Posts Made By: Dave Mitsky

I spent a couple of hours at the ASH Naylor Observatory on Thursday evening, November 9. (My region got some wonderful weather a day too late, of course, for the transit of Mercury.) My first target was Comet SWAN M4, of course. I observed the comet with a 15x70 binocular, a 5" f/5 achromatic refractor, and a 17" f/15 classical Cassegrain at 118, 202, and 259x. The comet seemed to be appreciably dimmer than the last time I observed it, which was well over a week ago. The coma was still large and obviously asymmetrical but the pseudonucleus that I had seen previously was not readily apparent.

Dave Mitsky

I had the great pleasure of seeing the extremely popular smooth jazz bass player Wayman Tisdale last night at the Whitaker Center in Harrisburg. The show was superb. It was easily one of the best concerts that I've seen in the last couple of years.

Wayman was a member of the 1984 US Olympic basketball team. He was also a first round NBA draft pick and went on to have a 12 year career in the NBA.

When Wayman retired in the 1990s he began his second career, doing what he said was his first love, namely playing music, and became very successful at it indeed. His albums have been consistent chart toppers and his tunes get a lot of airplay on smooth jazz radio stations.

Wayman has an excellent six piece band - drums, four string bass, keyboards, guitar, and saxophones backing up his bass - that performed his smooth jazz and old school funk with great skill. (This was the first time that I've seen a band with two bass players.) Wayman is a master of the five string electric bass and a very entertaining showman as well. He's left-handed so he played his Tobias Growler upside down (and occasionally behind his back). Needless to say, Wayman physically dwarfed the other musicians.

After the concert I got his latest CD - Way Up - autographed and talked to him briefly. It was the first time that I've ever shaken hands with an Olympic gold medal winner.

http://www.waymantisdale.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayman_Tisdale

Dave Mitsky

I spent Friday night atop the 4000 foot tall summit of the Dolly Sods plateau in West Virginia's Canaan Valley. Conditions were superb. The VLM was in the seventh magnitude range and the seeing was excellent.

I was somewhat surprised to find that Comet C/2006 M4 (SWAN) was dramatically fainter than when I observed it on Tuesday night from a lesser dark site in Pennsylvania. I could barely perceive it with my 101mm Tele Vue refractor until I boosted the magnification. (I had no trouble seeing the comet at low power with the same instrument early on Tuesday night.) C/2006 M4 (SWAN) was in the vicinity of the planetary nebula NGC 6804, which I found to be somewhat easier to discern than the comet.

I also had some views of the Comet SWAN M4 through a 17.5" Celestron Starhopper. The elongation of the coma that was so apparent previously was only hinted at and a slight degree of condensation was visible with averted vision.

Dave Mitsky

I just rented Thank You For Smoking, a very funny satire indeed, and An Inconvenient Truth. I recommend both films.

Dave Mitsky

There's an unusual massing of three naked-eye planets in store for us this month. Unfortunately, the planetary trio will be very low in the east-southeast during morning twilight so clear skies and good horizons will be necessary to see them.

Mercury (which is still undergoing its best morning apparition of 2006), Mars, and Jupiter all fit within a circle with a 5 degree diameter from December 7 to December 14 and a 2 degree circle from December 9 to December 11.

Mercury lies 1.0 degree north of Mars and 1.5 degrees west of Jupiter on December 9. On December 10, Mercury and Jupiter are separated by 17'. (The two planets are within 8' of each other at noon.) Mars and Jupiter are 48' apart on December 11.

Prior to dawn on December 10, the three planets come within a degree of each other, the closest approach of three naked-eye planets from 1980 through 2050. The 2.5 magnitude binary star Beta Scorpii (Graffias) fits into a 1.1 degree diameter circle with the three planets that morning.

Dave Mitsky

Here's my December list of extended deep-sky objects located within the two hour swath of right ascension ranging from 2 to 4 hours.

