Category: Deepsky log

on M 44. I was not really dark yet, but I could already see many chains, triangles and pairs of stars. The sky seemed to be very transparent.  A little more than 4 degrees to the north of M 44 I found Q4. The core looked like a globular cluster, bright at the centre and diffuse towards the edge. As you can see on the sketch below, Q4 was just east of four 9th / 10th magnitude stars.

The next day I checked the sketch with SkyTools2. The stars you see are:

1. SAO 80381, magnitude 9.04
2. SAO 80363, magnitude 8.31
3. PPM 98959, magnitude 9.54
4. SAO 80364, magnitude 9.10

With averted vision we could see a broad short tail of 0.5 to 0.75 degrees long, pointing into the eastern direction. The coma and the tail seemed to be “folded” around the bright core lake a blanket. After 30 minutes the comet disappeared behind some buildings.

2. The spectrum of Vega

Next on our list was testing my new spectroscope from Rainbow Optics on Vega in Lyra. We used the 8-inch Vixen and a 7mm Nikon eyepiece. We could see two clear absorption lines, one on the border of the green and blue part of the spectrum, and one further into the blue-violet part. The one on the green-blue border is the H-beta line. The other has not been verified yet. After observing the spectrum for a few minutes we also detected a dark line in the orange part of the spectrum. This first spectrum I have ever seen with my own eyes looked very interesting and promising. I will keep you updated.

3. T Lyrae, a really red (carbon) star

At 22.00 UT we had a look at T Lyrae, one of the reddest stars to observe. T Lyrae is an irregular variable carbon star, its magnitude ranging from 7.5 to 9.4. We centred the telescope on the area where T Lyrae should be, but didn’t recognize it at once. Only at higher magnifications the red color came out really good. You could see the red color at its best with a magnification of 200x. This star looks really red against a black sky. Be sure to put this one on your observing list!

4. Cygnus and some double stars

Around 22.30 UT I started to scan the constellation Cygnus with the big binoculars. The sky looked much darker than it usually does from our hometown (suburbs). We could see the seven stars in the little dipper, Eta UMi being the faintest with magnitude 4.95.

When I turned the sky window to the area around Gamma Cygni, I could see hundreds of stars in the 3.5-degree field of view. M 29 was very easy to detect, just 2 degrees south of Gamma. The star cloud between Gamma Cygnus and Albireo is one of my favourite objects for the big binoculars. It is stuffed with hundreds of stars of different magnitude and color. Albireo was clearly split with the 15x80 into a bright yellow and a faint white-blue component. Through the telescope the fainter star looked even more bluish.

Next on the list where Omicron 1 and 2, a pair of bright orange stars 1 degree wide. Omicron 1 also makes a beautiful visual triple with two other stars. One of the visual companions is bright blue and makes a great contrast with the orange colored Omicron 1. This is a fine object for binoculars, even for 7x50.

Last on my list was 61 Cygni. The two orange stars are only 29” apart, which is much closer than the two components of Albireo. However, they are separated much easier than Albireo because the two stars of 61 Cygni differ only 0.8 magnitude from each other.

my light-polluted backyard. We started of with M51 and NGC 5195 in Canes Venatici. Both the cores, and a part of the disk of M51 where visible with direct vision. With averted vision the beginning of a spiral arm could be detected. Next on the list was M3, a beautiful globular cluster, again in Canes Venatici. It was very easy to spot. Just move in a straight line from Arcturus to Alpha Canum Venaticorum. Just before you cover the distance half way, you should be able to spot M 3 through the finder as a faint smudge of light. The cluster was very well resolved, almost right to the middle, using a 7mm Nagler.

After M 3 we went for another globular cluster, the most spectacular for many observers on the northern hemisphere, M 13 in Hercules. This one really looked beautiful. Again with the 7mm Nagler, the globular cluster was almost resolved completely right into the core. There where several larger chains of stars visible, sticking out of the globular like “spider legs”. With my 8-inch, I only see a few of these spider legs under very good observing conditions (from my backyard). We ended our short observing session around 0:30 UT with M 57, the Ring Nebula in Lyra. What I noticed was the the area within the ring itself is sort of grey or white, but still appears slightly transparent. With my 8 inch I only see the ring itself.

For me it was the first time I could observe from my own backyard with a larger telescope. I hope to try it again under some better conditions in the next few months!