Tag: Albireo

Friday Night Lights and Monday Highlights

Waning Moon
Waning Moon approaching Jupiter (Fri Aug 10, ’12)

Very early Friday morning, I caught the waning moon approaching Jupiter and Aldebaran. You could draw a line from Venus to Moon and cross over or near Jupiter.  The skies were clear and should stay clear throughout the day and into the night, with a forecasted high in the mid-80s, twenty degrees below what we’ve been experiencing for the past several weeks.

Derek and RoynaFriday at work was a whirlwind of meetings, including one held off site at another local law firm.  I got home a bit early because one of my vanpool riders took the day off, but within fifteen minutes of getting home, my son and daughter-in-law arrived from their all-day road trip from North Texas.  We visited with them for an hour and half, when they left to drive into Kansas City to spend the evening with several of their friends who still live in the area.

Terry cooked an excellent southern comfort food type dinner of chicken-fried minute steaks, organic green beans with turkey bacon, mashed potatoes and home-made white gravy.  Too bad the kids didn’t hang around long enough to chow down with us.  Terry and I let our food digest a bit, watching the Olympics until the skies darkened enough for some star gazing.

I grabbed the XT8 (affectionately known as ‘Dob’) and carefully carried it out to the lower backyard.  This time I took a small table to put my charts on.  I set my case of eyepieces on the ground.  I brought out the Intelliscope handheld device to attempt an alignment.  This device, unlike my ETX-90’s AutoStar, is only used to identify objects, not ‘go to’ them (since the XT8 does not have any motors).  The Intelliscope can help you find objects with a warm/cold kind of seeking system.  I still haven’t bought a stool to lean against, so my back aches a bit this morning.  I did a two star alignment, finding and centering Arcturus first, then Vega.

I wanted to revisit the Double Double in Lyra to both confirm that I could find it by star hopping and to attempt to see the double within the double.  I asked the Intelliscope to ID what I had centered in the eyepiece and it claimed I’d found the Crab Nebula.  Hmmm.  That’s in the constellation Taurus, which isn’t visible until early morning hours in the east.  I must have done something wrong in the alignment process.  I powered off the Intelliscope device and made a note to myself to re-read the manual in the morning.  Since I’d already found Vega, I spent several minutes comparing my star atlas to what I was seeing in the finderscope.  I found Epsilon Lyrae and observed it with 26mm, 15mm, 9mm and a 2x barlow (using the 26mm and 15mm).  Despite the apparent clearness of the skies, I did detect some haziness and thin stratus clouds overhead.  That may have inhibited my ability to split the doubles within the doubles.

I hopped over to Albireo in Cygnus, just to make sure I could find it again without referring to my star atlas.  I used a trick I had read about from some artists who do astronomical sketching where you defocus the stars, especially doubles, to discern their different colors.  I did this while observing Albireo and I could clearly see the red and blue for each star in the double.  I stretched my back for a few minutes and stared off to the northeast, at Cassiopeia, which I could clearly see as a distinctive ‘W’ shape.  I could not see the constellation Perseus, but I did see one or two meteors radiating from the space between Cassiopeia and where Perseus should have been visible (but wasn’t because of the haze and light pollution from the prison just north of my location).

I returned to the scope and began a star hop around Lyra in search of M57, also known as the Ring Nebula.  This was a test, for me, not only of my ability to find this fuzzy smoke ring, but also of an 8-inch telescope’s ability to cut through the obstacles inherent at my closest observing site (my backyard).  I surprised myself.  I found the nebula, quicker than I thought I would, and I even saw it through the finderscope.  It probably helped that Lyra was almost straight up above me and the telescope, meaning I had less atmosphere to peer through.  Using averted vision, with the 9mm, I could clearly see the ring.  I used the background stars to focus, because you can’t really focus well on a smudge that’s fuzzy and faint.

Since I found and saw a nebula with the XT8, I wanted to see if I could find a globular cluster next.  And I just happened to know where one was.  M13 in the ‘armpit’ of Hercules (see chart above) happened to be overhead, somewhere between Altair and Arcturus.  I had some trouble locating the stars that make up Hercules with my naked eye.  I took several minutes, stretching my back, to peer overhead, but towards the west, and Arcturus.  Eventually, the star dots connected in my mind’s eye and I found the constellation.  I oriented the XT8 to the general vicinity where I thought M13 would be.  I think I saw it through the finderscope, although I can’t remember specifically.  Using the 26mm eyepiece, I centered the globular cluster in my field of view and proceeded to observe this large dense cluster for several minutes with various magnifications.

