Posts Made By: Dave Mitsky

Last Monday night I joined two observing buddies at one of our lesser "local" dark sites. One of my friends was using the 17mm Tele Vue Ethos that he had recently received with his 7.1" f/6 APM achromat when I arrived. This combination yielded 64x and a 1.6 degree TFOV and produced some fantastic views of a number of deep-sky objects including M31 (along with M32 and M110), M35 and NGC 2158, M42 and the Sword of Orion, M44, M45, M46 and M47, M97 and M108, the Double Cluster, and Stock 2. M31, M42, M45, the Double Cluster, and Stock 2 were were particularly impressive through the Ethos.

As far as the specifics of how the 17mm performed are concerned, the 13 degree Fahrenheit temperature and some icy footing made careful comparisons difficult but I found nothing to complain about in the slightest. Stars were quite sharp to the field edge, stellar colors were displayed very well, and I had no trouble taking in the whole 100 degree AFOV.

Dave Mitsky

Two fellow ASH members and I had a very enjoyable observing session last night at Piney Mountain in Pennsylvania's Michaux State Forest, despite gusty winds, transparency that varied quite a bit, and seeing that was downright awful at times. On the plus side, the temperature was a balmy 40 degrees Fahrenheit.

Here are a few of the highlights.

I'd brought along the coordinates for the comets currently visible, including the periodic comet 144P/Kushida, which has brightened more than expected and which was an easy target in Bob Werkman's 7.1" f/6 APM achromat and my 8" f/6 Starsplitter Tube Dob, and C/2006 OF2 (Broughton). Comet Kushida was located in Taurus and had a large, irregular coma that was enhanced with Bob's Swan Band filter. As seen through the 7.1", Comet Broughton, which was situated in Camelopardalis, was fainter and had a rather small coma. We had no luck locating C/2006 W3 (Christensen), which was quite low in the western sky in Cygnus.

We viewed a number of deep-sky objects through the big refractor and Bob's new 17mm Tele Vue Ethos. M37 was portrayed quite well and M81, M82, and NGC 3077 made a fine trio. At one point, Bob was looking at some of the objects mentioned in Sue French's January Sky and Telescope column on the Segment of Perseus. A possible open cluster designated FRS 667 lies to the west of the bright open cluster NGC 1528. This magnitude 8.9 stellar group spans 7' and has an interesting shape, resulting in the nickname of the Squiggle Cluster. NGC 1491 is a magnitude 8.5 emission nebula that is a couple of degrees farther west. It was enhanced with a nebula filter. Afterwards, I viewed NGC 1528, FRS 667, and NGC 1491 through my 8" and a 13mm Ethos (94x).

NGC 1499 was striking through the 7.1" refractor and an H-beta filtered 41mm Panoptic. Kemble 1 (Kemble's Cascade) and the open cluster NGC 1502 looked lovely through the 7.1" and the Panoptic.

This time around Bob graciously allowed me the use of his 17mm Ethos, which resulted in superb 1.4 degree true field of views of M42 and the Sword of Orion, M44, M46 and NGC 2438, M47, NGC 2359 (Thor's Helmet), NGC 2362, the Double Cluster, Stock 2, and several other DSOs at 72x. Much to my surprise, plenty of reflection nebulosity was visible when I looked at M45. NGC 2237 (the Rosette Nebula) displayed some nebulosity through the Ethos equipped with an Orion UltraBlock filter. M42 looked great with the filter in place. NGC 2024 (the Flame Nebula) was readily apparent. A hint of IC 434 could be seen but, alas, B33 (the Horsehead Nebula) eluded me.

It can be surprising some times just how much can be seen on what seems to be a mediocre night.

Dave Mitsky

On Tuesday evening, I had another fine view of Jupiter and Mercury, along with Venus and the waxing crescent Moon. I also took a few shots with a Sony DSC-F707 digital camera. The first one is of Venus and the Moon.

Dave Mitsky

This morning I drove to the Astronomical Society of Harrisburg's Naylor Observatory and observed 30 Quadrantid meteors over a span of approximately two hours. I counted only nine during the first hour, which began shortly after 3:00 a.m. EST (7:00 UT). At 3:20 a.m., I saw my first meteor. Clouds covered the northern sky after the first hour so I spent some time in the Asper Building, warming up and having some hot cocoa. I was about to leave when the sky began to clear. I decided to stay and counted for another hour until morning twilight brought things to a halt.

Of the 30 definite sightings, nine were rather dim, third magnitude or so. Six of the meteors were bright, between first and zero magnitude, with one or two of them perhaps as bright as -1. There were another five possible meteors that I caught with peripheral vision, so my total may actually have been 35.

All of the Quadrantids that I saw were white and many of them were rather slow moving. There was a mixture of short and longer lasting meteors and none left a persistent train. Most of them emanated from the vicinity of the Big Dipper, particularly around the handle. The limiting magnitude at the observatory was a bit better than 5.0 and the temperature was 28 degrees Fahrenheit (-2 degrees Celsius).

