Posts Made By: Dave Mitsky

Here's the best shot, best being a relative term in this case, that I took of the ISS and docked Discovery pass on the evening of December 18. I used a Canon EOS Digital Rebel DSLR and the stock Canon EF-S 18-55mm zoom lens. This was near the end of the pass when the pair was headed towards the southeast. The object in the foreground is the backstop for the nearby baseball field.

Dave Mitsky

The Discovery had separated from the ISS shortly before this pass on December 19. Through my 15x70 binocular two bright objects were plainly visible, but they could not be resolved as such by the unaided eye. This made this pass one of the most exciting ones that I've ever witnessed.

The bright star in this picture is Vega.

Dave Mitsky

I was at the Peters Mountain site again, along with four fellow amateur astronomers, on the night of Tuesday, December 19. Conditions were excellent this time and I was able to get a better feel for the performance capabilities of the 80mm f/7.5 Vixen ED80Sf refractor that I recently acquired.

One of the targets that I had in mind was NGC 2438, the annular planetary nebula that is associated with the rich open cluster M46. I've observed this planetary a number of times with my 101mm f/5.4 Tele Vue refractor but with nothing smaller in aperture.

Using a 1.25" OIII filter and 13 and 20mm WideScan eyepieces, I was able to make out NGC 2438 fleetingly a number of times. The 20mm WideScan provided slightly better views. I was also able to see the planetary nebula, but just barely, without filtration.

I viewed many objects that night through the Vixen, a 6" f/9 Astro-Physics Starfire, an 8" f/9 TMB APM refractor, a 12.5" JMI NGC-12.5 split-ring equatorial, and an 18" f/5 Obsession but none of them brought as much satisfaction to me as seeing NGC 2438 with an 80mm telescope.

http://www.seds.org/messier/xtra/ngc/n2438.html

Dave Mitsky

I've been curious just how good a prime focus shot of the Full Moon I could get with the 80mm f/7.5 Vixen 80EDSf refractor that I acquired last month so I gave it a whirl on Wednesday night. I used a Canon EOS Digital Rebel DSLR at ISO 200 with an exposure time of 1/2000 of a second and tweaked the picture a bit using Photoshop.

Through the eyepiece there is a small amount of residual chromatic aberration on the lunar limb when the image is defocused but it is barely noticeable otherwise. Optically, the ED80Sf is a very respectable little telescope.

Dave Mitsky

If you're in the mood for an intelligent and very well done horror movie, you can't go wrong with "The Descent".

Dave Mitsky

Two television programs of interest will be broadcast on American television this coming Tuesday night.

There will be a segment about space elevators with Neil deGrasse Tyson on Nova - http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/ - on PBS at 8:00 p.m. EST. The History Channel will air Galileo & the Sinful Spyglass on Man, Moment, Machine - http://www.history.com/shows.do?action=detail&episodeId=205648 - at 10:00 p.m. EST.

Dave Mitsky

I observed the Sun with my 40mm f/10 Coronado PST and 8-24mm Vixen Lanthanum LV zoom eyepiece on Sunday afternoon and noted nary a prominence. However, Sunspots 930 and 933 stood out very prominently in H-alpha.

I didn't bother to set up my white light rig but I did note that 930, which was quite located close to the center of the Sun's disk, was easily visible to the naked-eye through a pair of polymer solar eclipse shades as well as my Mylar solar filter. I couldn't quite make out 933 but it seemed large enough to be also visible.

Dave Mitsky

I was finally victorious over the clouds yesterday evening and was able to observe C/2006 P1 (McNaught) for the first time. Some friends and I met at a nearby hilltop with a great view of the western horizon a bit before 5:00 p.m. EST. Venus was easily visible to the naked-eye at that time. Unfortunately, the wind was blowing steadily at speeds up to 30 mph, which made for a rather bitter impromptu observing session.

My good friend and observing companion Tony Donnangelo and I scanned the area to the lower right of Venus with binoculars. Tony picked up the comet at 5:18 p.m. (22:18 UT) with his new 10x50 Celestron Ultimas. Shortly thereafter I saw it through my 8x42 Celestron Nobles. We then viewed it through Tony's 15x70 Celestron Skymasters, which were mounted on my Vista binocular guider and Bogen tripod, followed by my 80mm f/5 Orion ShortTube 80 achromat at 15x (26mm Tele Vue Ploessl) and later 50x (8mm Tele Vue Radian).

I was able to see Comet McNaught P1 naked-eye at approximately 5:30 p.m. I wasn't able to pick up Altair until sometime thereafter.

Overall, the 15x70s provided the best view. The very rare shadow feature that seemingly divides the tail was visible. C/2006 P1 (McNaught) took on a ruddy hue as it sank into the sunset, which was yet another fascinating aspect of observing this very bright comet.

I was able to follow the comet through my ST80 until it was only a degree or two above the western horizon. Sometime after 5:50 p.m. it was no longer visible.

It was difficult to estimate Comet McNaught P1's brightness but I would put it somewhere between -2 and -3 magnitude. The coma was quite brilliant.

A finder chart is posted at http://spaceweather.com/images2007/08jan07/skymap_north.gif

Dave Mitsky

Tony Donnangelo, Maura Smith, and I observed Comet McNaught P1 again on Wednesday evening from the same hilltop as on Monday. It was very cold and windy once more, although not quite as windy as on Monday evening.

This time I spotted the comet first using a 8x42 Celestron Noble binocular and was able to see it naked-eye almost immediately thereafter. The time for the naked-eye sighting was 5:20 p.m. EST (22:20 UT), ten minutes earlier than on Monday evening. Unfortunately, there were more low clouds yesterday evening and the amount of time we actually saw the comet was far less. By 5:44 p.m. EST it had sank into an horizon hugging cloud bank and that was all she wrote.

This time Tony brought his 102mm f/8 Takahashi FS-102 apochromatic refractor and I my new 80mm f/7.5 Vixen 80EDSf refractor but despite the expensive glass the views weren't correspondingly better than on Monday due to the clouds and the comet's lower altitude.

I also took a few prime shots of the comet through the Vixen with my Canon EOS Digital Rebel DSLR but it was in and out of the clouds during that period. I'll post the pictures when I find the time to process them.

Dave Mitsky

Here's my January list of extended deep-sky objects situated between 4 and 6 hours of right ascension.

Dave Mitsky

Seventy deep-sky objects for January: B26-28, B29, M36, M37, M38, NGC 1664, NGC 1778, NGC 1857, NGC 1893, NGC 1907, NGC 1931 (Auriga); IC 361, Kemble 1, NGC 1501, NGC 1502, NGC 1530, NGC 1569 (Camelopardalis); NGC 1507, NGC 1518, NGC 1531, NGC 1532, NGC 1535, NGC 1537, NGC 1600, NGC 1637, NGC 1659, NGC 1700 (Eridanus); IC 418, M79, NGC 1832, NGC 1888, NGC 1964 (Lepus); B33, Cr65, Cr69, Cr70, IC 434, M42, M43, M78, NGC 1662, NGC 1973-75-77, NGC 1981, NGC 1999, NGC 2022, NGC 2023, NGC 2024, NGC 2112 (Orion); Be11, NGC 1491, NGC 1496, NGC 1499, NGC 1513, NGC 1528, NGC 1545, NGC 1548, NGC 1579, NGC 1582, NGC 1605, NGC 1624 (Perseus); DoDz3, DoDz4, M1, Mel 25, NGC 1514, NGC 1587, NGC 1647, NGC 1746, NGC 1807, NGC 1817 (Taurus)

Challenge deep-sky object for January: IC 2118 (Eridanus)