Mount Lemmon Sky Center update

I have had a hard time posting this month, due to being incredibly busy as well as being limited in my observing time.  One of the things that has taken up more of my time has been volunteering up at the Mount Lemmon Sky Center (MLSC).  Previously I have posted about my efforts up there, and the week of September 13th, the 24" RCOS scope went offline as the new 32" RCOS Schulman Telescope was installed!  I spent a bit of time up on the mountain during the installation of the scope and thought that these pictures may be of interest.

Above you can see the telescope assembled with the west fork arm opened up.  This fork arm contains the optical encoders that communicate the telescopes position in declination to the computer.  The east fork arm (not shown) contains the declination motor and brake.  One of the neat things about this telescope is that it operates with friction drives and is therefore very quiet and has none of the periodic error that is inherent to geared drive systems.

Above left is the secondary cage and the approximately 12 inch secondary mirror.  In the mirror you can see reflected the primary mirror covers.  These are opened and shut electronically and the scope was not yet operational when I took these images, so no picture of the primary mirror yet.  Above right, is the brains of this telescope...this box contains a computer, drivers, and all the electronics necessary to communicate with the mount and telescope. 

Finally, this pictures was taken several nights later when we went up to do some adjusting of the polar alignment of the mount. You can see how massive the scope is in relation to the computer desk to the right.  This scope is the largest scope in the State of Arizona dedicated solely to public outreach and education.   One of the reasons I have been spending so much time at the MLSC of late, is that in addition to the typical volunteer duties assisting with outreach programs, I am now training to begin conducting the SkyNights programs!  It is very exciting and quite a bit of work.  While the telescope is impressive, it is simply a tool that we use to provide guests with an opportunity to learn and experience the night sky in ways that they never have before.  Mount Lemmon is a fantastic location for this program. Just as satisfying as hearing a guest exclaim "WOW!!" when seeing a globular cluster for the first time, is the contemplative silence of guests as they appreciate that their own shadow being cast on the ground is actually blue and not grey or black.  I can say that I learn as much as the guests each time I am there. As evidence, take a look at the picture below.  This picture was taken just prior to sunset looking opposite the sun in the sky, to the east.  In it, you will see a mountain range in the distance, as well as what at first glance appears to be a second, higher mountain in the background.  Look closely and you will see that it is not in fact a high mountain in the distance;  Rather, it is the shadow of Mount Lemmon being cast on the atmosphere.  This is just one example of something that can be experienced at the MLSC, something that most people have never seen before.

103P/Harltey Update!

Cometary update! I had a chance to get out last night and take a look at this comet again (see the previous post).  It seems to be slightly brighter than my previous observation, as I was able to hold it in direct (as opposed to averted) vision.  The coma appears to be a bit brighter to the north, however, there is no central condensation to the comets nucleus that I could see.  NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory maintains a website where one can generate orbital diagrams for this comet, and they indicate that the comet is currently .317 AU from Earth, and 1.244 AU from the sun (and getting closer!).  The comet is moving approximately 1.67 arc seconds per minute across the sky, so it does not yet appear to move that far from night to night.  I estimated the comet to be between magnitude 10 and 10.5 and it is in the constellation Andromeda.  The sketch was completed at 0508 UT on 9-11-2010, which was 10:08 PM MST on 9-10.

Comet 103/P Hartley

In November of this year,  the EPOXI mission spacecraft will make a close flyby of comet Hartley 2, also known as 103/P Hartley.  The EPOXI name is a combination of EPOCH (Extrasolar Planet Observation and Characterization) and DIXI (Deep Impact eXtended Investigation).  The goal of this flyby is to gather data that will help us understand the structure, formation and composition history of cometary nuclei.  This information is important as it relates directly to our increasing understanding of the origin of our solar system.

This comet is predicted to reach naked eye brightness in late October, perhaps as bright as magnitude 5.  Last night night I decided to see if I could spot the comet in the LX200 12" SCT as it is currently well placed in the constellation Lacerta.  I had downloaded ephemerides for this comet from the IAU (International Astronomical Union) Minor Planet Center which indicated that the comet may currently be as bright as magnitude 8.5.  I was a bit skeptical as I had "googled" this comet and there are not many amateur images out there, suggesting that it is not exactly an interesting target...yet.  Gary Kronk maintains an excellent site called Cometography and there is information on this comet as well as a couple of images if you are interested.

