Posts Made By: Dave Mitsky

This is a follow-up report on observing at Cherry Springs State Park last week.

Thursday night, September 13, was clear from the get-go and also very transparent. We looked at another comet that Robert McNaught discovered this year and it was again an extremely faint one, even with magnitude 6.5 plus skies and 20 inches of aperture.

I scanned the Milky Way for quite awhile with Tony's Celestron 15x70 binocular and many DSOs were spectacular, but none more so than the North America Nebula. It stood out against the inky blackness amazingly well. NGC 7000 also looked quite good in my 12.5" Starsplitter Compact and filtered 35mm Tele Vue Panoptic. IC 5070, the Pelican Nebula, was rather prominent as well.

I also spent some time observing with John Vogt and his magnificent homemade 32" Dob. We looked at quite a few faint galaxies in Aquarius through his 20mm Nagler Type 5 and then went to Perseus to view the supernova in NGC 1058. Afterwards, John used the tour mode on his DSC again and we perused many more NGC, IC, and UGC galaxies in Perseus. NGC 1003 - http://www.skyfactory.org/deepskycatalogue/NGC1003.html - was one of the more memorable ones.

Oh, by the way, I had a look at M27 through a monstrously huge 20" Meade RCX equatorial before I visited John. The views, first through a Denkmeier binoviewer, and then through a 24mm Meade UWA, were good.

Unfortunately (very unfortunately!), I had to leave the next morning, before the Black Forest Star Party ever started, due to a family medical emergency. My father had complications during a pacemaker implantation, a supposedly relatively simple and safe procedure, and had to be airlifted to another hospital for heart surgery. He's home now but will require care so my life will be just a bit more complicated for the near future.

Dave Mitsky

Here are my DSO lists for this month.

Dave Mitsky

Seventy-five deep-sky objects for October: NGC 7640, NGC 7662, NGC 7686 (Andromeda); NGC 7180, NGC 7183, NGC 7184, NGC 7293, NGC 7392, NGC 7585, NGC 7606, NGC 7721, NGC 7723, NGC 7727 (Aquarius); Cz43, K12, M52, NGC 7635, NGC 7788, NGC 7789, NGC 7790, St12 (Cassiopeia); B171, B173-4, IC 1454, IC 1470, K10, Mrk50, NGC 7235, NGC 7261, NGC 7354, NGC 7380, NGC 7419, NGC 7510 (Cepheus); IC 1434, IC 5217, NGC 7209, NGC 7223, NGC 7243, NGC 7245 (Lacerta); NGC 7177, NGC 7217, NGC 7320 (the brightest galaxy in Stephan's Quintet), NGC 7331, NGC 7332, NGC 7339, NGC 7448, NGC 7454, NGC 7479, NGC 7619 (the brightest member of Pegasus I), NGC 7626, NGC 7678, NGC 7742, NGC 7769 (Pegasus); NGC 7541, NGC 7562, NGC 7611 (Pisces); IC 5156, IC 5269, IC 5271, NGC 7172, NGC 7173, NGC 7174, NGC 7176, NGC 7201, NGC 7203, NGC 7214, NGC 7221, NGC 7229, NGC 7314, NGC 7361 (Piscis Austrinus); NGC 7507, NGC 7513, NGC 7713, NGC 7755, NGC 7793 (Sculptor)

Top ten binocular deep-sky objects for October: M52, NGC 7209, NGC 7235, NGC 7243, NGC 7293, NGC 7510, NGC 7686, NGC 7789, NGC 7790, St12

Top ten deep-sky objects for October: K12, M52, NGC 7209, NGC 7293, NGC 7331, NGC 7332, NGC 7339, NGC 7640, NGC 7662, NGC 7789

Challenge deep-sky object for October: Jones 1 (PK104-29.1) (Pegasus)

The objects listed above are located between 22:00 and 24:00 hours of right ascension.

An incredible nighttime 360 degree panaroma from the 2007 BFSP has been posted at http://astro.welsh-house.net/img/cssp-small.mov

Dave Mitsky

I hereby officially eat my words about purchasing a certain new eyepiece. For those of you who are unaware, I was extremely impressed with the performance of the 13mm Tele Vue Ethos after my exposure to it at this year's NEAF and Stellafane but could not personally justify the cost of buying one.

The only good thing that came out of my aborted Black Forest Star Party experience last month (I had to leave due to a family medical emergency) was the fact that my sole raffle ticket won a gift certificate at Skies Unlimited. I had orginally planned on purchasing something else with the gift certificate but while I was talking with a friend and fellow DVAA member at the Mid-Atlantic Astronomy Expo held at Skies Unlimited on Saturday I decided to buy his no-longer-used version of the item instead. Since I didn't win the grand prize in the door prize drawing, which happened to be a 13mm Ethos, I decided in a sleep deprived daze to use the certificate towards the purchase of one of the two remaining 13mm Tele Vue Ethos oculars. Al Nagler seemed quite happy about my decision and signed the box for me.

