Looking like it might be the best opportunity of the week, Jim, Jackie and I headed out to the alternate site last night, to brave the damp and cold for a chance to do some viewing. When we arrived there were already two scopes set up, and their owner Brett there to watch over them.

The sky was not at its best, but the views of Saturn were lovely, with moons seeming to duck around each other as the ring plane closes and their orbits are seen close to edge on. All four scopes present gave excellent views. Visitor Brett was showing off a new Celestron 80mm apo, which, not surprisingly, gave almost identical views to my 80mm apo! He also had a Celestron 120mm achromat, which showed some purple fringing around the bright planet, but that did not detract from the excellent view that it gave. As more good quality large achromats like this one become available on the market, they really are an excellent value considering the very cheap prices that they sell for. Jim’s 8″ Schmidt-Cassegrain certainly showed the fainter moons that the smaller scopes didn’t show. His is an excellent scope and its larger aperture pulled through for us, and not for the last time of the night.

I had brought my camera with me, along with hopes of a few wide field shots. Last week I had pointed my little point-and-shoot camera through the eyepiece of my scope and came away with some surprisingly satisfactory pictures of the moon. This time I brought my trusty old Olympus OM-1, a fully manual film camera. I was lucky enough to get an excellent polar alignment on the first try (whew!) and used a 300mm lens to photograph the lovely pairing of Saturn and Regulus. At least, that was my intention until I ran out of film after two exposures! These are the kind of things I should check before I leave home, right? Oh well, I only need one good shot.

Galaxy hunting let us compare the wide field view of M84 and M86 together through my 80mm scope with the very detailed views of each individually through Jim’s 8″. Jim also took in M51 and I took in M65 and M66. We followed up with a few favourite open clusters, from the vast Beehive (M44) to the tiny but lovely NGC1502. We all topped off the evening with hearty welcome to everyone’s old friend, M13, the globular cluster in Hercules. Here again, Jim’s 8 inches of aperture showed detail that the smaller scopes couldn’t quite resolve. It was so nice to see this harbinger of the warmer seasons rising high enough to view properly.

Despite a glimpse of the summer constellations like Lyra and Cygnus rising in the east, the cold and damp finally defeated us and it was time to head for warm confines and warmer coffee. Good conversation always accompanies these gatherings, and this time included tales of adventure from past star parties and other places.

Large gathering or small, good skies or bad, observing with the HAA is always a great time with a great club.

Over the past month on clear nights where I am not too busy I have been trying to catch up on some imaging of the galaxies. I love galaxy season! There are so many countless targets to keep you busy with such beautiful/unique shapes and colours.

ANyway M51 is a target I tried a few times last year. I decided to image this one again because I wanted to see if I could get more detail out of it with better tracking and improved processing. Since this is a small target I stacked it in deep sky stacker with a 2x drizzle. I think it really helps when trying to process for intricate detail.
This was imaged with the C6 SCT @f6.3 ~ 945mm focal length

Another interesting target…
The Whale Galaxy
Click link for the wide view with the unusual Hockey Stick Galaxy…
http://www.weatherandsky.com/main.php?g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=1483&g2_imageViewsIndex=2

M81 was imaged over two seperate nights. One from home and the other night at Binbrook.

… and finally last night before the moon rose I wanted to catch as many frames of the Virgo Galaxy Cluster/Markarian’s Chain with my Canon 100-400mm lens. I imaged at 300mm, f5.6, ISO 800, 22x3min. In the high res version you can see my tracking was horible due to poor alignment and breezy conditions… so really it is not a great judge of this lens. Overall though, I am really happy with it and the stars (when tracking is good) appear to be sharp across the field.
Large view: http://www.weatherandsky.com/main.php?g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=1504&g2_imageViewsIndex=3

My setup with the Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6L lens.

You can see all these images at higher resolution in my latest images gallery. Just click on the individual image and then look for the size options on the right side.
http://www.weatherandsky.com/main.php?g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=101

KerryLH

We had another large gathering at Binbrook last night. The viewing conditions weren’t that great (what with the haze and near full moon) but the company and warm weather more than made up for it.

We started with another colourful sunset.

(calender cover shot?)

As the sun was setting – we were joined by a kayaker (Martin).

