From: Collin Smith [mailto:CollinofAlabama@cox.net]
Sent: Sunday, June 04, 2006 7:31 PM
Subject: Observation Report 16-May-2006
Folks,
I was bringing a newbie to the Gott, Patricia Herman. She’s an Education
Professor at Waylon Baptist and had never looked through a telescope before. I
think she got a belly-full, hopefully enough to catch her fancy.
I had wanted to get there around 9:45, and we did. When I arrived, Don Fritz
was already there setting up his new Apogee Lomo triplet 80mm on the Vixen
Paramount. I introduced Dr. Herman to Don and quickly set up my custom 6" F/6
dob. We were heaven bound. Despite the 21:45 hour, there was still
considerable skyglow in the west.
But given Gemini's low state in the sky, I decided we should try and get M35.
Although I did find it, the view was VERY poor. And NGC 2158, its (visually)
nearby (astronomically) distant amigo, invisibly blended into the bright gray
sky background. Hmm. This quelled my appetite for the M35-38 foursome. Oh
well, next Winter, perhaps?
About that time a coyote howled, identifying our rustic setting.
On to Saturn. And the god of the harvest did not disappoint. He rarely does!
-- a pleasing yield of photons in every eyeful. Patricia was happy with the
view, too. I found Saturn in my 26mm Meade 5000 Plossl, a great finder
eyepiece. At a mere 35 power, the rings were quite apparent, with brighter
moons in attendance. But we soon zoomed up the power with my TeleVue 8mm Plossl
for 114 power for a nicer view! So many nice views that I even decided to try
out my brand new BO/TMB 5mm. Although the eyepiece was delivered to my house on
the 4th of May, and the only previous time I had it out was on the 8th, and the
weather hadn't been good enough on that night to warrant attempting its use.
This night the seeing was inconsistent: blurring, then, as the atmosphere would
settle down temporarily, fleeting moments of glory followed by blurring as the
process, like this sentence, would repeat itself. But the 5mm brought out
Saturn in all his glory. The image was spectacular. Don and I decided to test
the view in both scopes with an Apogee Super Easy View 5mm, the TeleVue Zoom set
to 5mm, and the Burgess. Without a doubt, the Burgess held its own, performing
as well as the TeleVue Zoom with a wider true field of view. Actually, Don and
I were both surprised that the SEV 5mm also kept up. Again, the FOV wasn't as
good as the Burgess, about the same as the TV Zoom, but all the detail visible
in the former two was the same in the SEV. Don says this older 5mm model is
better than the modern 5.5mm model sold by Apogee today. Haven't looked through
one of those, but I bet Don has. I do know that famed astronomer Donald Parker
of Florida has spoken highly of the older 5mm model, but I don't see his quotes
up on the Apogee site regarding the 5.5 one. The SEV had added a little extra
chromatic aberration, but this wasn’t enough to actually distract from all the
detail.
Fortunately, Dr. Herman was patient through all of Don's and my eyepiece
comparisons. I think she enjoyed the different views, too.
From Saturn we were off to the Eskimo Nebula off Pollux' right arm (NGC 2392).
Don and I are both a bit slow to find this one, and it took us more time. But
ultimately the trusty 26mm Meade and Karkoschka's Observer's Sky Atlas came
through again. So, we were comparing the various eyepieces on the Eskimo, which
took high power quite well.
We turned to NGC 2903 in the head of Leo, for a peek at one of the many galaxies
gracing the Spring Sky. Again, conditions were not ideal, but I enjoyed the
view. Don and Patricia didn't seem as impressed. M104, the Sombrero Galaxy
just above Corvus, however, met with greater approval and awe.
Toward the zenith, I snagged M3, which Don enjoyed looking at but was not
inclined to try and put in his refractor at THAT sharp an angle. But M13,
always a crowd pleaser, was just getting up in the east, and an easy target for
any kind of telescope. We both snagged it. With the BO/TMB 5mm, I got some
distinct resolution of the globular cluster, even to the core. Quite
impressive. Don got excellent resolution as well with the Nagler Zoom set to
4mm.
We headed north and picked up M81/82 and the Whirlpool, M51. Needless to say,
Patricia was quite pleased with these galactic delicacies.
By now, M57, the Ring Nebula was up high enough to take in, and take in we did.
Again, the 5mm BO/TMB provided some excellent views.
For whatever reason, we decided to attack a few double stars at that time, and
Rasalgethi in Hercules was our first effort. I got them split with the TV 8mm
Plossl. Don managed the same with the Nagler zoom, again at 4mm. The 4.8”
double is a nice little test of the optics. I really like the view of stars and
star clusters in an apo refractor. There’s just something special about the
vivid, unobstructed view of stars and the natural coloration they bring out, and
Rasalgethi is a colorful double, for sure -- a red main star and a blue-green
secondary. Quite nice.
Of course, with the Ring Nebula just under our belt, and double stars on the
mind, we couldn’t resist Epsilon Lyrae, the Double Double. Here, the wide angle
Burgess really paid off. I was able to split the Double Double in my TV 8mm,
but in the 5mm the individual stars were quite apparent. The pair, at 3’31”
apart were each easily defined even with their respective 2.8” and 2.9”
separations. This was VERY easy with the 5mm BO/TMB.
Colorful Albireo split easily, of course. M4 in Scorpius never rose up high
enough out of the Lubbock skyglow to make it worth showing Dr. Herman, but
Jupiter made up for that.
But there was some bad news, too. Although the BO/TMB 5mm Planetary did a GREAT
job at all tasks, mine suffers from some internal reflections due to a shiny
retaining ring (see discussion here
http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/898363/page/1/view/collapsed/sb/5/o/all/fpart/all/vc/1)
I contacted Burgess and Astronomics, but so far, I haven’t received anything
from either to remedy the problem.
All in all, it was a great night under the heavens.
CDS
From: Collin Smith [mailto:CollinofAlabama@hotmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, May 16, 2006 2:23 PM
Subject: Gott-a star gaze tonight
Folks,
Don Fritz and I are headed to the Gott tonight to observe, weather permitting.
Please feel free to come and bring your telescope/binoculars for what we hope
will be a nice, clear, cool but not too cold evening.
Thank you,
CDS
