Posts Made By: Dave Mitsky

Here's my list of deep-sky objects for this month.

Dave Mitsky

Fifty-five deep-sky objects for August: B142, B143, NGC 6709, NGC 6738, NGC 6741, NGC 6751, NGC 6755, NGC 6781, NGC 6804 (Aquila); NGC 6819, NGC 6826 (Cygnus); DoDz 9 (Hercules); M56, M57, NGC 6791 (Lyra); H20, M71 (Sagitta); B86, B87, B90, B92, B93, M8, M17, M18, M20, M21, M22, M23, M24, M25, M28, M54, M55, M69, M70, M75, NGC 6440, NGC 6445, NGC 6520, NGC 6818, NGC 6822 (Sagittarius); B110, B111, B113, Bas 1, M11, M26, NGC 6712 (Scutum); Cr 399, M27, NGC 6802, NGC 6834, NGC 6940, St 1 (Vulpecula)

Challenge deep-sky object for August: Abell 53 (Aquila)

Here's my August list of binary and multiple stars.

Dave Mitsky

Sixty binary and multiple stars for August: 5 Aquilae, Struve 2404, 11 Aquilae, Struve 2426, 15 Aquilae, Struve 2449, 23 Aquilae, Struve 2532, Pi Aquilae, 57 Aquilae (Aquila); Beta Cygni (Albireo), 16 Cygni, Delta Cygni, 17 Cygni (Cygnus); 41 & 40 Draconis, 39 Draconis, Struve 2348, Sigma Draconis, Struve 2573, Epsilon Draconis (Draco); 95 Herculis, 100 Herculis, Struve 2289, Struve 2411 (Hercules); Struve 2349, Struve 2372, Epsilon-1 & Epsilon-2 Lyrae (the Double-Double), Zeta-2 Lyrae, Beta Lyrae, Otto Struve 525, Struve 2470 & Struve 2474 (the Other Double-Double) (Lyra); 67 Ophiuchi, 69 Ophiuchi, 70 Ophiuchi, Struve 2276, 74 Ophiuchi (Ophiuchus); Mu Sagittarii, Eta Sagittarii, 21 Sagittarii, Zeta Sagittarii, H N 119, 52 Sagittarii, 54 Sagittarii (Sagittarius); Struve 2306, Delta Scuti, Struve 2373 (Scutum); Struve 2296, Struve 2303, 59 Serpentis, Theta Serpentis (Serpens Cauda); Struve 2445, Struve 2455, Struve 2457, 4 Vupeculae, Struve 2521, Struve 2523, Struve 2540, Struve 2586, Otto Struve 388, Struve 2599 (Vulpecula)

Challenge binary star for August: Alvan Clark 11 (ADS 11324) (Serpens Cauda)

I got the word this past Saturday at the Tele Vue Day at Skies Unlimited that Tele Vue is dropping the Ranger and the Pronto refractors from their product line. Uncle Al mentioned this fact to me in person but didn't offer an explanation. One might speculate that competition from the Orion 80ED and perhaps the small Stellarvue refractors is to blame.

Dave Mitsky

AR 10649, also known as Sunspot 649, has survived a solar round trip. This complex group was visible back in July and can be seen rather easily without optical aid.

I had a look at it on Tuesday afternoon using my polymer eclipse shades and my 114mm f/7.9 Celestron C4.5 Newtonian and a Vixen zoom eyepiece using the 24, 16, 12, and 8mm settings. Also present was the small sunspot AR 10657.

An image is available at the spaceweather.com site:

http://www.spaceweather.com/images2004/10a...di512_blank.gif

Dave Mitsky

On Friday, August 6, 2004 the monthly meeting of the Delaware Valley Amateur Astronomers, one of the three astronomy clubs to which I belong, was held at the campus of Eastern College in St. Davids, Pennsylvania. Dr. David Bradstreet, who is a very active binary star researcher, gave an excellent talk on eclipsing binaries. "Binary Maker", a program that he wrote, produced very vivid visual representations of various types of eclipsing binary star systems when light curve and radial velocity measurements were inputted.

When Dr. Bradstreet had completed his lecture we were invited to tour the Bradstreet Observatory, which features two 16" f/10 Meade Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes housed in two ASH domes. Using one of the instruments DVAA members were able to watch as an SBIG CCD camera imaged a variety of deep-sky objects.

The first was M57, the justly famous Ring Nebula in Lyra . Its central star was easily visible on the computer monitor, of course. Next came the eastern segment of the Veil Nebula complex, NGC 6992, which resides in Cygnus. Without a focal reducer only a portion of this majestic supernova remnant could be seen. We then traveled to Vulpecula to view another planetary nebula, M27 (the Dumbbell Nebula).

Someone wanted to see a globular cluster. I suggested M10 in Ophiuchus since M13 and M5 were not well placed at the time. The imaging system portrayed the compact stellar city quite well.

I then asked to see NGC 6888, the Crescent Nebula, in Cygnus but it was a bit too large to be imaged in its totality.

NGC 7331 in Pegasus was our next target. A one minute exposure did a fine job on this fine spiral galaxy.

Before leaving I made another request. NGC 7662, a planetary nebula in Andromeda with the nickname of the Blue Snowball, was the final DSO I was to see that night.