Contrails in front the moon made for interesting views.

When not block by contrails – the moon was in full glory.

The following is the same shot after stacking and drizzle resampling 80 images using Registax

The gathering.

All preceding images were taken with a Canon EOS 40D using a Sigma 50-500mm APO.

Although there were only 3 members and 2 visitors at the alternate site last night, we were accompanied throughout the night by another very strong presence; the moon. Bright enough to read our maps by, it not only provided a lovely terminator through the scopes, it also determined what other objects we would be viewing.

I was fortunate again in getting a lift out to the observing site from Jim, where we found two well equipped amateurs already set up. With the addition of Jackie, we had a good crew that was ready for a night that promised transparent, if unsteady skies. Of course, Saturn and the moon were our starting points, and visitor Brett offered a lovely view of Saturn through his old 4″ refractor. Jim’s 8″ Schmidt-Cassegrain and my trusty 80mm refractor rounded out the selection of scopes available, and both were in fine form, as always.

I had noticed on the heavens-above web site that the former asteroid Ceres was going to be placed in Taurus, among a bright grouping of stars not far from the Hyades, where it would be showing off it’s new Dwarf Planet designation. I wanted to spy this little fellow before the changing season carried it into the west, and my Small But Mighty ED80 did not disappoint. Armed with a hand drawn map, Ceres showed itself to be an easily identifiable intruder, at mag 8.8, and we all enjoyed a look. With my objective for the night accomplished, I joined with the others for a tour of the night sky.

Allowing ourselves to be guided off the beaten path, Jim’s “sky tour” feature led us to some fine objects that would have been otherwise overlooked. Jim started us out with Kemble’s Cascade, a lovely line of faint stars in Camelopardalis that are named for a Canadian amateur. At the end of this string of pearls lies the open cluster NGC1502. When invited to look at what Jim and Jackie were seeing, I was delighted to share in their enthusiasm for this delightful cluster. Through the 8″ a few dozen stars were visible in an elongated shape, but running through the middle and along the short axis of the oval of stars was a cluster within the cluster, of brighter stars. Most remarkable though, was how these stars seemed to be laid along this axis in pairs. We counted 7 pairs of stars, and then once we had raised the magnification, we noted that two of the pairs contained stars that were again pairs. The bottom two provided a nice colour contrast of brighter yellow and fainter blue. A truly charming cluster that invites lingering observations.

Inspired by these double stars, Jim took us to several other, including 38 Geminorum and Eta Puppis, which is also a subtle yellow and blue. Delta Corvi, known as Algorab, Theta Toucan, 54 Leonis, 24 Coma, Iota Cancri, and Tegmen, another double in Cancer kept our attention on binaries. One of the most spectacular of the night was Beta Monoceros which is a bright and very clean white, triple star. All three dazzle at about the same brightness, making for an almost unnatural, contrived look. Its discoverer, William Herschel, called it “elegant”, and I agree. This is a very pretty system, and I recommend that you get a look before the season carries it into the west. Zeta Cancri also carries the name of Tegmen (there are variations on this spelling) and was a beautiful yellow pair. We rounded out this part of the night with a view of Gamma Leonis, also known as Algieba. This very pretty (and easy to find!) pair showed both components to be yellow, with one being just a little warmer than the other.

Jim had anticipated our need for refreshment at this point, and provided all with hot chocolate to keep us warm and strong through the night. Revitalized, we were ready for the next phase of our tour.

At this time we enjoyed comparing three different planetary nebula in the spring sky. Starting with the NGC2393, the Eskimo Nebula, we used high power and an OIII filter to detect both the irregular inner core and the wispy outer “hood”. NGC3242, the Ghost of Jupiter, was small but bright. We were well aware of our constant companion through the night: the moon. Aside from stellar sources (like the binaries and clusters we had been observing) it allowed only the brightest non-stellar objects to pass its unrelenting glare. Finally we looked up to M97, the Owl nebula, and though it is big, it was unable to show itself this night without the use of the filter. Passing the filter in front of the eyepiece made this planetary blink on and off!

