Posts Tagged ‘Triangulum’

Nov
28
2008

Lost in the Orange Haze

Tuesday morning’s off-track observing session left me a little disappointed but it hadn’t diminished my determination to nail down M44 and M67 in Cancer as well as M76 and NGC 1499 (The California Nebula) in Perseus. As Tuesday’s unsettled sky wavered in and out of clear spells and overcast gloom, I slowly felt any chance of another observing session slipping away; how wrong could I be?

Well, a lot as it so happens! As I glanced out of the window for the final time late on Tuesday night I saw that the clouds had all but drifted away and large patches of clear sky had managed to break through. Taking a chance, I waited till the constellation Cancer had cleared the roof tops and then headed out at 01:30 UT early on Wednesday morning.

Unlike my previous session I decided to use the 10×50 Bresser bins to find my quarry rather than the hefty Strathspey 25×100s. Moving out into the middle of the back yard I turned to the south east where I could see the mighty Leo rising into the sky. Moving slightly to the west of Leo I began scanning the sky for Cancer unaided. It was a little hard to make out against the orange haze being cast up by the local light pollution, but I eventually found Acubens and Al Tarf, the two stars that make up the lower portion of the constellation. Moving up from here I could just about see Asellus Borealis, and by using a little averted vision I then managed to make out Asellus Australis. This was the important part of my search as I knew finding these two stars would lead me to M44, The Beehive Cluster.

Reaching for my 10×50 bins I tracked back across my original path in the sky and star hopped my way to The Beehive. It really was a fantastic sight and well worth the effort. The cluster itself showed up as a myriad of glowing stars that traced out an almost spherical shape in the sky. A beautiful DSO and one that I’m sure I’ll get around to sketching very soon. Unfortunately a small blanket of cloud slowly drifted over Cancer forcing me to temporarily postpone my search for the smaller cluster M67.

Instead I turned my attention to Collinder 70, otherwise known as Orion’s Belt. Now, I didn’t have a clue that this was an open cluster of stars until I read one of The Rev Aaron’s posts over at Caffeinated Astronomy. This is a truly amazing Deep Sky Object on a par with the Pleiades and is really best viewed through binoculars so you can truly savor it’s delights. From here I moved up Orion to Collinder 69, the group of stars that form Orion’s head. This open cluster doesn’t offer the same WOW factor as Collinder 70, but it’s a beautiful little cluster all the same.

By this point the clouds over Cancer had been swept away eastwards and I could resume my search for the open cluster M67. Having found Acubens, the search for this Messier object was quite easy and in no time at all I was gazing upon this distant DSO. Now this open cluster was a lot smaller and a lot fainter, but was observable none the less.

By about 02:03 UT I decided to turn my attention to Perseus and that’s when something very bright exploded in the sky above me. This actually made me physically jump, but It lasted all of two to three seconds and was then gone. I never actually saw what is was, but I’m sure I heard a crackling or hissing sound that vanished with the light. My best guess is that it was a meteorite fireball, but I can’t be sure because I didn’t actually observe it (more’s the pity).

Feeling a little bewildered I returned to Perseus and began ambling over the constellation towards the location of NGC 1499. Gazing through the 10×50s just above Xi Persei I could make out a rich star field but unfortunately no nebulosity. To be honest I wasn’t expecting to see that much detail but it was still a worth while view.

M76 or The little Dumbbell Nebula as it is also affectionately known was the final stop on my short list and try as I might I couldn’t locate this DSO. It was only later on once I was back inside that I queried the exact location of M76 in Stellarium. I could have kicked myself, I was trying to find M76 around the locality of Tau Persei instead of Phi Persei!

Having no luck with M76 I ended my session by rambling over the north western sky. First up was the stunning Double Cluster in Perseus (NGC 869 and NGC 884) which I have neglected over the last month or so. From here I worked my way down to the beautiful and often over looked open cluster M34. Finally I let the binoculars land on the small and elusive M33 or The Triangulum Galaxy as it is also known. I always find  that this galaxy varies in brightness, something which I have put down to it’s position in my light polluted skies.

As I prepared to call time on my session I took in an unaided view of Saturn rising from the south east into the early morning sky. After spending a few moments taking in the distant but bright point of light of this planetary marvel I turned just in time to catch of small, faint meteorite pay me a ‘flying visit’ as it glanced the handle of Ursa Major and disappeared in to the east. Bidding farewell to my fleeting astral visitor I decided to wrap things up at around 02:30 UT and head indoors to warm up.

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Oct
28
2008

Orion Rising

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.

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Sep
28
2008

Not a Cloud in Sight

Saturday night was probably the best observing session that I have had in a while. The seeing was 5/5 while the sky transparency was in the region of 4/5, so not great. As always, my observing program begins with a look at the moons Jupiter. On show were from left to right Ganymede, Io and Europa. Callisto should have been about 8.7 arc minutes west from the centre of Jupiter. I’ve written it off as being down to light pollution and reduced sky transparency, but this is the second time I have failed to resolve Callisto through my 25×100 binoculars.

