St. Patrick's Day with the Telescope

I decided to take advantage of the clear night to test out the new gear.  In addition to the new Antares finder scope (#1 in the picture) and 2" diagonal (#2), I had also picked up a slightly used Hyperion click-stop zoom eyepiece (8mm-24mm, #3) a JMI "wing thing" holder for my hand controller (#5) and some Earthshine port plugs to keep dust and grime out of my unused AUX ports (#4).

The hand controller holder worked perfectly - easy to install/remove and the height is adjustable.  It holds the controller exactly where you want it, freeing up your hands to focus, change a magnification, hold a flashlight, etc.  A very good investment!

The plugs are also perfect, and I've never seen them anywhere else.  They are just plastic covers for RJ11 phone jacks, but they are well made and easy to use.  Worth every cent :)

The new diagonal performed well, even if it was rotated slightly off center.  I'll see what I can do about that for the next session.  It is very well made, and the compression rings do a great job of holding eyepieces without marring them.

Once I got the Antares finder aligned, it too performed well.  Very nice optics - and at 50mm, it can almost be used as a wide-field scope.  Almost :)  The Pleiades fit nicely inside the field of view, as did the sword of Orion.  Made finding those objects (and others, like M44, the "Beehive") a cake walk.  SO much better than a red dot finder.

The only issue that I had that night was with the new Hyperion eyepiece.  It just didn't provide pin-point stars, regardless of the magnification.  Sure, the conditions weren't perfect, so I'll blame that for part of it.  And I guarantee that my scope is not perfectly collimated (but it's close - I tested it on Sirius and got a pretty good set of concentric circles when defocused).  I compared the views in the Hyperion to my 25mm plossl, and the plossl was better.  I need to have a better look at the EP in the light - maybe it's dirty...

I decided to take a few quick views of Orion, looking at Rigel and M42.  The Hyperion could not split the stars of the Trapezium at all, while I know that I've done it with my plossls.  Hmmm.

I hovered around Canis Major, Gemini and Monoceros as well, finding some nice Messier objects in their midst.  I love me some star clusters :)

I called it a night when the combination of cold air and the neighbor's driveway lights (never usually a problem) made observing too difficult.  I hope to get another shot when I get back from my business trip to Tennessee and Georgia next week.

Clear Skies,

Todd

The NexStar Arrives - and I'm an idiot

I finally received the new Celstron NexStar 6SE telescope - it had been delayed for almost a week due to the floods out west. Thankfully, UPS was able to deliver it without incident, and even brought the 50lb box into the house (I wasn't home, and I'm fairly sure my wife didn't want to kill herself dragging a telescope into the house).

It looked PERFECT. I can't believe the deal I was able to get, considering the overall condition of the scope and accessories. They didn't appear to have been used at all! The seller delivered it in original boxes, and even the "warning" tags were still attached.

I was able to assemble the unit in about 5 minutes - it really is simple. I picked up a large plastic tub at K-Mart that fits the packing material for the main unit perfectly. The tripod and my accessories case fit inside as well, making this the perfect all-in-one travel case for trips to Mingo (and other dark sites). Unfortunately, in my haste to pack the unit back up, I never aligned the red dot finder. Mistake #1.

I wasn't anticipating using the scope immediately - it had been raining all day. To my surprise, the sky became clear at around 9PM, and I hurried outside to set everything up. I didn't realize until the next day that I had attached the finder incorrectly (hey, it was dark!). Mistake #2. I went about trying to do an auto align, but after 3 failed attempts I knew I was doing something wrong. Even when doing a single star alignment, it just was WAY off - 15 to 20 degrees off. I looked at the scope in daylight the next day, and realized the finder was mounted cockeyed. I'm fairly certain I had entered the time incorrectly as well. I'm an idiot. I'll try again tonight, with any luck.

Even so, I know a few things about the sky, so I checked out M13 manually (a very easy find). Larger and more detailed than my previous scope, for sure. I sensed something was up, though, when I had trouble getting tight focus. Sure enough, my corrector was covered in dew. Grrrrrr.

I'm leaving for vacation in two days, so there isn't time to order a dew shield and have it arrive in time. I may make one out of craft foam as a temporary fix - here's hoping there is less dew in Nags Head (not likely!)

Overall, a great scope. Really solid on the mount, excellent tripod, easy to use computer (when I know the time!). I also have my exact longitude/latitude (thank you Google Earth), so hopefully that will help as well.

Todd

Friday Night at Mingo Star Party

I journeyed out to Mingo park again on Friday, where the AAAP was holding another weekend of star parties. I meant to go Saturday, but Friday was looking good and my kids somehow got to bed early. Go figure!

