Posts Made By: Dave Mitsky

Here's a shot of the new 305mm f/12.5 Astro-Physics MCT and yours truly taken at the NEAF on Saturday.

Photo credit: Phil Harrington

Dave Mitsky

Well, the price of the new 8mm Ethos was announced yesterday. While not as bad as the $620.00 that the 13mm Ethos fetches, the cost is still just a "bit" on the high side, namely $585.00.

Dave Mitsky

The public is invited to the Astronomical Society of Harrisburg's Naylor Observatory, located 2 miles northwest of Lewisberry, Pennsylvania, off of Brenneman Drive and Route 382, to celebrate National Astronomy Day on Saturday, May 10. There will be an open house during the afternoon from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m., with solar observing taking place if the sky is clear. In the evening, a telescope clinic wil be held for those people who own telescopes and are having trouble using them. At nightfall, there will be a public observing session weather permiting. ASH members will operate the large observatory telescopes to show visitors a variety of celestial objects including the Moon, Mars, Saturn, star clusters, nebulae, and galaxies. Browse the ASH website at http://www.astrohbg.org or call 717-938-6041 for further information.

Dave Mitsky

Here are my DSO lists 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

Top ten deep-sky binocular objects for May: M3, M51, M63, M64, M84, M86, M87, M104, M106, Mel 111

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

The objects listed above are located between 12:00 and 14:00 hours of right ascension.

Since all the registration slots were not filled, ASH has decided to accept registrations for the 2008 Cherry Springs Star Party at the gate.

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

Dave Mitsky

I arrived at Cherry Springs State Park, the Stargazer's Paradise, on Wednesday evening. Conditions looked very good indeed at nightfall and continued to stay that way through Friday morning.

Wednesday and Thursday nights were simply spectacular and were a true godsend after so many months of dreary weather. How fortunate we were to have at least one exceptional night during the 2008 Cherry Springs Star Party!

The Milky Way blazed away in all its glory and stretched from horizon to horizon. The Pipe Nebula was an easy naked eye target as were M6, M7, M8, M13, M24, M39, Collinder 399, and the Double Cluster.

The views through some of the big Dobs such as John Vogt's ATM 32" f/4 were phenomenal. M51 and M101 exhibited fantastic detail last night. Jupiter looked great through fellow ASH member Dr. Robert Werkman's aperture masked equipped 18" Obsession Dob on Thursday morining. The NEB appeared to be unusually red in color. We also observed a great many galaxies and galaxy groups at full aperture. The NGC 5895 group in Draco was particularly impressive. As seen through Bob's 90mm Stellarvue triplet apochromat, Barnard 86 (the Ink Spot) was a splash of cosmic darkness amidst the bright Sagittarius Milky Way.

Last night I had the honor of being the first person to look through the new 8mm Ethos from a dark site at night, according to Al Nagler. The 8mm Ethos is just as impressive as the 13mm version. Uncle Al and I spent some time with the 8mm and his 127mm Tele Vue apochromat, M81 and M82 were particularly noteworthy, and later with Mike Peoples' 15" Obsession. M13 was spellbinding through the Ethos and the 15".

At culmination, the southern Milky Way was a feast for my Celestron 8x42 binocular. Dark nebulosity and bright star clouds were displayed in abundance.

Seeing the Stargate and Jaws asterisms along with M104 simultaenously was a fine sight through my 101mm Tele Vue refractor and 13mm Ethos. The North America Nebula and Pelican Nebula were as easy as pie through my 101mm Tele Vue refractor, 35mm Tele Vue Panoptic, and Orion UltraBlock narrowband nebula filter.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. Umbrellas and ponchos appear to be in order for the rest of the 2008 Cherry Springs Star Party.

Greetings,

Here are my lists of extended deep-sky objects for this month.