Jim’s scope guided us on not only a fine tour, but gave excellent views of these objects, but I had one more that I wanted to see with my little 80mm refractor. Over the course of the night the sky had lost much of its transparency, but had given us the consolation of better seeing, and a steadier sky. Looking to Bootes, I pointed my scope at Izar, easy to find just along the left hand side of the Kite asterism. Although separated by only 2.8 arc seconds, this uneven pair was very cleanly split with true black space between the components. I couldn’t help but show off this view, proud of what a small scope can show. But my scope still had more to show off. Before turning in, we turned for a last look at the ringed planet.

Now nearly midnight, the steadier air provided a much improved view of Saturn, with four moons visible through Jim’s scope, though the reduced transparency allowed only two to be seen through my smaller aperture. Each scope showed banding on the cloud tops, which has become easy to see as the rings have closed, and rich colour on the planet. Cassini’s Division was still visible through both our scopes, the only ones remaining at this time.

Bidding goodnight to the frogs whose song had provided the background music for the night, we packed up and adjourned to the home of the club’s unofficial honorary member, Tim Horton, who always provides coffee and doughnuts, like the good host he is. As good as it is though, the coffee can not provide the warm feelings that come from the good company of my fellow members of the HAA, and the beauty of the night sky. Next time you are out observing, whether alone or with other members, wander away from the sky?s show pieces, and try something different. Make your own tour through the quieter parts of the sky. It never disappoints.

Tuesday April 8 promised one of the most beautiful sights that the night sky can provide; the pairing of a young crescent moon with the Pleiades. This early evening event would start with the pair side by side, and as they slowly sunk into the west, the moon would drift across the open cluster, occulting several of the Seven Sisters before they set. Unfortunately, as the evening fell it became apparent that many people were going to be deterred by the increasing cloud, and the big event would be unobserved due to far too few people and far too much cloud.

I headed out to the alternate site with my friend Ted, and was soon joined there by my fellow adventurers, Jackie and Ann. No cloud nor fog was going to keep these intrepid observers from attempting to see the occultations, and a combinations of perseverance and the magic of Binbrook came together to provide a wonderful evening.

We were armed with several pairs of binoculars, both handheld and tripod mounted, and an 80mm apo scope. A widefield eyepiece encompassed the entire cluster and moon, giving a pleasing view, even if it was somewhat diluted by the cloud. Over the course of the evening the pairing appeared and disappeared between bands of clouds, and at one point, certain that the western sky was lost for the night, we turned our attention to Saturn. Soon, though, the magical qualities of our observing site asserted themselves, and the moon reappeared! We were joined by our always welcome visitor, Martin from the conservation area, and he provided a much appreciated addition to the conversation, and we provided him with some equally appreciated views through the scope. Our only other visitors of the night were a pair of amorous raccoons, who let us know in a most vocal way that they were taking advantage of the night for their own lovelorn purposes.

As the pair lowered themselves toward the horizon (the moon and the Pleiades, not the pair of raccoons, although they may have done the same; I couldn’t say), the increased fog and mist gave a soft yellow cast to the moon, which took on the rich yet delicate feeling of watercolour. Along with the subtle ashen light on the dark side of the moon, the effect of three dimensionality was quite striking. Only after the pairing finally succumbed to the fog of the lower elevations, and the rest of the sky yielded to the ever increasing cloud, did we finally pack up and give ourselves over to the warmth and comfort of coffee, hot chocolate, conversation and laughter at the local coffee shop.

Many will have fine pictures from under clear skies, and some will say that the night might not have provided what would be considered ideal observing conditions, but it all seemed to work out just right after all. Somehow, observing with the HAA always does.

Our biggest mini star party of the year was this morning.
We arrived last night to set up for it.

After some coaxing, Don arrived way early to unlock the gate and let me in. I wanted to be all set up before sunset. I watched the sunset, big and red, with a touch of pastel oranges and purples in the high clouds to the west, and realized that M74 and M77 were not going to be there by the time i got the scope set up and the clouds cleared.

Well, after installing 2 new silver handles on the GWS so i can pick it up and put it on the EQP, the sun was down. The process of collimation of the primary and alignment of the finder with the main scope took another 15 minutes… That was the good news. The bad news was that the clouds, predicted by the CSC (but not the American simulations) really did persist. Those of our number willing to set up scopes in advance did so, and we waited for the clouds to clear, after seeing a nice sunset.