Moving on from Jupiter, I turned my attention to the constellation of Sagittarius, or what I could see of it from my position. My interest here, was to observe four Messier objects: M25, M24, M18 and M17. Using the 25×100s’ I successfully located M25, an open cluster of stars 2000 light years away from Earth. I wanted to clarify my find, so turned to my trusty 10×50s’ binoculars. The view of the cluster through the 7° FOV was a delightful sight, but I’m sure it would probably have been better in darker surroundings.

Although M24 is just west of M25, locating it proved a little more difficult. Also known as The Sagittarius Star Cloud, M24 is a pseudo cluster of stars some 600 light years wide. While I had placed the cluster It was extremely difficult to resolve it through the orange LP haze. The myriad of stars that were visible still delivered a beautiful sight all the same.

While I was searching for M24 a surprise satellite shot into my FOV. Now I don’t normally set out to track satellites, but a few have sprung up on me during my observations over the past month so I decided to do some checking up to find out which satellite this was. The Lacrosse 4 Rocket is the only one that fits in with my time frame and azimuth coordinates. As I’m not adept at tracking satellites I can’t be too sure how reliably this information compares with my observation.

Returning to my Messier search I began looking for M18, an open cluster not too far above M24 which also proved a little conspicuous. None the less, the view through my 10×50s’ was still a rewarding one. However, the real crown jewel of the evening was to be M17, The Omega Nebula.

A H II emission nebula between 5000 and 6000 light years from Earth and 15 light years in diameter, M17 is a fantastic sight. Even although it looked like a dim grey(ish) white smudge against the night sky through my 10×50s’ it is amazing to think that the gas in this nebula is around 800 solar masses.

The final Messier object on my list was M16, The Eagle Nebula. Technically, this open cluster is in the constellation Serpens, but it lies pretty close to The Omega Nebula so I thought I’d include it in my observations. Surrounded by a H II region known as IC 4703, the nebula lies a staggering 7000 light years away and is truly fantastic to behold.

Taking a much needed break I eventually moved my observations towards Cygnus and six objects, a mixture of stars and DSOs’. Deneb, NGC 7000, IC 5070, NGC 6960/6992/6995, Albireo and M56 in Lyra.

Turning the 25×100s’ on Deneb, a white super giant and one of the most luminous stars known, it was clear to see that it stood up to it’s reputation. The depth of stars that also surrounded this monster star was enumerable and breathtaking. From here I worked my way upwards towards NGC 7000 otherwise known as The North America Nebula 1.

Another emission nebula, distances to NGC 7000 are not precisely known. If Deneb is responsible for ionizing the gas in the nebula, estimates would place it at about 1800 light years away with a diameter of around 100 light years. The depth of stars in this area of the sky was unbelievable and completely blew me away, but unfortunately, due to transparency conditions I could’nt make out any nebulosity. My luck was also out with IC 5070 or The Pelican Nebula as it is better known. Disappointments aside, this is a truly brethtaking part of the sky and I felt as though I could have gazed upon it for hours.

Moving down Cygnus, my next target was The Veil Nebula i.e. NGC 6960/6992/6995. The remenants of an ancient supernova that exploded somewhere between 5000 to 8000 years ago, the nebula is all that remains. Though actual distances to this DSO are not known, estimates place the nebula between 1,400 and 2,600 light years away. I wasn’t overly optimistic that I could nail this faint DSO down, and how right I was. I quickly gave up the search here as I realized that my efforts would be fruitless.

My second last stop was the double star Albireo. At a distance of 380 light years from Earth, Albireo consists of a brighter yellow star and a faint blue companion. My 25×100s’ split the two stars reasonably well and I could pick out the contrasted colours of the two stars. From here the final stop was the globular cluster M56 in Lyra.

By this point my binoculars were beginning to fog up, suffice to say M56 remained quite elusive. Rather than continue to search through fogged up binoculars I broke out my 10×50s’ and reacquainted myself with some old friends while making a new one.

The Pleiades were quite high in the south east sky and I couldn’t resist a peek. Without waxing lyrical, this is one of the best views in the night sky and a simply stunning sight.

From here I moved on to M31, The Andromeda Galaxy and nearly broke my neck looking at it. Sitting almost at the zenith, this was probably one of the best views I have ever gotten of it through a pair of binoculars. Moving down from the constellation Andromeda, I decided to try my luck with the Triangulum Galaxy M33. I swept the sky a few times from Mirach in Andromeda to αTrianguli and that’s when it suddenly resolved right there in my binoculars like magic. A pale, distant ellipsoid lying some 2.9 million light years away.

