Posts Made By: Dave Mitsky

Saturday night was superb at Cherry Springs State Park. The clouds were gone by shortly after 11:00 p.m. and the relatively few observers present at the park were treated to a truly excellent night of deep-sky observing. I had great views of many springtime galaxies and other deep-sky objects through my "new" 8" Starsplitter Tube Dob, Tony Donangelo's 14.5" Starmaster Sky Tracker Dob, a 16" Teeter Telescope Dob, the 16" AstroSystems TeleKit Dob owned by John Mills, and the 20" Starmaster Sky Tracker Dob belonging to Gary Honis.

I haven't transcribed my taped notes yet but some of the more memorable highlights included seeing at least 9 galaxies simultaneously in the heart of the Virgo Cluster - the environs of M84 and M86 - through the 20" with a 31mm Tele Vue Nagler T5, a near photographic view of M51 and NGC 5195 through the 16" as well as a spectacular view of the Leo Trio using a 28mm W.O. UWAN, and observing an old favorite, NGC 4762 (the Mini-M104 Galaxy), through the 14.5". When I trained my 8" on M104, it looked better than I've ever seen it through such a small aperture. The 8" also provided a fine view of NGC 7000 (the North America Nebula) with the help of an Orion UltraBlock filter and a 35mm Tele Vue Panoptic.

Let's hope that Potter County skies will be equally as good for the ASH Cherry Springs Star Party this coming weekend.

http://www.astrohbg.org/s4/index.php

Dave Mitsky

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

Dave Mitsky

One hundred and sixty-five deep-sky objects for May: NGC 5248 (Bootes); M3, M51, M63, M94, M106, NGC 4111, NGC 4138, NGC 4143, NGC 4151, NGC 4214, NGC 4217, NGC 4244, NGC 4346, NGC 4369, NGC 4449, NGC 4485, NGC 4490, NGC 4618, NGC 4631, NGC 4656, NGC 4868, NGC 5005, NGC 5033, NGC 5297, NGC 5353, NGC 5354, Up 1 (Canes Venatici); Mel 111, M53, M64, M85, M88, M91, M98, M99, M100, NGC 4064, NGC 4150, NGC 4203, NGC 4212, NGC 4251, NGC 4274, NGC 4278, NGC 4293, NGC 4298, NGC 4302, NGC 4314, NGC 4350, NGC 4414, NGC 4419, NGC 4448, NGC 4450, NGC 4459, NGC 4473, NGC 4474, NGC 4494, NGC 4559, NGC 4565, NGC 4651, NGC 4689, NGC 4710, NGC 4725, NGC 4874, NGC 5053 (Coma Berenices); NGC 4027, NGC 4038-9, NGC 4361 (Corvus); M68, M83, NGC 4105, NGC 4106, NGC 5061, NGC 5101, NGC 5135 (Hydra); M40, NGC 4036, NGC 4041, NGC 4051, NGC 4062, NGC 4085, NGC 4088, NGC 4096, NGC 4100, NGC 4144, NGC 4157, NGC 4605, NGC 5308, NGC 5322 (Ursa Major); M49, M58, M59, M60, M61, M84, M86, M87, M89, M90, M104, NGC 4030, NGC 4073, NGC 4168, NGC 4179, NGC 4206, NGC 4215, NGC 4216, NGC 4224, NGC 4235, NGC 4260, NGC 4261, NGC 4267, NGC 4281, NGC 4339, NGC 4343, NGC 4365, NGC 4371, NGC 4378, NGC 4380, NGC 4387, NGC 4388, NGC 4402, NGC 4429, NGC 4435, NGC 4438, NGC 4517, NGC 4526, NGC 4535, NGC 4536, NGC 4546, NGC 4550, NGC 4551, NGC 4567, NGC 4568, NGC 4570, NGC 4593, NGC 4596, NGC 4636, NGC 4638, NGC 4639, NGC 4643, NGC 4654, NGC 4666, NGC 4697, NGC 4698, NGC 4699, NGC 4753, NGC 4754, NGC 4760, NGC 4762, NGC 4866, NGC 4900, NGC 4958, NGC 5044, NGC 5054, NGC 5068, NGC 5077, NGC 5084, NGC 5087, NGC 5147, NGC 5170, NGC 5247, NGC 5363, NGC 5364 (Virgo)

Top ten deep-sky objects for May: M3, M51, M63, M64, M83, M87, M104, M106, NGC 4449, NGC 4565

Challenge deep-sky object for May: 3C 273 (Virgo)

A little after midnight on Friday morning, the sky began to clear and fairly decent observing conditions persisted for over four hours. It was far from the best Cherry Springs has to offer but the Milky Way was quite prominent and displayed mottling and good detail. We had some fine views of Comet Lovejoy through a 20" Starmaster as it passed by NGC 6015 in Draco as well as many other celestial objects through a variety of other scopes.

