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 ...