Target Saturn

So the short nights have arrived and it is getting harder and harder to conduct any real stargazing activities but on the night of 30th May 2014 I decided to stay up past midnight and try to at least see Saturn through my telescope which I haven't managed to do so far. So I said goodnight to my wife who was tucked up in bed and set everything up outside my front door from which I could clearly see Saturn hovering in the sky.

The set up wasn't actually that hard as there were a few stars visible in the twilight for me to align the scope so before long I had a lovely image of Saturn in my 25mm Eyepiece. I even managed to spot the moon Titan hovering nearby which was a nice bonus. I did use my 8mm Eyepiece as well but there was a fair amount of atmospheric distortion so it wasn't the clearest of sights and quickly put it away.

It was as I began to setup my webcam and laptop that a funny event occured, one of my neighbours teenage daughter had friends or family visiting and for some random reason they were outside the front of their house. The visitor saw me hunched outside the front door and thought I was trying to break in so quickly came across and asked me if I actually lived there.. she did look a bit embarrassed when I said yes and pointed to the telescope, laptop and power supply I had arrayed in front of me. Either way it is nice to know if anyone tries to rob me there is a chance some random teenage girls may attempt to stop them!

Anyway, after that interruption I soon had the camera all set up and managed to take a few AVIs which I have since processed with the best result shown below.

I then decided to go all out and attempted to use the 2x Barlow in order to increase the magnification.

Even with a fair it of processing I haven't managed to clean up the image as much as I would have liked but I still think it was okay for a first attempt.

Overall I was glad I managed to at least get out one more time before the Summer nights get to light for me to really appreciate the night sky. It was even more special that I used this potentially final night of the astronomy season to see Saturn which I had never seen before. I hope the next time I see it I can try and capture an even better image but I suspect it will be difficult with the gear I currently have.

Stargazing with my parents

Whilst I have shown my parents the odd sight through my telescope from the back garden I was actually quite surprised when my father asked about me taking both my mother and him out to Harperrig Reservoir to see what we could see from a darker site. I was more than happy to oblige as it would mean I would have company if no one else was out there. It turned out that this was a pointless worry as a fair amount of people from the Central Scotland Observers Group forum were there.

Anyway because I was showing off things to my parents I actually scanned a fair amount of the sky but from a personal point of view I saw my first sights in Cancer and Gemini constellations which I have highlighted in the image below.

Messier 44 / Beehive Cluster
RA: 08 40.4 Dec: +19 59
Type: Open Star Cluster
Magnitude: 3.7

The Beehive Cluster is an open cluster in the constellation Cancer that I had seen through other telescopes  so it was nice to finally get a look at it through my own scope. The Beehive Cluster appears as a nebulous object to the naked eye and has been known since ancient times, in fact it was one of the first objects that Galileo looked at through his telescope.

The cluster is around 520-610 light years away and the title of Beehive Cluster is supposedly due to it supposedly appearing like a swarm of stars in a dance of activity. Personally it didn't really strike me as being much different that many other open clusters. Either way it was still a nice view in the lower power eyepiece although I think there was still a little bit to much magnification.

Messier 67 
RA: 08 51.4 Dec: +11 49
Type: Open Star Cluster
Magnitude: 6.1

Messier 67 is another open cluster in the constellation Cancer although this one is dimmer that the more famous Beehive Cluster. The interesting thing about this cluster is that it is actually the oldest one in the Messier list at between 3.2 and 5 billion years old. This could explain why it isn't the brightest of clusters as beyond the odd blue stragglers there are no bright blue stars left in the main sequence stage.

Overall, it was quite a nice cluster to see as there are a lot of stars present and it easily filled up my field of view and there are some nice reds and yellows present.

Messier 35 
RA: 06 09.1 Dec: +24 21
Type: Open Star Cluster
Magnitude: 5.3

The third open cluster of the night was Messier 35 which sits in the constellation Gemini and is around 2,800 lights years away. With several hundred stars present it is quite a nice sight to see although I suspect I could barely see more than sixty myself but even that was an enjoyable view. The interesting thing I noted about this cluster is that it didn't appear to have any core region where stars are condensed  together.

NGC 2392 / Eskimo Nebula 
RA: 07 28 10.8 Dec: +20 54 42.5
Type: Planetary Nebula
Magnitude: 10.1

It was great to finally look at something that wasn't an open cluster although with a magnitude of 10.1 I can't say NGC 2392 was the easiest object to see. The nebula which is named the Eskimo Nebula or Clownface Nebula supposedly resembles a person's head surrounded by a parka hood although to me it just looked like a tiny faint nebulous region more akin to a fuzzy star. I suspect on a darker night I may have tried to up the magnification to see if I could get a better look but I knew there was little point at the moment due to the spring night quite simply not being that dark at the time I was looking.