Despite my skepticism (unusual, I know) I slewed the scope over the comets location and saw...nothing.  I decided to completely shut off the dim red lights that were on in the observatory and increase the magnification to 234x to darken the sky background in the eyepiece.  Sure enough, there in the center of the eyepiece was the faint glow of the comet.  My sketch of this comet is at left, and you will probably need to click on it so you can see the full size image.  It was hard to sketch such a faint glow, one that was essentially seen using averted vision.  It was also difficult to ascertain the size of the comet as it was extremely diffuse with no central condensation visible.  I would estimate that this comet is closer to magnitude 10-11, as it has a very low surface brightness...but again, I do not know the extent of the comet, so any estimate of it's magnitude is more of a guess than anything.  I completed this sketch at 0346 UT on 9/5/2010 (which was 8:46 PM MST on 9/4).  I should mention that the sky conditions were excellent with seeing that was estimated at 4/5 and a level of transparency that was as good as it gets from my location on the city's perimeter.  The milky way was visible from Sagittarius through Cygnus and beyond.

After spending some time on the comet I decided to have a look at NGC 40, a planetary nebula in Cepheus, also known as Caldwell 2.  Since I installed the 12" SCT I have been having fun observing planetary nebulas looking for features that were not visible to me with my previously smaller telescopes.  NGC 40 is a wonderful target, one that deserves more popularity.  The 11.6 magnitude central star is visible in most telescopes, and it is surrounded with a large circular shell of nebulosity.   As you know from previous posts, planetary nebula often hold up to greater magnifications without breaking down as other targets do, and NGC 40 was no exception.  I observed NGC 40 using an 8mm Ethos eyepiece, which in the 12" results in  a magnification of 381x and a field of view of .3 degrees.

You can see in the sketch that at high power the nebula is no longer a neat circular haze, rather it has bright arcs on both the east and west sides.  The arc on the west is the brighter of the two, and it seems to arc away from the nebula to the south in a manner reminiscent of a galactic spiral arm.  This planetary nebula is approximately 3500 light years away and spans a diameter of 38 arcseconds.  If you have never observed this target, it is highly recommended.

The Meade LX200 12 inch SCT!

The rumors are true... Introducing the Lost Pleiad Observatory's new Meade LX-200 12 inch Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope.  This telescope is well traveled, having started its career several years ago as a research instrument at the Arkansas Sky Observatories.  When it was retired from research it was sold to a private individual who used it for a few years before deciding to pass it along.  I had been looking for a larger SCT for some time and when I saw this scope advertised, decided to take the plunge.  It has been optimized  through several modifications, such as the two cooling fans which have been installed to circulate filtered air behind the mirror.  This aids the mirror in reaching ambient temperature. The stock focuser bearings have been upgraded to provide very smooth focus with minimal image shift, and the interior of the optical tube has been flocked to eliminate internal reflections and scattering of light.

Above left is the business end of the scope where you can see the the focal length is 3048mm resulting in an F/10 instrument.  The center image shows the cooling fans and on the right you can see the internal flocking.  I have had an opportunity to test the scope out over the past three nights, and without hesitation I can say that it is the best SCT I have owned.  Both my original 8 inch and the 9.25 inch that I have been using were fine performers, yet this scope is in another league.  Certainly the aperture increase is significant, however, planetary images in this scope are sharper than either of my previous SCT's.  In addition, contrast is excellent and the fine detail that I have been able to observe from my backyard has been rewarding. While splitting double stars is the realm of my TEC 140 refractor, this big blue monster has impressed me.

So far I have sketched two objects observing through this instrument.  For my first light sketch (to the right) I decided to attempt M27, the Dumbbell Nebula. This was the first planetary nebula discovered by Messier and is one of the showpiece objects of the summer sky.  This nebula is approximately 20,000 years old, a baby in astronomical time. I observed this nebula with and without my Baader UHC-S filter to bring out some of the nebular extensions.  The magnitude 13.9 central star illuminating the nebula was easily visible as were about 10 other stars within the nebulosity. 

