Posts Made By: Dave Mitsky

There were a few moments of sunny skies on Wednesday afternoon. I took advantage of them and had a look at Sol with my Coronado PST, a Vixen 8-24mm zoom eyepiece, and a 7mm Tele Vue Nagler Type 6. Numerous prominences were visible on both the leading and trailing limbs. A couple of filaments were present too but they were not as impressive as the ones I saw earlier in the week.

Once again I had the interesting experience of watching a jet airliner transit the sun's disk.

Dave Mitsky

There were a few moments of sunny skies on Wednesday afternoon. I took advantage of them and had a look at Sol with my Coronado PST, a Vixen 8-24mm zoom eyepiece, and a 7mm Tele Vue Nagler Type 6. Numerous prominences were visible on both the leading and trailing limbs. A couple of filaments were present too but they were not as impressive as the ones I saw earlier in the week.

Once again I had the interesting experience of watching a jet airliner transit the sun's disk.

Dave Mitsky

I took advantage of clear skies on a very chilly Thursday to dabble in a bit of varied observing.

During the early afternoon, I viewed the Sun with my Coronado PST and a 8-24mm Vixen zoom eyepiece. The seeing was poor but I could make out a number of prominences without undue difficulty.

Next came a strictly naked-eye observation. As the Sun was near setting, the shadow of the Earth and the Belt of Venus were readily visible.

Interestingly enough, these phenomena were the subjects of Thursday's episode of Stardate - http://www.stardate.org/radio/program.php?f=detail&id=20050127

There's a photo that depicts them quite well at http://epod.usra.edu/archive/epodviewer.php3?oid=123776

When I arrived at the Naylor Observatory that evening, I had a peak at Comet Machholz Q2 before moonrise using a Barska 15x70 binocular and the ASH 17" f/15 classical Cassegrain at magnifications of 118 (55mm University Optics Ploessl), 162 (40mm U.O. MK-70), and 202x (32mm U.O. Koenig-II). I could distinctly see the dust tail and perhaps a hint of the ion tail. The comet was not all that far from the Double Cluster.

There wasn't much time before the waning gibbous Moon's presence was going to make itself be felt. I decided to look at some standard DSO fare and targets of dome shutter opportunity. I viewed M42 and M43 at 162 (with and without an Orion UltraBlock filter) and 202x, M78 at 162x, Almach (Gamma Andromedae) at 118x, NGC 457 and M103 at 118x, NGC 404 at 118x, M31 and its companions M32 and M110 at 162x, M35 at 162x, NGC 2158 at 162 and 259x, NGC 2129 (a small open cluster in Gemini that I hadn't seen in some time) at 162x, and Saturn at 162 and 202x. Unfortunately, mediocre seeing prevailed and little detail could be seen. Four Saturnian satellites were revealed by the 17".

Dave Mitsky

Here's my February list of deep-sky objects between 6 and 8 hours of right ascension.

Dave Mitsky

Fifty deep-sky objects for February: NGC 2146, NGC 2403
(Camelopardalis); M41, NGC 2345, NGC 2359, NGC 2360, NGC 2362, NGC 2367,
NGC 2383 (Canis Major); M35, NGC 2129, NGC 2158, NGC 2266, NGC 2355, NGC
2371-72, NGC 2392, NGC 2420 (Gemini); NGC 2419 (Lynx); M50, NGC 2232,
NGC 2237, NGC 2238, NGC 2244, NGC 2245, NGC 2251, NGC 2261, NGC 2264,
NGC 2286, NGC 2301, NGC 2311, NGC 2324, NGC 2335, NGC 2345, NGC 2346,
NGC 2353 (Monoceros); NGC 2169, NGC 2174, NGC 2194 (Orion); M46, M47,
M93, Mel 71, NGC 2421, NGC 2423, NGC 2438, NGC 2439, NGC 2440, NGC 2467,
NGC 2506, NGC 2509 (Puppis)

Challenge deep-sky object for February: IC 443 (Gemini)

I didn't know exactly where to post this but I guess this is as good a place as any.

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=16050

Personally, I think it's a great idea.

