Last night was good for backyard observing. I could even see the faint haze of the Milky Way from Cygnus down to the Teapot. While my computer booted up, I checked out Ptolemy’s Cluster (M7), and M6 with binoculars and my 6″ reflector, then I went looking for the “little cat’s eyes” (zeta scorpii) but, alas, the little cat was in a tree.

The Keystone of Hercules can often be a challenge, from Grimsby, but tonight the entire constellation was visible. My chart of the periodic comet 177P/2006 M3 (Barnard 2) indicated it should be within a degree of the bright’ish star 52 Herc so I panned up for a look. After a few minutes I found a tiny halo with a bright core. Sure looked comet-like. It was too small to be M92 and, in my limited experience, the central condensation appeared too bright in comparison to the halo to be a planetary.

From what I’d read, comet 177p was supposed to be large and diffuse – not tiny and bright. By now Cartes du Ciel was up on the computer screen so I zoomed into the area and found that what I had “discovered” was not a comet at all, but gobular cluster NGC 6229.

However, my uncertainty put me into some esteemed company: NGC 6229 was first spotted in 1787 by William Herschell who catalogued it as a planetary. Then, in 1819, an Admiral Smyth reported it as a comet. It was eventually determined to be a “very crowded cluster” by Msr. d’Arrest in the mid 19th century.

Located about 1 1/2 degrees north of 52 Herc, NGC 6229 makes a nice equilateral triangle with a pair of mag. 8 stars. In my scope, it’s diffuseness is evident at 57x. At 171x, there is just a hint of the outer stars resolving. It would probably be an interesting object to image. Even if it’s not a comet.

After a very pleasant afternoon BBQ, it appeared that a couple of people were interested in heading out to Binbrook to look for a few more meteors and do some general observing. So with that in mind, I trotted on up to the main gate at about 9pm. While I was confirming the main gate was still locked, a young couple in from Toronto arrived who had checked out the club website and thought the park was always open for observing. After diplomatically correcting their misconceptions, I offered to escort them over to the alternate site on Tyneside in hope of finding some of the other club members.

I ran into another couple who were already set up and apparently were long time observers at this location. Brett and Cheryl were very enjoyable to talk to and were very open about sharing their giant binos and 100mm refractor. The young couple and I were able to observe a few clusters while explaining a little more about astronomy and the club.

Shortly aferwards, Jackie showed up and we had an official get together of the “rogues”. Not being one to pass up an opportunity to share in some comraderie and recognizing the moon wouldn’t be up for about 2 more hours, I set up my binos and 6″ reflector. Scorpius was just setting and I hoped to catch the Jewel Box before it dropped below the trees. Still being too slow with set up, I missed that object (again) but did manage to view M80. Before leaving the southern skies for the night, I also observed globular cluster M9 for the first time.

Fortunately Jackie brought lots of batteries with her so once she was properly aligned (based in part on my inaccurate watch), she was good to go.

Amongst our observing and socializing, more general public joined us and some came over to look through the scopes & binos, ask some good questions about astronomy and gasp in amazement at some of the bright meteors (it was better than Friday night). It was like another public night with nearly a dozen people showing up. We were able to show them a number of globular and open clusters, and a few nebulaes. Of course I had my green laser going to help show off the sky better. (Sure wish I had that narrow band filter for the nebulaes)

During this time we tried again for comet 177P, but after a false identification, we convinced ourselves we only saw M92. (Too bad on the comet, but another Messier for me.)

Later I swung the scope towards the north east and started after a few Messiers around Cassiopeia. We found the double cluster pretty easily. Jackie mentioned Kemble’s Cascade so I gave it a try and found a very neat string of stars leading to a small open cluster. After a false identification of M103, which turned out to be NGC457, I did eventually locate M103 and then followed shortly afterwards by NGC663 – all very nice little open clusters.