Dave Mitsky

I took this shot of the Moon and Venus on New Year's Day using a Sony DSC-F707 camera.

Dave Mitsky

According to reports, C/2007 N3 (Lulin) is beginning to put on quite a show in the morning sky.

http://yeiht.y234.cn/wordpress/?p=1239

The comet is in eastern Libra, not too far from Beta Scorpii. There's a finder chart at http://shopplaza.nl/astro/comets/07N3CH04.png and ephemerides, of course, at http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/iau/Ephemerides/Comets/2007N3_1.html

For further information, see http://www.skyhound.com/sh/skyhound.html and http://www.aerith.net/comet/catalog/2007N3/2007N3.html

Dave Mitsky

Here are my deep-sky object lists for this month.

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 (Kemble’s Cascade asterism), 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)

Top ten binocular deep-sky objects for January: Kemble 1, M36, M37, M38, M42, NGC 1528, NGC 1647, NGC 1746, NGC 1981

Top ten deep-sky objects for January: M42, M43, M78, M79, NGC 1499, NGC 1501, NGC 1502, NGC 1514, NGC 1931, NGC 2024

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

The objects listed above are located between 4:00 and 6:00 hours of right ascension.

File this as a better-late-than-never observing report.

On the morning of January 4, I left my home shortly before midnight, about the time the Moon was setting, and drove for nearly an hour to a dark site in a neighboring county. This particular site is lower in altitude than the primary site at the summit of the mountain and, while the horizons are a bit more compromised, it is far more accessible in the winter and the terrain is far more forgiving. When I arrived, three of my observing buddies were already observing with a modified 16" f/4.5 Meade LightBridge Dob, a 17.5" f/4.5 TeleKit Dob, and an 18" f/4.5 Obsession Dob.

Conditions were excellent for the most part and I enjoyed observing from this location quite a bit. I had very good views of many winter and spring open clusters and nebulae including M35, M41, M42, M43, M44, M46, M47, M48, M50, M67, M97, NGC 1499 (the California Nebula), NGC 1981, NGC 2158, NGC 2237 (the Rosette Nebula), NGC 2244, NGC 2359 (Thor's Helmet), NGC 2362, and NGC 2438 and springtime galaxies such as M51, M64, M65, M66, M84 and M86 (and the rest of Markarian's Chain), M87, M101, NGC 2903, NGC 3628, and NGC 5195, among others, through my 8" f/6 Starsplitter Tube Dob, which features a Zambuto primary mirror. I also observed h3945, Cor Caroli, M3, and Saturn. For the most part, I used 35mm Tele Vue Panoptic (35x), 19mm Tele Vue Panoptic (64x), 13mm Tele Vue Ethos (94x), and 5mm Tele Vue Nagler (244x) eyepieces.

I got a late start due to having been at a family holiday dinner that evening and arrived too late to have a realistic chance at seeing B33 (the Horsehead Nebula), which was already well past the meridian, through the 8" but I tried anyway. Bob, one of my compatriots who had arrived about two hours prior to me, said that the Horsehead had looked great earlier. I attempted to observe it with my 19mm Panoptic and Orion UltraBlock filter and then with my 35mm Panoptic and Bob's Lumicon H-beta filter. I wasn't successful but I thought I noticed a vague hint of something, or rather the absence of something. However, I was able to view B33 through Bob's 18" Obsession and an H-beta filtered 24mm Panoptic afterwards.

Two out of the ordinary deep-sky objects that we saw through the 18" were PK205+14.1 (the Medusa Nebula) and IC 443 (the Jellyfish Nebula), both of which are located in Gemini. The former is an ancient planetary nebula and the latter, a supernova remnant. The M105 group (M105, NGC 3384, and NGC 3389) in Leo was nicely framed in Bob's 18" and his new 17mm Tele Vue Ethos. We also looked at NGC 2929, NGC 2930, and NGC 2931, three faint galaxies in Leo, through all of the big Dobsonians.

A bit later Bob had the excellent planetary nebula NGC 3242 (the Ghost of Jupiter) in view in his Obsession at over 400x. We inspected IC 2149 in Auriga, another planetary nebula with a fairly prominent central star, through the 17.5 and 18" Dobs at high magnifications. The Hickson 44 galaxy group looked great through the 18" and the 17mm Ethos, as did M51 and NGC 5195, NGC 4565, and NGC 4631 and NGC 4656 (the Whale and the Hockey Stick galaxies). Towards the end of the session, nearly edge-on Saturn and 3 of its satellites were a fine sight at high power through the 17.5" and a 5mm Tele Vue Radian.

It was 23 degrees Fahrenheit (-5 degrees Celsius) on my automobile thermometer when I left shortly before 6:00 a.m. EST. Throughout the night, there was some wind to deal with and a bit of dampness that made the cold even more unpleasant. As I drove down the mountain, I ran into several patches of dense fog.