I stared off into the northeast again, still trying to find Perseus and also Pegasus.  If I could see the Andromeda Galaxy (also known as M31), I would achieve a triple crown of astronomical observing from my backyard with the XT8 (1: nebula; 2: globular cluster; 3: galaxy).  I spent nearly a half an hour, roaming around my backyard, changing my point of view and line of sight to the northeast and east.  I found Cepheus, but no matter how hard I squinted or averted my eyes, I could not clearly identify the box that makes up the body of Pegasus.  Frustrated, and with an aching back, I decided to call it a night at about half past eleven o’clock.

I returned the telescope to the band room and replaced all the dust caps.  I hugged my hubby, for he had brought me a refreshing freshly made strawberry lemonade to enjoy while bending over the telescope for hours.  Off to bed and sleep, at least until the dogs started barking when Derek and Royna returned home (sometime after midnight and before five – not exactly sure as I tried to sleep through the commotion).

My alarm only fires off on weekdays, but most days I wake up fifteen minutes early.  Not Saturday morning though.  When I cleared the sleep from my eyes and checked the clock on my cell phone, it read 5:45 a.m. and I could already tell the eastern horizon was brightening.  I grabbed the tripod and camera and went out to the driveway to take a photo of the Moon approaching Jupiter.

Waning Moon Approaching Jupiter
Waning Moon Approaching Jupiter (Sat morning Aug 11, ’12)

If I happened to live in the Pacific, today I would be able to observe the moon occulting Jupiter.  But I won’t be too disappointed, since I can observe the moon occulting Venus next Monday afternoon, between 3:00 and 4:00 p.m.  I plan to take a pair of binoculars and my camera equipment with me to work.  I will setup on the top of the parking garage and hope I have a clear line-of-sight through the buildings to the west to see the occultation as it occurs.

But tonight I plan to find a dark sky location and take in as many meteors as I can, raining down from Perseus.  I better take a nap this afternoon and set an alarm for one o’clock Sunday morning.  Don’t want to miss the best meteor show of the year!

My First Date with Dob

Orion SkyQuest IntelliScope XT8
Orion SkyQuest IntelliScope XT8

Friday evening I had my first opportunity to really dig in and learn about the telescope I borrowed from my astronomy club. A week ago, Terry and I returned to Kansas City to meet one of the club members at the Warko observatory on the roof of Royall Hall on campus at UMKC.  I put in a request to borrow an eight inch Dobsonian telescope (shown at left) to compare and contrast its light gathering abilities with my own ETX-90 (a Maksutov-Cassegrain type telescope).  I had high hopes since the aperture on the XT8 is more than twice as big.  On the other hand, the ETX-90 is lighter.  I drove the van, having hidden the middle set of seats in the subfloor, to make the initial transport of the telescope as easy as possible.

Fast forward an entire week to another Friday evening.  After a quick rather disappointing dinner at the local Dairy Queen, Terry and I returned home to separate activities:  he to a strings-only practice for one of his bands and me to setting up the loaner scope.

Orion SkyQuest XT8 base
Orion SkyQuest XT8 base

I moved the base into the great room (so called because it’s the biggest room in the house and has a high vaulted ceiling with a floor-to-ceiling corner fireplace). I then re-read the instruction manual, paying close attention to the section dealing with placing the optical tube on the base.  The tube weighs just a bit over twenty pounds (the base is a couple of pounds heavier).  I picked up the tube, holding it vertically, and rested it gingerly on the bumper stops.  I inserted the tension and retaining knobs per the directions and then tested the altitude and azimuth mobility.  The base seemed to stick a bit, but nothing that couldn’t be overcome with some nudging.

I attached the finderscope to the optical tube, but did not attempt to adjust it until later, when the tube would be outside and I could find an object to orient on a suitable distance away from my site.  I removed the dust cover cap for the tube and for the eyepiece in anticipation for the next phase: collimation

When the mirrors are properly aligned, the view down the focuser drawtube should look like the graphic above (for the XT8 telescope).