One additional object I want to highlight in addition to those I saw within Cancer and Gemini is the Whale Galaxy (Caldwell 32) which is an edge-on spiral galaxy within the constellation of Canes Venatici at RA 2 42 8.0 & DEC +32 32 29 and is is approximately 30 million light years away. I had previously tried to see this magnitude 9.8 Galaxy but hadn't managed to pick it up so I was pretty happy when I slewed to its location this night and was able to make out a very faint elongated shape that reminded me of the Cigar Galaxy (Messier 82). Of course I couldn't make out its tiny companion, NGC 4627 which is as dwarf elliptical galaxy with a magnitude of only 13.1

Besides the objects above that I have highlighted I also showed off a few of the usual targets such as the aforementioned Cigar Galaxy (Messier 82) along with Bode's Galaxy (Messier 81), Whirlpool Galaxy (Messier 51), Messier 3 Globular Cluster, Caldwell 21 Galaxy, Mars, Almach and Mizar. I have to be honest and say that most of the Deep Space Objects were a bit washed out as it just wasn't dark enough for my scope to capture them. However, due to the Cigar Galaxy and Bode's Galaxy being pretty much at the zenith they came out superbly. I even managed to get both of them in my field of view at the same time and was quite impressed.

Overall this was actually a successful night with me seeing a target in Canes Venatici I had failed to see in the past and seeing a few new deep space objects in both Cancer and Gemini. Very soon the astronomy season will be over due to the long summer days but I want to try and get out like this as much as possible for the time being.

Double Stars in Ursa Minor - Chapter 3

My continued adventure to try and observe double stars in Ursa Minor has entered its third chapter with another three stars observed and sketched. The double stars I am going to discuss tonight are STF 1583, STF 1928 & STF 1980 whose locations are shown below.

STF 1583 (HIP 58531 / SAO 1966)
RA : 12 00 10.43   Dec: +86 59 40.0
Magnitudes: 8.1, 9.3
Separation: 11.3”
Position Angle: 285°

Whilst looking for this star I discovered that the SAO number was not in the GOTO database which meant using the Right Ascension and Declination co-ordinates to find it.  As always, my pre study of the locale via Stellarium was very useful in helping me confirm I had the right target. Both components were pretty clear with a reasonable separation evident however whilst the primary stars A2 classification would imply a potential white blue colour it just looked like standard white to me. Then again I have to admit that unless stars are quite vivid in their colour I tend to struggle at seeing anything beyond white.

STF 1928 (SAO 8177)
RA : 15 09 17.20   Dec: +72 27 16.4
Magnitudes: 9.6, 10.2
Separation: 6.5”
Position Angle: 275°

Without doubt this was the most difficult target of the night, as with the previous star it didn't come up in the SAO catalogue on my GOTO mount and I had to use the Right Ascension and Declination co-ordinates. However, the reason I struggled was the close separation and low magnitude of the stars involved when I was looking at them in a Spring evening which wasn't that dark.

I was forced to employ averted vision to make out the lower magnitude companion and even then it was only a fleeting look.  The separation wasn't actually that bad and on a darker night I don't think I would have had any issue to be honest. Either way, the double star itself was fairly regular with both components appearing to be white. The real dominant star in the eyepiece was actually HIP 70942 which shines at a brighter magnitude of and 7.8 and can be seen in the sketch below at the 7 o'clock position.

STF 1980 (SAO 2568)
RA : 15 32 27.04   Dec: +81 03 10.4
Magnitudes: 9.2, 9.5
Separation: 10.1”
Position Angle: 49°

The third double star of the night and another no go with the SAO number, I may need to look up how many SAO numbers are actually present in the database as a fair few don't seem to be there when I look for them. The similar magnitudes of the stars involved with this double made it quite easy to make out and split in my 25mm eyepiece.  The primary appeared to be white which ties in with the F0 stellar classification, however I haven't been able to discover the stellar classification of the secondary component but to me it looked almost identical to the primary.

Overall, it was another successful double star hunt although the lighter skies are making it harder to make out the dimmer stars. Hopefully I will manage another night or two out looking at some more doubles before summer fully closes in and the telescope gets retired for a few months.