Dave Mitsky

I spent time at the Naylor Observatory the past two nights. Last night I stayed the entire night, despite being extremely sleep deprived, and was rewarded with my first views of Comet C/2007 N3 (Lulin) at approximately 5:10 a.m. EST (10:10 UT). The comet formed an isosceles triangle with Zuben Elgenubi and Zuben Eschamali in Libra. I observed this early morning hairy star with the ASH 17" f/15 classical Cassegrain at 118 (55mm University Optics Plössl), 144 (45mm University Optics Plössl), 162 (40mm University Optics MK-70), and 202x (University Optics König-II) and with the 5" f/5 finder at 20 (32mm unbranded Erfle), 32 (20mm Meade Series 4000 Plössl), and 40x (16mm Brandon).

Comet Lulin was perhaps in the upper sixth-magnitude range in brightness, although making an accurate estimate was difficult due to less than optimal transparency. I couldn't make out much in the way of detail, even to how concentrated the comet's fairly large coma was. Comet Lulin's orbital geometry is rather unusual. This may be its first passage through the solar system.

Finder charts are posted at http://www.skyhound.com/cometchasing/comets/2007_N3.gif and http://www.astrodrayer.com/lulin/LulinN3-1.gif

Further information on this comet is available at http://cometography.com/lcomets/2007n3.html and http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/home/35992534.html

Fellow ASH member Dave Lassiter captured a fine image of the comet with the ASH 14" f/10 Meade LX200GPS Schmidt-Cassegrain on Wednesday morning. He also imaged it last night, along with many other celestial objects. I'm including Dave's image from Wednesday morning.

Dave Mitsky

Last Saturday night I joined a number of fellow hardcore observers at the SGL 110 parking lot on Blue Mountain. This site, which is just off of the Appalachian Trail, is easy to get to and is a relatively short 48 mile drive. Its horizons are compromised somewhat but the terrain provides some shelter from wind. The site has fairly good skies, except, unfortunately, to the south. During the night, the transparency was very good at times but, brother, was it ever cold.

As it turned out, refractors were in the majority that night. Three big achromats (an APM 7.1" f/6, an Antares 6" f/6.5, and an Astrozap 6" f/8), an 8" Celestron Schmidt-Cassegrain, and two Dobs (a modified 16" f/4.5 Meade LightBridge Dob and my 8" f/6 Starsplitter Tube Dob with Zambuto optics) graced the mostly snow and ice-covered gravel parking lot.

Some of the first DSOs that I beheld were M81, M82, and NGC 3077 through the 6" f/6.5 Antares achromat on a Univeral Astronomics Unistar mount.

Seeing the faint Seagull Nebula (IC 2177) in Monoceros through the nearby 7.1" APM refractor was pretty cool. Considering the temperature, it should have been. We looked for Comet 144P/Kushida for a while but were unable to locate it. It had been a fairly easy target through the same instrument from another site at the end of December.

I observed the galaxies NGC 2683 in Lynx and NGC 2841 in Ursa Major through the 6" AstroZap refractor. Other objects seen included the galaxies NGC 3690 and NGC 3613 in Ursa Major.

My favorite views of the night were of M42, which was spectacular, and M82 through the 16" Meade Dob, a Denkmeier II binoviewer, and 21mm Denkmeier eyepieces. NGC 2359 (Thor's Helmet) through the 16" was also noteworthy. I also saw the Perseus I Galaxy cluster and the planetary nebula NGC 2371-72 in Gemini through the binoviewer.

I was a bit tired to begin with and was more than content to look through the other telescopes but I did do some observing with my Starsplitter, of course. However, I used only four eyepieces: a 35mm Tele Vue Panoptic (35x), a borrowed 22mm Tele Vue Nagler Type 4 (55x), a 13mm Tele Vue Ethos (94x), and a 5mm Tele Vue Nagler Type 6 (244x)), with the 35mm Panoptic and the 13mm Ethos spending the most time in the focuser by far.

In addition to observing some of the usual winter DSOs, I tried once again in vain to log B33 (the Horsehead Nebula) with my 8", using the 22mm T4 and a borrowed Astronomik H-beta filter. IC 434 was visible but I couldn't detect B33's characteristic shape. I then had a look at NGC 1499 (the California Nebula) using the same gear.

I was able to make out the nebulosity in NGC 2237 (the Rosette Nebula), although it was well past the meridian, with the 35mm Panoptic and a 2" Orion UltraBlock narrowband filter. M97 (the Owl Nebula) through the 13mm Ethos and a 1.25" UltraBlock filter was a fine sight. My final object was Saturn through the 5mm Nagler T6.

Karl, the owner of the 6" AstroZap refractor, was also looking at Saturn at 343x (3.5mm Nagler) at the end of our cloud-shortened observing session. The seeing varied throughout the night but at times it was quite good and Saturn was displayed in fine fashion.

After looking at Saturn, I began to pack up my gear. The temperature when I departed was 8 degrees Fahrenheit (-13 degrees Celsius). It certainly was one bone-chilling night.

Dave Mitsky