Amalia
Reged: 10/16/04
Posts: 5165
|
|
Starting for an Observation Night
Thank you for accompanying me - I like spontaneity!
Now it's 23:45, if you fasten your seatbelts, we will race down to the
gas station shop and buy some food and fuel. I have studied
the internet weather maps: Even if it is raining here - Southern
Switzerland is cloudless tonight!
Later:
And really - coming out of the 17 km Gotthard road tunnel - stars!
A really dark site which I found out by reading the light pollution maps is
Val Bedretto (Bedretto Valley).
Around 150 kilometers and 2 hours later we park beside the Nufenen
Pass road at 2280 m over sea level. Not an ideal place, but these alpine
pass roads don't have much traffic during the night. So, if a car passes,
we just close our eyes.
After dressing the down jackets (it is 7° C = 44.6 F) and setup, we can
check the darkness of the sky.
********** *********** ************
Check the Sky:
I use to look at three points:
1. Ursa Minor - tonight, it seems I see a star which shows me that we
have a Limiting Magnitude of 6.
I check this with this chart of Ursa Minor:
|
Amalia
Reged: 10/16/04
Posts: 5165
|
|
2. The Andromeda Galaxy is very good visible.
3. And even the Triangulum Galaxy M33 is to be seen with averted vision -
so this is really a mag6+ sky!
********** *********** ************
Searching an Object:
Let's start with an easy one: M29.
I search M29, the open cluster in Cygnus, by first checking its position on a
sky chart. I make sure I memorize precisely the pattern of the constellation.
Check the sky, find out where the Swan is. Turn myself to get the right view.
Take my time.
When I am really sure to know the pattern, I search for the object on the
chart: M29 is near the central star of Cygnus, on its left side.
|
Amalia
Reged: 10/16/04
Posts: 5165
|
|
Now I draw a mental triangle, using the bright stars Sadr and Gienah and M29.
|
Amalia
Reged: 10/16/04
Posts: 5165
|
|
"I draw" this triangle in the sky now.
And point the Telrad at M 29.
Now when you watch through the finderscope you will see a incredible lot
of stars - confusing! Now where is M29? 
|
Amalia
Reged: 10/16/04
Posts: 5165
|
|
Some theory to help you:
Charles Messier was a comet hunter. He compiled his Messier catalogue
consisting of open clusters, globular clusters, galaxies, nebulaes and
planetary nebulaes - to avoid confonding the M - objects with comets!
So knowing this, and knowing he used quite small scopes - we can search
for M 29 again. Remember, M 29 appeared comet-like (fuzzy) to Messier.
Do you find it in the last picture?
Take a close look...
Maybe it helps if you clean your monitor  or set its brightness higher...
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Yes, it is this little comet-like fuzzy thing:
|
Amalia
Reged: 10/16/04
Posts: 5165
|
|
Now we center it and have a look at it through the eyepiece
at a very low magnification:
(of course it looks better as a real view than on this drawing!)
|
Amalia
Reged: 10/16/04
Posts: 5165
|
|
At a higher magnification:
|
Amalia
Reged: 10/16/04
Posts: 5165
|
|
Don't tell me you don't like it... 
Please, play with it!
And scan around and find out *why it is something special*.
I like its dark neighbourhood.
M 29 seems like an island in there.
I found two stars having a different colour than the others.
I turmed my head to all directions, standing on tiptoe,
to find the most pleasant view.
I looked for a picture in it - and found:
Somebody raising his arms, opening himself towards the sky!
The very famous observer S. J. O' Meara, observing with a 4" scope,
associates a whole scene into M 29 - including two crocodiles,
flamingos and the Everglades...
What do you see? Now comes the "Enjoy - Part!" 
********** *********** ************
Let's move to another star cluster: NGC 6633 in Ophiuchus.
In my compilation "Amalia's 200" I have rated it one star: *
This means it is a bright object - but not necessarily that it is
easy to be found...
Let's have a look at the chart:
|
Amalia
Reged: 10/16/04
Posts: 5165
|
|
Oh my! Is this complicated, isn't it? 
Honestly said: To find NGC 6633 took me around 5 - 10 minutes.
I fly around it like an eagle, watch it from this side, then from the other,
then again and again - and only when I am very sure about myself,
I point the telescope at the right point - and ZAAFFF!
First I start with deciding which is my starting point:
It will be the constellation Aquila.
So first I try to be very sure to recognize Aquila on the sky.
Again and again I compare the chart and the sky. Again and again.
When I am very sure about this, I draw a mental line. This time triangles
are not useful. This is the line:
|
Amalia
Reged: 10/16/04
Posts: 5165
|
|
Starting from the central Aquila star (delta Aquilae) drawing over to Alya of
Serpens Cauda - and the same distance again until NGC 6633. You see this?
Again and again I compare the chart and the sky, and again...
And now... Telrad... Zaffff!
What do I see in the finderscope?
|
Amalia
Reged: 10/16/04
Posts: 5165
|
|
Hmm... "Houston, we have a little..." 
Is NGC 6633 the right one or the left one? 
Now a quick look at the chart shows us that there is actually another star cluster
here: IC 4756. And NGC 6572 is also around... But NGC 6572 is a planetary
nebula, so a nonstellar object, so we can discard this one.
Ok, now the fun part: Changing magnification, looking after lines, pictures,
ideas...
