bins then be prepared for some major neck strain! I was simply left with two choices: try to observe Perseus at this position or give up - I chose the latter. Reluctantly I moved on to my next target: the constellation of Cancer.
Turning the binoculars south east I began hunting down Cancer but soon found myself sinking in the nebulous orange miasma that light pollution produces. Here I was looking for M44: The Beehive Cluster or Praesepe as it is also known. I was also set on observing M67, a condensed open cluster that can be found near the star Acubens. The only problem was that Cancer was playing hide and seek with me. I could easily make out the top of Leo as it slowly rose out of the east, but try as I might, Cancer just eluded me.
Looking on the positive side of the session, I had an impressive view of the heavens with The Pleiades, The Hyades and The Orion Nebula easily visible with the naked eye while the constellations Auriga, Taurus, Cassiopeia, Andromeda, Draco, Ursa Major, Leo and Orion were all on show and looking stunning. To add to this, at 02:00 UT I also managed to catch Saturn climbing over the roof tops which is always a pleasing sight, however, my 25×100 bins don’t resolve any real detail on the planet itself, so I was content just to gaze at it unaided.
By 02:45 UT I packed up and headed for the warmth of my bed. I was disappointed with my lack of success with Perseus and Cancer, but putting that aside I did enjoy the chance to be back out star gazing. The lack of observing flexibility has got me thinking about investing in a new telescope, but I’ve not decided anything firm yet. For the moment It’s really just a case of wait and see.
Tags: Acubens, Andromeda, Auriga, Cancer, Cassiopeia, Collinder 50, Draco, Eta Perseii, Leo, M42, M44, M45, M67, M76, Orion, Praesepe, Saturn, Taurus, The Beehive Cluster, The Hyades, The Orion Nebula, The Pleiades, Ursa Major
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It seems as though I have been waiting a long time for some nice clear skies, the old Gods must have heard my plea because last night was the clearest that I have seen for weeks. The seeing was impeccable and the transparency was superb.
I decided to take a break from imaging and concentrate on observing for a change. So having received the heavy duty binocular L adapter that I ordered from Telescope House I thought that this would be an excellent time to put it to good use with my 10×50 Bresser binoculars.
On the menu were two DSOs that I wanted to bag: NGC 6543 also known as The Cat’s Eye Nebula and the Messier Object M102 (NGC 5866), a lenticular galaxy also known as The Spindle Galaxy. Both objects are located in the constellation Draco, a constellation that I have neglected to take much interest in up until now.
I headed out at 23:00 UT to set up the tripod and the binoculars. I began things by browsing through the constellation Cygnus just to see if my chances of seeing The North America Nebula had increased due to the crisp atmospheric conditions. Now this is where things get a bit hazy because I swear that I could make out some detail, but I can’t be absolutely certain if I was imagining it. I’ve been searching for this nebula for a good many weeks now and it’s become something of an obsession, so I may have started going crazy.
After spending some time trying to discern the ‘detail’ that I was possibly observing, I rolled over to Draco to begin search for M102 / NGC 5866 and NGC 6543. To cut a long story short I failed to see both — well that’s not entirely true. I’m sure I could just make out something up around where NGC 6543 is supposed to be, but I’ll need to go back and try again (with both objects).
Having failed to locate The Cat’s Eye Nebula, or The Spindle Galaxy I thought I’d end my short evening observations on a high note by sketching The Hyades in the constellation Taurus. After spending about half an hour making a preliminary sketch which was as close to scale as possible I then packed up and headed inside to warm up.
Once I’d gotten a nice hot cup of tea and warmed up sufficiently I returned to the rough sketch I’d taken of The Hyades. Using it as a guide I was able to produce a much nicer looking render in Photoshop as you can see above. Over to the left hand side of the sketch you can see the orange K5III star Aldebaran while over to the centre can be seen the brightest stars at the core of the open cluster.
I’ll definitely be trying my hand at producing more sketches like this in the future. I’ve found it to be really rewarding and you certainly do plenty of intense observing, so good fun all round. Holding the pencil was a bit hard though; it was freezing!