It was about 10 PM before the clouds parted, but that did not stop us from having hours of conversation, some even about astronomy(!).

The Sky Quality Meter (SQM) was reading about 18.4 in the darkest direction of the sky, and 17.8 towards Hamilton, which is not much better than a night with a half moon, but that’s because of all the high clouds. Kerry called home to get Bill to clear the skies, and he reported the clouds would be gone a few minutes after 10 but he was ‘doing everything he could’ from there.

I could see Saturn and Mars glowing right through the clouds, and decided to swing the GWS in their direction. After a few seconds I was able to announce that Saturn is in the GWS, and conversations and cookie eating contests were suspended while everyone got pretty fine views of Saturn. Jim and Don also pointed at Saturn. The high clouds made it a bit dimmer, which was good, but still nice and sharp.

Near 10 PM, some of the regulars decided to pack up and head home. We bid them a safe trip but also reminded them of the impending great skies.

This was the night for me to get the XTi to do some imaging through the GWS, along with a Barlow. Mars was so bright that I had to use 1/10 second exposures! It was not long before my card was full. Thanks Kerry for helping me to get it focused.

I also got some excellent shots of Saturn, and will be combining them with DSS soon.
Don imaged a litany of DSOs. Then dewed up. He deployed his backup scope, and continued to image. Jim also dewed over, and discovered a connection failure on his dew shield (the power cord was not pushed into the socket all the way). Luckily several other dew-free scopes remained available. It was about -2C, and there was frost on my car.

Jackie’s mission of viewing the Antenna Galaxy in Corvus paid off at last. We used star charts to point the GWS, and Kerry used GOTO to point her scope. The result was something that for a fleeting second actually looked to me like a stylized W with a loop in the center. I hope the photos bear that out. (not, see below)

We could see Vega, and Deneb, and M57 looked fine, as did the double double, which Kerry was able to see. On closer examination I had to admit the stars were elongated, but i was not seeing pairs.

By the time we left, the SQM was reading about 20.2, in the direction of Corvus, which is pretty good for Binbrook.

We packed up a bit after 2:30, after spending as much time as possible hunting DSOs against looming fatigue. 3 of us headed for TH, to discover that once again, all the donuts were in the trash bin. Oh well, the drinks were good, and i was still full of excellent cookies, and hot chocolate from the park.

___________________________

Update and Photos By Kerry:

What a night and such an incredible turn out. Practically the entire gang showed up. It was a little worrisome in the beginning because it didn’t look like the clouds would clear out nicely… but thankfully it got dramatically better after 10pm and after midnight the entire sky was almost cloud free.

Icy waters of Binbrook at night:

The Gang:

and Dave in the distance with his brand new C8-SGT:

We got a real treat near the end of the night/early in the morning, thanks to Jackie’s obsession with this antenna galaxy. We finally found it in the GWS and could almost make out structure. While we were enjoying the views I dialed it up in Carte du Ciel on my laptop and started imaging it. What an interesting looking pair of interacting galaxies. It was really low in the south and there is a lot more interesting structure that could have been picked up with more exposure time.

I couldn’t believe I stayed out so late. I also imaged M81… I’ll get to processing that later. We also watched the summer triangle and Scorpius rise and got a sneak preview of a few late spring/summer targets.

Update by Tim Harpur
Well, it was a nice turnout despite the uninvited clouds. I didn’t manage to get any astro-photos so I took the opportunity to take some “standard” photos instead.

We got to the gates, all together, at just about 8 PM. After putting on the combination lock, in anticipation of more astronomers, we continued to the end of the road. The sqm read 14.4 in the waning glow of sunset. The half moon was hours away… so many places to go, things to see.

Tim, Wayne and I set up at Binbrook near the pavilion, on the paved road. Jim and John arrived shortly. They aligned their scopes while i constructed and collimated mine.
There are a lot of trees near there, fortunately mostly deciduous, except for one pine tree between me and Andromeda. Weather permitting, the hill has a better view of the sky, but it’s really nice to be able to put equipment down on a dry paved road instead of juggling it. Tim set up his camera for wide-angle shots of Orion, and Jim and John set up their goto scopes. Wayne set up his scope and soon his family arrived to share the views. Saturn, Mars, M45, and M44 were steady and sharp in the scopes tonight.

