Observation Reports, 31 March and 1April 2024, with notes on the Eclipse

 

                                                31 March, 2024 (Easter)

The night of 31 March started out partly cloudy, but started clearing up. I got set up and aligned using the 2-star alignment. I checked it by going to the Pleiades, and it was centered nicely. The sky was also pretty bright, even though the moon wasn't up yet. Seeing was good, and the transparency seemed about medium. I suspect there was more moisture in the air or smoke particles form small burns to account for the bright sky. The small light dome over town appeared somewhat hazy. In addition to the lights at the truss company, there was also one of the light standards at the rodeo arena or high school on. I suspect this light  interference will continue or get worse, since they are constructing a restaurant near it

My first target was M51, at about 22:05 MDT. M51 is known as the Whirlpool Galaxy. It is about 31 million light years distant, and has a smaller companion galaxy, NGC 5195.  It has an apparent magnitude of 8.4. The two galaxies are interacting and connected. It is thought that the interaction is what intensifies the spiral pattern in M51. I started out with the 32mm eyepiece to locate the galaxies, then the 25mm after I had them located, and eventually down to the  17mm. I didn't try higher power eyepieces because they would have been to dim. Both objects were fairly dim but I was able to make out the cores of both galaxies. both appeared as slightly fuzzy disks, but with averted vision I could make out some of the spiral structure of M51. This was  visible primarily as density variations in the gray area. There was a faint star at about the 10:30 position visible in one area. I tried to do a quick sketch using white Prismacolor on black paper, but it didn't come out real well. Sketching at the eyepiece with a dim red light is a little difficult for me yet. I did the sketch about 22:15 MDT. 


     My next attempted target was the Leo Triplet galaxies, but I was unable to locate them so I switched to M44, the Beehive Cluster. This is a very open cluster about 600 lightyears away, actually containing about 1000 stars. Because it is so spread out, I stayed with the 32mm eyepiece. I made a sketch of the core area about 22:30 MDT. I tried to just depict the brighter stars. There were a few fainter ones visible with averted vision.


       Soon after this, the clouds started getting more numerous and were moving fast enough it made locating and staying on any target difficult, so I packed up.

                                                    1 April 2024

    I had set regular 8x8x16 concrete blocks in place to hold the tripod legs in place. I set them on the sides, and the openings were just right to hold the legs in place. The blocks also served to keep me from bumping the tripod. legs. When I set the tripod in place, it was still level. I had also found a small bungee cord to wrap around the mount arm and hold the power cord so it doesn't accidentally pull loose.  The Moon is at about 56% but isn't due to come up until 04:20 MDT. The sky was still bright enough to wash out fainter objects and stars.  According to Astropheric  seeing and transparency were both average. 

    I did a 2-star alignment using Alkaid and Sirius, using M42 as a check. I had trouble locating M44 again, and realigned the 'scope.  I wanted to look at M51 again, but it was even dimmer than last night. I was able to catch occasional glimpses of the arms using averted vision. 

    Next Target was M101, The Pinwheel Galaxy. It is approximately 29 lightyears distant, with an apparent magnitude of 7.9. It was very faint, but using averted vision I was able to make out a bright spot in the core. I sketched it using gray and white Prismacolor pencil on black paper.


    I then tried to locate M35 and a couple of other fainter galaxies, but was unable to. Using TLAO, I was able to locate the globular cluster  M53. According to the NASA page, this is one of the most distant clusters, at 59,700 lightyears, with an apparent magnitude of about 8.3. It contains about 500,000 stars and spans 220 lightyears. I started with the 32mm, then 25mm,  then added the 2x Barlow. The cluster was visible as a fuzzy gray ball, with a couple of stars visible in the central core and a couple of more in the cluster and a couple more on the periphery.



 When I shut  down, I put the mount into hibernate mode. Next time out, I'll see if that works since there is no power to the mount.

                                                             Eclipse, 8 April 2024

    We were in the path to see about a 35% eclipse. The morning started out with plenty of breaks in the clouds, but by 10:00 it was solid overcast, so we never got to see any of it in person. We watched totality on the NASA website. It was amazing to watch the sun, but they also had inset views of the area where their cameras ere set up, and the level of darkness was amazing.  The views of the corona and flares during totality were also amazing. Ryan Hannahoe of The Montana Learning Center went to Vermont and live streamed the event on Facebook using a SeeStar S50. I was not expecting to be as impressed with the live views as I was. This is the last total solar eclipse that I will probably see in my lifetime.






 



 

 

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