The new telescope equipment curse was apparently suspended temporarily and after a restorative nap I joined a fellow ASH member and four members of the CAS at a dark site in Schuylkill County. Other than less than optimal seeing, the conditions were very good. The night was mild, there was little dew, and the sky was transparent. The winter Milky Way was rather prominent and many bright Orionid meteors streaked across the sky.

My virgin 13mm Ethos saw first light with the 80mm f/7.5 Vixen ED80Sf refractor that I had packed and performed more than admirably. This is one piece of astronomy gear that I won't suffer buyer's remorse about purchasing. In fact, once I put the Ethos in the diagonal it was the only eyepiece that I used. It produced 46x, a true field of view of nearly 2.2 degrees, and an exit pupil of 1.7mm.

M31 was the first light target and was wonderfully framed and showed remarkable extension but naturally enough was not quite as impressive as it had looked through Al Nagler's 127mm Tele Vue apochromat under the darker skies at Stellafane. Some other DSOs that were particularly noteworthy included M35 and NGC 2158 simultaneously, M37, M44, M45 (the Merope Nebula was visible), M46 and M47 simultaneously, NGC 457, NGC 869 and NGC 884 (the Double Cluster), NGC 2237-9, 2244 (the Rosette Nebula), NGC 2264 (the Christmas Tree Cluster), NGC 7789, and Kemble's Cascade. Stock 2 (the Muscleman Cluster) and M42 and the Sword of Orion were very nice indeed. Stars were sharp to the edge of the field and I had no trouble taking in the entire 100 degree apparent field of view.

IC 434 and, to a lesser extent, NGC 1499 (the California Nebula) were visible thanks to the 1.25" H-beta filter that I borrowed from Bob P.

Throughout the night, I had great views of many celestial objects through Karl's 8" refractor nicknamed the Beast and Bob P's 10", Josh's 16", Bob W's 18", and Ed's 20" Dobsonian reflectors and a variety of other eyepieces.

After dawn broke, we had an interesting breakfast at Schorr's Restaurant just outside of Tower City. It was my first taste of "honky potatoes".

http://www.skiesunlimited.net/index.php?CategoryID=300

Dave Mitsky

The periodic comet 17P/Holmes has undergone a major outburst and has increased 14 magnitudes in brightness to naked-eye visibility. It is currently near Alpha Persei.

http://www.aerith.net/comet/weekly/current.html

Dave Mitsky

I finally saw the spectacular outburst from the periodic comet 17P/Holmes on Saturday night through my 15x70 Burgess Optical binocular. However, before I could set up my 80mm f/5 Orion ShortTube 80 achromat, clouds began to move in from the west. Since the forecast was for clear skies, I went back into my brother's house to watch the end of the half of the disastrous Penn State game and a bit of the World Series. Unfortunately, every time I went outside to check on the conditions it was overcast. When I finally went to bed around 2:00 a.m., it was still cloudy.

It was obvious after looking at the comet from the Naylor Observatory for a period of a couple of hours on Sunday night that the three other "pseudonuclei" (two of which were rather faint) that I could see through the Astronomical Society of Harriburg's 17" f/15 classical Cassegrain at magnifications of 162 (40mm University Optics MK-70), 202 (32mm University Optics Koenig-II), and 259x (25mm University Optics MK-70) were merely field stars. Apparently, the two stars near the true pseduonucleus (is that an oxymoron?) were GSC0333400738 (magnitude 10.9) and GSC0333400788 (magnitude 8.7).

17P/Holmes exhibited a distinct inner and outer coma as well as a fan-shaped area of ejecta extending southwestward from the true pseudonucleus, which appeared distinctly non-stellar at higher magnifications. I estimate that the outer coma subtended approximately 7 arc minutes. To the naked-eye, the comet seemed to be slightly less bright than Algol.

I also observed the comet through a fellow ASH member's 12x36 Canon IS binocular, my 15x70 Burgess Optical binocular, my 80mm f/5 Orion ShortTube 80 achromat at 15 (26mm Tele Vue Ploessl) and 57x (7mm Nagler Type 6), the ASH 4.25" f/4.2 Edmund Scientific Astroscan (28mm Edmund Scientific RKE and 13mm Tele Vue Ploessl), the ASH 5" f/5 achromat finder scope (32mm no name Erfle and 13mm TV Ploessl), a fellow ASH member's 10" f/10 Meade LX200 SCT (36mm Meade QX, 28mm Edmund Scientific RKE, and 26mm Meade QX), and the ASH 14" f/10 Meade LX200GPS SCT (55mm University Optics Ploessl and 36mm Meade QX) during the course of the evening.

The yellow hue that 17P/Holmes is exhibiting was most evident through the 80mm ST80 at 15x. The best overall view was through the 17" at 162x. A brighter view at 118x (55mm University Optics Ploessl) was also quite nice as was the view through the 14" SCT at the two magnifications used.

The image posted at http://www.princeton.edu/~rvdb/images/NJP/17P-Holmes-SumAll.jpg illustrates the comet's motion and is quite similar to what I saw visually through the 17".

This historic cometary outburst is providing absolutely unique views and is yet another of the unexpected events that add spice to observational amateur astronomy.