For more on the Bradstreet Observatory see
http://beacon.eastern.edu/academic/trad_undg/sas/depts/physsci/facilities.html

Dave Mitsky

I finally got a chance to observe the bright supernova SN 2004dj this morning (2004/8/17) through my friend Tony Donnangelo's 14.5" Starmaster Sky Tracker Dob. The humidity was high and transparency rather poor and to make matters worse the only serious light dome present at our site in the Tuscarora State Forest was in the northeast but the supernova itself was quite easy to see using 22, 17, and 12mm Type 4 Naglers. NGC 2403, the parent galaxy, was completely lost in the haze, however.

Dave Mitsky

Quite to my surprise on Friday evening I received the Coronado Personal Solar Telescope that I had ordered from B & H last Monday. Unfortunately, Saturday morning was cloudy and rainy and there wasn't enough room in my friend Tony Donnangelo's vehicle for me to take my newest optical toy along on our impromptu trip to Cherry Springs State Park late that afternoon.

However, one of the first things I did upon returning on Monday afternoon from two nights of dark sky observing at CSSP was to set up my PST and have a look at the daystar. The PST is a 40mm f/10 dedicated H-alpha scope utilizing a 22mm diameter etalon H-alpha filter with a bandpass of less than 1.0 Angstrom. At just under $500 it is one of least expensive ways of getting involved with observing the Sun's chromosphere and its ever-changing array of prominences, filaments, plage, spicules, and other phenomena.

By 4:30 p.m. EDT (20:30 UT) I was viewing the Sun at the wavelength of 656.3 nanometers. A number of solar prominences of varying shapes and sizes were present as well as some dark filaments, one of which was quite long, and sunspots (AR 10652, AR 10663, and AR 10664). At the limb prominences were displayed very well and the detail on the sun's disk was more than satisfactory. During my examination of the chromosphere I used a Vixen zoom eyepiece (at focal lengths of 24, 16, 12, and 8mm), a 12.5mm Edscorp orthoscopic, a 12mm Coronado Cemax eyepiece which is optimized for H-alpha work, a 9mm PMO ortho, an 8mm Tele Vue Radian, and a 7mm Tele Vue Nagler Type 6 - all of which provided pleasing views, in particular the 7mm Nagler T6 and the 12mm Cemax mated with a 2x Celestron Ultima Barlow lens.

If you're at all interested in the fascinating field of H-alpha observing my advice is to place your order for a PST without delay.

There's a review of a prototype PST sans tuning ring at http://www.cloudynights.com/solar/pst.htm

Dave Mitsky

Quite to my surprise on Friday evening I received the Coronado Personal Solar Telescope that I had ordered from B & H last Monday. Unfortunately, Saturday morning was cloudy and rainy and there wasn't enough room in my friend Tony Donnangelo's vehicle for me to take my newest optical toy along on our impromptu trip to Cherry Springs State Park late that afternoon.

However, one of the first things I did upon returning on Monday afternoon from two nights of dark sky observing at CSSP was to set up my PST and have a look at the daystar. The PST is a 40mm f/10 dedicated H-alpha scope utilizing a 22mm diameter etalon H-alpha filter with a bandpass of less than 1.0 Angstrom. At just under $500 it is one of least expensive ways of getting involved with observing the Sun's chromosphere and its ever-changing array of prominences, filaments, plage, spicules, and other phenomena.

By 4:30 p.m. EDT (20:30 UT) I was viewing the Sun at the wavelength of 656.3 nanometers. A number of solar prominences of varying shapes and sizes were present as well as some dark filaments, one of which was quite long, and sunspots (AR 10652, AR 10663, and AR 10664). At the limb prominences were displayed very well and the detail on the sun's disk was more than satisfactory. During my examination of the chromosphere I used a Vixen zoom eyepiece (at focal lengths of 24, 16, 12, and 8mm), a 12.5mm Edscorp orthoscopic, a 12mm Coronado Cemax eyepiece which is optimized for H-alpha work, a 9mm PMO ortho, an 8mm Tele Vue Radian, and a 7mm Tele Vue Nagler Type 6 - all of which provided pleasing views, in particular the 7mm Nagler T6 and the 12mm Cemax mated with a 2x Celestron Ultima Barlow lens.

If you're at all interested in the fascinating field of H-alpha observing my advice is to place your order for a PST without delay.

There's a review of a prototype PST sans tuning ring at http://www.cloudynights.com/solar/pst.htm

Dave Mitsky

I've been buying Tele Vue "blems" at the NEAF since 1995 or 1996. It was always understood that these eyepieces held either cosmetic or optical flaws (or both). A 9mm Nagler T1 that I purchased there had a burr on the barrel and a minor optical defect.

Dave Mitsky

In order to prove a point to someone who badly needs it done I'd like to pose the following question:

For visual use only which is the better deep-sky (and the emphasis in on deep-sky) telescope, a 127mm f/12.1 Maksutov-Cassegrain or a 10 inch Newtonian Dob that is currently selling for about the same price?

Let me make it clear that I believe that I know a thing or two about the capabilities of both instruments and am not inquiring about a personal purchase. I already own nine telescopes. :-) I merely want to gather the opinions of other observers.

Dave Mitsky