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Monday, August 25, 2008
Sunday, August 24, 2008
10" dob @ TDS - Part I
Date: 23rd August 08, Saturday
Observation Time: 8:00pm to 12:00pm (4 hrs)
Location: TDS, CA
Weather: Seeing was excellent. Lil bit windy in the end. Slightly hot.
Instruments: My 10” dob & 10x50 binocs
Buddies: Bill and Mohammad from next pad.
Total Objects: 27
New Objects: 9 (Mercury, Neptune and Saggi globular clusters)
This is first time I took this 10" dob to a dark site.. It was a rewarding experience. This aperture is indeed satisfying my thrust :). The saggi globular hunting is a proof of it.
Tried to collimate the dob with Collimation cap, but not precisely. Edward with 17" dob, helped me to collimate it with his howie glatter laser collimator. I really need to buy one.
Started with Venus & Mercury. Venus wasn't sharp.. green ghost shadow with actual image.. indeed out of focus.. also too low on horizon. I guess collimation wasn't perfect. Didn't try any high mags on Venus either. Mercury, a small dot was visible in 9x50 finder, but didn't find it in dob...way low on horizon.. Any way, this is first time i saw Mercury with optics. To make sure collimation is correct, I moved to Jupiter, but still wasn't able to focus clearly... bit frustrating.
< Lyra >
Double Double: At 97x, bare split of double double. It was indeed hard to see anything below that (76x). With 135x and 270x it was fabulous. I guess inter-pair split is probably around 60-70 arc seconds, while each individual pair split might be 1-2 arc seconds. bluish-white star colors. Check Here. Inter-split estimation incorrect.. need to verify again..
At high mag, it was really hard to keep in focus. The spring tension system on the dob is not that great. With both mount springs attached, it becomes too tight, while with single spring, the dob moves lil bit because of its weight. Comparing both options, two springs setup was better and tried to keep the objects in view as far as possible.
Alberio: Fabulous view. nice colors. With 38x, out of focus color contrast was great. with 135x and 270x nice color contrast with sharp focus. 38 arc seconds split. I estimated double double split up values based on Alberio split up.
M57 Ring Nebula: Easy catch: Really nice wide angle view in 38x and ring pops in the view easily. Tried all mags 76x, 135x and 270x... 135x was best view. Outer ring and middle dark hole was clearly visible. Averted vision really helps to view the ring. No colors. No central star visible to me. A field star at 2" clock immediate next to ring (Confirmed)
Binocular Star-hopping:
While confirming location of veil nebula, Mohammad from next pad showed up. It was his first time and he was really exited. So I gave him quick binocular tour of DSOs in Sagittarius M7 Ptlomey's OC -> M6 Butterfly OC-> M8 Lagoon -> M20 Triffid -> M24 Star cloud -> Saggi constellation -> Galactic Center -> M22 GC -> M25 OC -> M28 GC.
Also he asked for M13 GC. I got it in my binocs within few seconds, but it was hard to show him exactly where to look at :). Also tried Omega Centauri GC, but failed. I really need to confirm the location (??)
< Scorpius >
M4 & 6144 GC : Instead of browsing to Veil, I started with M4 Glob. Fabulous GC. No colors. Easy to resolve all outskirts stars. 6144 was also next to it. Out of 6144, M4 and Antares, only two objects can be in the 1.0 deg view at a time. 6144 GC is indeed twice the size of Antares, but Antares is too bright and close, dimming the 6144 brightness.
Northern Jewel Box (6231) : Too low on horizon.
M7 Ptolemy OC: Fabulous yellowish stars in view. At 36x whole eyepiece was full of yellow stars. Heavenly experience
M6 Butterfly OC: Butterfly shape visible in 36x, with Reddish orange star tail. The upper wing is loosely attached on a point to the central body, while lower wing is smaller in size. At 135x (9mm), too much mag to see the shape. also reduced some contrast on orange tail star.
< Sagittarius >
Spent hell lot of time in Sagittarius.
M8 Lagoon + Hourglass : Observed in detail. 36x showed the dark semi circular rift. The right side of the rift (E) has a small open cluster (6530). The bottom part of rift (N), has some nebulosity, while The upper part of the rift (W) has another region of nebulosity. At 76x and 135x, the upper nebulous part shows distinctive features: A bright fuzzy object and two stars aligned in SW-NE line. Fuzziness is larger in size and higher magnitude than those two stars. I think this fuzziness is hourglass nebula and with some creativity, you can imagine the shape @ 270x as hourglass aligned at SW-NE line. (Need to confirm). Deep sky filter would have really helped.