About 9:30 the ISS and ATV came by for another pass. We were able to see them both in the sky, and track them with the GWS, although one person tracking using the red dot finder and a different one looking through the scope.

Soon we were sharing views of DSOs. John had a wide enough field to show 2 clusters from Auriga at the same time. I fished them up one at a time for practice. M35 has a nearby much smaller open cluster NGC2158 which we were able to glimpse in his and Jim’s scope. A big enough scope can see through trees, and the GWS was up for it.

I was able to point the GWS at M35 with a minimum of effort, and from there down to NGC2158
which was like a very fine pile of small diamonds.

We shared views of various DSOs and eventually John brought out the Pentax eyepieces and we gave them a try. Once the Pentaxes started moving, it was just a case of seeing how much magnification they could bear. M3 was a delight, and improved with magnification each time we tried.

In the GWS it was positively stunning, even at just 150x. We reached for a Pentax 5 mm and achieved 365x, and it still looked nice, with fine stars. I love my equatorial platform… M3 stayed neatly centered for many minutes while we made eyepiece changes and walked from scope to scope to compare.

We put a Big Barlow on the 5 with the GWS, for a magnification of about 730x, and it did not really improve the view of M3 much. But the EQP held it steady. I think i preferred it under more like a 5 mm view (365x).

The LPR filter did not enhance any views from Binbrook. I still hold out hope for it
from other sites I frequent though.

M104, the sombrero galaxy, was easy to find in Corvus. In fact, i was pretty much hitting the nail on the head each time i reached for a M number.

Items we visited tonight…
The double cluster, and some views in Perseus, m42; m44 an easy naked eye target tonight; m45 of course, including in binoculars; Saturn; Mars in cancer; M36 M37 M38; M35 and NGC2158, M51 at midnight (My next SMM object); M35 which looked like it had the outline of a space shuttle with stubby wings, neatly arranged vertically waiting for takeoff. M13, M92, M104. I wanted to try the double double, and M57, but it was through trees and just rising as the clouds rolled in at 12:30 AM. Cygnus was through trees and low over Hamilton when the clouds rolled in. M27 would have been a pretty sight tonight.

I tried to use my EOS again on the GWS. This time with a low profile T adapter it is still too far to focus… but i tried the barlow and that brought things to a focus. Unfortunately, without wanting to risk my night vision, i did not have the time and energy to focus the system, so my first 2 astrophotos through the scope turned out to me more like test shots….
but at least the nut has cracked.

The Hyperion 24-8 zoom eyepiece turns out to be inferior to a good Pentax, as you might expect, and zooming did not help me identify any more stars in the Trapezium. I got stopped at 5 stars. Also, while zooming, adjustment of the focus is required. This is not as i was told at the store… i am not happy with my purchase. I am hoping its ability to save me fumbling for eyepieces on dew filled summer nights will partly make up for my disappointment.

I am happy with the performance of the Big Barlow though. Thanks, Mike. It was such a fine night that i neglected to use the SQM in the heat of the moment. Speaking of heat, it was pretty cold, but there was no dew or frost on the scopes, although a bit on my car. I managed the night without gloves till it was time to heft metal at take-down.

I remembered the SQM on the way to TH… skies on the road away from Binbrook were at 19.75 on the SQM. It was not particularly dark in that regard, but the seeing was steady and transparency was good.

Around 12:30 AM, clouds could be seen rolling in from Hamilton, and we decided to pack up
and head for TH. Turns out, they toss out all the food at 1 AM. Not just move it to the back room, but straight into the garbage. We thought about the energy spent making the food and how it might do better to send some of it to a homeless shelter, or maybe just keep it till the ovens are making the new batch… but alas, no dice. Summertime is going to have even later evenings… i guess we need a backup plan for after-food.

We still managed to spend 80 minutes chatting up a storm about everything from the dark skies of Alsask Saskatchewan to the skies of Mountsberg Ontario, better uses of leftover food, and the magnificent plumage on Turkey Vultures. The Qu’Appelle Valley and the Rockton World’s Fair.

