Now that the weather has cooled down, I've tried to get out some more, but I'm either too tired from a day's work, or wrapped up in something else. I have gotten out to look at a couple things, mostly Jupiter, which was very cool. Haven't seen the GRS yet, but I'm thinking that I need to get the scope properly collimated. The laser just doesn't get it, even barlowed, so I think I'll be getting a cheshire soon. Hopefully that will improve my views.
I've also taken a look at M31 which was quite fun, and wrapped up a few more double stars. The doubles are proving to be one of my favorite things to view each time out. I'm probably going to pick up a book that I read a review of on Cloudy Nights dedicated to doubles.
Finally, I've been playing the waiting game for over a month and hopefully it will be over shortly. I ordered a Hyperion 8-24mm clickstop zoom eyepiece from Telescopes.com at the end of September and they said it should be shipping in the next few days. I can't wait! The utility of the zoom will be wonderful, but I'm really excited about the wide FOV. My favorite EP that I own right now is my 2" 32mm Zhummel that came with my dob, and I know that it's nothing to write home about. To have a nice quality EP to add to my collection will be great. I'll get a first light up ASAP.
Haven't had a post in quite some time, so thought I'd get last night's observing up here before I forgot.
I started on the AstroLeague Urban Club list last night. Specifically the double stars list. I thought that this would be a good way to learn my way around the skies, and see some cool stuff, too. Seeing was pretty poor last night as it was fairly windy. Can't say I minded it too much though as it was still 100 outside at 9pm. Ugh. The skies were completely clear, although the moonshine from the big bright full moon drowned out quite a bit of stars.
I started with Gamma Leo, since it was the lowest in the sky and therefore, the hardest to split given the atmospheric conditions. I started at 60x on my 8" dob and could see an elongation of the star, alluding to the double. Stepping up to 133x just split the pair. There was no color apparent, but I could make out that the B star was just to the SE of the A star.
Next was Zeta Ursa Major or Mizar and Alcor. Now, I knew about the naked eye double of Mizar/Alcor, but didn't realize that Mizar itself was a double. I had only looked with my binoculars before, but when I centered the scope at 133x, the pair was easily split. Both appeared white with maybe a little blue tint, but seeing was crummy, so this could be false.
Next was the Double-Double of Epsilon Lyra. I had split this one before, but wanted to observe it again and log it for the Urban list. First split was easy, visible in just the finderscope. Splitting the double-double was difficult though with the wind the way it was. I tried barlowing my 9mm putting me at 266x, but it was extremely fuzzy. I then accidentally grabbed my 3.5mm thinking it was my 10mm, and put it in without the barlow giving 342x and could see the split! There was a pair with a EW orientation, and the other had a NS orientation. Very nice.
I then moved to Alberio, or Beta Cygnus. This was a very easy split, but one of the more beautiful doubles I've seen yet. The A star had a very nice yellow color and the B was smaller and a pretty blue. I actually returned to this one just before heading in for bed because I liked it so much.
I then tried to find Gamma Delphinus, but couldn't see the constellation from all the moonlight. I did end up finding a double in the area I thought it should be. And it did match the sketch in my copy of Turn Left at Orion, but without being sure of where I was, I didn't log it for my list.
Nice night of observing. Looking forward to getting further down the urban list.
Went out last night even though I was feeling crummy because the Sky and Telescope site said that Titan was to pass into Saturn's shadow around 9:50pm. I watched for a while and didn't see anything, so my guess is that I just don't know which moon was Titan. :-P The seeing was pretty bad where Saturn was sitting, and a lot of light from a nearby street light was bleeding in as well. Oh well.
After that, I turned to Lyra and found the Ring Nebula (M57), which I never had found before. Pretty cool. I upped the magnification all the way 240x and could still see quite a bit. Really neat shape to it. After that I took a quick look at M13 again before heading to bed.
Short post, since it's been cloudy every single night for the last 5 days. :( But it should clear up this weekend just in time for me to go camping outside of Payson in a nice gray zone. We're gonna have to take two cars to get up there with the scope, but Elissa is just fine with that because she knows how much I would love to use it up there. What a wife! I've never said I'm not a truly lucky SOB. :)
I'm trying to get a good list of objects together to look at. I figure I'll be printing star charts all night Friday. :) I'll update when we get back!
So I finally received my Z8 Deluxe this past weekend while we were in California. Got home and immediately assembled it. Much thanks to the folks over on the CloudyNights.com forums who have assembled these before me for posting about the instructions being incorrect. After staring at all the parts for a while, I finally got it all together. Only issue is that I ended up with the eyepiece holder on the wrong side. I'll fix that this weekend.
I've had it out a few times, but did a lot of looking at the same stuff I had previously. The one thing I'll mention is how much better Saturn looked in the 8". It was much easier to make out the moons. Two things that I checked out that were new for me were M81/82 and M3. I had a heck of a time finding M81/82, and in fact really just stumbled onto them by accident. I need a lot of work on my starhopping! The two galaxies were pretty faint, but with averted vision, I was able to see them a little more clearly. No structure was evident, but I was pretty impressed with what I could make out under my orange/yellow zone skies with a bright moon out.
M3 was brilliant! It took a few minutes to find. I picked up a copy of Turn Left at Orion, hoping it would aid in my finding objects, and in a way it did. The diretions it gave weren't working for me. It had me looking for beta Caroli just west of the midpoint between Arcturus and Cor Caroli, and then going slighly east from there to M3. After not findng it for a while, it dawned on me while looking at the chart in the book, that M3 is pretty much on that line between Arcturus and Cor Caroli. I lined up my telrad on that point and then checked in the scope and, bingo! M3 right in the field of view. After enjoying splitting doubles, I now find that I really enjoy globular clusters as well! This hobby just keeps getting better!
Cloudy skies last night, so nothing to look at. Hoping for some clearer skies tonight, or at least this weekend.
So I finally made a decision and bought a scope. Ordered a Zhummel 8" dob from telescopes.com. I'm chomping at the bit to get my hands on it, but will have to wait until Friday to get it. Hope to get it set up that night and get a first light report up.
So I'll be giving my friend back his 6" dob on Tuesday. Since I'll be scopeless for a few days I got out tonight to try and get some time in. Did some more looking at Saturn, which I'm sure I'll keep doing as long as it's up. And then thought I'd try to see if I could split the double in Castor. The seeing was pretty bad, and there was a steady breeze, but I was able to make out the double just barely. Pretty cool. I never thought I would find the double star stuff interesting, but I found that to be pretty fun. After that I went back to Saturn, and then packed it in for the night. Hopefully the breeze will be gone tomorrow night and the seeing will be better.
I haven't had a chance to really get out and observe lately. I started getting up an hour earlier to go work out at 5, which means that by the time the sky is dark, I'm wiped. That and the skies have been fairly cloudy lately, leaving little to look at. I have looked at the moon a few more times though. I think I want to start trying to observe it with a map by me so I can start to pick out individual features.
I took some time during the cloudy nights to build my own shutter release cable for our Canon XTi. I'd never done any kind of electronics work, so it was really fun to do even it was a super simple circuit. I'll post a picture of it later.
Oh, and I'm trying to infect the kids with the astronomy bug at a young age. Wonder if it will work?