IC 4665 is huge. It fills nearly all of my 1.7 degree widefield eyepiece.
Four brighter stars form a trapez at its border. At one corner there is an
interesting triangle of brighter stars. At the very center I see some very
tiny faint stars - cute!
And so on and so on - have a look yourself!
NGC 6633 is smaller. At one side it shows a chump of small stars.
I read about a "W" but I can't find it. Not at all.
But I find an interesting asterism which, I think, does not belong to NGC 6663.
It looks like two symmetrical bows. This looks like... confidence... to me.
********** *********** ************
Do you prefer Telrad charts for finding sky objects?
So I have a good solution for you. Why don't you get this:
(or draw one yourself according to the scale of your star atlas and copy it
on an overhead transparency)
|
Amalia
Reged: 10/16/04
Posts: 5165
|
|
So you can lay this on your star atlas page and you see the Telrad circles.
Good, what? 
********** *********** ************
Now we have a look at M31, the Andromeda Galaxy! 
M31 is a real good test for the darkness of your sky, you know.
With an 8" scope at a light-polluted site it can look like this:
|
Amalia
Reged: 10/16/04
Posts: 5165
|
|
Or under a really dark sky, like here, near the Nufenen Pass:
(slightly less structured - computer problem - but do you see the
dark lane in the foreground? )
|
Amalia
Reged: 10/16/04
Posts: 5165
|
|
So driving to a really dark site is not only something for purists - there
can be such a huge difference! A dark site "gives you a big scope"!
********** *********** ************
Now I tell you about "averted vision". This is a technique we use to see
more on faint objects. If you want to know *why* it works, try googling.
I know it more or less but here I want to show you how to do it.
(Actually I am so familiar with it, I have to concentrate to be aware if I
am using it or not).
Averted vision is to watch an object by watching slightly beside it.
That's it!
Look, this is about the difference this can mean:
|
Amalia
Reged: 10/16/04
Posts: 5165
|
|
It is normal to change between normal vision and averted vision when
watching an object.
Now, after you have tried how this works and have got used to it, you
can make it work even better by finding out *where exactly* you shall
watch. Our eyes have not everywhere the same sensitivity.
Let's imagine a watch, a normal one with a circle and watch hands.
In the very center of our imaginary watch you should have a *real* deep
sky object in your *real* eyepiece, like a galaxy etc. - or a globular cluster:
|
Amalia
Reged: 10/16/04
Posts: 5165
|
|
Try to find out (under the sky... it does not work with this picture ) where
you have to look to get the best view.
No joke!
I observe with my left eye, and my best direction is between 3 and 5 o' clock.
I see the maximum there, when I use averted vision.
********** *********** ************
And now we go to the double stars.
Let's move to gamma Delphini. Easily found, I guess.
Delphinus is a good constellation to visit in order to understand the
"relation or unrelation" between Telrad, finderscope and telescope,
depending on your equipment, since they can show different orientations.
Gamma Delphinus seems a single star in the finderscope, but in the
eyepiece we see two close stars. Both white.
Really?
Try to slightly unfocus, in order to make the stars get unsharp but bigger.
Now you can see the colours better!
I see them yellow and bluish.
But if I observe with my right eye, they get slightly orange and blue-green.
Strange, what?
The left and right eyes of most people don't show the exactly same colours.
Televue eyepieces show the same effect to me. They tend "on the yellow - red
side", which makes the star views beautiful - and for double stars I like this
effect, as it gives me one more possibility to play. Both my Panoptic and my
Radian show this. As most of my other eyepieces are more neutral, so by
changing eyepieces I get even more colours on double stars.
You can try the same with other double stars - like on the wellknown beauty Albireo.
I tried myself to observe Albireo:
Left eye: yellow - sapphirblue
Right eye (or left eye with TV eyepiece): gold - blue
I forgot to try my right eye with the TV eyepiece, hmm.
So, you see, there is such a lot to try out and to play with.
This shows more or less how I saw gamma Delphini:
|
Amalia
Reged: 10/16/04
Posts: 5165
|
|
Now it is 5 o'clock near the Nufenen Pass, rather cold and windy at this altitude,
still at 2280 m over sea level, and of course we have also observed globular
cluster M2, galaxy NGC 253, the beautiful galaxy M 33, faint globular NGC 6934,
had some fun comparing two eyepieces and eating Swiss chocolate 
Here a picture of AMO (Amalia Mobile Observatory) near Nufenen Pass:
|
Amalia
Reged: 10/16/04
Posts: 5165
|
|
Here the office of AMO:
"Eyepieces are a girl's best friends."
|
Amalia
Reged: 10/16/04
Posts: 5165
|
|
Thank you for being with me during this wonderful observation night! 
Time to drive home - I hope you don't mind listening to the Rolling Stones!
Amalia
--------------------
|
Matthew E
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 01/24/04
Posts: 925
Loc: Whitby, Ontario, Canada
|
|
Wow, that was a great post, i dont think i ever read a longer post and stay interested in it as much as i enjoyed yours!
Thank you very much Amalia.
--------------------
NexStar 114GT
NewStar 10” Dob with Moonlite CR-1
Short Tube 80mm
6mm Radian
14mm Radian
Celestron Ultima Barlow
Celestron NexImage - on order.
Durham Region Astronomical Association
Royal Astronomical Society of Canada - Toronto
|
Previous
Index
Next
Threaded
Edit
Reply
Quote
[Re: 