Regrettably the waning moon was now getting high enough to be a nuisance for observing. I decided to look at M31 anyways, but as expected it was washed out by the moon glow. Having given up on other objects, Jackie conceded defeat and swung her scope over to the moon with a filter. Impressed (and I guess also admittng defeat), I decided to do the same. Way too bright in the scope initially – even with the moon filter. Brett suggested a red filter which made it look like Mars, but it did help bring out some new details. Inspired I tried several filters including the yellow. Remembering reading something about stacking, I stacked the yellow and moon filters and it made observing quite pleasant. When Jackie started trying to identify regions on the moon, I flipped NightWatch over to the moon chapter and we picked up quite a few of the larger features including the Tycho and Copernicus craters, and the Apennine mountain range. The rays emanating from Tycho were amazing.

Thus ended another fun night of observing with good company and good skies.

The forecast is looking good for our Public Perseid Party, Friday night. Gail and I will be there for about 8:30pm and will set up the slide show in the pavillion near viewing area “b”. We’ve already had calls about the event so are anticipating a good turnout.
See you there!

Equipment: 6? reflector; Pentax 21mm & 7mm ep?s; Moon filter; Ruckl?s Atlas of the Moon

After the rain-forest-like weather we?ve had, lately, it was nice to have a clear and comfortable night to observe. We opened the GEM ?n I Dobservatory at 9:30pm and went straight to the (10 day) Moon.

Though its transit altitude was only 19°, seeing was steady enough that atmospheric turbulance would only be a mild disturbance at high power. Bright enough at low power to merit a Moon filter we spent most of our time around the northern terminator region of Sinus Iridum. The rugged semi-circular ridge that borders the sinus (bay) both starts and finishes with a promontorium (cape). In our inverted view, the lower Promontorium Laplace anchored a well-defined shadow peak.

Just outside of the bay were the two craters named for Helicon, a 4th century BC Greek astronomer, and La Verrier, the mathematician who first calculated the position of Neptune.
Moving ?up? and to the ?right?, we followed a dorsum (wrinkle ridge) to the crater named for Caroline Herschel.

As we let the Moon drift throught the eyepiece we soon came upon an interesting triangle formation, measuring about 25km across, casting three long, narrow, shadows. It took a lot of flipping through pages in Ruckl?s atlas before I identified it as an unnamed formation lying between Delisle Crater and Dorsum Bucher (page 9). An Internet search only turned up the following entry from a Peter Grego:
“The large triangular assembly of mountains in the north is unnamed on Rukl’s lunar map. The mountain group, probably a remnant of the original Imbrium ramparts that were buried by lava flows, occupy an area equivalent to the Isle of Wight. Here they cast spire-like shadows onto the plain”.

With the Moon now dropping behind a tree, we ended our tour with a look at Montes Teneriffe (Teneriffe mountains) and Mons Pico which is 2400 metres high but placed far enough from the terminator, this night, that very little shadow was detected.

The last observation of the night was a very fast-moving meteor coming from the general direction of ? dare I say ? Perseus.

Any takers for Binbrook tonight?

CSC looks good – 1/2 moon sets around 12:17am – should be a good night for observing and imaging DSO’s – temperature should be about right for long sleeves (to keep the bugs down).

Update: The weather and mosqitoes were very coperative. Myself, Jackie, and Don showed for a very pleasant night of star gazing. I spent most of my time imaging – unfortunately, what I mainly had intended to image was within a few degrees of the rather bright moon. Jackie and Don seemed intent on finding as many faint planets as possible – I think there may have been some success with Uranus and Neptune – however, the question usually remained “Which of these stars is the planet?”. Finally, an attempt was made to locate the comet in Hercules. We finally packed in just after 2am – Don, still full of energy, wanted to go to Tim Horton’s – I opted for the 1/2hr drive home followed by rest.

The periodic comet 177P/2006 M3 (Barnard 2) was recently recovered after a span of well over a hundred years. It is currently visible in binoculars in the constellation of Hercules and is shining at a magnitude of 8.4 as it heads towards Draco. This comet has a large 10′ coma and is fairly diffuse due to its proximity to the Earth.

