Due to several life-changing events, including getting married, I've spent the last few years away from astronomy. However, now things are settling down and I once again find myself yearning to be back under the stars.
I apologize for this StarLog not being quite up to my usual standard of meticulous recording. It was rather spur-of-the-moment and I didn't have my voice recorder with me to take notes.
Tonight, I set up in my rural backyard. Seeing was good near the zenith, but poor near the horizon. The Milky Way could be seen stretching nearly all the way to Cassiopeia. My nephew Donelle never looked through a telescope before, so he happily came outside with me to take a peek.
Observer: Tom Campbell
Location: Iola, KS (Long: 95°24'W Lat: 37°55'N)
Equipment: Discovery DHQ 8" dobsonian
Eyepieces: 1.25 Plössls - 25mm (49x), 15mm (81x), 10mm (122x), Orion Expanse 6mm (203x)
Time: 8:00pm - 10:00pm CDT (1:00pm - 3:00pm UT)
Transparency: Clear (10/10)
Seeing: Decent (7/10)
Weather: Temperatures in the low 70s. There was no breeze.
CYGNUS
As soon as the sky turned dark enough to spot it, I turned my telescope towards Albireo (β Cygni). This lovely double has always been one of my favorites. The bright yellow and pale blue colors were unmistakable. Although beautiful at any magnification, I think the best view was at 122x.
LYRA
Next I turned to M57, the Ring Nebula, in Lyra. Even at low magnification (49x), the distinctive donut-shape could be seen. At 203x, I could see a faint star just outside the ring, but the central star remained elusive.
I then turned to a couple of the bright doubles in Lyra. First came ζ Lyrae. At 49x, it looked like two big eyes staring back at me through the eyepiece. Both were intense white.
Next came another one of my favorites, ε Lyrae, the Double Double. At 49x, it appeared as only two stars, but when I increased the magnification to 122x, I could see all four compenents clearly.
PERSEUS
Perseus was starting to peek above the trees, so I turned to the Double Cluster, NGC-869 and NGC-884. At 49x, I could get most of both clusters into the same field of view. There were easily 50-100 stars visible in each cluster. When Donelle looked at it, he said, "This is nice!" which is high praise from him. :-)
CASSIOPEIA
I then turned the telescope towards one of my favorite constellations, Cassiopeia. The first thing I pointed to was an old friend, NGC-457, or what I call the E.T. Cluster. At 49x, his two uneven eyes (I like to think the fainter "eye" is winking at me) and glowing fingertip were a treat to see again.
Next, I pointed to the nearby open cluster M103. I saw this cluster as triangular-shaped, reminding me a bit of the player's spaceship in the old Asteroids video game. But when Donelle looked at it, he said it looked more like a dipper. So I took another peek, and sure enough, I could see a Big Dipper shape (except the "handle" was flattened out instead of curved) there.
Finally, I pointed at the double star η Cas. The brighter component was pale yellow and the fainter companion was white. To me, the pair resembled a bright star with a planet orbiting it.
ANDROMEDA
I was trying to give Donelle a taste of as many different types of celestial objects as I could. So after pointing out the easily visible Milky Way ribbon of light to him and explaining a bit about what he was seeing, I turned the telescope to our galactic neighbor, M31, the Great Andromeda Galaxy. 49x offered the best view, as the bright core appeared as an elongated, fuzzy smudge of light.
PEGASUS
Due to its location near the mouth of the flying horse, I always think of M15 as a celestial horse apple. Tonight, the globular cluster was obvious at 49x, but it took 122x before a lot of the stars began to resolve with averted vision.
JUPITER
Although still too low in the eastern sky to observe properly, I couldn't call it a night before taking a peek at the king of the planets. At 203x, the equatorial bands were quite obvious and deep brown in color. Subtle shadings could be detected on the planet's surface, but with the atmospheric distortions at this altitude, additional details couldn't be seen. Of all the objects viewed tonight, this was by far Donelle's favorite. Who can blame him?