Edit 16.09.09: The sketch above contains a number of errors. Most notably the unintentional omission of Θ² Tauri which, for reasons that escape me, was not included in the sketch. Also the magnitude estimates that were penciled in are off quite considerably. While it’s not an entirely accurate recording of an astronomical object it has to be remembered that it was my first try. Besides… there’s always next time.
Tags: Aldebaran, Bresser 10x50, Collinder 50, Cygnus, Draco, Galaxies, M102, NGC 5866, NGC 6543, NGC 7000, Taurus, The Cat's Eye Nebula, The Hyades, The North America Nebula, The Spindle Galaxy
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The forecast at the Met Office held out - early Monday morning delivered crisp, clear skies with the odd cloud drifting overhead. I wasn’t going to pass up an opportunity like this so promptly geared up to capture another and possibly better star trail image.
The target for the session was the constellation of Orion as it rose over the roof tops towards the south east. Having positioned the tripod and the camera I decided to take a few test shots to make sure that I was focused on infinity as well as frame the image as best I could considering the urban landscape (the backyard).
The final image is a result of thirty six 30 second exposures taken at 24mm using an ISO of 800 with an F/Stop of 4.5. I had originally taken forty six exposures but towards the end of shooting clouds began rolling in and spoiled the view. The exposures were put together in Startrails and post processed in Photoshop.
Orion can be seen rising at the very centre of the picture - I even managed to capture part of The Hyades in there too which can be seen at the top of the shot, again near the centre. All in all I’m pretty happy with my second star trails attempt, but would love to do longer trails, which means either taking more exposures or experimenting with longer exposures, F/Stops and ISO speeds. Certainly food for thought.
After capturing all the exposures that would make up my final star trails image, I decided to go for a wander across the sky using the Bresser 10×50 binoculars. I chanced my luck and decided to see if I could catch a glimpse of NGC 7000: The North America Nebula in Cygnus. No such luck - I’m beginning to think that the skies around Falkirk and Stenhousemuir just aren’t dark enough.
Having no joy with Cygnus I moved on to a current favorite of mine: Auriga and the delights of M36, M37 and M38. I viewed these three open clusters through the Strathspey 25×100 binoculars a few weeks back and I wasn’t disappointed. The view through the 10×50s was no less thrilling if not more stunning. Beautiful deep sky objects and ones I’m certainly going to be observing a lot more in the future. From here I swept over to The Hyades and The Pleiades in Taurus for a quick glimpse but I just couldn’t stop myself from coming back to these two amazing open clusters again and again during the course of my morning observations.
Reluctantly I soon turned my attention to the majesty of M31: The Andromeda Galaxy. No matter how many times I see it, it is always a wondrous sight to behold, but I almost broke my neck viewing it as the constellation itself was positioned almost at the zenith. Moving down towards the constellation Triangulum I eventually found M33, making it only the second time I have seen this fantastic yet elusive galaxy. I spent quite a while in this part of the sky, sweeping backwards and forwards from M31 and M33 just drinking in the mesmerizing view.
Before long I finally surrendered and focused the binoculars on the splendor of M42: The Orion Nebula. Yes I’ve seen The Orion Nebula many,many times before, but it still never fails to make an epic impact on me. Wheeling around to Ursa Major I thought I try and hunt down M81 and M82 but eventually just began browsing around the sky aimlessly. At this point I gradually wound things up and decided to head for the warmth of the house. Unfortunately I never managed to see or capture any Orionids or Taurids, but there is always next time.
Tags: Andromeda, Auriga, Collinder 50, Cygnus, DSLR, M31, M33, M36, M37, M38, M42, M45, M81, M82, NGC 7000, Orion, Orionids, Star Trails, Taurids, Taurus, The Hyades, The Orion Nebula, The Pleiades, Triangulum, Ursa Major, Weather
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The moon was out in force last night (11.10.08) which put paid to half of my DSO search list, but more about that in a moment. I spent the first half of the evening imaging the moon. I wasn’t trying to go for a classic lunar shot per se but a more scenic image of the moon as it passed through the trees at the front of the house. I had the foresight to take a dark frame, but I think that there is still some noise in there that could be processed out. I had taken a number of pictures at F/Stops between 5.6, 8 and 11 as well as shutter speeds between 1/400 and 2 seconds. Best of a bad bunch, the overexposed image above was shot using an F/Stop of 8 at 70mm and an ISO of 400 with a shutter speed of 1/400. A lower ISO and bracketing might be the order of the day next time around. All in all, it’s still a nice image, but the thing that I like about this shot is the fact that I managed (unwittingly I might add) to capture a ‘corona’ around the moon albeit a mild one.