Dave Mitsky

One hundred deep-sky objects for December: NGC 891 (Andromeda); IC 342, K6, St23, Tom 5 (Camelopardalis); Be65, IC 1848, K4, Mel15, NGC 896, NGC 1027, St2, Tr3 (Cassiopeia); M77, NGC 788, NGC 835, NGC 864, NGC 908, NGC 936, NGC 955, NGC 958, NGC 1015, NGC 1016, NGC 1022, NGC 1042, NGC 1052, NGC 1055, NGC 1087, NGC 1094 (Cetus); IC 2006, NGC 1084, NGC 1140, NGC 1187, NGC 1199, NGC 1209, NGC 1232, NGC 1291, NGC 1300, NGC 1309, NGC 1332, NGC 1337, NGC 1353, NGC 1357, NGC 1395, NGC 1400, NGC 1407, NGC 1421, NGC 1426, NGC 1440, NGC 1452, NGC 1453, NGC 1461 (Eridanus); NGC 1079, NGC 1097, NGC 1201, NGC 1292, NGC 1316, NGC 1317, NGC 1326, NGC 1344, NGC 1350, NGC 1360, NGC 1365, NGC 1371, NGC 1374, NGC 1379, NGC 1380, NGC 1381, NGC 1387, NGC 1398, NGC 1404, NGC 1406, NGC 1425 (Fornax); Bas10, Cz8, IC 351, IC 2003, K5, Mel 20, M34, NGC 869, NGC 884, NGC 957, NGC 1023, NGC 1058, NGC 1161, NGC 1245, NGC 1275, NGC 1333, NGC 1342, NGC 1444, Tr2 (Perseus); M45 (Taurus); NGC 777, NGC 784, NGC 890, NGC 925, NGC 949, NGC 959, NGC 978A/B (Triangulum)

Challenge deep-sky object for December: vdB14 (Camelopardalis)

I picked up the 2 disc 50th Anniversary DVD of the 1956 science fiction classic "Forbidden Planet" on Monday. So far I've watched the film itself and some of the special features. Seeing deleted scenes and lost footage from "Forbidden Planet" was quite interesting and I really enjoyed watching "Amazing! Exploring the Far Reaches of Forbidden Planet", the short documentary about the movie.

There are reviews at http://www.dvdempire.com/exec/v4_ite...anchor=1#56004 and http://hometheaterforum.com/htf/showthread.php?t=245741

Dave Mitsky

An aurora watch has been issued for the mid-latitudes for the next 48 hours.

http://www.spacew.com/www/midlatwchrpt.html

Dave Mitsky

I spent some time at a friend's observatory early Sunday night. Here's an image of NGC 7635 (the Bubble Nebula) in Cassiopeia that I took using Dave's 14" LX200 GPS Schmidt-Cassegrain, a Meade DSI, and an f/3.3 focal reducer. It's comprised of 10 two minute integrations.

NGC 7635 is a diffuse nebula that appears as a faint oval, approximately 3.5' x 3' in apparent size, surrounding the spectral type B2 IV star HD 220057 (BD +60°2522). This seventh magnitude Wolf-Rayet star is 40 times more massive than Sol and is thought to be a member of the Cas OB2 stellar association. The gigantic bubble of ionized gas formed by the star's strong stellar winds is six light years in diameter.

High clouds moved in not too much later and this turned out to be the only object we imaged that evening.

Dave Mitsky

The Geminids have been my favorite meteor shower for many years.

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2006/12dec_geminids.htm

Last night I counted 21 Geminid meteors during my first hour at the ASH Naylor Observatory. Weather conditions were far from ideal but at least the sky was clear and the temperature was rather mild. However, the zenithal VLM was only about 4.5 so the transparency was not very good. After 60 minutes of sitting still, I took a short break to make some coffee and then resumed counting.

As the second hour progressed, the fog that had been forecast appeared in force and began to climb the hill to the observatory grounds. Before too long all I could see were first and second magnitude stars so I gave up shortly after midnight (5:04 UT), which was the end of the third half hour. I counted 7 meteors during those 30 minutes.

Most of the Geminids that I saw were short and quick, although two had moderately long trains. Five of them were at least as bright as Sirius, with one of them being distinctly brighter.

Before leaving, I had a quick look at Saturn through an 8" f/6 Hardin Dob using magnifications of 47 (26mm Tele Vue Ploessl), 152 (8mm Brandon), and 203x (6mm Edscorp ortho).

The return trip through the pea soup fog was lots of fun.

Dave Mitsky