A finder chart is posted at http://www.skyhound.com/sh/comets/177P.gif

UPDATE: Aug. 2,2006
Gail and I searched for the comet, last night, to no avail. We both thought we might have, maybe, almost detected a smudge with our 10×50 binoculars but were unsuccessful with a low-power search using our 6″ reflector. Other reports have suggested it is very diffuse and the current heat haze doesn’t help, either. Still, we know where it should be so we’ll keep looking and maybe it’ll brighten.

It was a small turnout (not including the mosquitos) – but good company on such a nice warm summer night. The haze and mild wind kept me from doing any long exposures. I did manage to snap a few shots of M11 which I will post later. Despite the poor seeing conditions it was still worth the effort – especially since we got to see a number of very bright meteors streak across the sky.

– Tim

Note from Ben:

Yes, it was a good evening of stargazing–good in that we survived to tell the tale! The coyotes were yipping and howling somewhere in the park not too far away, perhaps warning us of the impending attack by the blood-thirsty vampire bugs known by some as mosquitoes. Or perhaps the coyotes were laughing at us? At any rate, we fought back with insect repellent and did the best we could to swat the miserable creatures into oblivion, but in the end it must be said that they defeated us as we high tailed it out of the park before midnight. We may have lost the battle, but we will not concede defeat in the wider war. Mosquitoes, WE WILL BE BACK!

I checked the Clear Sky clock around mid day and it was indicating potentially fair conditions for the evening. So I decided to load up the car with my astronomy gear before heading off for various day activities with the hope of heading up to Binbrook upon my return to town. While I was out of town, I tried to check my email to see if there was going to be any observing, but I couldn’t get in, however the CSC was indicating that conditions were improving.

I decided to head up to Binbrook around 10pm in the hopes of running into other observers. After checking the main gate and the various alternate locations, I set up at our Tyneside alt location. The air was still and you could feel some dampness trying to make its presense. It meant the mosquitos were likely going to be a nuisance – I was prepared for them.

By 10:30, I was set up with the 6″ reflector, the binos, chair and table prepared for several hours of observing. Fortunately the sky was cooperating and the earlier clouds had finally vanished. To the north was the glow of Hamilton, but it was further ruined by an additional glow from a ball field in Binbrook. To the south however, was clear skies and a good view of Sagittarius and Scorpius. I decided to focus on all the Messier object around the teapot.

I started off with the easy and bright globular cluster M22 which I had seen before. Then scanned along the bottom of the teapot and picked up M69, M54 and with a little difficulty, M70. In my binos I could see the fuzz of M7 and M6 so I trained the scope on them to reveal 2 nice clusters twinkling away. Unfortunately the Jewel box was obstructed by trees nearby so I moved higher above the horizon to look at clusters M28, M25, M18, M24 and M9. I also enjoyed the paired cluster/nebula M21 & M20 (at least in the wide field of my scope). And of course the nebulas M8, M16 and M17.

Unfortunately by 12:30, the dew was getting bad, affecting my view finder, binos and even my reading glasses. Hercules was emerging from the Hamilton/Binbrook glow (they still hadn’t turned off the lights at the ball field), and I could visually make out the smudge of M31. I swung the scope around to take a look, but by then even the eyepieces were dewing up and all I saw was a brighter smudge. If I needed any encouragement to pack up, that was it. While it was a quiet night without any fellow observers, it had been rewarding in it’s own right – the most Messiers bagged in a single evening so far.

By 12:45 I was ready to leave, however I noticed that the car’s engine light was on which gave me a bit of a scare whether I was going to be stranded for the night. Fortunately all the fluid levels were fine, so I chanced the trip home. I’m sure the trip to the garage is going to put enough of a dent in the pocket book to delay some astronomy purchases. But that will be a story for a different blog.