M20 Triffid + M21 : Observed in detail. 36x shows the Open Cluster (M21).. This OC is indeed bigger in size than Lagoon OC. Upper Left (SW) of which, lies the nebulosity. In the Y rift shape the bottom of Y prong is aligned SW-NE and is the only visible rift. Two stars are aligned with it on upper side. while 2 more bright stars defining edge of lower nebulosity. The 72x clearly shows one more star at the center of Y shape. It is also aligned with previous two stars. 76x also reveals the other 2 rifts of Y shape upper prong is more visible than lower prong. 76x reveals that the central star in Y is indeed a double star. 135x view was good too, confirming all details. Deep sky filter would have helped.
Kaus Borealis, M22, M28 & NGC-6638 GC: the 5th star of Tea pot is Kaus Borealis (lambda). I wasn't aware abt the name before. "Kau's" :) !! M22 is fabulous GC.. probably slightly fainter than M4. Looks good in high mags. M28 is also nice, bluish and tiny as compared to M22. Hard to resolve anything in there. while star hopping within 32mm eyepiece (36x), I accidentally saw a tiny GC next to Kaus Borealis, which was smaller in size than M28. Map confirmed that it is NGC 6638. It's probably same size as Antares, but bluish and fuzzy in size. Its like sky-blue color fuzzy dot. Also, map shows a planetary nebula NGC 6644 next 6638 but didn't see anything (confirm the mag and try it next time. ??)
Observation Time: 8:00pm to 12:00pm (4 hrs)
Location: TDS, CA
Weather: Seeing was excellent. Lil bit windy in the end. Slightly hot.
Instruments: My 10” dob & 10x50 binocs
Buddies: Bill and Mohammad from next pad.
Total Objects: 27
New Objects: 9 (Mercury, Neptune and Saggi globular clusters)
This is first time I took this 10" dob to a dark site.. It was a rewarding experience. This aperture is indeed satisfying my thrust :). The saggi globular hunting is a proof of it.
Tried to collimate the dob with Collimation cap, but not precisely. Edward with 17" dob, helped me to collimate it with his howie glatter laser collimator. I really need to buy one.
Started with Venus & Mercury. Venus wasn't sharp.. green ghost shadow with actual image.. indeed out of focus.. also too low on horizon. I guess collimation wasn't perfect. Didn't try any high mags on Venus either. Mercury, a small dot was visible in 9x50 finder, but didn't find it in dob...way low on horizon.. Any way, this is first time i saw Mercury with optics. To make sure collimation is correct, I moved to Jupiter, but still wasn't able to focus clearly... bit frustrating.
< Lyra >
Double Double: At 97x, bare split of double double. It was indeed hard to see anything below that (76x). With 135x and 270x it was fabulous. I guess inter-pair split is probably around 60-70 arc seconds, while each individual pair split might be 1-2 arc seconds. bluish-white star colors. Check Here. Inter-split estimation incorrect.. need to verify again..
At high mag, it was really hard to keep in focus. The spring tension system on the dob is not that great. With both mount springs attached, it becomes too tight, while with single spring, the dob moves lil bit because of its weight. Comparing both options, two springs setup was better and tried to keep the objects in view as far as possible.
Alberio: Fabulous view. nice colors. With 38x, out of focus color contrast was great. with 135x and 270x nice color contrast with sharp focus. 38 arc seconds split. I estimated double double split up values based on Alberio split up.
M57 Ring Nebula: Easy catch: Really nice wide angle view in 38x and ring pops in the view easily. Tried all mags 76x, 135x and 270x... 135x was best view. Outer ring and middle dark hole was clearly visible. Averted vision really helps to view the ring. No colors. No central star visible to me. A field star at 2" clock immediate next to ring (Confirmed)
Binocular Star-hopping:
While confirming location of veil nebula, Mohammad from next pad showed up. It was his first time and he was really exited. So I gave him quick binocular tour of DSOs in Sagittarius M7 Ptlomey's OC -> M6 Butterfly OC-> M8 Lagoon -> M20 Triffid -> M24 Star cloud -> Saggi constellation -> Galactic Center -> M22 GC -> M25 OC -> M28 GC.
Also he asked for M13 GC. I got it in my binocs within few seconds, but it was hard to show him exactly where to look at :). Also tried Omega Centauri GC, but failed. I really need to confirm the location (??)
< Scorpius >
M4 & 6144 GC : Instead of browsing to Veil, I started with M4 Glob. Fabulous GC. No colors. Easy to resolve all outskirts stars. 6144 was also next to it. Out of 6144, M4 and Antares, only two objects can be in the 1.0 deg view at a time. 6144 GC is indeed twice the size of Antares, but Antares is too bright and close, dimming the 6144 brightness.
Northern Jewel Box (6231) : Too low on horizon.
