Observer's Log

StarGaze

Went to the public StarGaze with the Carolina Skies Astronomy Club tonight. There was a good crowd there. The seeing wasn't very good, with scattered clouds rolling through periodically, but I looked at Jupiter through an assortment of scopes with the best view being through Bill All's 11-inch Celestron scope. Bill is the president of the astronomy club. I also looked at Messier Objects M13 (NGC 6205), the Great globular cluster in Hercules, M29 (NGC 6913), an open cluster in Cygnus, the open cluster M39 (NGC 7092) in Cygnus, and M57 (NGC 6720), the Ring Nebula, a planetary nebula, in Lyra.
M13 is 25,100 light years away with possibly more than a million stars. The open cluster M29 lies 7,200 light years away in Cygnus. Charles Messier cataloged this cluster on July 29, 1764. M39 is a very loose open cluster about 800 light years away and is about 5.4 Magnitude. The planetary nebula M57, the Ring Nebula, is probably about 2,300 light years away. It was the second planetary nebula to be discovered, in 1779.

The Messier objects. Click on the image for detailed information of each object from the Students for the Exploration and Development of Space web site.

Polaris and Venus infinity

I got out in the front yard tonight with the scope and Polar Aligned it. You would think I'd have this procedure down. And I suppose I do except it took me forever because it's just about the most complicated thing I can think of doing. I set it up and got things looking pretty good in the beginning and then decided to attach my camera. That was a smooth move because it screwed the alignment up and I had to start all over THIS TIME WITH THE CAMERA ATTACHED FROM THE GET-GO. First there's Polaris. Then there's Venus. Then there's Polaris again (adjust the wedge). Then there's Venus. This goes on and on for what seems like infinity until things finally start coming together. M57, the Ring Nebula, NGC 6720, a planetary nebula in Lyra, was just barely visible in the bright moonlight in the scope.

Took the scope to Goose Creek

Here's a view looking into the constellation Vulpecula (click on photo for a bigger version) shot from Goose Creek State Park on July 13. It was taken from a primitive campsite at the park at about 2 a.m. There's not much of a clearing in the campsite so it was difficultt getting my telescope aligned properly but I managed and then I attached my camera to the scope and shot this image. The ISO is 1600 and the exposure is 31 seconds at f/4.0.
I haven't had the scope out in a while so I was a little rusty on the controls. I have a wireless transmitter that allows me to control it without getting cords tangled up everywhere and I had a time remembering how to use it. I also kept walking away from the scope and forgetting I had it in my hand. Then I would walk too far away and lose the connection. This caused me to have to realign the scope several times. All in all it was a very good time, though. Jupiter was up to where I could observe it and it's moons and I spent a good amount of time gawking at the planet as Earth's Moon set on the horizon, nearby.

Skywatch Saturn, Mars and Jupiter

After spending a few days out of town on an assignment I was able to get out to the field last night and look at a few things in the sky. Mainly, I went out to look at Mars, Regulus and Saturn. The three are adjacent to each other in Leo. Mars is situated very near Regulus now but is making its way toward Saturn in the next few days. Go out and look at the difference in colors of the three this coming week. Jupiter is rising just after dark and is unmistakable in the southern sky at magnitude -2.7.