Dave Mitsky

Sixty-five deep-sky objects for July: NGC 6140, NGC 6236, NGC 6340, NGC 6395, NGC 6412, NGC 6503, NGC 6543 (Draco); IC 4593, M13, M92, NGC 6106, NGC 6166, NGC 6173, NGC 6181, NGC 6207, NGC 6210, NGC 6229, NGC 6482 (Hercules); B61, B62, B63, B64, B72, IC 4634, IC 4665, LDN 42, LDN 1773, M9, M10, M12, M14, M19, M62, M107, NGC 6284, NGC 6287, NGC 6293, NGC 6304, NGC 6309, NGC 6356, NGC 6366, NGC 6369, NGC 6384, NGC 6401, Tr 26 (Ophiuchus); NGC 6440, NGC 6445 (Sagittarius); B50, B55, B56, Cr 316, M4, M6, M7, M80, NGC 6144, NGC 6153, NGC 6192, NGC 6231, NGC 6242, NGC 6302, NGC 6337, NGC 6451 (Scorpius); NGC 6217, NGC 6324 (Ursa Minor)

Top ten binocular deep-sky objects for July: IC 4665, LDN 1773, M4, M6, M7, M10, M12, M13, M92, NGC 6231

Top ten deep-sky objects for July: M4, M6, M7, M10, M12, M13, M92, NGC 6210, NGC 6231, NGC 6543

Challenge deep-sky object for July: NGC 6380 (Scorpius)

The objects listed above are located between 16:00 and 18:00 hours of right ascension.

Last night, as the moon was setting, I drove to the ASH Naylor Observatory and did a bit of observing with the club's 17" f/15 classical Cassegrain. It was the first clear night for some first time, or at least somewhat clear, since the transparency left a lot to be desired. (I wasted a lot of time trying to catch a glimpse of the dim planetary nebula NGC 6765 near M56.) Of course, Jupiter, being just past opposition, was my primary target. The seeing was rather poor, although I did catch a glimpse of the GRS as it was egressing. Callisto and Ganymede were bunched together to the west of the planet and Io and Europa lay to the east. I then moved on to some bright summer DSOs.

While I was looking at the open cluster M11 at 162x (40mm University Optics MK-70), I noticed a very dim satellite moving slowly through the cluster. At first, I thought that it might be a geosat, since they tend to populate that area of the sky. As I watched, I noticed two other satellites moving in tandem with it, forming a very flattened isosceles triangle, which led me to assume that I was seeing a NOSS triplet, but this was by far the dimmest NOSS pass that I had ever witnessed. Some NOSS triplet passes are visible to the naked eye and, in fact, the first time I saw a NOSS pass was naked-eye at the 1995 Mason-Dixon Star Party. I've also observed some passes that required binoculars to be seen and have tracked a few with telescopes too.

I also observed a nunber of binary stars including Pulcherrima or Izar (Epsilon Aurigae), 15 Aquilae, Otto Struve 525, Albireo (Beta Cygni), Almach (Gamma Andromedae), the carbon star V Aquilae, and M15, M22, M31, M56, M57, and the Double Cluster before calling it a night.

Dave Mitsky

Not too long ago Jupiter had a third red spot, which was nicknamed the Little Red Spot. Well, it now seems that the Great Red Spot has gobbled up its smaller sibling.

http://spaceweather.com/ (July 11)

http://jupiter.cstoneind.com/

Dave Mitsky

While attending the Stellafane ATM convention last week, I finally saw the two comets named after Andrea Boattini.

http://www.hacastronomy.com/speakers/Boattini_Andrea.htm

On Friday morning, a fellow with a very nice ATM 12.5" Dob had C/2008 J1 (Boattini) in view. The tenth magnitude object was in or near Cepheus at the time. The coma seemed rather compact.

http://www.aerith.net/comet/catalog/2008J1/2008J1.html

After leaving the Stellafane grounds in a state of exhaustion on Saturday morning, I slept for a couple of hours, dragged myself out of a very comfortable bed at the Quail Hollow Inn, grabbed my wife's 10x50 Celestron Ultima binocular, and walked out to a clearing in the woods behind the inn. It was rather dark there and after a bit of searching through Aries (I didn't have a detailed finder chart with me) I finally swept up the much brighter C/2007 W1 (Boattini), which proved to be a rather easy binocular target.

http://www.aerith.net/comet/catalog/2007W1/2007W1.html

This morning ASH President Mike Snider and I observed C/2007 W1 (Boattini) from the Naylor Observatory with the ASH 14" Meade LX200 GPS SCT. The pernicious effects of the Harrisburg light dome made the comet somewhat difficult to see.

Additional information on these comets and others currently visible is available at http://www.skyhound.com/cometchasing

Dave Mitsky