I peered down the optical tube, past the secondary mirror and its spider support system at the large eight inch mirror nestled in the bottom.  A small faint circle was inscribed on the surface of the mirror, assumedly in the exact center.  I stepped around to the side of the tube and stared down through the eyepiece opening, where I could clearly see my own eye and the small circle mentioned above.  My pupil and the circle did not line up exactly, as they should have (see diagram above left).

Upon further reading, and searching through the boxes and bags that the telescope came in, I could not find the collimation cap referenced in the instruction manual:  “This cap is a simple cap that fits on the focuser drawtube like a dust cap, but has a hole in the center and a reflective inner surface. The cap helps center your eye  so that collimation is easier to perform.”  I forged ahead, hoping I could get the mirror aligned ‘close enough’ for some test observing later that night.

Orion SkyQuest XT8I followed the instructions carefully, reading and re-reading and comparing what I was seeing through the focuser drawtube with the examples provided in the manual. I decided the secondary mirror didn’t need any adjustments, just the primary mirror. The locking thumbscrews on the back of the mirror were already loosened, so I began experimenting with small turns of the larger thumbscrews to adjust the tilt of the primary mirror.  I eventually got the small circle in the middle and tightened the locking thumbscrews down.  Now to move the unit outside to align the finderscope.

Orion SkyQuest XT8

I tilted the tub vertical, grasped the convenient handle on the back of the base with my right hand, keeping the tube vertical with my lefthand.  I walked slowly out the back door on the patio and down to the lower level of my back yard, away from (as much as that is possible) the surrounding trees (mine and my neighbors).  I needed to find an object about a quarter of a mile away to align the finderscope.  Because I live in a valley (Fawn Valley to be precise), everything, including the ground, is up from my backyard, and most of the horizon is blocked by houses and trees.  I could barely see the road leading up the hill to where City Hall stands, a couple of blocks to my south.  That would have to do.  I quickly and easily got the finderscope dialed in.

Now, I had to wait for darkness to fall.  I brought out my eyepieces (the three that came with the scope I left in the box with the solar filter) so they and the scope could reach a temperature equilibrium with the outside environment.  I went back inside and reviewed the Astro Quest observing award object list and my sky atlas to determine a short list of objects to observe before the moon rose high enough to wash out the night sky.

At half past nine, I went back outside, knowing I’d be able to find Saturn and Mars in the southwestern sky.  I did and quickly tried nearly every eyepiece I had, from a 30 mm down to a 9 or  a 4 mm.  I doubled a couple of those using a 2x barlowe lens.  I could clearly see the Cassini division in the rings, but did not try to discern any cloud variances on Saturn’s surface.

I pointed the scope at Mars next, but again, while a bright ruddy object, the red planet still seemed just the size of a pinhead, no matter how much magnification I attempted to throw at it.  I guess I need to ask some club members for assistance with seeing well enough to find the polar ice caps.  Perhaps I’m just too late in the year, since Mars now sets an hour or two after sunset and I’m looking through so much thick, dirty, hazy, humid air.

I could tell the moon had risen, but still remained low in the east, hidden behind houses and my tall pin oak in my front side yard.  My observing goals for the evening included three multiple star systems.  The first one I had actually observed when I first got the ETX-90 back in October 2010.  The middle star of the handle of the Big Dipper is actually an optical double star, Mizar-Alcor.  Terry joined me in observing this popular duo.

My second observing goal could be found in the constellation Lyra, containing the brightest star in the summer sky, Vega, and one of the three stars that form the asterism commonly referred to as the Summer Triangle.  Finding Vega turned out to be easy.  Correctly adjusting the movement of the telescope when aimed directly overhead, not so easy.  I had to run back inside to find my red flashlight and grab my reading classes and sky atlas before attempting to star hop the very short distance from Vega to Epsilon Lyrae, also known as the Double Double.  In hindsight, I also had forgotten to confirm how many degrees field of view the finderscope provided me (five degrees from the spec page of the instruction manual read this morning).  Because of the light pollution around my house and the rising nearly full moon, I could only see Vega and the beta and gamma stars of Lyra.  I could clearly see a triangle in the finderscope with one of the three stars Vega for sure, but which one was the Double Double?  I may have observed it last night, but I’m not entirely sure.  I plan to retry tonight, provided the predicted thunderstorm activity fades before ten o’clock or soon after.