The HAA public night in Brantford was a success not only through the participation of the members, as listed in the post below, but also through the wonderful attendance of the people of Brantford who came out to share the evening.

If there are any left -over questions about the HAA, dobsonian reflectors, or astronomy in general, please feel free to e-mail me at: chair@amateurastronomy.org

For those looking for advice on buying an “electronic” telescope, you should contact Mike Spicer at DeBeneEsse2001@aol.com

We hope we will see you again!

I got back to Hamilton Thursday night after 3 nights and 2 days at Point Farms Provincial Park on Lake Huron with my wife Barb. Our camping experience started on Monday night with a violent thunderstorm complete with a waterspout off Lake Huron, howling winds and a large broken tree branch invading our campsite, and ended on Thursday morning with another thunderstorm as I madly stashed our soaking belongings into the back of the van for the long drive home. But in between, oh, in between was something completely different and unforgetable.

Tuesday night at around 11:30 I eagerly drove down to the beach, and decided to take advantage of the dark northern skies in and around Ursa Major. Before my session was over I had seen 9 galaxies and a planetary nebula, with 8 out of 10 objects being first time observations in a telescope! I felt a sense of oneness with the universe as the waves gently lapped up on the shore nearby and the glory of the summer night sky sparkled above me.

Wednesday night I planned to see if I could stay up long enough to observe the great occultation of the Pleiades. As I began my all night vigil at midnight, the sky wasn’t as dark as the night before and began to cloud up shortly after I arrived. But not to be deterred, I aimed my Dobsonian to the northeast, which at that point was the only section of the sky that was cloud-free. I was treated to my first glimpse of the Perseus double cluster. After a half hour or so, the sky had cleared up. Over the next few hours I managed to observe 14 different deep sky objects, 13 of those being first time observations.

My favourite objects so far in the Point Farms night skies were M51 (the Whirlpool Galaxy), the double cluster in Perseus (NGC 869 and 884), the two companion galaxies to M31 (Andromeda Galaxy), and Brocchi’s Cluster in Vulpecula (Beautiful and bizarre! Who put that crazy star cluster up there, anyway??). I also enjoyed my first glimpse of the Lagoon Nebula in Sagittarius.

By 1:30 I was getting tired, and a little spooked. I think it was a combination of the strong breeze and the occasional unexplained night noises, the fact that this was my second night in a row being up late (I am not by nature a night hawk), and the fact that I was alone on a deserted beach at night, far beyond help should any bears be hunting for astronomers. I found myself glancing behind me every once in a while–I knew (or hoped?) there were no bears in the park. I did smell a skunk at one point and started to talk and sing outloud to ward off any impending attack of noxious spray. I soon got over my jitters, but I was starting to tire of hunting deep sky objects.

By 2 o’clock the moon was nowhere in sight, and I began to reconsider whether I could last long enough to catch an occultation. I could see Perseus clearly in the northeast, and my star maps assured me that the Pleiades were not far behind Perseus in the magestic march of the stars across the sky. After a bit of internal debating, I decided to pack up and head back to my tent. I had been quite keen on seeing the moon pass in front of the sisters, but thought more about the 3 or 4 hour drive ahead of me the next morning.

As I drove up the steep road to the campground, I was delighted to see the crescent moon appear as if from nowhere. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity despite my fatigue, so I parked the van and got out my binoculars. A rustling in the grass beside the road startled me and reminded me of the invisible bears. I ignored the creature (whatever it was), and aimed my binocs at the moon, and gasped at what was revealed–the crescent moon with the Pleiades just to the left. I knew I couldn’t wait another hour to see the first of the sisters getting occulted, so I just had to use my imagination to fast forward the scene in front of me. There was something awe-inspiring, something glorious, something majestic about the whole thing that stayed with me as I lay in my sleeping bag that night, and as I packed up in the rain the next morning. The sense of wonder at the beauty of the cosmos and the power of creation keeps coming back to me as I remember that unforgetable sight.

Bring on the next clear night!