Planetary nebula are fuzzy objects, and typically hold up well to higher levels of magnification than other targets.  I was observing NGC 6818, the "Little Gem" nebula in Sagittarius and decided to pump up the magnification and see if what was a small, circular, light blue fuzz-ball at 234x may reveal structure at 609x!  Typically one would not use magnification that high, but decent seeing combined with excellent optics transformed the nebula from a featureless disc into a nebula reminiscent of M57, the Ring nebula. To the left is an image of this nebula, while below are my sketches of this "Little Gem" at 234x and at 609x.  For reference in the high power sketch, the stars to the NW and SW of the nebula are magnitude 12.5, while the star to the east of the nebula is magnitude 13.5.

Solar report August 28th, 2010

The monsoon weather pattern remains intact here in the Old Pueblo, which means that there is no nighttime observing.  This year we are actually ahead of the average annual rainfall, and for that, even the amateur astronomers are grateful.  Personally I can't wait for a good clear night so that I can try out the new to me 12" LX200 SCT that I recently purchased...tune in next month for a review of this scope.  And, if you are interested in buying a nice 9.25" SCT, by all means send me an email!

A quick shameless self-promotion...Lunt Solar Systems, the manufacturer of my solar telescope, maintains a blog on the company website.  Yesterday, yours truly was the subject of the blog...check it out here: Sky to Paper

This morning I set up my solar telescope and was treated to nearly perfect seeing.  The atmosphere was unbelievably stable and even at the highest powers, details on the sun remained sharp.  It may have been the most stable solar observing session I have had, since purchasing the scope.  Transparency was not quite as good as there was a bit of haze in the eastern sky, but this is typical this time of year with such high humidity in the desert.  I completed the sketch below at 1530 UT (8:30 AM MST).

There is only one officially numbered active region on the face right now, AR 11101 in the northeast.  This region contains a very dark spot, that at high magnification appears to be splitting in two.  It will be interesting to watch this spot over the next 24 hours.  To the northwest of the spot, there are three small areas of plage.  The southern two of these areas are separated by what appears to be some bi-polar filamentary structure. Again, this could be a sign of increasing activity in this region, and it may develop into a distinct active region over the next day.  There is also an area of plage in the southern hemisphere, although this area did not display any signs of activity and may be what is termed an ephemeral region.

Cai-Uso Wohler, a solar observer and imager in Denmark, captured the photo below about 5 hours before my observation, and posted it on the Cloudy Nights Solar Observing forum.  You can see that the sunspot in AR11101 was not yet showing any signs of dividing.

Weekend Sun

I had a pretty busy weekend as I spent Friday night and all day Saturday working at the Mount Lemmon Sky Center.  Friday night we had a SkyNights program and Saturday saw the Discovery Days event.   To the left is a picture of the current 24" RCOS telescope.  Excitement among staff at the Sky Center is increasing  as in mid-September, this telescope will be taken offline and a new 32" will be installed!  If the quality of the mirror is as good as the 24", visitors to the observatory will be in for quite a treat.  I am told that this telescope will be the largest telescope in Arizona that is solely dedicated to public observing, education and outreach. Pretty neat if you ask me.  Below is a picture I took outside the dome (about a week ago) and you can see the moon as well as Venus.

Anyway, Sunday morning I was fairly tired from the events, but the sky was as clear as it had been in two days and I decided to pull out my solar scope and make a sketch of the sun.  My sketch was completed at 1535 UT (8:35 AM MST).  While there is a mildly active region in the southwest (AR 11100) that includes two dark filaments, I was rather impressed with the large prominence in the northeast.  Of course, my sketch to the right does not do justice to the ethereal nature of this prominence.  Fortunately, a solar observer named Michael Buxton in California made a time lapse video of the prominence and posted it on you tube.  Check it out!

SkyNights volunteering and observing report

In an earlier post I mentioned that I have recently been volunteering at the Mount Lemmon SkyCenter, assisting with the SkyNights public observing program on the 24 inch RC Optical Systems Ritchey-Chrétien telescope seen at right  (Photo credit to Adam Block/Mount Lemmon SkyCenter/University of Arizona (Board of Regents)).  Last night the sky center hosted an extended version of the SkyNights program where in addition to the standard educational and viewing program, guests brought lawn chairs and loungers to relax and stretch out under the stars to observe the annual Perseid Meteor shower.  We were very fortunate in that the weather pattern has been holding steady this week, and we were treated to a sky devoid of clouds, with better than average seeing conditions.  The shower certainly displayed several long and colorful meteors for the guests, however, in my opinion the shower was better on Wednesday night and early Thursday morning.  Regardless, all the visitors had a good time.