If you know the combination, join us, if not, join the club and ask someone, and find out! The skies are fine, the equipment is able, and the astronomers are friendly!

UPDATE by Tim Harpur
I spent my time testing my 50-500mm Sigma “Bigma” Lens on Orion. The first set is very wide field (50mm)- with Orion being so low in the horizon and setting early – light pollution (seen on the right as I rotated the images 90 degrees CCW) was a major limitting factor. The following were all shot at ISO 1600 – 2 minutes each – then stacked – each image only has about 8 images stacked so not the highest quality.

The following is a close up cropping of the belt from the above images (it is not a seperate shot):

The following image was shot at 161mm.

It’s actually quicker to drive to Grimsby than to Binbrook from where I live in Burlington; it took about 30 minutes including time to gas up the car (ok, it’s further than Binbrook).

I arrived to see Glenn and Gail’s sleek new Deep Space Hunter telescope set up in the Gem-n-I Dobservatory, and Glenn was busily aligning the finder-scope with the main scope, using Betelgeuse.

The DSH is a solid tubed scope, with a black body and is about 5 feet long. It’s got a well fitting cover for the storage, with some ports that may allow solar viewing also. Springs balance it for setting at any angle.

I decided to unpack the GWS just as a backup plan, in case the queues at the eyepiece got too long. Kerry arrived during the process.

Before the moon rose, the SQM read about 18.8 at the zenith, and about 17.0 in the skyglow over Toronto and Hamilton. It was down to about 18.2 at the zenith once the moon was in the sky. Kerry was keen to view M108 and it dutifully presented itself to her keen eyes. I tried with the GWS but the lack of protection from ambient light made it a very difficult project, which did not come to fruition.

The Dobservatory really cuts the ambient wind down. It’s a fine piece of architecture for the purpose. It also limits stray light from streetlights and neighbors backyards. The Orion nebula came out looking very nice with wings wisping off in 2 directions. The Eskimo nebula in Gemini likewise provided a treat, and we drank in long views of it as it slowly proceeded from one side of the Ethos to the other. We took advantage of the mobility of the DSH and repositioned it a few times in different parts of the floor space.

Saturn’s moons were visible, and the rings were well defined during times of good seeing, with a thin line of shadow above them on the planet. There was a bit of distortion at other times, so it was necessary to wait for the best view. We managed to detect 5 moons of Saturn, and one nearby star, and confirmed it with CDC on Glenn’s able laptop.

The limiting magnitude for stars in the sky to the southeast was about 4.0, and the stars of Monoceros were sometimes visible and sometimes lost in the sky. Nonetheless i eventually did manage to zero the GWS in on M50, but not until i saw it in the DSH and confirmed its star pattern on CDC. It’s times like this when a dark sky is really to be appreciated.

The moon rose at about 10PM and we directed our scopes to it once we ran out of other fuzzies.
Without a moon filter, it was very bright, and virtually full. The terminator was very close to the edge, and there was some crisp detail to be seen there. Taking advantage of a bright target, I see that the focal distance outside the GWS is about 2 inches now that i have cranked up the mirror screws. I am hoping my new combined t-ring-t-adapter arrives soon.

I was delighted to learn a few more features of CDC including the ‘more stars, less stars’ feature, which helps make the chart appear similar to the finderscope image. Thanks, Glenn and Gail, for a fine evening out under the stars!

The past two weeks have been a bit better than normal when it came to clear sky opportunities. I’ve been taking advantage of them to catch up on some old and new targets.

Where is comet Holmes? Well currently it is pretty close to the California nebula. I attempted to image this rare meeting with my Canon camera and 100mm lens piggypacked on my c6 SCT. THe California nebula is about the size of Orion’s Sword. So that should give you a feeling of how large Holmes is now. It is also extremly faint. During processing I was able to pick up detail more easily in the faint HA nebula (with my unmodded camera and LPR filter) than I could with Holmes.

IC410 and 405 revisited. I added about an hours worth more frames to see what improvement I could get. It turned out the viewing conditions that night were horrible. THe sky glow got continually worse as moisture increased in the lower levels of the atmosphere. But I was still reasonably happy with the results… thanks again to the LPR filter. This filter is making me realize that if your skies are reasonably dark (mag 5 to 5.5 or better) then you can probably get by without having to modify (remove the IR filter) your camera.