M7 Ptolemy OC: Fabulous yellowish stars in view. At 36x whole eyepiece was full of yellow stars. Heavenly experience
M6 Butterfly OC: Butterfly shape visible in 36x, with Reddish orange star tail. The upper wing is loosely attached on a point to the central body, while lower wing is smaller in size. At 135x (9mm), too much mag to see the shape. also reduced some contrast on orange tail star.
< Sagittarius >
Spent hell lot of time in Sagittarius.
M8 Lagoon + Hourglass : Observed in detail. 36x showed the dark semi circular rift. The right side of the rift (E) has a small open cluster (6530). The bottom part of rift (N), has some nebulosity, while The upper part of the rift (W) has another region of nebulosity. At 76x and 135x, the upper nebulous part shows distinctive features: A bright fuzzy object and two stars aligned in SW-NE line. Fuzziness is larger in size and higher magnitude than those two stars. I think this fuzziness is hourglass nebula and with some creativity, you can imagine the shape @ 270x as hourglass aligned at SW-NE line. (Need to confirm). Deep sky filter would have really helped.
M20 Triffid + M21 : Observed in detail. 36x shows the Open Cluster (M21).. This OC is indeed bigger in size than Lagoon OC. Upper Left (SW) of which, lies the nebulosity. In the Y rift shape the bottom of Y prong is aligned SW-NE and is the only visible rift. Two stars are aligned with it on upper side. while 2 more bright stars defining edge of lower nebulosity. The 72x clearly shows one more star at the center of Y shape. It is also aligned with previous two stars. 76x also reveals the other 2 rifts of Y shape upper prong is more visible than lower prong. 76x reveals that the central star in Y is indeed a double star. 135x view was good too, confirming all details. Deep sky filter would have helped.
Kaus Borealis, M22, M28 & NGC-6638 GC: the 5th star of Tea pot is Kaus Borealis (lambda). I wasn't aware abt the name before. "Kau's" :) !! M22 is fabulous GC.. probably slightly fainter than M4. Looks good in high mags. M28 is also nice, bluish and tiny as compared to M22. Hard to resolve anything in there. while star hopping within 32mm eyepiece (36x), I accidentally saw a tiny GC next to Kaus Borealis, which was smaller in size than M28. Map confirmed that it is NGC 6638. It's probably same size as Antares, but bluish and fuzzy in size. Its like sky-blue color fuzzy dot. Also, map shows a planetary nebula NGC 6644 next 6638 but didn't see anything (confirm the mag and try it next time. ??)
10" dob @ TDS - Part II
...continued.
Globular Hunting:
My own discovery of NGC 6638, sparked some enthu in me and i started browsing all tiny globulars within Sagittarius :). I spotted NGC 6624 GC, next to Kaus Media star (delta). Again, next to Alnasl (Gamma) were NGC 6528 GC, NGC 6522 GC, NGC 6558, NGC 6569. All of them were bluish and fuzzy in color probably 3-5 arc minutes in size. 6569 was lil bit brighter and bigger in size than 6558. (Right)
Neptune : When I was moving to Kaus Australis, I heard people talking abt "Neptune" from next pad. Fellow "Gilbert" showed me Neptune in his 10 inch Meade Cassegrain. Neptune was white in color.. "a dot" in the view.. having on board computer indeed helps... According to gilbert, if you make it lil bit out of focus, you can see a out-of-focus disk for that "dot", but other stars still remain as pointed dots and thats the key to identify. hmmm.. After some discussions and with few more objects, i realized that his telescope his not properly aligned. When i asked him to point to Uranus, which i have seen before, it didn't show anything. Also pointing to Mizar in UMa implied its completely out of alignment..so i am really not sure what i saw was really Neptune :)..
Because of Neptune, I got distracted from my GC starhopping and inturn afterwards I realized that I missed some nice globs M69, M70 and M54... any way.. next time !!
Veil nebula : missed - need to read more... nebulousity wasn't visible at all...means i felt something smoky around star 52, but the shape wasn't discernible. Filter would have really helped.
M31 Andromeda - M32 - M110: Because of Veil nebula frustration, i picked best object for nice view. M31-M32-M110.. was awesome.. M31 just doesn't fit into any eyepiece. binocular shows its real size. M31 and M32 fir in same view (36x). M32 is tiny, but still really bright and its ecliptic shape is clearly visible. M110 is indeed faint. Probably fainter than M33-Triangulum galaxy (Wrong) and all high mags just killed it. I tried to put some high mags on M32 to catch any glimpses inside. but i can see only the bright core. I wonder what kind of aperture or magnification you need to see all Andromeda globular clusters. (???)
M33 Triangulum: I misinterpreted the map and it took hell lot of time to get M33 in the view. Binocular really helped here. Probably I spent more than 10-15 mins just to find M33 in binocs and in turn in the dob. It was disappointing.. Again, i didn't see much in the view.. it seemed to be brighter than M110.. but it was hard to see any shape or arms. (??)
