Bill's Sky

  The area I set up in last night wouldn't really be a good one for an observatory. Distance to power is over 100ft, and a building would obstruct seeing the driveway from the house. I need to take those sight lines into account, as well as obstructions to observation. I found a 24" x 36" board to use as a portable table top. I set it on top of two plastic sawhorses. It makes is a great surface for holding the eyepiece case, atlases, journal, and other odds and ends that I use. It sure beats using the Black and Decker Workmate to set things on.  Two layers of a white handkerchief over the Celestron red flashlight dim it just right when my eyes are dark adapted. Without that even on its lowest setting if it hits a white page the reflection is pretty bright, and can actually almost dazzle my eyes. A note on sketching. The 0.5 or 0.7mm mechanical pencil isn't the best tool. I need to take a regular wood #2 pencil so I can shade images better. It is also almost impossible...

  First target was the Wild Duck cluster, M11, using the 32mm eyepiece. The main cluster has an almost square shape with a brighter star to the right center of the square. There were many stars visible, and the longer I looked the more became visible. There were several that were so faint they were only visible with averted vision.  Where I set up, the large (birch?) trees were a significant factor. Next target was M8, the Lagoon Nebula at about 23:25MDT. Found it in the 32mm, switched to the 25mm. Before I could start sketching it it started to dim as it went behind the tree limbs. Saturn had come up, so I moved over to it. Saturn with the rings almost edge on and two of its moons were easily visible. Tried different eyepieces and a couple of filters to see if that would let more detail come through, but all the filters did was dim the view. Adding a 2x Barlow only made the image very unsteady. Only had about 15 minutes before it too went behind the trees. Next target wa...

  This entry doesn't have any sketches. It is actually about an event my wife and I attended the evening of 21 July at the Montana Learning Center, located on Canyon Ferry Lake, east of Helena. They have an outreach program called " Under The Big Sky " with monthly presentations and viewing using their large telescopes. They have the two largest public access telescopes in the state. Their main astronomy page is here . This image shows the two large Roll Off Roof observatories. The actual site is much larger, including classrooms, dorms, etc.  This picture was taken from where we were sitting for the presentaion. The main page is slightly out of date. Instead of the remote robotic telescope, they now have a 24" Ritchy-Chretain on site.   This sits on a Software Bisque mount, and he controls it using "The Sky" software. Tscope in the background is a Takahashi set up for solar imaging.  This is the 25" Newtonian on a Dobsonian style mount. Unfortunately ...

  I set up the scope about 22:15 MDT, waiting for it to get dark enough to align. My goal tonight is to see some of the objects listed in the July-September section of  "Turn Left at Orion" (TLAO).  I had watched a You-Tube video on using Star Align on the Nexstar mount, and thought I would give it a try since it uses three stars instead of two. I started with Altair, then Arcturus, then Delta Cassiopeia. Used Mizar as a test, and it centered that fine, but then was consistently off. Redid alignment using 2 star align with  Altair and Arcturus. Targets were consistently in FOV of the 32 or 25 mm eyepiece after that.  The first target was the Ring nebula, M57. Easily visible with the 32mm eyepiece as a round, grayish shaded shape. The 25mm was brighter and a little clearer.17mm gave the best view, the ring shape is easily discernible. Tried  the 8mm, but the image became too unsteady, so went back to 17mm.At times I thought I was actually able to see a very ...

  17 July 2023  Observation Log Tried to go out last night, but the battery for the red dot finder was dead. FOV (field of view) for the scope was narrow enough that I had difficulty getting aligned. Bought batteries today! Need to pay attention and be sure to turn the finder off when I am done with it. I took the scope out at dusk and aligned the finder with it using a light pole about a mile away. Tests later showed it was accurate enough to easily bring target stars in the FOV of the 27mm reticle eyepiece.  There is no moon tonight. I did a 2 star alignment using Arcturus and Altair. Tried to use GoTo to locate M103 but the scope was off below and left. I searched manually and was able to find the target. I had changed from the 27mm reticle to the 32 mm eyepiece, for its wider FOV. Once I located the target, I changed to the 25mm, and eventually the 13mm. With the 13mm, quite a few of the stars popped out. I spent quite a bit of time observing with each eyepiece....

1 July 2023 Decided to look at the almost full moon just using binoculars. Nikon 12x 50.5. Used TLAO to try to start picking out landmarks. I am starting to use the Lunar 100 checklist form the Astronomical League website. Mares Tranquilitatis, Fecunditatis, and Imbrium are easy naked eye targets. Can also make out Oceanus Procellarum. Humorum and and Nubium just look like extensions, or bays, off of Procellarum. With the binoculars I can also make out Vaporum. Craters Tycho, Copernicus, Kepler and Aristarchus. Though smaller, the sun is apparently hitting Aristarchus just right to make it stand out as a brilliant white spot.Located Grimaldi, just left of the lower part of Procellarum. There is another crater below and just left of Kepler that I have tentatively ID ed as Reiner. Can just make out Sinus Iridium.  

29 June 2023, The Moon This was the first clear night in some time. I was originally planning on setting up in the pasture, but the ground and grass were soaking wet, so I set up on the driveway. I had difficulty getting the alignment right Tried Arcturus and Vega, but couldn't get Vega in the field of view (was near zenith and I had trouble seeing in the red dot finder to get it close). Redid using Auto 2 Star for the first time, then went to Mizar. Alignment was still off, manually located Mizar and tried for M101, but couldn't see it. Moon was at 87%, and alignment may have still been off some. Tried M13 again, but couldn't locate it. Since the Moon was washing out so much, I decided to focus my effort on it. I got out my copy of "Turn Left At Orion", and used the pages for Days 9-10, and Full Moon, to identify landmarks. I started out with the 24mm reticle eyepiece in place still, then went to the 32mm. The entire Moon fit into the field of view for the 32MM. ...