Orion and Auriga

It is getting cold at night here in California, but I ventured out a couple of nights ago as the forecast is for cloud and rain for the next two weeks.

I got my 1st view of Orion in the CPC 1100 since getting the telescope a year ago - and my observing skills have progressed substantially since then. M42 and M43 looked great at all magnifications – particularly through the Ethos 13, where the Trapezium and surrounding nebulosity were very clear and impressive. I tried out the Orion Ultrablock (H-beta and OIII) filter on these nebulas. Although the nebulas were definitely more defined with the filter, I didn't find the difference to be really substantial.

I then moved over to M78, but couldn't see it - even with the filter in place. I don't think this was an issue with the goto, as many other objects were placed clearly inside the FOV - so I imagine this was a function of local light pollution and perhaps the poor transparency that evening (clouds were coming in throughout the observing session). That being said, I will certainly try for M78 again as soon as we get a clear night.

I next turned my attention to some of Orion's double stars. Meissa (Lambda Orionis) was easily split as it is only a 4.4 arc second separation. There is a noticeable difference in magnitude between the two stars. Meissa is part of the Collinder 69 cluster, which contains a striking 3-star asterism.

Sigma Orionis is a 5-star system, four of which were easily resolved - but I couldn't split A and B, as they are only 0.25 arc seconds apart.

I then shifted over to open clusters in and around Orion and Auriga: NGC 1981, M35, M36, M37 and M38. M37 was my favorite - clearly the brightest of the bunch, containing around 500 stars.

My last target of the night was the Crab Nebula, M1. Again, as with M78, no luck - even with the nebula filter. M1 has very low surface brightness, so will probably require a dark site location to snag this one.

Controlling the CPC 1100 telescope from a laptop

Although the CPC 1100 has a very good handset for selecting target objects for Goto, the "holy grail" for amateur observational astronomy is to direct the telescope using a planetarium application. Why? Because planetarium software gives you tremendous flexibility in planning an observing session, understanding the context of what you are observing, and just simply exploring the sky.

Tonight was my first attempt and, thanks to some helpful directions on the cloudynights forum, it look less than 1/2 hr to get everything configured.

I use Stellarium (see below) as my planetarium application, and connected my laptop to the telescope handset through a USB-to-serial converter cable. The next step would be to invest in a bluetooth receiver, which would remove the need for wires (never much fun fiddling with wires in the dark).

Unfortunately the clouds rolled in soon after I had everything working. Nevertheless, it was a lot of fun to the see the telescope location pointer slewing across the screen in step with the motion of the scope itself. I am very much looking forward to giving this a good workout on a clear night. I can already see that the laptop-driven approach will substantially enhance my observing experiences.

Exploring Orion

I am planning a comprehensive exploration of Orion this coming weekend, having recently purchased a UHC filter (the Orion Ultrablock Narrowband) - which should help in viewing the emission nebulae in this constellation.

I just took a look at Orion through my old 8 x 40 binoculars, and the view was amazing - so I am eagerly anticipating what almost 50 times more light gathering capacity will deliver! Not that Orion isn't a wonderful object to view through binoculars: Betelgeuse, the stars of Orion's belt (Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka), the sword of Orion and the M42 nebula within it are all a treat through the binoculars.

The screen shot of Orion below is from Stellarium - a wonderful free planetarium application (download here) that I use for planning my observation sessions. One of my next telescope projects will be to hook a laptop up to the telescope, preferably wirelessly, and use Stellarium to drive the telescope. Stellarium has a "night mode" - which displays the screen in red and thus saves night vision. I can see this being a great tool for exploring the sky in a more interactive and expansive fashion than just relying on the handset.

Comfort!

After close to a year of leaning over my telescope and having my kids perch precariously on a chair or folding step stool when observing - I finally bought an observing chair. What a difference! The height of this chair can be very easily adjusted to suit the orientation of the telescope or size of the observer. In addition to just being more comfortable, it allows the observer to spend more time at the eyepiece actually observing. Well worth the $200 - probably one of the best investments in telescope equipment that I've made to date!

m15 - age and beauty!

Last night was the star party at my kids' school (see post below). We had about 50 people in attendance and 6 telescopes - so a good time was had by all.

By the time things got going M13 was too low in the sky for viewing, but I still wanted to show the kids a globular cluster. These fascinating objects are excellent star party targets - not only do they look great at the eyepiece, but their sheer age is astounding. Perhaps the oldest of all is M15 at over 13 billion years - almost as old as the universe itself. In addition to its age, M15 is remarkable for being one of the densest globular clusters - and is widely thought to have a massive black hole at its center.

Even from the field at my kids' school, with substantial light from the school building and parking lot, M15 looked great: bright with clearly resolved stars and structure.

