From: Collin Smith [mailto:CollinofAlabama@hotmail.com]
Sent: Monday, December 12, 2005 7:27 PM
Subject: Monday, December 5th observing report
Folks,
Last Monday night was a nice sky-tour at Skyview. I arrived about 8:45. Don
Fritz had been there about 25 minutes, but he was still trying to collimate his
12". He wasn't very satisfied with his results, but when he had me help, I was
only able to help him tweak it, cause it was relatively close to perfect. We
got just a hair closer. Hmmm. I had my Celestron 80ED, so it was pretty much
ready to go when I got it set up.
Gentlemen, start your engines...
Our first target, the Moon, revealed some strange results. Although the moon
was getting fairly low by then, and it was wavering a little from the heat waves
bouncing through the lower atmosphere, through Don's big dob it was REALLY
wavering, swimming in fact. Hmmm. I told Don his scope needed more time to
cool off, and it would get better as the night progressed.
While Don fussed with his mirror, I took a quick glance at M1, then headed over
to M42, the Orion Nebula. From there I remembered the low lying Dumbell, M27,
and went back to catch that. Finally convinced Don to put his big gun on that.
Even though the image shimmered and stars wouldn't come to a pinpoint, you could
see the Dumbell shape distinctly in the 12"
After this, we decided on an eyepiece shootout, Don with his Apogee WideField
30mm 2" (AFOV 82º) vs my GSO 2" SuperView 30mm (AFOV 64º). We used my new
Celestron O-III filter on the Veil as a comparison. I screwed the filter into
my Antares 2" diagonal. I have the absolute coolest cheapo setup, don't I?
I feel pretty foolish about this whole comparison. To my eyes, both eyepieces
performed about the same, but the Apogee clearly had a larger FOV. Amazingly
though, I didn't continue this comparison sans filter. That matters a WHOLE
lot, duh. Oh well, Don and I will have have the eyepiece shoot-out another
time. Shucks! One thing funky about the GSO is the 48mm filter thread. This
is slightly smaller than a 2" filter. With the refractor, it's no problem with
the 2" diagonal, but my O-III filter is pinched in the threads of the GSO, so,
though I can get it to hold well, it's too tight and, of course, in peril of
stripping the threads on either the GSO or the filter. But the optical truth is
determined by the view, and that view is clearly more discernable without a
filter than with one. Try, try again.
After staring at the Veil through the two inchers, we turned our attention to
M1, again. Then, we decided to look at the Pleades. They fit nicely in my
refractor. Even tried for the Hyades! Well, they couldn't all fit in my 2"
eyepiece, but I did get the entire snout and double star sets up the 'V', so,
not too bad. We followed this up with another wide angle experience of the
Double Cluster.
After all this, we decided it was time to look at Mars. We'd been there a
while, and if the scopes could adjust to the temperature and see well on what
appeared a clear night, this was the time. Besides, the wind, which had
mercifully been dormant, began to remind us of its presence on planet Earth, and
that it was, indeed, December. To our chagrin, Mars would not take high power.
The image was of a mostly featureless salmon ball. There was a small amount of
darkening and a little whisp of white on the bottom, but the clarity of detail
was poor. Don remarked that he hadn't been able to get a really good view of
Mars throughout this apparition. Something of a shame, really. In August 2003,
we had had such spectacular views of Mars with SO much surface detail. We
looked at it in lower power and though the tiny orb appeared more detailed, it
was too small to make out all but the most enormous features.
The wind began picking up and we started talking about leaving. But I wanted to
catch the row of four clusters I like so much, M35-38. Off to Gemini's foot and
we quickly found M35 with NGC 2158. This pair is SO beautiful. I only had a
26mm eyepiece in the refractor (23.1 X), so the NGC was awfully faint and airy.
Don's scope showed we were looking at two clusters, but with a sloppier quality
to the stars. We also nabbed M37, M36 & finally M38 with NGC 1907. By then the
wind was up, we were tired, and it was time to head home.
Having discussed it afterwards, Don and I think the reason his 12" mirror never
could produce pinpoint stars was because the temperature was probably declining
rather rapidly the entire time we were out there. As it fell, the big mirror
had a new equilibrium point. This continued on until it got to us before the
mirror had had enough! My refractor, of course, being a refractor and only a
quarter the size readjusted much better. But even the C80ED, an apo known for
high power viewing, couldn't manage the high powers due to upper atmospheric
turbulence or, on a smaller scale, the same exact equilibrium dance that was
playing havoc with the views through the 12" dob.
Somehow we forgot to even look at M31 which Stan and I had examined the week
before. Sometimes the simple things elude. We'll have to return, hopefully
with more luck regarding the viewing from the atmospheric side of things.
Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year if I don't see you before
the end of 2005.
CDS
-----Original
Message-----
From: Collin Smith [mailto:CollinofAlabama@hotmail.com]
Sent: Monday, December 05, 2005 9:00 AM
Subject: Dudes, Gott to observe
Folks,
Although it will be COLD tonight, the forecast promises no better weather
through the week (a bit worse, in fact). The moon will be a beautiful
crescent and we'll have dark skies. Although I like the idea of going to Emma,
especially since we haven't been in so long, I'm leery of the winds. They're
not forecast to be too bad, but they just about cut me in half last night,
and are forecast not to be whole lot less tonight. Given the blustery state of
things, I much prefer the safety of Gott's dome (we can at least set up behind
it and look at the northern skies and Mars, winds being from the Southwest,
worse case scenario). So, an Observation Party at the Gott Observatory is
planned. Dress for defense from the elements, but open your eyes to heavenly
revelation. Hope to see you at Skyview tonight!
Ciao amigos,
CDS