This past Sunday with the moon at first quarter I picked up a new target: M108 and M97 and added more frames to some old targets NGC4565 (one of my favourite edge on spiral galaxies) and M13.

M108&M97

NGC4565

M13 Globular CLuster in Hercules and tiny galaxy IC4617

Image details and more hi-res versions can be found in my latest images section on my site: http://www.weatherandsky.com/main.php?g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=101

KerryLH

I headed out at about 7:10 PM and arrived at Binbrook Alternate site to see John, Jackie, John, and Jim all set up. (maybe I had better change my name to James, or something). It was still light out, so i aligned the Equatorial Platform (EQP) on Kochab, instead of Polaris. I can now say that north is about 4 degrees west of the line of Tyneside road, so no need to wait for the dark if doing visual observing from there anymore.

The moon, well lit, was nearing the zenith. The wind was very slight, perhaps 2 km/h, and the temperature was around -3C. I was alerted to the fact that the GWS would be later requested for a cameo on a certain NGC object, near Spica. Little did I know the target would be large and with low surface brightness. We need no moon for that one. It’s going to be a surprise when we bring it in. At the time, Spica was still below the horizon, so we first slewed to
the double cluster, which came out looking absolutely crystalline in the GWS.

I found a lovely red star in the sky north of the big dipper bowl. Appropriately, it’s name starts with J too, Juza. It’s a fine red star, only slightly variable, near magnitude 3.8

The double cluster was admired in Jim’s scope, while i searched the pocket sky atlas for the best way to find it when not using Goto. I found it under D in the open cluster listing, which also included many other clusters, not just messiers. I now know how to fish up the double cluster without an atlas. I wonder if I will be able to do it next time. If the moon had not been up, it’s practically a naked eye object. I think the moon helped make it better, because it washed out some of the background stars, leaving the brighter ones to be seen more distinctly without distraction, much as a string of streetlights seems to come into view one at a time, out of nowhere as you drive on a foggy night. The other lights are completely hidden.

The trapezium showed 5 stars, but a barlowed 7 mm zoom eyepiece was just too difficult to
keep on target for me to comment on whether there was any chance of more stars. Saturn was showing 5 moons: a bright one, a pair, and 2 slightly more distant moons, one on each side of the planet. I’ll be shopping for some more eyepieces in the near future.

The moon also afforded the most clear and fabulous views this evening. The clarity was almost perfect. There was a slight shimmering to the moon’s surface, but it in no way took away from the very fine white and shadowed nature of the moon. Aperture was giving resolution this fine night, and the scopes were standing up to 150x and 250x magnification without any sign of strain.

John’s excellent Pentax eyepiece brought in Saturn very nicely. The GWS also provided excellent views of Saturn, along with a 26 mm barlowed series 4000 eyepiece, which brought about 70% of the moon’s disk into view in the eyepiece.

A few visitors came by and were treated to positively outstanding views of Saturn, and the moon. The tree line at the alternate site plays a role in target selection, and I am not convinced that it will be a good place to complete a messier marathon.

We decided to pack up a bit before 11 PM, as the moon was so dazzlingly bright that all DSO’s were pale by comparison, literally and figuratively. It took about 20 minutes to pack up the GWS and close the VW so that we were all ready to leave.

The Tim Horton’s was well prepared for our arrival, with nobody at any of the tables, but a few patrons at the drive through. A box of Tim-bits seemed to satisfy everyone at the table and room for a few more guests, had they attended.

We reminisced about many things, including the 70’s the 80’s and the 90’s. Clowns, beards, and blades were considered in all combinations.

The old HAA logo was fondly reconstructed with the help of collective memories. The lineup for new HAA apparel was discussed.

The rims were rolled up and 2 of three of us with coffees won the privilege ‘Please play again’. They were delighted. One free coffee also resulted. I was informed that certain members of our club have unbroken ‘Please play again’ winning streaks, still in play.

A few gems went by, such as discussion about donuts of ‘legendary size’.

Plans for GO#4 were considered, but alas, the kybosh is upon it. Clouds of legendary size are coming our way.