I brought my usual gear, but this was the first time with the new eyepieces and case (pics coming soon). I setup my tripod, for the camera and binoculars, my scope (‘ol Blue), my beach chair and the small equipment table. The table is actually a kids folding table that I steal from my 6 year old. Remind me to get a real observing table.

Venus and Saturn were close together, but setting fast. I used the barlowed 9mm to view them both at 155x, which was a treat. It’s the largest I’ve seen either in this scope, and they both looked great. They moved fast, so I decided to try Jupiter for a while.

Jupiter stayed out all night, and Mingo has a GREAT view of the southern sky. I saw more in the south tonight than I ever have before. Jupiter and the 4 main moons barely fit into the eyepiece view at 155x, but I got them. Better detail than I expected, including 2 cloud bands and possibly the red spot (I may have seen it, or I may have wanted to see it so badly that I faked my own eyes out ;-)). At that magnification, it moved out of view FAST. Tracking would be a good thing to have on the next scope, so maybe the Dob is out after all.

By far, my favorites of the night came from Sagittarius, where I was able to see several Messier objects with just the binoculars. I spotted M8 (Lagoon Nebula), M20 (Trifid Nebula), and M21 in what has to be the prettiest binocular-ready section of the sky. The Milky Way was “flowing” right out of the teapot of Sagittarius, and made my night. I can only imagine what darker sites would do for this part of the sky.

I also spent some time on Antares in Scorpius, and again used binoculars to find M4. By this point, I was also viewing M4 and M25 through the 24” reflector Mingo’s observatory, so I was getting a little spoiled. This scope now features a rotating turret of eyepieces, so changing between the 5 or 6 magnifications was perfectly simple. A great star party addition, especially since those eyepieces were all Tele-Vue Naglers. What I’d give to have a set of those in my eyepiece arsenal! Someday!

I started packing up at about 12:45, just as a lovely reddish-brown moon rose behind me. I took several shots of the moon, none of which really worked. Ah well.

Overall, a great night! I met several new people, and I’m sure I’ll even remember their names someday (I’m terrible with names!).

First Observation with the new Binoculars

I finally had the time and the cooperating weather conditions to try out my new Nikon 10x50 binoculars last night. Overall, it was a decent night, slightly cool, and there didn’t appear to be any real cloud cover. Some definite haze as the evening wore on, but it was intermittent. Good or bad, I was anxious to see something, anything, in my new gear.

I knew I was going to have a hard time seeing much of anything – I’m in McMurray, just 20 miles south of Pittsburgh, and so the NNE part of the sky was visibly lighter due to light pollution. I also have a fairly bright gas-powered post light in my front yard (yes, they do still exist!) I decided to concentrate on the western part of the sky, as I could keep my back to the light. There were more stars visible to my eye than I expected, especially towards zenith. I got excited :)

I had already popped open Stellarium on my Mac to check the night sky. I’m still a complete rookie, so I need all the help I can get! I found a few landmarks, grabbed my planisphere and ran outside. I started with Venus, super-bright as expected. I star-hopped (still learning that, too!) to the twins of Gemini, also fairly bright and easy to find. I knew Saturn was “chasing Leo”, so I decided to hop over to the giant planet for a look. Along the way, I ran into a something I’d never seen before – I actually gasped as it came into view. I wasn’t expecting to see anything out there, and there it was, a lovely cluster spread out before me. Not visible naked-eye, which made it all the more breathtaking.

I had just seen M44 (the Beehive Cluster, or Praesepe)! Sure, that’s an easy one, I suppose. But I hadn’t found any catalog objects before this, so I was pretty excited. Now I was determined to see more.

Saturn was bright and pleasing to look at…even if I was shaking the binocular a bit by now. Once I dig out my tripod, I should get some more steady views. I honestly didn’t think the 10x50’s would get so heavy! Not sure, but I may have seen one of Saturn’s moons to the right side. Did I?

After a trip of a few well-known constellations, I tried to look for Hercules. I knew M13 was out there, hiding somewhere in the light pollution. Hercules proved hard to see in my location, the lights were washing out that part of the sky. Still, I waited, trying to let my eyes adjust. It took me a while to sort out which stars were which – the planisphere can be hard to get your bearings with. I finally was able to pick out a pair of stars on the left side (Rho Herc, Pi Herc), so I hopped up those stars, up again to Eta, and over to Zeta. I hope I’m getting these names right ;) Back and forth between Eta and Zeta…nothing. Using the averted vision method, which I had read about the night before, I spotted it! M13, a small grey puff just between the two stars of the keystone. Two Messier objects and two planets on my first night! Time for bed…I’m sure I’ll dream about huge SCT’s and apochromatic refracters (see, I am researching!)