Tonight is not a good observation night. Still, I can draw practice sketches from the Starry Night software. Here is Pleiades, one of the prettiest open clusters in the sky. The practice sketches now go on their own page too.
For this one, I used GIMP to enhance the scanned sketch image a bit. I used “smudge” to fuzz out some stray colored pencil marks in the nebulosity, and “blur” to make it even more nebulous. I only used slight blurring or else the stars would blur too. I also used the “levels” adjustment tool to make the background full black and the stars full white.
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When the moon is not up and the weather is reasonable, we have star parties at one of our two viewing sites. Last night, we went to Alpha Ridge park. There were some clouds, but still much was viewable. I saw Mercury for the first time in my scope and in binoculars, and I even took a picture of it. In addition, Mars and Saturn were right next to each other in the sky, in the Beehive cluster. I did not see many stars in the Beehive as it was low on the Western horizon just after sunset.
I saw the International Space Station twice–very bright satellite. All four Galilean moons of Jupiter were visible in the scope. At 300x magnification, I could just see the Great Red Spot fade in and out, but Red, Jr. was nowhere to be found.
I failed again to find M81/M82, but will try again next time. However, I did find M51, which was barely visible.
I tried for M40 but got mixed up somehow and sketched the wrong double star.
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No telephoto, just the DSC F717, 30 second exposure (I figured out how to do that yesterday) on my telescope tripod. Note how Mizar and Alcor are well seperated and easily visible. Note also that a 30-second exposure amplifies a streetlight-lit tree to daylight levels.
I took this and several other pictures tonight in my front yard. It was a better night that my other attempt at astrophotography.
Note that although the Milky Way cannot be seen from Bowie because of all the light, it is just visible in the Summer Triangle picture.
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Tonight appears to be a bad night for observing.
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I thought I’d look through the telesocpe tonight, as the Clear Sky Clock seemed to be in my favor. But–it was so hazy I could see very little. I tried something “easy” (M13), but couldn’t find it. So I used my binoculars….I couldn’t find it there either! It has to be a bad night if I can’t find M13 in binoculars. In very dark skies, it is a naked eye object (globular cluster). So, instead I tried mounting my digital camera to the scope to see if I could take pictures of Alkaid, Vega, and Arcturus (all of which were visible). That is my first attempt at astrophotography. Now, I didn’t mount the camera to the “visual back” where the eyepiece goes; that’s an advanced topic for me. I just bolted it onto the tube and used the mount as a very expensive tripod for the camera. I selected “A” mode (I forgot what it stands for…I couldn’t find a time-release mode or “bulb” mode to control the exposure time) which did 10-second exposures. I used my Sony DSC F717 which is not really an astro camera, though it is a very good, easy to use camera for the usual purposes.
Notice that color is evident. The telephoto lense of the camera split the double Epsilon Lyrae next to Vega (on a good night in a dark sky, it can be split by the unaided eye). Notice also that I took the picture of Vega through the top of a tree.
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The Clear Sky clock nearest me (in Annapolis) suggests tonight is a good night to observe:
but I have to work tomorrow too! I might compromise and go out with binoculars so there is no time required to put up and take down the telescope.
Meanwhile, here is another observation, of one of the most popular double stars, Alberio, also known as Beta Cygni, the southernmost (bottom) star of the Northern Cross. It is easy to find (in the eastern sky in the Milky Way, near the Summer Triangle of Deneb, Altair, and Vega).
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I decided to walk with my binoculars to a park 1/8 of a mile from my house, a wide-open space with trees far enough that I could see down to the horizon. I tried and failed to find M4 in Scorpius, most likely because in the east, there was a glow from the rising moon and from Annapolis.
So, to make sure it wasn’t a complete loss, I found a nice binocular target, perhaps the binocular analog to Alberio, the telescopic double I posted about earlier today. I chose the naked-eye optical double in the Northern Cross. If you look at the cross (currently, it rises in the east on its side, the top points north, the crossbar east and west), look above and to the right of the center of the crossbar. If the sky is dark enough, you will see a pair of stars. In binoculars, it resolves to three stars, two orange and one bluish-green. There are other, fainter stars in the field too, particularly since it is in the Milky Way.
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not tonight anyway. Of course, I work tomorrow and don’t want to be up late tonight. I also play saxophone in a community band and we have a concert tonight.
So instead, I’ll post a prior observation.
Coma Berenices (Berenice’s Hair) is a faint constellation. It is easily visible to the naked eye in dark rural skies, such as at my parents’ house near Moorefield, West Virginia. There are two stars, and a star cluster (the hair itself). The legend is Princess Berenice offerred her hair to Zeus and left it on an altar. The hair was stolen, but her servents convinced her that Zeus took the hair and placed it in the sky. The asterism that used to represent Leo’s fluffy tail was then renamed.
The cluster has several naked-eye stars (in dark skies, but not in Bowie) and the dimmer stars leave the impression of nebulosity. In binoculars, it is beautiful–the brightest stars are just brilliant.
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I was just outside with my telescope. It wasn’t the best of nights to observe, but it was the best I’ve had in Bowie for a week or so and anyway it was Saturday and I did not have to get up early to go to work the next day. So, I took the telescope out and observed. I failed to find M51 (though I know I pointed right at it–as I said, it wasn’t the best of nights), or M81/M82 (this was surprising, but I’m less sure I was pointed right at them). The North America nebula was invisible as well. I did see, however, M57, the ring nebula. And for good measure, I observed the “coathanger” asterism, also known as Collinder 399. The links go to observing reports, with sketches I just did in the last hour.
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