Another benefit of this extended program was that there was less of a rush to see objects at the telescope for the visitors.  We had more time, and folks were occupied looking for Perseids when not at the eyepiece.  The summer milky way dominates the view right now and guests were treated to most of the showpiece objects of the summer sky. They observed the Lagoon Nebula, the Swan Nebula, globular clusters M22 and M13 (the great Hercules Cluster), the Dumbbell, Veil and Ring nebula, as well as open clusters such as the Wild Duck and the Butterfly.  Of course, everyone was awed by the king of planets, Jupiter.  As the night wore on, most of the guests departed and a few very interested folks remained.  These folks were interested in seeing some of what the 24 inch RCOS could do, so we took a look at some advanced observing targets.

We aimed the scope at the ring nebula and using a 17mm Nagler eyepiece (297x) we attempted see the magnitude 15.7 central star.  Sure enough, with careful observation, 3 of the 4 of us spotted the star with averted vision!  This was quite exciting as I had never seen this star before.  Given the patience and ultimate success demonstrated by these guests, I then slewed the scope to M33, the Triangulum galaxy (image at left).  This galaxy is a very large  face on spiral galaxy, but has a very low surface brightness.  Using a 31mm Nagler eyepiece (153x) the galaxy filled the field of view.  Looking through the eyepiece I was able to detect the spiral structure of the galaxy as well as 5 of the brighter star forming regions in the arms.  If I had been alone and had time to study the galaxy I am sure I could have seen much more, but I was mostly looking for features quickly so that I could assist the visitors in observing the galaxy.  All 3 guests were able to enjoy the detailed view.  Since they were appreciating this more advanced look through the telescope we spent some time looking at other deep space targets.  I can not remember all of them, but we were treated to fantastically detailed views of NGC 6888, the Crescent nebula;  a picturesque view of NGC 7331 and the 4 accompanying galaxies that comprise the "deerlick" group; dust lanes in the Andromeda galaxy, and amazingly, structure in NGC 7662 the "Blue Snowball" nebula!

When the last guests departed I went back to NGC 7662 to make a sketch of what I was seeing.  This is a fine example of a planetary nebula and at 297x displayed a striking aquamarine color.  It is very large, about the same apparent size as Jupiter.  Most shocking to me was that there was a bright arc within the nebula itself as well as a bright knot in the southern portion of the outer halo.  This nebula is about 5000 light years away in the constellation Andromeda.  Here is my sketch as well as an image of the nebula:

My colleague Mike Terenzoni who was leading the program suggested we look at NGC 891, an edge on galaxy in Andromeda.  I had observed this galaxy before in my 9.25 inch SCT and it was always an attractive but faint target.  We slewed the scope over, inserted the 31mm Nagler, and the view about knocked my socks off.  What was always a faint smudge to me, was a bright and beautiful edge-on galaxy with a dust lane that bisected its entire length.  Most often when observing dust lanes one sees subtle differences in contrast that take experience, patience and averted vision to see.  Not so tonight!  This dust lane was dark and readily visible with direct vision.  The galaxy is brighter toward the core, and below is my sketch as well as an image.

We had a few minutes left and decided to take a look at Jupiter one last time.  Mike had a new Tiffen FL-D filter that we attached to the 31mm Nagler to improve contrast- and it worked splendidly.  While the seeing conditions had dropped to about average, we were still treated to a pleasing view of Jupiter that now featured the great red spot traversing across the disc.  There was no way that I could capture the details that we observed in a sketch, but I decided to give it a try.  Typically, Jupiter sports two dark cloud belts, named the north and south equatorial bands.  For the last couple months, the south equatorial band has vanished (this is very uncommon, happening most recently almost 20 years ago), although there are some indications that it may be reforming.  There is a dark band of material immediately south of the great red spot, and the spot itself is clearly sitting in a hollow.  The north equatorial band remains quite dark yet does show some disturbance toward the preceding limb of the planet.  Below are my sketch (completed at 0723 UT 8/13/2010), as well as an image posted on the internet from a little while after my sketch.  You can see that I need some practice in terms of getting the features into a more accurate latitude, but I am pleased with this attempt.

 All in all, it was a very fun evening, and if you have read this far I hope that you will sign up for one of the SkyNights programs...