The Andromeda Strain

Well it's been a few days since I first laid eyes on Andromeda and my eyes have finally recovered.  If there is one thing I've learned thus far about this whole astronomy thing it's that faint blobs of whitish gray are of consequence.  The more I want to achieve this clarity of recognizable celestial bodies, the more my eyes water.  This is just how it has to be right now in this light polluted area.

So for the past few days I've bounced between the equally difficult Ring Nebula and the Andromeda Galaxy.  I can locate them both in about 30 seconds.  This is quite a change from my initial fumblings.  I feel that I'm starting to get the hang of my telescope.  I've calibrated the telescope sight and I whip my eyepieces in and out depending on the need.  I don't even bother using the set screws.

Recently I purchased a Barlow of which I have mixed feelings. Sure it's nice to affectively double the magnification but for these deep space objects it's reduced the amount of light enough to make them all but unobservable.  I feel like this thing will be best used in a very dark sky.

Tonight I finally got my act together and found the Hercules Cluster.  It's a group of 200 galaxies that looks like..  a whitish gray blob.  I didn't spend a lot of time on this one as we were into the morning.

The Ring

Been more than a few days but I was finally feeling up to doing a little hunting on this moonless night.  To my disappointment, it seems that most easily seen objects are not around in the summertime, not in this hemisphere anyway.

So I did a quick Google for "Summertime nebula" and found Trifid and Lagoon as top results.  Hell if I could find out where the Teapot constellation is or was.  I'm sure I will someday.  For now I needed to stick to things I knew.  Reading down a few lines I found the Ring Nebula.  Kersplat! It was pretty close to Vega.  Vega practically gouges my eyes out nightly.  Using the handy dandy starmap app I found the approximate location.  It is best seen to me as a sort of oddly shaped diamond or a parallelogram.  Like this not to scale representation:


    VEGA


                         X

  
        X





                                   X
                             o                          
                                         
                 X


The "o" is where it is.  I couldn't locate the son of a bitch.  Although the bottom stars I could define I just couldn't make out anything regarding the Ring.

So back to Google I went.  Ooh! That sure looks like a sweet picture of the Andromeda Galaxy and I was in luck that it was a clear shot to the east.  This was even harder to find.  I don't even think I found the correct stars to guide me.  Flummoxed and depressed I was about to walk away when I decided to try the Ring one more time.  Success!

The Ring Nebula

 

Ok, so it was not nearly as glamorous as an image taken form an interstellar telescope.  In fact it was an almost imperceptible and colorless smudge.  But, I saw it.  What gave it away was just how hard it was to make out.  I noticed that there was this star I just could not focus on.  It wasn't a star at all.  It was the Ring Nebula.

Though it was very hard to see, using what small amount of peripheral vision the eyepiece allows, I could make out the center.  I could also leave the area, return to it fairly easily and locate the Ring again.  There were these three stars that I used.  The Ring and the three stars formed what I thought looked like a chicken's, or any bird's, footprint.  This won't be the last time I go back.

This was a great night again.  Saw many shooting stars as well.  It's truly amazing and unexpected how many I see by chance.  I could have searched for Neptune tonight too.  It's pretty big and it's up as I am writing this.  Yet, something tells me the planets are going to require a lot less city light.  Might save those for camping.

Time to go work on my night vision.  You think that surgery that Riddick had is real?

Until next time...

The Longest Day

After 5 anxious nights, through the trees I see a yellow-white glow.  It is time to unleash the 6 inch..  reflector telescope.  To this point I had been incorrectly calling it a Dobsonian.  I am such a rookie.  Whatever its true name is I do not know, but it is simple to use, fairly sizeable yet light, and my first telescope.  After years of staring with corrected vision at the randomness of it all, I now can at least look the part of the amateur astronomer and tonight was a great night.

I struggled to find a decent surface to set the table top telescope on.  It had to be just right.  You know?  The first time.  I settle for my kids' cedar picnic table.  From the canopy of the neighbor's great oak, I found the perfect viewing angle.  Within a few seconds I was seeing this.

First decent photo from my phone pressed up against the eye piece

I am hooked.  This wasn't even a particularly good night for viewing.  I actually started to become blinded from the brightness.  Perhaps there is some credence to the moon filter I've oft read about. 

I am amazed by the detail.  Simply put, I had really no idea what was up there.  I can assure you it is not cheese.

Experimenting with my two eyepieces, I held my Android up to either one and snapped off a few photos like the one above.

I had grand hopes of focusing in on a planet but only one was available, Saturn.  Unfortunately the tree line of the backyard doesn't cater to Saturn this time of year.  It was also just too bright tonight.  Must have been about half the lumens of daytime even at 11 pm.

I did check out a couple of very bright stars.  Using Google Sky Map they turned out to be Arcturus and Vega. 

Arcturus comparison to our sun - YIKES!!!

While checking out Vega I saw a shooting star.  Close-up it seemed to be moving in slow-motion relative to what I could recall.

It was about this time that I decided to start this blog.  That was about 30 minutes ago.

We are just getting started.  I may need to stray away from the backyard confines tomorrow.  Weather dependent of course.  Until then.