A number of telescopes equipped with white light and H-alpha filters gave fine views of the Sun this morning.

Dr. Peter Allen gave a very interesting talk on low mass stars this afternoon.

Dave Mitsky

Greetings,

Harrisburg's Public Cable Network (PCN), which is channel 74 on Comcast Cable (for other systems, check with your local cable provider), will broadcast a 30 minute program on Cherry Springs tonight (Friday) at 8:00 p.m.

Dave Mitsky

On Friday night I had the pleasure of experiencing one of the most enjoyable jazz concerts I've ever attended, and I've been to quite a few. Jazz Attack, a smooth jazz supergroup consisting of trumpet and flugelhorn player - http://www.richardelliot.com/ - Rick Braun (who played with War and many others), guitarist and vocalist - http://www.jonathanbutler.com/ - Jonathan Butler, saxophonist - http://www.richardelliot.com/ - Richard Elliot (a Tower of Power alumnus), and acoustic guitarist - http://www.peterwhite.com/ - Peter White exuded individual and collective virtuosity and worked the crowd with showsmanship like no jazz players I've ever before seen. The principals were backed by an excellent guitarist, bassist, keyboard player, and drummer.

All the band members played exceptional licks and Butler's vocals and scat singing were extremely good but the person who impressed me the most was - http://www.flipsidepa.com/music/ci_6027989 - Peter White, who was simply the best acoustic jazz guitarist I've ever heard. White started out playing with Al Stewart and has since become one of the biggest names in the genre of smooth jazz.

The show, which was sponsored by - http://www.smoothjazz927.com/php/news.php?category=1 - Smooth Jazz 92.7, took place at - http://www.strandcapitol.org/history.html - the Strand-Capitol Performing Arts Center in York, Pennsylvania, a beautifully restored 1920s theater. I was fortunate enough to have scored a seat in the center of the third row so I had a fantastic view. The sound mix was superb.

If you have any interest in jazz of the smooth and funky variety, I strongly urge you to see this band.

Dave Mitsky

Here's a snapshot of a rather prominent parhelion, or sundog, that I took with a Sony DSC-S600 digital camera while at Cherry Springs State Park last month.

Dave Mitsky

Here are my DSO lists for this month.

Dave Mitsky

Fifty deep-sky objects for June: NGC 5466, NGC 5676, NGC 5689 (Bootes); M102 (NGC 5866), NGC 5678, NGC 5879, NGC 5905, NGC 5907, NGC 5908, NGC 5949, NGC 5963, NGC 5965, NGC 5982, NGC 5985, NGC 6015 (Draco); NGC 5694 (Hydra); NGC 5728, NGC 5791, NGC 5796, NGC 5812, NGC 5861, NGC 5878, NGC 5897 (Libra); M5, NGC 5921, NGC 5957, NGC 5962, NGC 5970, NGC 5984 (Serpens Caput); M101, NGC 5473, NGC 5474, NGC 5485, NGC 5585, NGC 5631 (Ursa Major); NGC 5566, NGC 5634, NGC 5701, NGC 5713, NGC 5746, NGC 5750, NGC 5775, NGC 5806, NGC 5813, NGC 5831, NGC 5838, NGC 5846, NGC 5850, NGC 5854, NGC 5864 (Virgo)

Top ten deep-sky objects for June: M5, M101, M102, NGC 5566, NGC 5585, NGC 5689, NGC 5746, NGC 5813, NGC 5838, NGC 5907

Challenge deep-sky object for June: Abell 2065

Here's a snapshot of a rather prominent parhelion, or sundog, that I took with a Sony DSC-S600 digital camera while at Cherry Springs State Park last month.

From Eric Weisstein's World of Astronomy:

"Also called mock suns or parhelia, sundogs are bright, colorful light patches which appear in ice clouds 22° or more to either side of the Sun. At sunrise and sunset, the angular separation from the Sun is exactly 22°. When the Sun is high, the sundogs may appear diamond-shaped, and no sundogs can occur if the Sun is higher than 61°. In addition, a bluish streamer is sometimes seen extending from them in the direction Sun."

There's more on these atmospheric phenomena at http://www.atoptics.co.uk/halo/parhelia.htm

My sundog mage was chosen as the Astronomy.com picture of the day for Thursday, June 14.

http://www.astronomy.com/asy/default.aspx?c=ga&id=99&aid=5667

Dave Mitsky

Here's a prime focus shot that I took from the ASH Naylor Observatory on Saturday night using my Canon ESO Digital Rebel DSLR and 80mm Apogee short-tube achromatic refractor.

Dave Mitsky

Here's an 80-200mm zoom lens shot of Venus and Saturn on Sunday night from the town of Camp Hill.

Dave Mitsky