Dave Mitsky

I spent several hours last night at the Astronomical Society of Harrisburg's Naylor Observatory observing Comet 17P/Holmes using a fellow ASH member's 11x70 binocular, the ASH 4.25" f/4.2 Edmund Scientific Astroscan at 17 and 34x (26mm Tele Vue Ploessl and 13mm Tele Vue Ploessl), the ASH 5" f/5 achromatic finder scope, the ASH 12.5" f/6.5 Cave Astrola Newtonian and a fellow member's 30mm Orion UltraScan (69x), and the ASH 17" f/15 classical Cassegrain at 118, 144, 162, 202, 259, and 404x (55mm University Optics Ploessl, 45mm U.O. Ploessl, 40mm U.O. MK-70, 32mm Erfle, 25mm U.O. MK-70, 25mm Celestron orthoscopic, 16mm Brandon). The best views of the night were through the 12.5" at 69x and the 17" at 144x.

17P/Holmes continues to evolve. Last night the coma was far more uniform. There was no obvious demarkation between the inner coma and the outer halo as there had been on Sunday night. The ejecta fan had expanded to an almost circular shape. At 404x, the bright pseudonuclear condensation was clearly non-stellar. I estimated the size of the coma to be approximately 9 arc minutes. The comet did not appear to be quite as yellow as the previous night.

I took a number of tripod-mounted shots of the comet using my Canon EOS Digital Rebel DSLR and Canon 18-55 and 80-200mm zoom lenses. I also did some eyepiece projection shots through the 5" using a 32mm Brandon and prime focus shots through the 17".

I'll be posting some of my photos sometime soon.

Dave Mitsky

It was cloudy on Friday night in these parts but last night I was fortunate enough to be able to spend a couple of hours observing 17P/Holmes and a smattering of autumn DSOs through a friend's unique 20" f/10 classical Cassegrain housed in a not too distant private observatory.

The skies at this site are darker than at the ASH Naylor Observatory and the transparency seemed quite good. Before entering the dome, I viewed the comet without optical aid and through my Celestron 8x42mm binocular. The comet was unmistakably nonstellar to the naked-eye. The binocular framed the coma very nicely with Alpha and Delta Persei and the always impressive Melotte 21.

The coma of 17P/Holmes was even more uniform than on Thursday night and the brightness of the pseudonucleus once again seemed subdued. My friend estimated the bright coma's diameter to be 15'. There was a very distinctive dark region between the eastern border and the beginning of the eastern section of the faint outer halo. The darkness was less prominent on the western side. The western border seemed even more ragged than on Thursday, with just a hint of small streamers extending westward. The coma seemed to have a very pale blue hue except for the inner core.

I also took prime focus shots of the comet through the 20" and its long focus 80mm finder scope.

The DSOs that I observed included M31, M33, M45, M74, M77, NGC 40, NGC 1023, NGC 7640, NGC 7662, NGC 7789, and NGC 7814.

Magnifications of 127x (40mm Orion UltraScan), 159x (32mm Edmund Scientific Erfle and 32mm University Optics MK-80), and 203x (25mm University Optics MK-70) were used.

Dave Mitsky

I took this prime focus image on Saturday night, November 3, through an 80mm long-focus achromat that serves as the finder scope for a friend's 20" f/10 classical Cassegrain. The camera used was a Canon EOS Digital Rebel working at an ISO of 1600.

Dave Mitsky

Here are my DSO lists for this month.

Dave Mitsky

Seventy deep-sky objects for November: M31, M32, M110, NGC 252, NGC 404, NGC 752 (Andromeda); NGC 680, NGC 691, NGC 697, NGC 772 (Aries); Cr 463, IC 1747, K14, M103, NGC 129, NGC 133, NGC 146, NGC 185, NGC 225, NGC 281, NGC 278, NGC 381, NGC 436, NGC 457, NGC 559, NGC 637, NGC 654, NGC 659, NGC 663, Tr 1 (Cassiopeia); NGC 40, NGC 188 (Cepheus); NGC 151, NGC 175, NGC 178, NGC 210, NGC 227, NGC 245, NGC 246, NGC 247, NGC 274, NGC 337, NGC 578, NGC 584, NGC 596, NGC 615, NGC 636, NGC 681, NGC 720, NGC 779 (Cetus); NGC 7814 (Pegasus); M76, St 4 (Perseus); M74, NGC 128, NGC 194, NGC 488, NGC 524 (Pisces); NGC 24, NGC 55, NGC 134, NGC 150, NGC 253, NGC 254, NGC 288, NGC 289, NGC 439, NGC 613 (Sculptor); M33, NGC 672 (Triangulum)

Top ten binocular deep-sky objects for November: M31, M33, M103, NGC 225, NGC 253, NGC 288, NGC 457, NGC 654, NGC 663, NGC 752

Top ten deep-sky objects for November: M31, M32, M33, M76, M103, M110, NGC 40, NGC 253, NGC 457, NGC 752

Challenge deep-sky object for November: IC 59 (Cassiopeia)

The objects listed above are located between 0:00 and 2:00 hours of right ascension.