An Unusual Meteor and a Night with Binoculars

 19 March 2026

I walked outside at about 22:05 MDT just to see what the sky was like and if it might be worth taking the binoculars out. There had been a severe wind warning a few days ago so I had pulled the OTA off of the mount on the pier and put it away in the garage. Earlier in the day the sky conditions had been cloudy enough that I didn't expect much, but I was pleasantly surprised at how clear it had become.

Just as I walked out to the driveway there was a bright orange meteor that tracked across a good part of the southern sky.It almost had the appearance of a fireball. The color was very striking. The track was angled toward the southeast. Because of that color it makes me wonder if I was actually seeing space debris burning up. Needless to say, I decided to go ahead and bring out the binoculars. These are 12x50 Nikons. In order to be stable and comfortable I brought out one of our "zero g" lounge chairs. Just today I had put the wrap that will be under the siding on the south and part of the east and west sides of the observatory. This made a nice windbreak and also blocked the lights that are south of us. This mad a great improvement for viewing. 

When I started, Orion wast visible to the southwest before it would disappear behind trees on the hill. Taurus' head was just visible above the trees almost due west. The Pleiades were also just visible above the trees, and the pointers from the Big Dipper were on the east side of Polaris. Jupiter was very bright overhead and near Castor and Pollux.

I brought the S&T Jumbo Sky Atlas out to practice orienting myself to it. I focused on Taurus, matching the stars to the atlas. One of my struggles with any chart is the difference in scale in going from the chart to the real sky. This practice helps, and I need to do it more.

Later I reoriented the chair so I could focus on the area around Polaris. Seeing was pretty steady so I tried unsuccessfully to locate M101 and some of the other DSOs in the region. Even though seeing seemed pretty steady, Transparency wasn't great. I was eventually able to make out all seven stars of the Little Dipper, so I would estimate NELM at 4-5. The skyglow to the north and northeast increased and a few minutes later started to recede to its previous level. I think that was due to a small Auroral display. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

26 September 2024

Image
 Tonight was a little bit of an exercise in frustration. Starting about 20:0 0MDT I tried setting up the tripod and leveling it before attaching the mount and then the telescope. In the process, I bumped the tripod and knocked it out of level. Grrrrr! I eventually got everything set, and was able to successfully bring targets into the field of view. I am really looking forward to getting a permanent pier put together!  Skyglow was pretty bright despite the Moon not being up. Seeing was fair. Transparency wasn't great, with a NELM (Naked Eye Limiting Magnitude) of about 4.  The first target was M2 , a globular cluster in Aquarius. It is about 55,000 light years away and contains about 150,000 stars. I was only able to make out a couple of individual stars on the periphery by using averted vision.     Second set of targets wee from the AAVSO class. Z Andromeda and AC Hercules. Hercules was just past zenith. That is a difficult angle for me to see with the red dot ...
Read more

Observation Report, 15 March 2024

Image
       We finally had a clear night so I could get in at least a little observing. I really wanted to get a chance to use my new sketching tools, I took the pad of black paper, white and grey Prismacolor pencils, and some regular sketching pencils to use in my journal.     I was able to start observing around 21:45MDT. I used the SkyAlign alignment process. For some reason the goto function was consistently off low and left. Using the ed dot finder brought targets into the field of view (FOV).          The Moon was at about 39% full and already pretty bright, high in the west. Transparency I would rate as about a 6 out of 10, and seeing was pretty steady. Since the light from the moon was washing out a lot of stars, and I am still working on my Lunar list, I decided to observe the moon first. I settled on the group of craters Theophilus, Cyrillus, and Catharina. Theophilus is the northernmost, then Cyrillus, then Catharina...
Read more

Library Telescope!

Image
 Our library ( The Darby Community Public Library ) has a small telescope available to check out. It is part of an outreach program by the Western Montana Astronomical Society . They supply small telescopes to several libraries in western Montana. The one in our library is an Edmunds Astroscan.    Telescope kit. Astroscan, 28mm and 12mm eyepieces, Rigel Quickfinder, Nightwatch  and Night Sky references and star charts. Red duffel bag to carry it all.  They are an older reflector telescope, with a design that originated back in 1976. The Edmund Scientific company used to be a ubiquitous supplier to technical and scientific hobbyists of all kinds, The Astroscan was designed as an entry level, easy to use telescope. The base is a ball and rests in a cradle with pads that allow it to be aimed easily, but it is balance so that it will stay put where it is aimed. There have been larger amateur built telescopes that use essentially this same type mount. It is a form of...
Read more