Dave Mitsky

I spent Saturday night, 2005/2/6 UT, at a dark sky site that I had not been to previously. It was only a 43 mile, 55 minute trip for me, about half an hour less than the two best Astronomical Society of Harrisburg dark sites. I learned about this site while attending the Delaware Valley Amateur Astronomers Solar Saturday earlier in the day.

Present were over a dozen observers from the Chestmont Astronomical Society (see http://www.chesmontastro.org/ ) and the Delware Valley Amateur Astronomers (see http://www.dvaa.org ) and a healthy variety of telescopes, among them Karl Krassley's 22" TeleKit Dob, at least two 20" Obsession Dobs (one belonging to fellow DVAA member Al Lamperti), an 18" ServoCAT Obsession Dob, a 16" Dob, a 12.5" TeleKit Dob, a 10" Discovery Dob, and a 10" ATM Dob.

The site was surprisingly dark for being relatively nearby and the transparency was excellent. I could see M35 without optical aid when it was near the zenith. The Horsehead Nebula (B33) was a fairly easy target through Al's H-beta filtered 20". The California Nebula (NGC 1499) was not at all difficult through my 101mm Tele Vue refractor mated with Al's H-beta filter and my 35mm Panoptic. Comet Machholz Q2 was within naked-eye visibility and its two tails were visible through my refractor at moderately low powers.

I looked at many deep-sky objects as well as the comet, some binary stars, Saturn, and Jupiter during the course of approximately five and a half hours. M1 was as good as I've ever seen it through the 18" Obsession. The extragalactic globular cluster G1 (Mayall II) in M31 was an almost stellar fuzzy spot at high magnification through Al's Obsession.

I saw the new supernova in NGC 2146 in Camelopardalis (see http://www.noao.edu/outreach/aop/observers/n2146.html for an image of this interesting peculiar galaxy) through Karl's scope but it was definitely an averted vision object. M42 was very bright and colorful. I also had a look at NGC 2392 (the Eskimo Nebula) at over 500x through the 22". My last view of the night was through Karl's scope and it was a very fine one: M51 and its companion NGC 5195, with M51's spirality being clearly apparent.

The high point of the night for me came when I logged IC 2118 (the Witchhead Nebula) with my 101mm Tele Vue refractor and 35 Panoptic. It was the first time that I've seen this aptly named reflection nebula through a telescope. IC 2118 appeared as a large, faint glow in Eridanus to the west of Rigel and to the south of Cursa (see http://www.astropix.com/HTML/B_WINTER/IC2118.HTM ).

I'll undoubtedly be paying the State Game Lands 110 parking lot another visit in the not too distant future.

Dave Mitsky

I had a look at the Sun on Tuesday afternoon with the help of my Coronado PST, a Vixen 8-24mm zoom eyepiece, and a 2x Ultima Barlowed 12mm CEMAX.

There was an impressive filament visible along with some lesser ones and a couple of noteworthy prominences on the leading limb. Several sunspots were also present with Sunspot 735 being the most prominent by far.

Dave Mitsky

The sunrise lunar light ray in the crater Maginus has been underway for over an hour. This is a very prominent lunar ray and can easily be seen in a small telescope.

See http://dvaa.org/php/mpix.php?p=Dave_Mitsky&i=MaginusRay for a photograph of the Maginus Ray that I took several years ago

Dave Mitsky

I had a chance to use my Coronado PST and 8-24mm Vixen zoom eyepiece in the early afternoon on Wednesday. A very long filament that has been working its way across the Sun and a large triple prominence were both quite striking. The solar disk was devoid of sunspots.

See http://pub48.bravenet.com/photocenter/viewimg.php?usernum=4063150066&show=6BBED1DD03.jpg for an image of the prominence that I found on the 'net.

Dave Mitsky

Twenty deep-sky objects for March: M44, M67, NGC 2775 (Cancer); M48, NGC 2610, NGC 2642, NGC 2811 (Hydra); NGC 2903, NGC 2964 (Leo); NGC 2859 (Leo Minor); NGC 2683 (Lynx); NGC 2567, NGC 2571 (Puppis); M81, M82, NGC 2681, NGC 2841, NGC 2950, NGC 2976, NGC 2985 (Ursa Major)

Challenge deep-sky object for March: Abell 30 (Cancer)

Dave Mitsky