After a quick trip to Newington to 'scope out' the store setup for tomorrow night's class, I headed over to the Stratham Hill park for the darkest site around Portsmouth that I know of.
My goal was to explore the Virgo galaxies for the first time using the Telrad and starhopping with the standard Telrad charts, and my Pocket Sky Atlas. I used the XT8i with mostly the 24mm and 35mm Panoptic, and the 13 mm Hyperion.
Starting from Vindemiatrix (Epsilon Virginis) I found Rho Virginis, the center of a Y-shaped asterism. By using that as an "arrow" to take off in various directions, I found M58 and M60, then M89, then finally M84 and M86. The Milky Way is 100,000 L.Y. in diameter - these two galaxies are 50 million L.Y. away! No wonder they are pretty dim.
Then following the arc of Markarian's chain, I found the rest of the Markarian galaxies ending with the brighter M88. This was all based on recommendations from Cloudy Nights members - thanks!
I then spent about a half hour looking at M13 and then finding M81 and M82 without the COL assistance. This is very satisfying to get to know the sky this way.
Finally as I was packing up to leave, an enormously bright star rose above the trees in the SE. Of course it was Jupiter, seemingly bright enough to read by.
The plan for viewing after class tomorrow night will be Saturn and M13. If anyone can find anything else under the parking lot lights, that will be great.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Friday, May 23, 2008
First light for the WO Zenithstar ED 80
Grab-and-go is back! In just under a year I am back to owning a (used) 80mm (3 inch) ED (extra-low dispersion) APO (apochromatic, low false color) short tube (fl=545mm) wide-field scope. This was where I started in amateur observing in July of 2007 with the purchase of a Vixen ED80sf on a Portamount. That was the scope we took to Nantucket with my son Ryan just before he joined the Navy and I still remember his "wows" when he first got the moon in focus. It was a wonderful piece of gear, but I remember thinking how big it was! :-) The ZS80 is only 17" long and fits nicely into a small aluminum carry case. It's definitely coming to California with me in June.
This scope is the ultimate in portability and ease of use. It's specialty is wide-field views, but I could not resist pointing it at Saturn. Crisp and clear view of the planet and rings plus two moons, enough to satisfy anyone that they had seen the planet in all its glory. (For more details on planets, of course a longer focal length and bigger aperture is required.)
But how lucky can I be that Mars is now passing directly through the Beehive Cluster, M44, so I next pointed Southwest at Mars. Since the scope has a focal length of 545 mm, a 13mm Hyperion gives a magnfication of 545/13 = 42X. And the 68 deg. AFOV of the Hyperion becomes 68/42 = 1.9 degrees of sky, an huge amount (thus the term "wide field") for viewing extended objects like the Beehive cluster. They say every scope is a compromise, and this one's sweet spot is low power wide-field views.
And there was Mars, I think even showing a small disk, definitely orange in color, but now floating above a background of black sky absolutely spangled with 50+ bright stars in the Beehive cluster. Clouds came and went and made it a frustrating wait for the 2 or 3 second glimpses I could get through the holes but they were worth the wait. Tonight promises to be clear, and I will be out for another look at that beautiful vision. It was also beautiful in binoculars. I'll say it too - Wow!
Last night I visited Tony at Astronomy Shoppe in Plaistow and picked up a 1 1/4" diagonal for the scope. I've mounted the ZS80 on my video tripod for now (Bogen 3011N) using a piece of wood with a couple of holes drilled for a T-nut and a 1/4x20 handle. It kind of slips around a bit, I think I used a piece of wood which was too slippery (very hard cocobolo from my scrap bin). I'll make another one out of unfinished scrap - it needs the rough surface to grab the rubber of the mount and keep things from swinging when the scope is pointed up. Shouldn't be too much trouble, then I'll be ready for tonight.
I should also mention that I enjoyed another backyard rendezvous with my neighbors Chris and Scott to watch the ISS pass at 9:31pm. Chris was the first to spot it rising directly up out of the SW. It passed between several cloud layers and we watched it pick up (apparent) speed as it arched overhead. There must have been some high patchy clouds because there was a very apparent rapid fluctuation in the brightness of the station to the eye, something I've never seen before. Almost every ISS pass is visible evenings and mornings now as we are aligned favorably with the orbital plane of the station during our sunrise/sunset times.
Saturday night is a good possibility for going to Portsmouth for some Sidewalk Astronomy, esp. since there is an outstanding ISS pass at 8:41pm which will arch directly overhead. That should be a real special sight!
Clear skies!
This scope is the ultimate in portability and ease of use. It's specialty is wide-field views, but I could not resist pointing it at Saturn. Crisp and clear view of the planet and rings plus two moons, enough to satisfy anyone that they had seen the planet in all its glory. (For more details on planets, of course a longer focal length and bigger aperture is required.)
But how lucky can I be that Mars is now passing directly through the Beehive Cluster, M44, so I next pointed Southwest at Mars. Since the scope has a focal length of 545 mm, a 13mm Hyperion gives a magnfication of 545/13 = 42X. And the 68 deg. AFOV of the Hyperion becomes 68/42 = 1.9 degrees of sky, an huge amount (thus the term "wide field") for viewing extended objects like the Beehive cluster. They say every scope is a compromise, and this one's sweet spot is low power wide-field views.
And there was Mars, I think even showing a small disk, definitely orange in color, but now floating above a background of black sky absolutely spangled with 50+ bright stars in the Beehive cluster. Clouds came and went and made it a frustrating wait for the 2 or 3 second glimpses I could get through the holes but they were worth the wait. Tonight promises to be clear, and I will be out for another look at that beautiful vision. It was also beautiful in binoculars. I'll say it too - Wow!
Last night I visited Tony at Astronomy Shoppe in Plaistow and picked up a 1 1/4" diagonal for the scope. I've mounted the ZS80 on my video tripod for now (Bogen 3011N) using a piece of wood with a couple of holes drilled for a T-nut and a 1/4x20 handle. It kind of slips around a bit, I think I used a piece of wood which was too slippery (very hard cocobolo from my scrap bin). I'll make another one out of unfinished scrap - it needs the rough surface to grab the rubber of the mount and keep things from swinging when the scope is pointed up. Shouldn't be too much trouble, then I'll be ready for tonight.
I should also mention that I enjoyed another backyard rendezvous with my neighbors Chris and Scott to watch the ISS pass at 9:31pm. Chris was the first to spot it rising directly up out of the SW. It passed between several cloud layers and we watched it pick up (apparent) speed as it arched overhead. There must have been some high patchy clouds because there was a very apparent rapid fluctuation in the brightness of the station to the eye, something I've never seen before. Almost every ISS pass is visible evenings and mornings now as we are aligned favorably with the orbital plane of the station during our sunrise/sunset times.
Saturday night is a good possibility for going to Portsmouth for some Sidewalk Astronomy, esp. since there is an outstanding ISS pass at 8:41pm which will arch directly overhead. That should be a real special sight!
Clear skies!
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