After searching for this DSO earlier in the month, this was quite an achievement for me. Undoubtedly limited local light pollution at 02:30 UT in the morning was a big help. At this point, the cold began to set in, so I decided to content myself with my observational successes and call it a night.

  1. On an interesting note, while I was repositioning the binoculars on my way to NGC 7000, a small, faint meteorite passed through Lyra towards the north, just within my field of vision. At a guess I’d say it had an entrance and disappearance arc of maybe 20° to 30° with a small short tail. ↩

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Sep
06
2008

12 Million Light Years

Thursday night (04.09.08) proved to be another clear one and I was determined to begin the galaxy hunt of Wednesday night anew. Breaking out the 25×100 binoculars I began my evening as always with an observation of Jupiter and his Galilean moons. I don’t think that you can ever be disappointed with a view of Jupiter. Even if you don’t see much in the way of planetary detail you are always able to see the new positions of the moons, which I think is half the fun. Callisto, Europa, Io and Ganymede were all on show and spotted a very delicate gas band on the northern hemisphere of Jupiter itself.

After about twenty minutes of observing Jupiter I began the galaxy hunt. I thought I would do some reconnaissance this time and use my Bresser 10×50 binoculars to sweep Ursa Major, Canes Venatici and Andromeda/Triangulum in my search for M81, M82, M51, M101, M33 and NGC 891. The sky transparency made things difficult once again and I was left trying to resolve these faint DSOs’ through a fine veil of mist in the upper atmosphere.

I was still unsuccessful in my pursuit NGC 891 and M33 so moved my observations to Ursa Major and Canes Venatici. After a pain staking search I located M81 and M82 but was still left empty handed with M51 and M101. The view of M81 1 and M82 2 through my 10×50s’ was mouth watering and I savored every moment of it. I decided to try and squeeze some more detail from these two distant DSOs’ through the 25×100s’. I certainly wasn’t disappointed - the view was incredible and I must have spent at least close to an hour just tracking these two objects through the night sky. It’s hard to fathom just what you are seeing - these two galaxies lie outside of our local cluster at a phenomenal 12 million light years away! It just boggles the mind.

To round the night off, I decided to take in a view of the Pleiades through the 25×100s’. As I have said before, this open cluster never fails to impress me and all the more so through my giant Strathspey binoculars. Tracking the cluster through the eastern sky I could make out hints of light blue and azure in the nine brightest stars 3. A wonderful view and a great way to end a semi successful nights’ observing.

  1. A larger spiral, M81 has deformed M82 through gravitational interaction which has caused large amounts of gas to be funneled into M82’s core - the source of the starburst activity. ↩
  2. M82 is an irregular starburst galaxy meaning that it is undergoing a rapid period of heavy star formation that has been caused by an encounter with it’s close neighbour M81. ↩
  3. The nine stars of the Pleiades are named after the seven sister of Greek mythology: Alcyone, Merope, Electra, Caleano, Taygeta, Sterope and Maia along with their parents Pleione and Atlas. ↩

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Sep
04
2008

25×100

Wednesday night was a reasonably clear night with some patches of cloud cover, but nothing too serious so I took the chance to get out and spend a couple of hours under the night sky. The seeing was good but the transparency wasn’t all that great which made observing a little more difficult. Anyway, this was more or less a test run for my latest piece of kit - a pair of Strathspey 25×100 binoculars mounted on an Optical Vision Horizon 8115 tripod.

The night’s viewing began with a look at Jupiter. The view through the 25×100 bins was greatly improved. Colour fringing was minimal and I could almost make out some faint detail on the planet. The moons Callisto, Io and Ganymede resolved with absolutely no problem( Europa was occulted by Jupiter) and I spent around 30 minutes just following the impressive view across the sky.

Next on my agenda were several new DSOs’ that I had never viewed and a couple that I wanted to return to from last weeks observations. M33 the Triangulum galaxy and NGC 891 were first on the list. M33 proved quite elusive and I spent the best part of an hour trying to locate it. I cannot be entirely sure that I managed to pin this DSO down - the lighting conditions and the transparency of the sky all conspired against me. NGC 891 would have to wait for another time as cloud cover rolled in obscuring Triangulum and Andromeda from view.

As this large swathe of cloud blocked my view in the east I turned my attention to Ursa Major and Canes Venatici, the other two constellation on my observing plan. Here I began the hunt for M81, M82, M51and M101. Again, these DSOs’ proved quite difficult to find, but I think I spotted the first two, but will need to spend some more time to refine my observations for all four DSOs’.

I also took the opportunity to have a look at the double star Mizar and it’s faint 4th magnitude companion Alcor both of which lie about 78 light years from Earth. The 25×100s’ easily resolved the two stars otherwise known as the Horse and the Rider and gave a wonderful view of this distant star system. By 2am I was beginning to really feel the cold and decided to call it a night. Hopefully the sky transparency on my next outing will have cleared up.

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