Changing seasons

I had to catch an early flight for a business trip a couple of days ago. Walking out of my front door at 4am, I glanced up in the sky to see Orion on prominent display. Living in Northern California, I have always thought of Orion as a late winter constellation and so was shocked (and very pleasantly surprised) to see it there in the sky. Unfortunately I didn't have time to get the telescope out, but it did get me thinking about how I have become more aware of the changing seasons since having a telescope for the last year: the movement of the summer triangle across the sky, the slow descent of the Big Dipper towards the horizon, the emergence of Cassiopeia from behind the large tree in my back yard, the descent of Scorpius and then Sagittarius into the evening twilight and the steady march of Jupiter across the sky are but a few examples of note. I have always been a strong believer that an understanding of astronomy, and more specifically cosmology, gives one a unique and fascinating perspective on the insignificance of our position in the universe. However I have found the motion of the constellations and planets through the night sky to be in many ways a more tangible, enjoyable and profound experience. This is truly something that should be taught in elementary school, and experienced by everyone.

Excellent amateur astronomy resource

Since getting into this hobby about 1 year ago, I have found the Cloudynights forum to be an invaluable resource. This site is truly a community of fellow amateur astronomers, who are incredibly generous with their time, support and insights. Regardless of whether you are completely new to astronomy, or a seasoned veteran with 40 years' observing under your belt, you will find an answer to your question and others who are willing to share their experiences and perspective. I find myself visiting the site on a daily basis, if only to soak up knowledge and ideas - or to attempt to share what little I know with others behind me on the learning curve!

Viewing Jupiter

I had a good time observing with my two older kids (9 & 7) this weekend, especially trying to see surface detail on Jupiter. This reminded me of the best view that I've ever had of Jupiter, which was a couple of months ago (8/26 to be precise). I set up around 8.30pm that night to start the cool down process, and as it started to get dark around 9pm I poked around at the usual good targets from my light polluted back yard. I had some family in from out of town, and I dragged them out one by one to look through the scope.

Around 9.30pm Jupiter poked up over the roof of my house. The seeing was bad with the house heat rising up and the view of Jupiter was nothing impressive.

Around 10.30pm I took another look, through my 13mm Ethos. I saw one of the moons (not sure which one) just about to start transit - and had the family out to take a look. About 20 mins later the seeing steadied out fantastically - and WOW! The view was astounding! So much clear surface detail and the Great Red Spot was front and center.

By now the family were clamoring the see what was going on. The moon was now well into transit, seeing all the cloud belt details, GRS, moon transit & shadow on the surface. Literally tack-sharp with seemingly perfect seeing. Even my wife (who isn't an astronomy fanatic) was blown away by the view.

Around 11pm I swapped out the Ethos for the Stratus 21mm + a 2x barlow - so roughly 270x. AMAZING! The planet was taking up what felt like almost 50% of the field of view, with so much detail that I was stuck to the eyepiece for another hour. I would probably have kept viewing all night if it weren't for the fact that I needed to be in the office by 7am the next day ...

Star party targets

I am participating in a star party at my kids' school on Nov 14th. The school is in a heavily light polluted area (red zone). Nevertheless there should be plenty of good showpiece objects visible at this time of year from the Bay Area. I am looking forward to showing the following to the kids:

• Jupiter - always a great one for star parties
• Uranus - surprisingly easy target, even under light pollution
• Albiero - probably the most beautiful double star, and a good target for discussing double stars and star evolution
• Ring nebula - nice planetary nebula target
• Double cluster - great open cluster target. Fits nicely into the 38mm eyepiece in my CPC 1100
• Owl cluster - fun one for the kids (although the Owl is inverted ...)
• M13 - one of my personal favorites. Should still be visible low in the sky

I'll post back with the "ooh/aah" feedback after the star party.

First view of Uranus

Uranus was another first (for me) view in the same observing session that I mentioned below. Despite the fact that Uranus is almost 1.7 billion miles away, the planet is actually an easy target and clearly resolves as a disc.

This gas giant appears blue/green due to the methane in its atmosphere. The color was very clear, even in my light polluted skies. I got the best view at 215x using the 13mm Ethos eyepiece in my CPC 1100. Unlike Jupiter or Saturn, no surface details are visible which isn't surprising given the distance.

The view at the eyepiece was very similar to the picture here.

First view of Andromeda

It is now getting late enough in the year that the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) is visible in Bay Area skies at a reasonable time, and also not obscured by trees in my backyard. The constellation of Cassiopeia is prominent in the sky around 7pm and an easy sign-post to M31.

I took my first look at M31 a couple of nights ago through my lowest power eyepiece (Q70 38mm), which gives 73x in the CPC 1100. M31 is a very large object and so requires low power. Unfortunately this means that the background sky glow from light pollution is more pronounced - although not too bad on M31 as the object is so bright.

At 2.5 million light years, M31 is the the closest spiral galaxy to the Milky Way and contains almost 1 trillion stars. This galaxy will collide with ours in about 2.5 billion years. Andromeda has two "satellite" galaxies - M32 and M101. I was able to see both of these also.

The view at the eyepiece was very similar to the picture below - although the dark dust lanes weren't as pronounced.