Saturn April 16th, 2006

Jupiter May 9th, 2006

Saturn March 28th, 2006

Date: March 28th, 2006
Time: 10:00pm
Location: Pickering, ON
Seeing: GREAT (best ever)
Site Conditions: Lots of light pollution
Instrument: NexStar 10" ToUcam Pro II (which died on me tonight)

Mars October 19 2005

Here is a quick, end of the night shot I got of Mars on October 19th, 2005, as you can see this image of Mars has different features showing from my other images of Mars below.

This image here shows Mars as it does in the Webcam, when I am capturing the data:

Here is Mars after some zoom and crop edits:

And finally some colour and stacking edits, to try and squeeze as much detail out as possible:

Moon October 19th 2005

Here is the second set of Moon images I was able to take, the first one right below is showing exactly what I see while imaging with my webcam.

Moon October 16 2005

Here is my first attempt at the Moon with my webcam, on this date, the moon was nearly full.

They were taken with my 10" dob that does not track, so these images were constantly moving across my field of view, and the seeing was also bad, as I never let the scope cool down, the Moon looked as if it were under water.

Mars October 6th 2005

Mars October 6th, 2005 1:00am EST




Here is my first attempt at imaging Mars, actually its only my second real look at the planet with a telescope, since I did not have one in time for the 2003 opposition, and when viewing Mars at 4am in July, it was so small in my 4” that no detail could be seen except for a orange blob.

This is also my first time ever using a CCD camera to capture the images, before the CCD, I would use my Kodak Digital camera held up to the eyepiece.

The seeing and transparency on this morning of Oct 6th, 2005, was OK at best, I could see hints of very high clouds around Mars. I have found so far the best method of centering the object in the FOV of the CCD is to point at the object with the Green Laser pointer I have mounted with a remote on\off switch, I have the laser very finely tuned and buy pointing it at Mars, I am able to get the planet pretty much in the range of the camera.

Now before I go any further, I just want to state for the record since I am using a Dob to capture images, I am just really doing it for kicks, and nothing more. And therefore I know I am not going to get the results of some of the other stunning images, and I am fine with that. :)

Since my 10” Dob does not track, its amazing to see how fast Mars races across the FOV. After doing some reading on the internet, (thanks IceinSpace)I found the best method is to take several movies, convert the frames to .bmp files, take the bmp files through another program, called ppmcentre, this will take the object and centre it in each image automatically, and then drop the .bmp files in to Registax.

Here are my Results:







This is a fairly similar view to what I was able to see through the eyepieces, dark seas, and not to much of the ice caps on either end of the planet. I hope to get out again soon and spend more time at the EP and imaging to get different perspectives but the weather seems to have other plans, and it looks like its going to be cloudy for the next few days :(

According to the Mars Profiler, on this night the Magintude of Mars was around -1.8 which is pretty bright and still approx 32 days from Opposition (when Earth and Mars are closest) From what I can gather the dark banding Mare I was able to see is Mare Sirenum. The white area around the limb could be as a result of the light bending through the Atmosphere of Mars!

M29, M39, M71, and M92

Tonight was a very clear night, just came back from our friend Jessica's cottage, whose dark skies were very beautiful, its a shame I did not bring my scope with me! The difference in the northern skies and the skies in Ajax was quite astounding, the stars in the two dippers and Cassiopia were significantly dimmer, and it was hard to find the dimmer constellations at first glance. Tonight I decided to target some previously seen, but yet-to-be-documented Messier Objects, the only new one tonight was M71 in Saggiti. Below is a log of my observations, I was able to get them all in in about an hours time, spending about 10-20 min on each ones, some of the dimmer clusters were not that exciting :)


AstroByte Logging System


Messier Number 29 NGC # 6913 Name / Type Open Cluster
RA 20 23.9 DEC 38 32 Constellation CYG Mag 9.0 Size 7

Instrument Used NewStar 10" Magnifications Used 38x
Seeing Conditions Transparency 4 Seeing 4 Observing Location Ajax, On
Local Date 9/ 5/2005 Local Time 10:10pm
UTC Time & Date 9/6/2005 2:10:00 AM
Personal Notes
This small cluster was fairly hard to find for me, i had to really look hard to make out the 'mini dipper' in my ST80
finder with a 30mm EP. But once found it was hard to miss the shape of this small cluster. In the 10" scope
the 4 main stars that make the dipper were very easy to see.


Messier Number 39 NGC # 7092 Name / Type Open Cluster
RA 21 32.2 DEC 48 26 Constellation CYG Mag 5.5 Size 32

Instrument Used NewStar 10" Magnifications Used 38x
Seeing Conditions Transparency 4 Seeing 4 Observing Location Ajax, On
Local Date 9/ 5/2005 Local Time 10:15PM
UTC Time & Date 9/6/2005 2:15:00 AM
Personal Notes
This large cluster was first seen in my binoculars a month or so ago, and was seen as a large hazy patch. Once viewed in the ST80 and the 10" this shows the individual stars. This cluster takes up almost the Entire FOV with my 32mm EP.


Messier Number 71 NGC # 6838 Name / Type Globular Cluster
RA 19 53.8 DEC 18 47 Constellation SGE Mag 8.5 Size 7.2

Instrument Used NewStar 10" Magnifications Used 38x
Seeing Conditions Transparency 4 Seeing 4 Observing Location Ajax, On
Local Date 9/ 5/2005 Local Time 10:00PM
UTC Time & Date 9/6/2005 2:00:00 AM
Personal Notes
M71 was a very plain globular to me. I had difficulties resolving anything in the 10" and in the ST80 with a 30mm EP was a very hard to spot circular smudge!


Messier Number 92 NGC # 6341 Name / Type Globular Cluster
RA 17 17.1 DEC 43 08 Constellation HER Mag 7.5 Size 11.2

Instrument Used NewStar 10" Magnifications Used 38x
Seeing Conditions Transparency 4 Seeing 4 Observing Location Ajax, On
Local Date 9/ 5/2005 Local Time 10:05PM
UTC Time & Date 9/6/2005 2:05:00 AM
Personal Notes
I have viewed M92 many times before the first time being around the end of June 2005. M92 is a very bright globular, but 1/3 of the size of the great globular M13, which is very close by. M92 was very prominent even in the ST80, and in the 10" i could start to reslove stars at 38x.

M52 and M103 in Cassiopeia

On this night I concentrated on the newly rising Constellation of Cassiopeia. These two Messier Objects were nothing special once found, but I still love the hunt!

Messier Number 52 NGC # 7654 Name / Type Open Cluster
RA 23 24.2 DEC 61 35 Constellation CAS Mag 8.0 Size 13

Instrument Used NewStar 10" Magnifications Used 38x
Seeing Conditions Transparency 6 Seeing 6 Observing Location Ajax, On
Local Date 8/ 5/2005 Local Time 12:45am
UTC Time & Date 8/5/2005 4:45:00 AM
Personal Notes
This cluster was a little easier to find than m103. I could see a distinctive 'arrow' of clusters in this group, but not much to look at.


Messier Number 103 NGC # Name / Type Open Cluster
RA 01 33.2 DEC 60 42 Constellation CAS Mag 7.0 Size 6

Instrument Used NewStar 10" Magnifications Used 38x
Seeing Conditions Transparency 6 Seeing 6 Observing Location Ajax, On
Local Date 8/ 5/2005 Local Time 12:30AM
UTC Time & Date 8/5/2005 4:30:00 AM
Personal Notes
This cluster was easy to locate, but hard to identify, there were many different clusters that could have been mistaken for m103, but i was able to identify it and confirm it with SkyWatch.

My First Visit to a Dark Sky

My First Visit to a Dark Sky!

Well what an exciting night! I was looking so forward ever since joining the DRAA to get up to their dark sky location in Orono. It was the first time observing with my 10” outside of my backyard, and BOY what a difference!!!!

Ken and I made plans to head up there together and we arrived around 8:30pm. The sky looked VERY promising, with clear skies, AND little bugs. Well that all quickly changed…as the sun started going down, the clouds were moving overhead, teasing and taunting us. We were able to watch Venus and Jupiter set, but by the sun was down, and the stars were out, so were the patchy clouds. Although there were clear patches in the sky, the clouds were so bad we could not even barley identify the constellations. This was very surprising and, very disappointing, I was looking forward so much to this little adventure, and the DRAACO Clear Sky Clock was forecasting clear skies!!!

But finally at about 10:30pmEST things started to look better, and better. The night soon was very clear!

I really wanted to look at Scorpious first, as this area of the sky is blocked from my vantage point from my house.

Here is the list of objects and descriptions of my night:

Venus – Three quarter’s full, and boiling low in the atmosphere, it wasn’t really much to look at other than a bright ball of light!

Jupiter – Was starting its descent in the western sky, it was a decent view at best, but I have seen better from my backyard. I didn’t really expect much, since as I noted it was beginning to set.

AstroByte Logging System


Messier Number 8 NGC # 6523 Name / Type Lagoon Nebula
RA 18 03.8 DEC -24 23 Constellation SGR Mag 5.0 Size 60 x 35

Instrument Used NewStar 10" Magnifications Used 38x
Seeing Conditions Transparency 6 Seeing 6 Observing Location DRAACO
Local Date 7/28/2005 Local Time 11:45PM
UTC Time & Date 7/29/2005 3:45:00 AM

Personal Notes
WOW! thats how i would sum up the Lagoon nebula, it was certainly bright, and i had found it before even looking in to my scope, i was able to determine where it was with my trusty STAR WATCH and TL@O, that I spotted it right away, this made me jump for joy, and i was as happy as a kid on Christmas. I could easily see the laneway in the nebula and many stars that are contained inside it.


Messier Number 13 NGC # 6205 Name / Type Hercules Globular Cluster
RA 16 41.7 DEC 36 28 Constellation HER Mag 7.0 Size 16.6

Instrument Used NewStar 10" Magnifications Used 38x
Seeing Conditions Transparency 6 Seeing 6 Observing Location DRAACO
Local Date 7/28/2005 Local Time 10:00PM
UTC Time & Date 7/29/2005 2:00:00 AM

Personal Notes
Hey Herc! M13 is an amazing cluster, and certainly one of my favorites, the brightness and amount of stars makes this globular a show stopper. The stars in this cluster are so tightly packed, it is hard to resolve the stars near its core.


Messier Number 22 NGC # 6656 Name / Type Globular Cluster
RA 18 36.4 DEC -23 54 Constellation SGR Mag 6.5 Size 24

Instrument Used NewStar 10" Magnifications Used 38x
Seeing Conditions Transparency 6 Seeing 6 Observing Location DRAACO
Local Date 7/28/2005 Local Time 11:30PM
UTC Time & Date 7/29/2005 3:30:00 AM

Personal Notes
This was the second object for me tonight, a small glob of stars, however it was fairly easy to detect.


Messier Number 27 NGC # 6853 Name / Type Dumbbell Nebula PLNNB
RA 19 59.6 DEC 22 43 Constellation VUL Mag 7.5 Size 8.0 x 5.7

Instrument Used NewStar 10" Magnifications Used 38x
Seeing Conditions Transparency 6 Seeing 6 Observing Location DRAACO
Local Date 7/28/2005 Local Time 11:00PM
UTC Time & Date 7/29/2005 3:00:00 AM

Personal Notes
The dumbell is an interesting shape to it in my scope. It appears as 2 triangles pointed together at the tips.


Messier Number 31 NGC # Name / Type Andromeda Galaxy
RA 00 42.7 DEC 41 16 Constellation AND Mag 4.5 Size 178

Instrument Used NewStar 10" Magnifications Used 38x
Seeing Conditions Transparency 6 Seeing 6 Observing Location DRAACO
Local Date 7/28/2005 Local Time 12:00PM
UTC Time & Date 7/28/2005 4:00:00 PM

Personal Notes
Well, well, well, Here she is again, the first galaxy for me ever, last year looks amazing in the 10" its so big and bright, the core barely will fit in to my 32mm EP, its certainly one of the brightest DSO's!


Messier Number 32 NGC # Name / Type Galaxy (companion to M31)
RA 00 42.7 DEC 40 52 Constellation AND Mag 10.0 Size 8 x 6

Instrument Used NewStar 10" Magnifications Used 38x
Seeing Conditions Transparency 6 Seeing 6 Observing Location DRAACO
Local Date 7/28/2005 Local Time 12:00PM
UTC Time & Date 7/28/2005 4:00:00 PM

Personal Notes
My first view of M32, i never saw it before with my 114GT, but it was easily visable in my 10", not much more than a ball of light close to M31!


Messier Number 51 NGC # 5194 Name / Type Whirlpool Galaxy (Sc & Irr)
RA 13 29.9 DEC 47 12 Constellation CVN Mag 8.0 Size 11 x 7

Instrument Used NewStar 10" Magnifications Used 38x
Seeing Conditions Transparency 6 Seeing 6 Observing Location DRAACO
Local Date 7/28/2005 Local Time 12:00PM
UTC Time & Date 7/28/2005 4:00:00 PM

Personal Notes
The Whirlpool is not as spectacular as the images hubble captures, so far, all I can resolve in this object is the galaxy M51 as a smudge, and it's companion as a smaller smudge, I will certainly comeback to this one once it is high overhead.


Messier Number 54 NGC # 6715 Name / Type Globular Cluster
RA 18 55.1 DEC -30 29 Constellation SGR Mag 8.5 Size 9.1

Instrument Used NewStar 10" Magnifications Used 38x
Seeing Conditions Transparency 6 Seeing 6 Observing Location DRAACO
Local Date 7/28/2005 Local Time 11:00PM
UTC Time & Date 7/29/2005 3:00:00 AM

Personal Notes
This was the first Messier object for me in Sagittarius, as it is not easily seen from my home, as there are many trees and light pollution in the way.M54 looked like a small globular, it was difficult to tell if i was able to resolve it's stars or not.


Messier Number 57 NGC # 6720 Name / Type Ring Nebula PLNNB
RA 18 53.6 DEC 33 02 Constellation LYR Mag 9.5 Size 1.4 x 1.0

Instrument Used NewStar 10" Magnifications Used 38x
Seeing Conditions Transparency 6 Seeing 6 Observing Location DRAACO
Local Date 7/28/2005 Local Time 11:00PM
UTC Time & Date 7/29/2005 3:00:00 AM

Personal Notes
The Ring! One of my all time favorites! The Ring shape is clearly visable, and looks like a puff of a smoke ring. The reason why the ring is my favorite is its shape, it actually looks like the remains of an exploding star, paused in time!

Mars was the last thing we saw that night, it appeared as a tiny orange blob in my 114GT, I sure hope this it looks better at opposition this year.

M51, M56, M57, and the Amazing Albireo!

Wow,

Although M51 is called the 'Whirlpool Galaxy' is not much to look at in light polluted skies, I have spent the last 6 or so clear nights trying to locate it. I also have found that an Optical finder is fairly necessary for these 'faint fuzzies' because in my light polluted skies I could not even see 24CVn to hop from, here is what I had to resort to, in order to succeed:

-First after reading my Star Watch and Turn Left at Orion books (i feel the compliment each other great!), I know exactly where to look, but could not see the square of stars which suround it with my 32mm, as the magnification is to high, and I only have about a 1 degree FOV.

-So out came the binos, and was able to see the stars perfectly, so, I switched on my trusty Green Laser Pointer mounted on my scope that I use for a finder, and moved the scope, until the green laser was pointing right at the spot where it should be, and BAM! I caught it!

HAHA I must have looked silly, bino's in one hand, and trying to direct and point my 10" with the other hand! But I must say this worked well!

M51 appeared as a 2 faint fuzzy patches of light, nothing spectacular, but I loved the hunt, and thats what counts!

Also I found another DSO without even looking or one! I was looking for the Ring Nebula (one of my favorites) and i had the stars mixed up where it was instead of looking in between Sheliak and Sulafat, I was looking between Sulafat and Albireo, and found M56! I was like "Hey thats no ring!", so I whipped open my books and found it was M56. Also Albireo is an amazing double! the blue and yellow really stand out!

The Great Globular, The Ring, and Make it a Double-Double

Last night was a great night for viewing, the best night I have had since upgrading the focuser to the Moonlite CR1. I started off watching Saturn dip too low from my vantage point, I could only see it for about 5 min, and it was partially obstructed the whole time, it didn’t really make it for great observing, so that maybe it for Saturn for the Season!

My Goal was for this night was at least to find the Double-Double, this was a little tricky first until I realized the drawings in the book (Turn Left at Orion) and my Sky were not in the exact same orientation, once I discovered this, everything started to fall in to place, and I was able to find the Double-Double for the first time!

Now that I was loaded with a little more confidence, I tired my luck on The Great Globular Cluster in Hercules. Again, I had a little trouble getting my bearings with the book and my sky, but once I figured it out, it was easy to spot. Hopefully the lessons that I have learned with actual mechanics of the book will not be forgot and I have finally learned my lesson! The Cluster was an amazing sight; it was full of what looked like 1,000,000 stars! I have never seen a Globular before so this was very exciting!

Now, Loaded with even more confidence, and feeling that I was finally on a roll, I wanted to find the Ring Nebula, this was an exciting find, it actually is a ring, and looks similar to an explosion caught in a very, very, very slow motion!

Now I knew what I had to find next, and this was the Whirlpool Galaxy, I have been unsuccessful before, but since I was on a roll, I didn’t think anything could get in my way...well it did, and it has defeated once again, I think the score is similar to something like the Whirlpool 5 Myself 0.

I finally had to give up the hunt it was getting late and I had to get up for work, so I had to call off the search for the night, but rest assured I will be back the next clear night!

Productive Night

Last night was one of my most productive nights I have had out with my scopes, usually I would stick to one object, such as the Moon, Saturn, or Jupiter, this is usually governed by what my local horizon will let me see, as I have many houses and trees in my area.

I started out with the last bit of daylight trying to collimate my scope. I finally seem to have it down on what needs to be done and how to do it, it wasn’t easy by any means to understand all the jargon, and different terms, but once I was over that hurdle, it all seemed to come in to place, just as collimation should. I found doing the collimation easiest to do in the daylight; it was very easy to judge the positioning of the secondary.

Once I finished collimation I let the scope cool, an hour or so, until the sun set, My First Target was Saturn, Saturn was pretty tricky specially in the twilight, but I was able to locate it once my eyes adjusted.

Saturn in my new 10” was a real treat, I was under the impression I would have to wait until the winter time before it would start to rise again, to see it with all my trees, but to my delight, it was very easy to spot up until around midnight! The EP’s I use most out of my Accessory kit is the 32mm, and 15mm, coupled with my Ultima Barlow. These easily showed Saturn’s banding and Cassini division was easily detectable, a first for me! I watched Saturn descend into the West, and the quality of the view would come and go, as it dipped lower, however the quality of the view diminished, as expected.

Since I was in the neighborhood, and looking at my ‘NightWatch’, and ‘Turn Left at Orion’, I saw that the Beehive Cluster was around this area, I found it following ‘Turn Left at Orion’ and it was an amazing sight, all those stars in a tight area, it looked really cool in my finder scope, and best at 37x. I spent a bit of time here.

Next I was able to split Polaris and look at its companion Star, wow, that’s a tiny companion! What I found interesting, is that other than ‘Turn Left at Orion’, no other book I have or software for that matter describes it as a double! Why is this, is it not a true double, it just happens to lie very close to Polaris from our prospective?

I also found the double of Alcor, and I think one other, but I forget which.

My final target was Jupiter; high in the SW sky it was the best view I have had. Just as everyone on Cloudy Nights stress, the more you view, the more you’ll see! I was able to easily find the GRS, and at times, more detail of the belts\clouds than I have before!

New Scope with Mods

Here is the Scope fully assembled and with all the mods i needed to do, minus the flocking, as i am awaiting for it to arrive.

In this Picture I have my power tank (lower left), and my scope ready to rock and roll ( but its going to be cloudy tonight) :(




Here is a close up of my Dew Heaters, Optical finder, Rigel Quick Finder, and my Green Laser Pointer with mount.





And over the weekend i purchased the parts for a cooling fan for my mirror, and here it is, total cost was $15 canadian after taxes, $6 for the 12v DC connector, and $9 for the Fan from Future Shop. I was going to purchase the one from Orion, but i thought i would try to make my own first, plus if i got it from Orion, i would need to purchase the DC connector for it, and that was going to run me around $40+.



I used multiple layers of velcro to attach the fan, and to help supress any vibrations the fan may cause. This will also allow for easy removal.
Now i just need for the clouds to clear :)


Matthew.