Posts Made By: Dave Mitsky

Flight STS-119 of the Discovery Space Shuttle will be visible very low in the southern sky tonight shortly after 9:20 p.m. EDT. Be sure to be at a location with a good southern horizon ahead of time with binoculars at the ready. For further information, browse Joe Rao's blog at http://www.haydenplanetarium.org/blog/joerao/2009/03/09/shuttle-launch-visible-along-east-coast

I've seen a couple of STS launches from south central Pennsylvania in the past and even photographed one of them.

http://dvaa.org/php/mpix.php?p=Dave_Mitsky&i=SpaceShuttleLaunch

Dave Mitsky

Not long ago I took my Coronado PST outside and observed some prominences on the Sun's leading limb using an 8-24mm Tele Vue click stop zoom eyepiece. The best view was at about 10mm (40x). These were the first prominences that I've seen firsthand in quite some time.

Dave Mitsky

Greetings,

If anyone is interested in presenting a PowerPoint astronomy talk at the Cherry Springs Star Party on either Friday, June 20, or Saturday, June 21, please PM me.

http://www.astrohbg.org/CSSP/Information.html

Thanks!

Dave Mitsky

Here are my lists of deep-sky objects for April.

Dave Mitsky

One hundred deep-sky objects for April: NGC 4024, NGC 4027 (Corvus); NGC 3511, NGC 3513, NGC 3672, NGC 3887, NGC 3892, NGC 3955, NGC 3962, NGC 3981 (Crater); NGC 3091, NGC 3109, NGC 3145, NGC 3203, NGC 3242, NGC 3309, NGC 3585, NGC 3621, NGC 3717, NGC 3904, NGC 3936 (Hydra); M65, M66, M95, M96, M105, NGC 3098, NGC 3162, NGC 3177, NGC 3185, NGC 3190, NGC 3226, NGC 3227, NGC 3300, NGC 3346, NGC 3367, NGC 3377, NGC 3384, NGC 3389, NGC 3412, NGC 3437, NGC 3489, NGC 3495, NGC 3507, NGC 3521, NGC 3593, NGC 3607, NGC 3608, NGC 3626, NGC 3628, NGC 3630, NGC 3640, NGC 3646, NGC 3655, NGC 3681, NGC 3684, NGC 3686, NGC 3691, NGC 3810, NGC 3842, NGC 3872, NGC 3900, NGC 4008 (Leo); NGC 3245, NGC 3254, NGC 3277, NGC 3294, NGC 3344, NGC 3414, NGC 3432, NGC 3486, NGC 3504 (Leo Minor); NGC 2990, NGC 3044, NGC 3055, NGC 3115, NGC 3156, NGC 3166, NGC 3169, NGC 3246, NGC 3423 (Sextans); IC 750, M97, M108, M109, NGC 3079, NGC 3184, NGC 3198, NGC 3310, NGC 3359, NGC 3610, NGC 3665, NGC 3675, NGC 3738, NGC 3877, NGC 3898, NGC 3941, NGC 3953, NGC 3998, NGC 4026 (Ursa Major)

Top ten deep-sky objects for April: M65, M66, M95, M96, M97, M105, M108, NGC 3115, NGC 3242, NGC 3628

Top ten binocular deep-sky objects for April: M65, M66, M95, M96, M97, M105, M108, M109, NGC 3115, NGC 3242

Challenge deep-sky object for April: Leo I (Leo)

The objects listed above are located between 10:00 and 12:00 hours of right ascension.

C/2009 F6 (Yi-SWAN), a newly discovered eighth-magnitude comet, is moving eastward through Cassiopeia towards Perseus.

http://transientsky.wordpress.com/2009/04/07/new-comet-c2009-f6-yi-swan/

http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/iau/Ephemerides/Comets/2009F6_1.html

Dave Mitsky

In case it hasn't been mentioned here already, a bright (for a supernova, that is) supernova in the eleventh magnitude SAB(rs)bc galaxy NGC 4088 in Ursa Major was discovered recently.

http://www.rochesterastronomy.org/supernova.html#2009dd

Dave Mitsky

I spent last Thursday night observing at one of the best "nearby" dark sites (a 1 hour and 15 minute drive) but passed up an even better night on Friday in order to go to the 2009 NorthEast Astronomy Forum & Telescope Show.

http://www.rocklandastronomy.com/neaf/

I've attended the NEAF every year since 1995 and wasn't sorry about my decision. I ran into some friends there that I haven't seen in a while and saw a lot of cool astro-toys, including a 24" Ritchey-Chretien Cassegrain, a 10" apochromatic refractor, two neat little spectrographs, the new 10mm Ethos eyepiece, and the new nitrogen-filled 14mm Explore Scientific eyepiece, which I witnessed being dunked into an aquarium tank.

Here are some of the pictures that I took throughout the day.

Dave Mitsky

I spent last night at one of the best "local" sites (43 miles distant) with a group of fellow Chesmont Astronomical Society members. There was quite an array of equipment present including an 8" APM refractor, a 10" modified Meade Dob, an 18" Obsession Dob, two 20" Obsession Dobs, and a 22" Astrosystems Telekit Dob. I viewed the supernova through the 8" refractor and the 10, 18, and the 22" Dobs. It was visible intermitently through the 8 and 10-inchers but wasn't particularly difficult with the 18" and was rather easy (I could hold it steadily) with the 22". The owner likes to observe DSOs at high magnifications (later on we looked at M51 at a power of over 700x) and at 360x SN 2009dd stood out quite well.

I had also observed the supernova on Wednesday night from the Astronomical Society of Harrisburg's Naylor Observatory, which is now compromised by light pollution, using a 17" f/15 classical Cassegrain. The transparency was rather poor but I was able to see the supernova fleetingly.

The first time I saw SN 2009dd was the previous Thursday night from a dark sight in the Tuscarora State Forest. My friend Tony Donnangelo and I observed the exploding star through his 20" Starmaster Sky Tracker Dob.

Dave Mitsky

I had great views of the massing of the Moon, M45, and Mercury from a distant dark site last night through 8x42 and 10x50 binoculars, an 80mm f/5 refractor, a 101mm f/5.4 refractor, and a 10" Dob. Mercury displayed a distinct phase as seen through the 10". Unfortunately, I neglected to bring my Canon DSLR camera along with me.

http://www.astronomy.com/asy/default.aspx?c=a&id=8172

Dave Mitsky

I've been doing some free remote imaging using the Bradford Robotic Telescope installation on Tenerife. Most of the images have been pretty poor so far (barely in the frame, blooming, mistracking, clouds, etc.) despite my limiting the exposure time as much as possible. However, the last one - M5 - wasn't bad at all for only 25 seconds.

Dave Mitsky