Telescope Reviews: Do I C 342?

If so, this is the time of year to see it.

Again last night, I went out very late. I was stumbling around in the dark at 2:00 AM to gather up my gear and get outside for an unplanned viewing session. Having been dark adapted for about an hour when I stepped out within the first 2 minutes I could easily see both mag 5.4 stars on my Delphinus chart, and several times I saw mag 5.7 averted. Ahh, the nights of August. Some of the best viewing of the year.

A few trips in and out and I had the BT100 all set up out back. I grabbed the 16x70s, but couldn't find all the parts to mount (QR plate and L bracket), and the 25x100s were standing there all mounted and ready to go, so they came out instead.

First was North America nebula in the 25x100s. Fairly easy to find and I could see the brighter portions. And then I took a quick look at the faint cluster 6940, easily saw 30-40 stars. This cluster reminds me of 7789 in Cas. But then I carried the 25x100s out back near the BT100 and settled in.

Once all set up, I scoped a few easier items. M33 was found quickly. I could see the fainter extensions toward the outer edges with a very much brighter center spot. Nearby Mesartim was a quick double. Noticed focus was slightly out, so adjusted a bit. Slight flares on bright stars were reduced with better focus. The night was looking good, so I moved the 25x100s over to see if I could find M74.

Needed my charts to search for M74. Re recent discussions about charts, my trusty field notebook is a 3 ring binder of all photocopies from my SA2000 charts. This chart photocopy notebook is a necessity for me. At first I was looking at the wrong spot, several tries before I realized the scale of my field of view. Once I got that sorted out, I spotted it. M74 was never in constant view, but with averted vision, or scanning over it, it would pop into view. I kept the 25x100s on this for a long time. This is only maybe the 3rd or 4th night I've ever seen M74. Saw it atleast a dozen times.

Some easy stuff first with the BT100. The Double Cluster was naked eye. The BT had the 14mm radians, and at 44x, the DC looks outstanding covering the entire field of view. But I needed to change eyepieces. I got the 26 TV plossls focused in the BT. That gives me 24x and the biggest exit pupil I can get out of my BT. Skipped over all the busy work in this area (see last week's observing post) and quickly hopped my way over to Kemble's Cascade.

I was thinking the SA2000 charts might fall a little short here, so I went back inside and grabbed my Uranometria 2000. I wanted to make sure I could zero in on the exact spot to locate IC342. The deeper detail in U2000 assured me I was on the right spot. I even narrowed down the area to a small portion of my field of view. I was dead on the spot. Would this be the night?

Throughout the night, I was beginning to think how bright it was outside. My son's black cat, Shadow, often joins me outside for these late night sessions. He visits about every ten minutes, I can tell by the bump when he rubs up against the tripod leg. Last night he decided to lay on the table, right on top of my charts! I could see Shadow 20 feet away. I needed to cover my eyes at the eyepieces to block out all the skylight. And this was a mag 5.7-5.4 sky!

For the next hour, I went back and forth between binocs. I saw M74 several more times before I moved the 25x100s away for some other easier objects. But for the rest of the night I kept the BT100s (23.8x100) centered on IC342. It was nice to have the altitude slow motion control on the BT100 mount. IC342 was rising almost straight up and it was easy to follow. I could draw a sketch now of the mag 10-11 star pattern surrounding this galaxy.

I scanned my eyes over this 2° fov many times, knowing my object was right in the center. I noticed I was catching M74 in my averted vision when it was placed just off center towards the 1 oclock position. I moved the BT so I had IC342 in the same position.

Numerous times I thought my averted vision picked up an ever-so-faint brighteneing in this area. Once or twice I even thought it looked the same way it looks when you catch a very faint cluster in averted vision. The background sort of looks brighter, but when you look right at it, it's not there. That's how it went for the next hour. Ahh, I think that's it! But then, Oh, where is that, now I can't see it.

When I did suspect something, it was larger than M74. It was so spread out, it didn't concentrate in any one spot. But once again, I felt I could not confirm it was there. Oh, I know it's there, but I just could not confirm it. For instance, on M74, I would see it averteed, and I would pass over it and catch it several times in a row. I would say I could see M74 for 5-10 seconds out of each minute spent at the eyepieces. For IC342, I would have to say I thought I could just glimpse it for a moment out of every several minutes, and not even every time I tried. I need a stronger confirmation than that to say, I C 342.

It was getting on to about 4AM, and I noticed it was getting more difficult to see. I think the sky was getting brighter. A few times I tried and could not pick out mag 5.4 stars.

I tried a few more targets before I packed it in. With the 25x100s, I tried for the California nebula, but didn't see it. A few clusters, in Perseus, 1502, 1528, 1545, 1513. Then between Perseus and Auriga, 1582 and 1664. All seen, 1513 and 1664 were the faintest. M45 came up over the treetops while I was busy. I finished off the night by looking for a few deep stars. I saw "little orion" and spotted B21 and B26 (my charts) for a faintest star at mag 11.5. That was going to do it for the night. It was now 4:30 and the sky was noticably brighter. I considered it a good night and packed it in.

edz

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Teach a kid something today. The feeling you'll get is one of life's greatest rewards.
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