M27 Dumbbell: After frustrating M33, I moved to familiar one. Altair + coat hanger and M27 dumbbell the starhopping session i learnt from Jon is so precise and imprinted in my brain, that it didn't take much time to locate M27. Infact coat-hanger was visible with just naked eyes. M27 view was fabulous. I caught it dob, within a minute.
Jupiter: At the end of session pointed to Jupiter. 36x or 76x wasn't impressive. but 135x was THE best. Higher magnification of 270x didn't help. Wasn't able to focus clearly. NEB, NTB, Equatorial zone & SEB were clearly visible. STB was lil bit hard. Sawtooth in SEB was nice. I saw great red spot also. Again.. only the shape was perfectly visible. Need to read more (??)
Moon: Moon rise just washed out whole deep sky... Browsing to moon thru dob was nice. It was too low..
Problem Faced:
- Dob movement not smooth. spring system
- Observations at zenith. Lost direction sense in the view. Chair height.
- Judgment of distances within a field of view.
TBDs:
- Laser Collimator
- Chair with proper height.
- Deep Sky Filter
Globular Hunting:
My own discovery of NGC 6638, sparked some enthu in me and i started browsing all tiny globulars within Sagittarius :). I spotted NGC 6624 GC, next to Kaus Media star (delta). Again, next to Alnasl (Gamma) were NGC 6528 GC, NGC 6522 GC, NGC 6558, NGC 6569. All of them were bluish and fuzzy in color probably 3-5 arc minutes in size. 6569 was lil bit brighter and bigger in size than 6558. (Right)
Neptune : When I was moving to Kaus Australis, I heard people talking abt "Neptune" from next pad. Fellow "Gilbert" showed me Neptune in his 10 inch Meade Cassegrain. Neptune was white in color.. "a dot" in the view.. having on board computer indeed helps... According to gilbert, if you make it lil bit out of focus, you can see a out-of-focus disk for that "dot", but other stars still remain as pointed dots and thats the key to identify. hmmm.. After some discussions and with few more objects, i realized that his telescope his not properly aligned. When i asked him to point to Uranus, which i have seen before, it didn't show anything. Also pointing to Mizar in UMa implied its completely out of alignment..so i am really not sure what i saw was really Neptune :)..
Because of Neptune, I got distracted from my GC starhopping and inturn afterwards I realized that I missed some nice globs M69, M70 and M54... any way.. next time !!
Veil nebula : missed - need to read more... nebulousity wasn't visible at all...means i felt something smoky around star 52, but the shape wasn't discernible. Filter would have really helped.
M31 Andromeda - M32 - M110: Because of Veil nebula frustration, i picked best object for nice view. M31-M32-M110.. was awesome.. M31 just doesn't fit into any eyepiece. binocular shows its real size. M31 and M32 fir in same view (36x). M32 is tiny, but still really bright and its ecliptic shape is clearly visible. M110 is indeed faint. Probably fainter than M33-Triangulum galaxy (Wrong) and all high mags just killed it. I tried to put some high mags on M32 to catch any glimpses inside. but i can see only the bright core. I wonder what kind of aperture or magnification you need to see all Andromeda globular clusters. (???)
M33 Triangulum: I misinterpreted the map and it took hell lot of time to get M33 in the view. Binocular really helped here. Probably I spent more than 10-15 mins just to find M33 in binocs and in turn in the dob. It was disappointing.. Again, i didn't see much in the view.. it seemed to be brighter than M110.. but it was hard to see any shape or arms. (??)
M27 Dumbbell: After frustrating M33, I moved to familiar one. Altair + coat hanger and M27 dumbbell the starhopping session i learnt from Jon is so precise and imprinted in my brain, that it didn't take much time to locate M27. Infact coat-hanger was visible with just naked eyes. M27 view was fabulous. I caught it dob, within a minute.
Jupiter: At the end of session pointed to Jupiter. 36x or 76x wasn't impressive. but 135x was THE best. Higher magnification of 270x didn't help. Wasn't able to focus clearly. NEB, NTB, Equatorial zone & SEB were clearly visible. STB was lil bit hard. Sawtooth in SEB was nice. I saw great red spot also. Again.. only the shape was perfectly visible. Need to read more (??)
Moon: Moon rise just washed out whole deep sky... Browsing to moon thru dob was nice. It was too low..
Problem Faced:
- Dob movement not smooth. spring system
- Observations at zenith. Lost direction sense in the view. Chair height.
- Judgment of distances within a field of view.
TBDs:
- Laser Collimator
- Chair with proper height.
- Deep Sky Filter
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