Albireo (courtesy Wikipedia)

My final observing objective also appeared almost directly overhead, this time in the constellation Cygnus.  The head of the swan (Beta Cygni also known as Albiero) is a striking colorful double star that I easily found and observed for a few minutes.  Terry also took a quick look, but opted to let the mosquitoes and chiggers feast on me instead of him.  Since the moon would soon escape the defense put up by my pin oak, I asked Terry to help me carry the telescope back into the house while I held the red flashlight overhead to light our path.

I put all the eyepieces back in their cases and all the dust caps on all the openings of the telescope.  I recorded two of my three observations on my Astro Quest sheets.  Terry, Apollo, Lexy and I all retired to bed and left the moon to play by itself through the short summer night.

Some pros and cons about the Dobsonian telescope:  I like the improved light gathering capabilities.  I love the finderscope (it’s a very good quality one), but would love it more if it had a right-angle viewer.  I did not like the height of the eyepiece on the side of the tube.  I will need to get a portable stool to lean against.  My back is still aching this morning from the constant bent over position I found myself in last night.

Overall, I enjoyed my first foray among the stars with the SkyQuest.  I did not use the Intelliscope handheld device that would have assisted in identifying and locating objects.  I will save that adventure for another night, possibly at a darker site.

Swan Song Encore

For the second night in a row, I spent fifteen or twenty minutes outside, letting my eyes adjust to the darkness before participating in the Great World Wide Star Count.  I relaxed on my upper patio, hiding behind my pile of firewood, which blocks the bright lights from the doctors’ office to my west.  Apollo joined me both nights, enjoying the cool autumn breeze and quiet evening.

I zoomed in on the Northern Cross, also known as the constellation Cygnus, as the target of my naked eye observations both nights.  I printed the observing guide Friday before leaving work.  Despite being surrounded by city streetlights, prison security lighting and a nearly full moon, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that I could see down to magnitude five, but not quite to magnitude six, again according to the Northern Hemisphere Observing Guide.

Friday night I even setup the tripod and Canon camera to snap a three second exposure of the constellation Cynus:

Cygnus (just after 9 pm Central Fri 14 Oct 2011)
Cygnus (just after 9 pm Central Fri 14 Oct 2011)

Tonight, rather than setting up the camera, I brought out the binoculars to see if I could discern the blue and yellow stars that make up Albireo in the head of the Swan.  Having to look almost directly overhead and holding the binoculars away from my eyes did not result in a steady enough magnification to confirm.  Perhaps tomorrow night I’ll haul the telescope up out of the basement and get a better, steadier look at that gem.

I need to find another place at least one kilometer away from my house to do a second observation to report back to the website referenced above.  If only Lansing didn’t lock up all of it’s parks promptly at sunset, I might have an opportunity to observe from the new park out west on 4-H Road.

So how many stars can you see of the Swan?  Step outside tomorrow night, give your eyes fifteen minutes to adjust and look directly overhead.

Keep looking up!

A Year in the Life of My Blog

Last year, a few days after my birthday, I scrapped my MySpace blog, mostly due to interface changes, and ventured here to WordPress with a backup blog at Blogger.  My original intention was to journal my astronomical adventures here and do some inspirational topics on the backup site.  While I didn’t blog daily, I did manage to craft over two hundred blog entries here (this being my 225th).

Cygnas (the Swan)
Cygnus (the Swan)

In honor of my original intention to explore the heavens, I wanted to encourage everyone (and motivate myself) to participate in this year’s Great World Wide Star Count.  Don’t be shy!  Anyone can participate and it doesn’t require any equipment beyond your eyes.  This project is an annual survey of the night sky, held this year between October 14th and 28th (7-9 pm optimal viewing window) to record how many stars you can see in the constellation Cygnus (the Swan) in the northern hemisphere (follow the link above if you reside Down Under).  This helps map the spread of light pollution.  I plan to get out my telescope (for the first time this fall) and view the beautiful blue/yellow double-star Albireo. I can’t tell from the survey’s website if they are affiliate with the IDA (the International Dark-Sky Association), but I’m doing my bit (via this blog) to raise awareness about the value of dark skies and their preservation and restoration.

And now, a brief retrospective of some of my favorite blog entries (indicated with asterisks) from the past year and a few popular (according to the stats) highlights: