Having fun at work

I really do have a great job-  I always tell folks that somehow I married a great hobby with a lot of administrative experience at the University...and now I get to worry about the budget and work with telescopes at the same time!  Two weeks ago we held two first ever events at the SkyCenter- a DSLR milky way and star trail workshop and a Messier Marathon.   Here is a single shot of the summit as the milky way was rising on March 25th-

While I had to work and did not 'participate' in either event, I did manage to squeeze off a few pictures of my own during the night- First, this is a single 20 second exposure of M 13, the Hercules globular cluster, taken through the 24" Phillips telescope using my Canon 6D.  I was impressed with the image out of the camera, so I decided to try and process it a little using Photoshop...and while I know the color of the stars is a little saturated, I still like the result.

In addition, I took a 30 second exposure of the M 57, the Ring Nebula in Lyra.  The image below is a 100% crop, and my colleague (and professional photographer) Sean Parker worked the processing a bit to bring out the galaxy (IC 1296) nearby the ring...but the ring itself is very much what the Canon delivered.

Final image from the weekend, is an exposure I took inside the dome of the 32" Schulman Telescope during a break in the Messier Marathon while guests were waiting for the summer constellations to rise a little higher.  It seems bright in the dome, but consider all the lighting is coming from red led lights that illuminate the steps leading into the dome!

Hey, 2 blog posts in two weeks!

Winter Milky Way

Time for what is becoming a quarterly tradition...a blog post!

In February, I made a trip to the dark skies of Portal, AZ with my good friends, "The League of Extraordinary Ordinary Observers" for our regular gathering of opinions, half-baked ideas, conspiracy theories, and of course telescopes.  We had our usual good time and saw some wonderful celestial sights.

I have posted pictures before of the summer milky way from Portal (see my previous post, for example...remember, quarterly tradition!), yet I do not believe I have ever captured a decent photo of the winter milky way.  One reason for this is that we tend to take our trips when it is warmer than February and the other is that the winter milky way is much fainter than the summer.  To explain quickly, in the summer night sky we are looking toward the central bulge of our galaxy in Sagittarius, and the center of our galaxy contains a much higher density of stars.  In the winter night sky, we are looking out away from the center of our galaxy and our view across the plane of the galaxy is not nearly as bright as when we look inward toward the center.

Below is an image of the winter milky way, that I captured in Portal.  It is a stack of 3 individual frames and is to me, quite striking.  Not only can you see detail and dust lanes in the plane of our galaxy that are invisible anywhere near a city or town, but you can also see several subtle (and I mean subtle) pink nebula such as The California Nebula, Barnard's loop, The Rosette Nebula, etc.  Be sure to click the image to enlarge.

These nebula would be more visible if my camera was astro-modified to be more sensitive in the red, however, I am impressed that the Canon 6D and Rokinon 14mm combination caught them at all.  The (distorted) bright star lower left is Sirius and the double cluster in Perseus is visible in the upper right, just to give you a sense of how wide this shot is.  I would be remiss if I did not mention the zodiacal light reaching from the lower left up through the Pleiades into the milky way.  The Zodiacal light is sunlight, scattered by dust in the plane of our solar system left over from the time of our solar system formation.  It is visible in dark skies after sunset and before sunrise, and is brightest in the spring and fall.

The other fun thing that occurred during the trip to Portal, is that I took a day to drive to Socorro, NM where I met a fellow amateur astronomer from whom I was purchasing a dobsonian telescope.  It is my first dob after all these years and it reminds me I need to update the equipment page of this blog as the only telescope that I currently have listed on that page is my TEC 140!  In any event, at left is the new scope and I hope to share some adventures with it soon...In case you are wondering, it is a 12.5" Obsession Dobsonian, with a mirror by OMI.

More proof I am not an astrophotographer

I think I need to make a T-shirt that says "I am not an astrophotographer" mostly to poke fun at myself.  I have no desire to devote time to either data acquisition (hours per image) or learning the processing skills to create beautiful images of space (hundreds of hours learning, several hours for each image).  Yet, for some reason, every few months I go through a phase where I stick a camera into a telescope and take some pictures to try and capture something pretty.

I stretch the contrast, try and clean up the noise a little, and assuming I did a decent job with focus call it a day.  Then, I proceed to look at my pictures and realizing that I have the potential to do better I say to myself "Self, you need to learn how to this properly."  I start to play around with photoshop, read about various techniques online and quickly retreat from the notion that I will be furthering my skills in astrophotography.  Time goes by and soon it is "rinse and repeat."  I suspect the truth is that I like taking pictures through a telescope, but am not going to devote myself to it.  The lesson of course is to be satisfied with the process and results and not compare them to the many fantastic images taken by my friends and others on the internet.

Without further ado, more proof that I am not an astrophotographer.  Three more pictures from my recent time on Mount Lemmon (see the previous post).  Again, all of these images were taken with my Canon 6D through a 100mm Sky Watcher Esprit triplet refractor, and all are single exposures.

M31, M32, M110 - The Andromeda Galaxy and companions

M45 - The Pleiades

M42 - The Orion Nebula and NGC 1977 the Running Man Nebula (at top)

Star Adveturer! And Comet Lovejoy (C/2014 Q2)!

Nearly New Years and I am finally writing another blog post!  Shortly after the eclipse which was the subject of my last post, Tucson hosted the 3rd annual Arizona Science and Astronomy Expo (ASAE).  You can read a report on this annual show on the blog of my friend Dean Ketelsen.  At the show I ran into another friend, Kevin Legore, who works for Sky-Watcher USA and Kevin showed me a new product that they were carrying called the "Star Adventurer," which is essentially a mini-equatorial mount and wedge designed for use on a photo tripod and with a DSLR.  Kevin noted that they would not be able to ship until the end of November so as soon as I got home from the show I went on their webpage and ordered a Star Adventurer knowing I had about a month to save the money.

I have enjoyed taking wide-field images of the milky way with my camera and have even made a few attempts at time-lapse photography such as from the Grand Canyon this summer.  Naturally, I have been limited to exposures in the range of 20-25 seconds before stars would start to trail.  This is less of an issue from my home due to light pollution, however, from Mount Lemmon or other dark sites such as Portal I would enjoy taking longer exposures.  One common way to track stars and take long exposures is to piggy back one's camera on a telescope, however, that has two disadvantages for me.  One is that it requires far more set up and gear than a simple camera tripod, and two, it means that I can not observe an astronomical target through the telescope if my priority is framing a milky way image.

Right on cue at the end of November, I received an email indicating that my credit card was being charged and that the Star Adventurer was being sent on its way.  Due to busy work schedules, poor weather, and a home renovation project (now complete) I was not able (or motivated) to test the Star Adventurer until last night.  It is not my intention to write a thorough review of the mount, nor could I after only one night of use.  Just like any other piece of equipment it takes some time and practice to learn the finer points of alignment and use.  As you will see below the Star Adventurer works as advertised.  Running on 4 AA batteries (it can also be powered by USB) it tracks the apparent motion of the sky at one of several user-selected speeds.  I only used the stellar setting in my attempts last night.  In addition, I did not calibrate the included polar scope to the mount (meaning it could be slightly misaligned), and I only performed a rough polar alignment placing Polaris about where it ought to be in the scopes reticle.  My main objective was simply to see if the unit worked as I was a fairly early adopter.  Good enough for government work anyway!



My first target, as it should be this time of year, was the constellation of Orion.  The camera attaches to the Star Adventurer with a user supplied ball-head and the first lesson I learned was that everything needs to be tightened down securely!  Not just to prevent a major disaster, but also to prevent the camera from slowly slipping/rotating during the exposure.  Once I had everything snug, I took the picture below with a 14mm f/2.8 Rokinon manual lens at ISO 800 for 30 seconds. Click to enlarge (and ignore the lens flare at lower left from a neighbors security light!).

As the sensor was exposing, I remembered that Comet Lovejoy (C/2014 Q2) was moving up through Lepus and toward Orion.  I grabbed my binoculars, found the comet easily and noted its location.  I then zoomed in on the image I had just taken and BAM! there was the comet! Below is the same image and you will see at lower right that Comet Lovejoy is labelled.

I then decided to see how the Star Adventurer would handle a heavier load and installed my Canon 70-200 f/4 zoom in place of the smaller Rokinon to image the comet.  Below is am image of the comet.

Recent images of this comet have shown that its tail has been having a very interesting past few weeks, separating from the comet with a new tail growing in place of the previous- this article from Universe Today explain matters.  I took another exposure with the ISO too high (3200) to see if I could detect any tail structure...sure enough I thought I could see hints of one, so I inverted the image, stretched things a little and sure enough, you can see a thin tail stretching to the NE in the image!

Finally, as long as I had the the heavy lens out I centered the Orion Nebula and took a 30 second image of that region, and below is the result.

All in all, pretty impressive results for night one, and remember that all the above are single shots, no stacking of images.  Taking images with heavy lenses will likely require the optional counterweight kit that Sky-Watcher sells as it did seem that the mount would struggle at certain orientations.  Also, while I stuck to 30 second exposures last night just to make sure the mount worked (I have it on some authority I ordered the first one in the US!), a more critical polar alignment is needed for me to take long exposures.

Great Orion Nebula...again...

I have two telescopes that I use at the Lost Pleiad Observatory: a 140mm apochromatic triplet refractor (my 40th birthday present to myself), and a 12 inch Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope (SCT).  The refractor is hands down the better instrument, as it excels in all aspects of visual and photographic astronomy.  It delivers top of the line contrast, sharpness, and by design has an unobstructed light path.  Having a central obstruction as well as two mirrors that must be collimated and that take a couple hours to reach ambient temperature, the SCT is a compromise of sorts.  The image quality is not as perfect as the refractor,  but it does gather a tremendous amount of light- making it much better for hunting down faint fuzzy galaxies and planetary nebula.  You can read more about my equipment by clicking the equipment link at the top of the page.

As I only have one pier in the observatory  I tend to leave one telescope mounted for about a month or so, and then switch to the other telescope for a month or so...this gives me opportunities to use both during each season.  I have had the refractor mounted for the past two months, so tonight I made the switch and moved the 12 inch SCT onto the mount.  I spent about 2 hours enjoying the crisp, clear night air and decided to snap an image of the Great Orion Nebula through the 12 inch.  The image below is a single 20 second exposure, taken with my Canon T2i at ISO 1600, and acquired using the program BackyardEOS.  In case you are curious, the telescope has a focal length of 3045mm and is f/10.  The only processing I did in Photoshop was to slightly sharpen the image, and to adjust the levels slightly.  Despite not checking the collimation of the telescope and  not polar aligning the mount, the result is pretty cool...and also reflective of the time and desire that I have to spend taking astrophotos.  Call me old fashioned, but I still enjoy looking through the eyepiece.

M42 The Great Orion Nebula

So far this November and December has been unseasonably warm here in Tucson.  It is a bit disconcerting, actually, as the days are still comfortable for wearing shorts.  Working as I do on Mount Lemmon, I have this nagging feeling that we may not get much snowfall this winter, which the mountain needs.  This is not a post about climate change,  but I do want to point to an excellent piece by Phil Plait today taking on climate change denial.

With the high pressure system that seems to have permanently parked itself in our neck of the planet, we have had some phenomenal nights for observing at the Lost Pleiad Observatory.  With temperatures requiring only a sweatshirt, I spent the better part of last night cruising around the winter milky way.  Using my TEC 140 I spent hours enjoying many wide field views, especially those of my old friends the Messier objects.   Before retiring I thought to myself  "self, you should try and take a picture of the Orion Nebula!"

I brought out my laptop and camera and using BackyardEOS took a few images of the Great Orion Nebula.   Below is the result, of which I am shocked!  This was taken with the moon up in the sky, without accurately polar aligning my CGEM mount, and with a Baader UHC filter.  The single image is 50 seconds at ISO 3200, and was actually a little more detailed before I messed with it in Photoshop to try and make the background sky more black.  I should probably give the raw image to my friend Mike (are you reading this?) and he could make it very pretty.

Click to enlarge

Most amazing is our camera sensor technologies...look at images in astronomy texts from even 15 years ago and see what was being generated with large instruments over hours of exposure time...and consider that I am using a 140mm telescope and an exposure of less than one minute!

Giant Magellan Telescope ~ The Flame is burning

What a great weekend for astronomy related activity so far!  Great observing on Friday night, and then a visit to the Steward Observatory Mirror Lab on Saturday during the casting process for the second of seven mirrors that will become the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMTO). We are now clouded out, so what better activity than writing a blog post?

Click to enlarge

As mentioned, Friday night my good friend Jerry and I drove an hour south of Tucson to a great little spot called Empire Ranch to do some observing.  We arrived just before sunset and stayed until moonrise.  While the seeing (atmospheric stability) was just above average, the atmospheric transparency was excellent with a naked eye limiting magnitude of 7+ at the zenith.  The zodiacal light was quite bright shining from the horizon all the way up through Jupiter at the meridian.  While Jerry was busy continuing his detailed observations of globular clusters within the Andromeda Galaxy (not for the faint of heart!), I spent a lot of time panning through the winter milky way in Canis Major with my 4 inch f/11 refractor (how often can you see the milky way in this region!?!?).   I had also brought along a Meade 178mm f/15 Maksutov Cassegrain for evaluation and spent time observing Jupiter, M42, and various star clusters.  Later on in the evening, I decided to make a sketch of NGC 2024, nicknamed the Flame nebula, in Orion.  At right is my sketch completed through the Meade 178mm using a Panoptic 35mm eyepiece.  This is a very diffuse nebula that I tried to capture on paper, so be sure to click on the sketch to enlarge.

First GMTO Mirror

Saturday afternoon, Dean Ketelsen had arranged to take a group of Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association Members on a tour of the Mirror Lab.  I had been there a couple times previously, but never while the furnace was in operation.  Dean is a knowledgeable and friendly individual who shares a passion for astronomy and blogging (check out his blog here).  Dean began the tour showing us the first GMTO mirror, which is in the final stages of polishing.  It is always impressive to see an 8.4 meter mirror in front of you, but when considering that this mirror is one of seven that will make up the 24.5 meter GMTO, and that is an off-axis mirror, it gives one pause to consider how cutting edge this project is.  The first mirror is very nearly finished...while not perfectly smooth, the variations that exist are on the order of a millionth of an inch (you read that right).  As this mirror will sit off-axis (in other words, it is not the central mirror of the seven, but one of the six that will surround the central mirror) it requires a very unusual figure and is to date the most challenging mirror that the mirror lab has ever produced.  Here is a piece of trivia that will amaze-  how much aluminum is used to coat a mirror of this size?  Glad you asked!  An amount about the size of a can of soda pop!

For those of you who are interested in the accuracy of the mirror, you can enlarge the image at right, which is a picture I took of a poster sitting next to the first mirror.  The LBT referred to is the Large Binocular Telescope, currently the largest optical telescope in the world sporting twin 8.4 meter mirrors.  Ironically, when the GMTO comes on line it will be competing to retain its position as the largest telescope at 24.5 meters as there is a consortium working to create the "Thirty Meter Telescope" as well as discussion of "The Extremely Large Telescope" of 42 meters!


Continuing on, Dean took us to heart of the days festivities, the rotating furnace containing the molten glass that will become mirror number two.  There was something awe inspiring as we descended the steps into the room.  Not only was it impressive visually, but the sound or the furnace moving and the sensation of the heat radiating from the furnace reminded everyone that we were seeing history.  To stick with the GMTO theme, it was as if we were witnessing construction of the ship that Magellan would sail in the first crossing from Atlantic to Pacific oceans, or in the first circumnavigation of the world.   At left is an image of the furnace as it rotates.   From left to right in the picture are Dean and Melinda Ketelsen, and me with my friend and colleague Cathi Duncan who coordinates outreach for the Mirror Lab (she rocked the weekend!).

A BIG thank you to Dean for arranging this opportunity for TAAA members to experience this historic event.  So what is the next best thing to being there?  A video of course!  I made this short video with my point and shoot camera and uploaded it to You Tube...if your volume is on, you can hear the furnace as it rotates.  Several folks who have seen this video have asked about the speed of the furnace.  As it turns out (pun intended) the furnace speed was about 4.8 mph while I was visiting.

Thanksgiving thanks to Herschel

Tonight was the third clear night in a row here at the Lost Pleiad Observatory, and unfortunately, the last night of this extended Thanksgiving weekend.   I knew that I would not last as long tonight so decided to concentrate on just two constellations in my Herschel 400 observing program, Triangulum and Pegasus.  Together these constellations account for 6 of the Herschel 400 objects and one of them in particular is quite captivating...

Triangulum - The Triangle:

Click to enlarge

NGC 598 - The Triangulum galaxy, M33.  This object has always been fascinating to me.  I have seen it with naked eye averted vision from Portal, AZ., and on other occasions been unable to see it in binoculars.  It has a very low surface brightness and despite it's large apparent size, detecting any spiral structure is a challenge.  My best view has actually been in my TEC 140 APO from Portal, AZ.  Tonight, in my 12 inch SCT I was able to make out the "S" shape of the galaxy, as well as several knots in the arms, particularly the northern arm.  The small nebular HII region NGC 604 was the brightest.  Not one of my best, but the sketch at left was completed tonight (0345 UT 11.28.2011) using a magnification of 145x.





Pegasus - The Winged Horse:

NGC 7217 - A fairly large and slightly elongated 11th magnitude galaxy with a slightly brighter nucleus.
NGC 7331 - A famous target in this constellation that I have observed in many different telescopes.  Very bright, elongated galaxy with a very bright elongated nucleus, containing an even brighter central region.
NGC 7448 - Large galaxy, much fainter than previous two.  No detail seen- slightly elongated.
NGC 7479 - Another galaxy that I have observed frequently in the Schulman 32 inch telescope at the Mount Lemmon SkyCenter where I work.  This galaxy is quite elongated in the eyepiece, but no trace of the spiral arms is noted tonight.  Slight brightening in the middle.
NGC 7814 - A very bright elongated galaxy with a very bright but small nucleus.

Herschel 400 count:  65 down, 335 remaining!

Herschel 400 ~ Part Deux

William Herschel

Well, night number two of the official Herschel 400 observation program was more relaxed than the aggressive pace of night number one.  Last night, (Saturday night) I headed out a little bit later to continue my observations.  We are just past new moon, and with a long Thanksgiving holiday weekend it is wonderful to have these dark nights with no reason to get up early in the morning.  Unfortunately, the seeing (atmospheric stability) was basically garbage {I had some better adjectives, but this is after all a family friendly blog} in the best of moments.  Bright stars were blobs of shimmering light and even the faint stars were hard to bring into focus.  I consoled myself thinking about all those great nights we do have here in the desert and went ahead using a maximum magnification of 145x under what were truly very transparent skies.  All observations made with my Meade Instruments 12 inch LX-200 SCT telescope.  I took several breaks to drink some mint tea and just gaze naked eye at the milky way.  Last nights constellations were in the same general areas as night number one and consisted of Auriga, Taurus, Orion, and Eridanus.  While it may seem like a lot of sky, (and in truth, it is) these four constellations only represent 19 of the Herschel 400 objects.

Auriga- The Charioteer:

NGC 1664 - An open cluster that displays several relatively bright stars, spread well apart, with a nice line of faint stars leading away from the cluster.
NGC 1857 - Another open cluster with many more stars than the above cluster; more condensed and generally a more pleasing view.
NGC 1907 - A fainter cluster than the ones above, but I'd still consider it bright overall although it contains many more faint stars.
NGC 1931 - As stars go this is nothing unusual for an open cluster...however, near the center is a very bright patch of nebulosity that contains three very close stars.  Most of the time, due to seeing, only two stars were visible but at high power during the fractions of a second where things steadied, a third star popped into view.
NGC 2126 - A medium sized open cluster with about 20-30 stars.
NGC 2281 - Another typical open cluster.  Unremarkable.  About 10 bright stars with a smattering of fainter ones.

Taurus - The Bull:

NGC 1647 - A very large cluster nearly filling the field of view (eyepiece TFOV = .7 degrees) with several brighter stars.
NGC 1817 - A pretty open cluster with well over 100 stars, the richest cluster yet tonight!  Less than .25 degree in size.

Orion - The Hunter...I've spent a lot of time in this constellation and previously observed most of these objects:

NGC 1788 - A bright patch of nebulosity with two stars embedded.  It is irregular in shape.
NGC 1980 - Another bright nebula at the end of the sword of Orion.  Small, surrounding the star Iota Orionis.  Often ignored in favor of it's famous neighbor, the Great Orion Nebula.
NGC 1999 - Another "bright" nebula.  Not much to look at visually, but photographically this is the famous "keyhole" nebula, containing a true dark void (not dust) in it's center.
NGC 2022 - Yes, a planetary nebula...probably my favorite class of deep sky object due to their subtle nature.  This one is definitely blue/green with a brighter center.  No sign of the central star.

NGC 2024

NGC 2024 - The Flame nebula- have seen this in much better detail from a darker site...still obvious in the suburbs, but rather ghostly.  Dust lanes most visible when Zeta Orionis is moved out of the field of view.  Image at right copyright Adam Block/Mount Lemmon SkyCenter/University of Arizona
NGC 2169 - A nice compact grouping of similarly bright stars that exactly form the numerals "3" and "7"...I recognized this cluster at once as the "37" cluster but did not recall the NGC number!
NGC 2186 - A compact group of fainter stars, maybe 30 of them...a deep sky stepchild in this constellation.
NGC 2194 - An unusually shaped cluster, almost a rectangle.  Fairly bright and rich and well condensed.

Eridanus - The River:

NGC 1084 - This is an elongated galaxy that appears a little brighter than its listed 12th magnitude.  No details seen.
NGC 1407 - A round galaxy with an obviously brighter nucleus.  These targets are low on the horizon making observations challenging.
NGC 1535 - A striking planetary nebula that is quite blue in color.  Quite round.  The central 2/3 of the nebula is markedly brighter than the outer 1/3.

59 objects down, 341 to go!

On dark skies, family, friends, and telescopes...Life is good

The title says it all...dark skies, my lovely family, good friends and great telescopes.  Life my faithful readers, is good.  Despite my total slacking off from maintaining the blog, I have continued to have some excellent astronomical adventures, including a trip this past weekend to a site in northern Arizona that is frequently referred to as Frederickson Meadow.  The meadow was named in memory of longtime Saguaro Astronomy Club member Dave Frederickson, and it is a well deserved name.  The meadow is quite beautiful and provides expansive views of the sky.  In addition to my family, I travelled to the meadow with my friend Jerry Farrar to spend the weekend observing.  As luck would have it, there was a group of about a dozen astronomers from the Phoenix area who quickly welcomed us to their star party.

The meadow is situated roughly between Flagstaff and Payson and is approximately a 4.5 hour drive from Tucson, with only the last 5 miles on a well maintained dirt road.  As soon as one sees the Discovery Channel Telescope situated on the next ridge, one knows that the sight is likely very good for astronomy.

Most folks camp in the trees on the north side of the meadow, and the Forest Service has requested that we not drive into the meadow itself.  This makes great sense as it preserves the meadow and allows many grasses and wildflowers to flourish.  For our night time observations, I had taken along my TEC 140 refractor and Jerry brought along his 12 inch SCT as these scopes are quite complimentary when parked alongside each other.  Below, you can see Jerry observing the sun through his dedicated hydrogen alpha telescope which he also brought on the trip.

Each day brought very stiff breezes, which I would estimate between 10 and 20 mph, with occasional gusts closer to 30 mph.  As if on cue, these winds would vanish at sunset and start up at sunrise...(perhaps the late Mr. Fredrickson was taking care of us).  These breezes kept the daytime temps comfortable in the low 80's, however, the nights were much colder with Thursday night in mid-20's and Friday and Saturday nights in the mid-30's!  Certainly a reprieve from the June desert heat.

One of the nice things about the meadow, is that one can choose to spend time in cool shade of the pines reading, napping, snacking, planning your nights observing run, or whatever strikes your fancy.  If one is after a bit more activity, it is a great area for an easy walk around, a more strenuous hike, or a game of nerf football.  Nearby, about 30 minutes back up the road, there is even an RV resort where one can grab a bite to eat or take a shower ($5).  Of course, we were there to observe and I am sure that at this point you are wondering when I will get to the point, and tell you about the observations we made...but before I get to that, take a look at the "Great Comet of Frederickson meadow" alongside the crescent moon just after sunset.

Click the image to see the supernova!

Those of you who are amateur astronomers know that on Friday it was widely reported that a supernova had erupted in one of the arms of the whirlpool galaxy, M51.  French Observer Stephan Lamotte Bailey, created the image at left...Click on it and you will then see the animation which blinks the supernova in and out.  This was the talk of the group as the sun was setting Friday evening, and nearly every scope and camera in the meadow was targeting the grand galaxy.  I first attempted to spot it in my TEC 140mm APO, and with a bit of patience it was clearly there with averted vision, reminiscent of observing a challenging central star in a planetary nebula.  Jerry took a look and was also seeing the same star.  Naturally, we then went over to his 12 inch SCT and the supernova was clearly visible with direct vision, as an approximately 13th to 14th magnitude star.  What is so neat about this, is the fact that we were observing an extragalactic star....which is not something one does every day!

The main reason I brought along the refractor on this trip was that I had limited space, and this was the first chance that I had this year to spend extended time sweeping through the milky way...and the high contrast wide field TEC 140 is a world class instrument practically made for this purpose.  The scope garnered high praise from all who looked through it; which in this case was a group of very experienced amateurs who appreciated the nearly 3 dimensional views that the scope provides.  Whether it was Saturn at 300X, Omega Centauri and globular star clusters in Ophiuchus and Sagittarius, planetary nebula, or dark nebula, everyone commented on that sharpness and contrast of the TEC 140. In addition to having my fun with the bright Messier objects and generally sweeping around the milky way, I also observed some galaxies- mostly in Canes Venatici and Coma Berenices.  This may seem crazy with only 5.5 inches of aperture, but being able to see them in a wide field setting adds a context that is missing when observing them in my 12 inch SCT.  This post is getting long, so I will only share some of my favorites from these constellations below:

Hickson 68, a galaxy group composed of NGC's 5353, 5354, 5350, 5355, and 5358 (in order of magnitude from brightest to faintest...a to e in the image at left).  All five of these galaxies were visible in the refractor, despite the presence of a magnitude 6.5 star only 3 arc minutes away.  It is a very pretty grouping of galaxies with the brightest members shining at magnitude 11.5 and the faintest, tiny little NGC 5358 at magnitude 13.6.   I would highly recommend this target if you are interested in galaxy groups as each of the members is distinct.

NGC 4244 is a popular target due being large and bright, and is also known as Caldwell 26.  It is an edge on galaxy, and at high power, the TEC revealed some of the galaxies mottling as well as a distinctly bright nucleus.  The galaxy is nicely pinned down by stars off each end. 

NGC 4217 is a another elongated galaxy but is much more difficult to see, requiring averted vision.  While listed at magnitude 11.2, it has a surface brightness of around magnitude 13 and it shares the field with three 9th or 10th magnitude stars whose light interferes with seeing the galaxy.  Most interesting is that this galaxy is often overlooked as it is overwhelmed by its neighbor and possible companion M106.  At 75x, both of these galaxies were visible in the eyepiece. 4217 is the edge on galaxy in the lower right of the image.

NGC 4298 and 4302 make a beautiful, ghostly pair in the TEC.  4298 is a diffuse glow with no discernible nucleus, and 4302 is a thin edge on galaxy, also without detail.  These galaxies sit quite close to each other in the eyepiece, perhaps only 2 or 3 arcminutes apart. It is easier to hold 4298 with direct vision, even though it is only .3 magnitudes brighter at 11.3 versus 11.6

I did observe some other areas of the sky, including NGC 5128, the Centauraus A galaxy.  This has long been a favorite target of mine for the wealth of detail visible in the hamburger like galaxy.  Unfortunately, this galaxy was sitting in the Phoenix light dome (yes, there is a light dome despite being 100 miles+ away) and the amount of detail was not as great as I have seen at other locations.  If you are interested, the phoenix light dome is about 15 degrees high on the southern horizon and spans about 15 degrees in azimuth.  Even though this area is not free from the light dome, it is overall the second best site I have been to in Arizona for observing, with Portal being the first.  Overhead, 7th magnitude stars are visible and the setting is is delightful. I'll be heading back next new moon, weather permitting!

The Great Orion Nebula

Without a doubt almost any observer will tell you that the Great Orion Nebula is the finest deep sky object in the northern hemisphere.  Riding high in the winter and spring, I take a glance at this showpiece just about every time I am in the observatory.  It is so detailed and rich that I have been hesitant to attempt to sketch it...however, I finally decided to give it a try.

While I have done most of my sketching with HB graphite pencils on plain white paper, I have been experimenting utilizing Strathmore Black Artagain paper with Generals White Charcoal Pencils (558)...at left is the sketch that I completed this evening with my LX-200 12 inch SCT and 28mm UWAN eyepiece (108X). It does not do justice to the nebula, but it certainly is good practice with these new materials.



What does this nebula look like in color?  Below is an image taken from the Mount Lemmon SkyCenter through our new Televue NP127is.  The image gives a significantly wider, lower power field of view...and it represents 3 hours of exposure time.

Copyright Adam Block/Mount Lemmon SkyCenter/University of Arizona

Mount Lemmon SkyCenter

Just a quick post to encourage you to check out the new blog for the Mount Lemmon SkyCenter (MLSC).  It may look a bit familiar in design, if you read this blog with any frequency...but you get what you pay for!  Please visit the blog, send me your feedback if you are inclined, and once you are there click on the link to be a follower!

It will be a great blog to follow as we will post news and happenings from the MLSC, as well as recent images taken with the 32 inch Schulman telescope, and occasional content from guest writers.

The image to the left is NGC 2359, known commonly as Thor's Helmet.  Image is Copyright Adam Block/Mount Lemmon SkyCenter/University of Arizona.

The William Optics 28mm UWAN

I tend to get a little stir crazy during the summer monsoon as far as astronomy goes- I am spoiled living in the desert southwest with many clear dry nights.  So when a few weeks go by with no opportunity for night time observing I turn to other aspects of my hobby (addiction) for entertainment.  Having already cleaned the observatory a few times (you could eat off the floor) and having already installed a nice new shelf from Target to hold some of my books and stuff, I made an impulse buy and acquired a used William Optics 28mm UWAN eyepiece.  I had heard good things about it from other TEC 140 users so when I saw one for sale on Astromart I asked myself  "Do I need this eyepiece?"  I quickly answered myself saying "Self....No.  No.  A thousand times, no.  You already have a very nice 31mm Baader eyepiece"  A few hours later I had made the deal and it would soon be shipped.

After a week of cloudy nights, the weather gods took pity on me, and the past two nights proved to be fantastically clear with very good seeing and no moonlight until after midnight.  I used the opportunity to test this new eyepiece extensively in my TEC 140 and what follows are my subjective observations and experiences using this eyepiece.

I decided to compare this eyepiece to my Baader 31mm Hyperion Ashperic which is obviously similar in terms of the power it delivers in the scope.  The picture to the left gives you an idea of the relative size of the monster in comparison to the Baader 31mm, and a can of Pepsi...keep in mind that these eyepieces both have 2 inch barrels, so you can see how physically massive the 28mm UWAN is.  Before I provide you with my subjective impressions, I'll give you some of the objective information as taken from the respective companies, as well as some of the exit pupil, power, and field of view calculations for the scopes I own.

Eyepiece                      William Optics 28mm UWAN                  Baader Planetarium 31mm Hyperion Aspheric

Manufacturer info          William Optics                                          Baader Planetarium
Price Retail/Used          $339/$250                                               $189/$150
Eye Relief                     18mm stated                                            18mm stated
Weight                         1000 grams (2lbs. 3 oz.)                           390 grams (13.8 oz.)
Apparent F.O.V.           82 degrees                                              72 degrees

Using TEC 140 (f/7)
     Exit pupil                  4mm                                                         4.5mm
     Magnification           35X                                                           31X
     True field of view     2.3 degrees                                              2.3 degrees

So now that we have the objective data out of the way, how did the eyepiece perform for me? My conclusion first...Overall, I am quite satisfied with the 28mm UWAN, and will be selling the Baader 31mm.  The Baader is a very, very good eyepiece for the money, however, the 28mm UWAN does most everything just a little better.  You can see from the data that these eyepieces are very close in both magnification delivered, exit pupil and field of view- so the differences that I am about to describe are my subjective experiences using the eyepiece.

Prior to explaining why I preferred the views in the UWAN, there are some ergonomic issues worth noting in the event you are considering one or the other of these eyepieces.  First, is the aforementioned weight.  The Baader weighs less than a pound, and is remarkably light for an eyepiece with a 72 degree apparent field of view.  The 28mm UWAN is over 2 pounds and will impact your telescopes balance.  Second, while the stated eye relief is 18mm for both eyepieces, the experience using them is quite different.  To the right is an image of the eye lenses and you can see that the UWAN eye lens is slightly smaller and you may be able to tell that it is recessed into the eyepiece top.  When using the 28mm UWAN, it does not feel like one has 18mm of eye relief.  In fact, to see the field stop, I have to place my eye almost all the way to the housing.  This is not an issue for me as the lens itself is recessed and my eyelashes do not touch.  I also find myself tilting my head slightly to get the best position to see the entire field.  The UWAN has a very smooth twist up eye-cup, however, I can not use this as if it is up at all I can not see the entire field of view.  The Baader 31mm is very comfortable to use and the eye relief measurement seems accurate.  For public outreach the Baader 31mm would be a better choice on its ergonomic characteristics alone.

On to the views, and the reasons why I prefer the 28mm UWAN.  I observed several types of objects with both eyepieces- nebula including M8, M17 and NGC 7000; planetary nebula including M57, M27, and the young, small NGC 7027 in Cygnus; Globular clusters including M22, M13, M20, M5, and NGC 7006 in Delphinus; The Veil supernova remnant NGC 6992; and the galaxy NGC 7331 in Pegasus. Observations of faint nebula were made both unfiltered and with my Baader planetarium UHC-S filter.  

I'll present my findings in descending order of the perceived difference.  In other words, I'll address sharpness first as I felt this was the greatest difference in the views...sky background will be second as I felt this was the second greatest difference.  Last will be color as I felt there was no difference in eyepieces.

First, the Baader 31mm is very sharp on axis, however, stars in the outer 25% of the field of view increasingly look like little flares as they approach the edge.  The 28mm UWAN on the other hand was sharp all they way past 90% of the field of view.  Even the outer 10% of the field was not nearly as distorted as in the Baader.  In terms of sharpness, the 28mm UWAN clearly had the edge (pun intended).

The second thing I noticed when using these eyepieces was that the 28mm UWAN revealed a darker sky background.  I was surprised by this given that the eyepieces are so close in focal length.  This was an obvious and marked difference between the eyepieces.  Had I not perhaps been unconsciously biased to look at sharpness first, the sky background may have struck me immediately.  

Third, and I hate to use such a subjective construct, was faint detail.  When observing star clusters, there were not any stars that I noticed in one eyepiece that I could not see in the other.  That being said, there were faint stars that were easier to see in the 28mm UWAN...easier than the magnification difference alone would dictate.  I do not know if it is related to sky background, coating differences, or anything for that matter.  Contrast is a touchy subject when discussing eyepieces and I am trying to avoid using that term...but faint detail was easier to see in the 28mm UWAN.  Nebula in particular were brighter and faint extensions were more readily seen in the 28mm UWAN.  This was most noticeable when observing NGC 6992, the eastern portion of the veil.  Also, the lagoon nebula (M8) revealed more structure in the UWAN.  To the left is a sketch I made of M8 using the UWAN 28mm and the Baader UHC-S filter.

Finally, I looked for differences in how the eyepieces rendered star colors.  With fainter stars within clusters I could not tell a difference between eyepieces.  I did point at the bright and colorful double Albireo and could not detect a color difference between eyepieces on this bright pair either. 

In conclusion, the William Optics 28mm UWAN is an excellent eyepiece for use in an f/7 refractor.  It is significantly more money than the Baader 31mm, but in my opinion, the views are worth the difference.  The Baader is more comfortable to use for a beginner or a member of the public at an outreach event, however, for the experienced amateur, the UWAN does manage to quickly get out of the way and let one observe.  Unless something is radically different in my f/10 SCT, look for the Baader Hyperion on the used market soon. 

Thunder Ridge Star Party ~ Observing Report

During my trip to Colorado, I once again attended the Thunder Ridge Star Party (TRSP) hosted by my friend Phil Good.  The TRSP-IV was held July 9 - 11 at Phil's ranch property, at approximately 9000' overlooking Eleven Mile State Park.  The location is excellent for a star party given its elevation, clear southern horizon, and weather.  While storms often roll through in the summer afternoons and evenings, the skies often clear quickly after sunset.  Some of us who attended TRSP-III last year, are also aware of the kindred native spirits that frequent the ridge...

Which of these Bison is different?

...The area was a fruitful hunting ground for our ancestors, and evidence remains today on Thunder Ridge.  A walk around the ridge will reveal signs of circles where ancient fires burned within teepees.  Careful hunting will reward one with fragments of worked stone and an occasional arrowhead.  During TRSP-III, several of us had left our tripods and/or scopes set up from one night to the next.  During the intervening afternoon, a very strong, rogue gust of wind lifted every piece of equipment and threw them several feet.  Miraculously, nothing was damaged...not a mount, not a scope, not even Phil's brand new TEC 180mm Flourite refractor, "Uncle Milt," sitting atop its mount.  Clearly, the ancients were amateur astronomers and made sure to protect our gear.

This year, the skies were quite good on Friday night.  By dark, I would estimate the seeing at 4/5 with occasional moments of 4.5/5.  The transparency was near perfect, and while just a guess, I would estimate that the NELM at zenith was approximately 7.  Frank Nadell (I think) had a sky quality meter and perhaps he can chime in with a more accurate figure.  I had brought along my TEC-140 APO on my DM-6, as well as many charts and a lengthy observing list.  I observed many objects over two nights, and below I'll overview the highlights.

First up was Pluto.  I had observed all the planets except Pluto, when the International Astronomical Union (IAU) stepped in and demoted Pluto to the status of "Dwarf Planet."  How this happened and why makes for interesting reading, and Universe Today sums it up nicely.  Despite the arrogance of the IAU, I was still intent on seeing the little guy.  To be honest, I was not sure that I would be able to pull it in with the 140mm of aperture, but I was bound and determined to give it the old college try.  Circumstances during the TRSP were just right for a serious run at this faint speck, not only due to the dark skies but also due to the fact that Pluto was passing Barnard 92, a dark nebula.  This would make its identification much simpler in that there were no stars to confuse it with, even though it is passing through the heart of the milky way in Sagittarius.  To the left is the star chart from the July Sky and Telescope that I used to locate the star field and hunt for the object Pluto, formerly known as a planet.  I inserted a 5mm Pentax XW (196X) and began to look for Pluto.  After about 10 minutes I glimpsed a faint speck with averted vision.  I looked away and looked back and there it was again.  It was very difficult to hold in my sight, and I realized that the best way to confirm what I was seeing was to get a look through Franks 12 inch Dob.  A few minutes later (and after getting my brain over the up-down reversal of the image in the dob) and I had confirmed that the tiny speck was indeed there!  Back at the TEC 140 and little Pluto was still extremely difficult to hold in view.  At a visual magnitude of 14, this was quite a catch in the TEC 140!  Pluto was approximately 30.88 AU distant, which equates to about 257 light minutes!

After the hard work observing Pluto, I was ready for some easier targets.  I inserted a 20mm Nagler (49X) and headed over to NGC 6514, the Trifid Nebula, M20.  The view was dramatic.  Not only were the dust lanes obvious, but the definition on the edges of the lanes was jaw dropping.  There was a definite structure to the lanes...I had never seen the nebula as well.  Indeed, even the blue reflection nebulosity alongside the Trifid  (to the right in the image) was clearly visible in the eyepiece.  This was quite a treat and a testament to the skies.

At this point, I had not even considered my observing list, so I spent the rest of the first evening observing many of the other famous Messier objects in the summer sky such as globular clusters M13 and M22, The Swan Nebula (M17), and the great Andromeda Galaxy, M31.  I observed at least a dozen other globular clusters in and around the Sagittarius teapot that I found simply by panning the scope around.  The wide-field views were so breathtaking that I was not concerned with getting out the atlas to identify the objects.

I was beginning to get sleepy but decided that since I had visited Pluto earlier (and Saturn before it set), I should finish up the other outer planets that were now in the sky...namely Uranus, Neptune and Jupiter.  The seeing was deteriorating and Jupiter was difficult at high power.  We were treated to a view of a moon transit, although I do not recall which moon it was.  At about 2:30 AM it was time to hit the sack.

Day two dawned bright and clear and after a good brunch in nearby Hartsel, we (Ian, my niece Cierra, and I) joined Frank and his son Henry on a day trip to find some good bouldering near the 11 mile reservoir.  We had fun scrambling around, eating ice cream, and taking in the views before heading back to Phil's famous "surf-n-turf" BBQ and a second night of observing.

The weather was not shaping up to be as good as the previous night with heavy cloud cover blanketing the area throughout dinner...yet, as often happens at Thunder Ridge, the skies completely cleared within an hour after sunset.  Despite seeing conditions that were just average, I still had an observing list of deep sky objects that I wanted to make some headway on.  Fortunately, deep sky targets do not suffer from atmospheric turbulence at the level of planets or close double stars.  Faint fuzzy objects, remain faint fuzzy objects in most conditions.  I had compiled a list of objects from Sue French's columns in the June and July issues of Sky and Telescope magazine.  She is an excellent observer and her columns are chock full of information and observing ideas.  In fact, they are my favorite feature of the magazine.  Following are highlights from my notes from night two:

NGC 6210 - The Turtle Nebula in Hercules.  At 3600 light years this planetary nebula is a smooth elliptical shaped nebula with an extremely faint halo.

NGC 6400 - Open cluster in Scorpius.  An approximately 9th magnitude cluster with many faint stars ranging from magnitude 10 to 12.  A little lost in the background.  Distance of 3100 light years.

NGC 6441 - Globular cluster in Scorpius.  This one looks familiar as I  visited it last night!  It sits alongside the golden star G Scorpii.  It is small and difficult to resolve but makes an attractive pairing with 'G'.  Interestingly, this is one of only four known globular clusters that houses a planetary nebula...and no, I did not see the planetary!

NGC 6302 - The Bug Nebula in Scorpius.  Sometimes called the butterfly nebula.  This is a small planetary nebula sporting a fairly bright core with extensions that are faint yet quite long.  Distance is 2000 light years.

NGC 6281 - Open cluster in Scorpius.  Best at low power, this is a run of the mill open cluster.  Better looking in the finder scope!

NGC 6569 & NGC 6558- Globular Clusters in Sagittarius.  At 49X (20mm Nagler), these clusters fit in the same field of view in the TEC 140.   Surrounded by many stars, these clusters appear to float in the froth of the milk shake, I mean milky way...just seeing if you are still paying attention!  Both of these clusters can be partially resolved at high power.

NGC 6624 - Globular Cluster in Sagittarius.  Very nice at both low and high power.  At low power there is a long chain of about 12 magnitude 10 stars that form a line running right into the clusters northern side.  At high power the cluster displays a bright condensed nucleus and is partially resolved.

NGC 6652 - Globular Cluster in Sagittarius.  This cluster is parked about 1 degree from M69 and shares the low power field of view.  It is a nice paring and a fitting way to end the second night!

Darren and Burton

All in all, this was the best TRSP I have attended- not only was the observing first rate, but the company was as well!  I got to see some old friends like Jim and Jeannette, Frank and Henry, and Benton, but I made some new ones like Scott, Rebekah and Aaron; Patricia; and Darren and and his dad Burton who drove from Canada.  For those of you who don't know, my trip to Colorado each year is a father-son trip that I do with Ian, and it was great to see Darren and his dad on a father-son trip.  I hope that when Ian is in his 40's he still wants to travel with me.  As always, Phil is the ultimate host...it would not happen without him...who knows maybe I'll have a report on TRSP-V next July...

Scott, Benton, Darren

Phil, Patricia, and...Darren!