By early Sunday morning I turned my attention to the DSO search. First up was The North America Nebula NGC 7000, The Pelican Nebula IC 5070 and the Veil Nebula NGC 6960, 6992 and 6995 in Cygnus as well as M56 and M57 in Lyra - then I realised that I had zero chance of seeing anything in this part of the sky as the moon was now shinning low in the west.
I turned eastwards determined to carry on my DSO hunt in spite of the moon. Here I was looking for M36, M37 and M38 in the constellation Auriga. These open clusters are really something special - at 25 million years old, M36 is the youngest of the group. Lying 4,100 light years from the Earth, the stars here cover an area of around 14 light years. With a distance of up to 4,600 light years, M37 looks to be the oldest of the group with an age of 300 million years. This cluster contains over 500 stars with at least a dozen of them red giants. At around 220 million years, M38 is the second oldest of the group and lies 4,200 light years away spanning at least 25 light years. As views go, this is a fantastic part of the sky and one I’ll be returning to a lot more in the future.
Traveling south eastwards, I pointed my 25×100 binoculars at what is probably the most famous nebula in the night sky - M42/M43. Otherwise known as the Orion Nebula. This is a spectacular object to observe, and even under my light polluted sky the nebula was visible with the naked eye. Through the 25×100s M42/M43 showed up as a pale blue smear against the night. The nebula covers an area of around 24 light years and is generally considered to be the closest area of mass star formation to Earth. A really wondrous sight.
Last on my list was Collinder 50 i.e. The Hyades in Taurus. This is the nearest open cluster to Earth lying only 151 light years away and containing 300 to 400 stars that all share a commonality. This part of the sky really is best viewed through a pair of 10×50 binoculars so you can savor the cluster in it’s entirety.
By about 02:30 UT I decided to call it quits. Having spent most of Saturday daytime not feeling too well I decided that discretion really was the better part of valor.
Tags: Auriga, Bresser 10x50, Collinder 50, Cygnus, De Mairan's Nebula, DSLR, IC 5070, Lunar Corona, Lyra, M36, M37, M38, M42, M43, M56, M57, Moon, NGC 6960/6992/6995, NGC 7000, Orion, Strathspey 25x100, The Hyades, The North America Nebula, The Orion Nebula, The Pelican Nebula, The Veil Nebula
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Another clear sky early on Monday morning offered an opportunity to experiment some more with the Sony a200. After some mild processing I thought I’d post up two of the better images that I managed to take. The first one is a return to the constellations Cygnus, Lyra and Draco. Unlike the Sunday morning image, both Cygnus and Lyra are fully visible. The double star Albireo in Cygnus as well as Vega in Lyra can both be seen floating above the roof tops. Again, if you take a closer look at Cygnus you can see part of the milky way running downwards from Deneb throughout the constellation.
The second image shot, shows the constellation Auriga and Taurus. Capella is clearly visible as is The Pleiades just towards the upper right hand corner of the image. If you look carefully, you can make out some fantastic nebula detail that the camera has picked up. Moving to the bottom right of the image, just above the roof top behind Aldebaran you can also see the Hyades star cluster
Unbelievably the clouds began to move in at around 02:30 UT. It happened so quickly that within ten minutes large parts of the sky were just blanketed in that ubiquitos orange and grey gloom that saw me forced to pack up and call it a night for another time.
Tags: Albireo, Auriga, Capella, Collinder 50, Cygnus, Deneb, Draco, DSLR, Lyra, M45, Taurus, The Hyades, The Pleiades, Vega
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