An exceptional Observe the Moon Night

Our First-Quarter Moon on International Observe the Moon Night, as seen through the Stephens telescope at 9:04 PM EDT. Iphone SE at eyepiece.

Stephens Memorial Observatory, Hiram College -- Our October 5 Open Night was the local event of the International Observe the Moon Night — an annual occurrence meant that encourages observation, appreciation, and understanding of our Moon and its connection to planetary science and exploration. Over the course of the night at Stephens Memorial Observatory some 34 happy and inquisitive visitors attended and were treated to beautiful and unusual views of Earth’s Moon and planet Saturn.

Unusual? The earliest visitors arrived just as the telescope was set to go … with the sky still bright with twilight. The Moon appeared light and against a power-blue sky background instead of the usual darkness of space. Saturn, invisible to the eye in the bright sky, was also viewed through the telescope in surprising detail. It was gratifying to be able to locate and view Saturn before dark and surprisingly, I was able to observe cloud bands on the planetary body and the Cassini Division within the ring system. This is only the second time I've viewed planets before dark -- the first was Jupiter which was located and offered for viewing by an astronomer friend using his own telescope. Saturn was pretty easy to find this night owing to how close it was to the Moon in the sky.

Zooming in on the previous image: That dot in the center of dark-floored crater Alphonsus is its central peak. Over the course of two hours sun rose over that pinnacle making it brighter, and other features began to emerge as we watched. Alphonsus slightly overlaps the crater Ptolemaeus.

After darkness fell enthusiastic visitors took turns looking at a crater and watching a mountain peak become illuminated at sunrise on the Moon! It was a fine night appreciating a sight too often ignored: the wonder of Luna, our nearest neighbor in space. After shutting down the observatory for the night I paused in the front yard and looked up. The sky was dark and clear of clouds that had occasionally played havoc with our viewing. Floating high overhead was a trace of light, a path across the sky... the Milky Way.

Return to astronomy

Half of the Perseus Double Cluster (NGC 869). September 19, 2019. Photo by James Guilford.

I suppose one cannot return to something one hasn't left. Some storm chasing kept me busy for much of the summer. Late twilight and heat kept me indoors most nights. Still, with weather settling down, cooler evenings, and sunset coming earlier I've been looking to further explore the night sky.

We live in a small city with big light pollution. The light dome over our area has grown steadily over the past decade and from our backyard most northern stars lower than Polaris are completely obliterated by artificial light. To the south, the view is probably similar to "suburban" light pollution levels which is to say, bad but not impossible.

Lately I've been using my new telescope in imaging experiments. This week, unlike earlier recent efforts, I was able to get the telescope mount aligned well which allowed its computer to find dim objects in our bright sky. I was able to visually observe Jupiter (with Great Red Spot front and center), Saturn, the M15 star cluster, the Perseus Double Cluster, the Ring Nebula in Lyra, and the Andromeda Galaxy.

Vixen VC200L on Meade LXD75 Computerized Mount - Waiting for Dark.

Attaching my Canon EOS 7D Mark 2 to the new Cassegrain reflector, I shot images of several deep sky objects. Vibration and tracking were issues, as was achieving camera focus. Working around those challenges as best I could, I made multiple images of the Ring Nebula (M57) and one of the clusters in the Perseus Double (NGC 869).

Looking at the camera's built-in LCD panel that night, I was astonished... I could see color in the Ring Nebula! Visual observers, using smallish telescopes, usually see no color in the Ring; film and electronic sensors readily collect enough photons to register color. Still, a very happy surprise to me! So I shot a series of prime focus images of the nebula. The Perseus Double was also visually attractive so I shot that as well. About 10 seconds for each of those. Efforts at shooting M15 failed: the telescope didn't track well enough to produce round stars in the exposure time set -- possibly too long an exposure. Efforts at the Andromeda Galaxy were okay with hints of the extensive star clouds showing in my images but much more photon collection will be needed to build an image.

The Ring Nebula (M57) in Lyra. Photo by James Guilford.

Astrophotography of deep space objects can be extremely technical. The learning curve on an excellent product like PixInsight is more like a cliff than a curve. I searched and found a software that is excellent for me at my relative beginner level -- Starry Sky Stacker (SSS). The SSS has the important basics for good astrophotography, and has an easy-to-learn image processing process with little frustration. So, to get started producing and learning, I used SSS to align, stack, and integrate the images for both NGC869 and M57 with results pleasing to me.

Over the coming weeks and longer, I'll be assembling more equipment and skills and with luck, by spring, will be producing decent space pictures beyond the Sun and Moon.

Images Recorded: September 19, 2019

Vixen’s First Light

It wasn’t much on ceremony but last night’s First Light for my new Vixen VC200L was a success. I think I’m going to get a lot of use and enjoyment out of this scope.

Vixen set up on the patio in 29°F night air, about to endure its First Light checkout.

After a bit of fussing with the Meade LXD-75 mount, I was able to align the mount and punched in the commands to aim at the Great Orion Nebula. Now, that choice for First Light may seem pedestrian but Orion was beautifully positioned, the seeing was only so-so, and heck, it’s a beautiful sight!

The scope swung obediently to the correct area and after a slight manual nudge to center it, M42 came into view. The view through the eyepiece was filled with ghostly fog, filaments and voids began to appear as my eye picked out the details. Nestled in the floss were the four brilliant stars of the Trapezium. As I mentioned earlier, seeing was but fair and light pollution made it all the worse so contrast between sky and nebula wasn’t high; still, given conditions, it was an impressive start.

I tried to find other deep sky objects but with no success. Lousy seeing seemed to be getting worse. So, though high overhead, I punched in my request to GoTo The Pleiades.

After a good bit of whining and whirring (the mount has never been quiet, some say it sounds like a kitchen blender) a few brilliant stars appeared in the eyepiece. Not what I was expecting while using a 25 mm eyepiece, I realized magnification was higher than I was used to — this scope has an 1,800 mm focal length. I’m going to have to get a longer focal length eyepiece or two if I want to see larger objects like The Seven Sisters or, for that matter, the Orion Nebula.

I did notice a touch of nebulosity around some of the brilliant stars of The Pleiades and I don’t recall ever seeing that before and I’ve looked at that star cluster frequently over many years. Thank you, Vixen!

The final effort of the night was to attach a camera to the telescope and try a quick first image through the new optics; that didn’t work. I’m not worried and will figure that out later.

For now, the VC200L provides a solid platform, beautiful imagery, in an easy-to-handle package. I’m looking forward to going out on a better night and enjoying a fresh look at the cosmos.

It seems to fit

Vixen VC200L on Meade's LXD-75 Go-To EQ Mount

So, it all fits together!

The new Vixen scope seems to get along just fine with my old Meade LXD-75 EQ mount. Getting the right counterweight balance is proving a bit tricky as the VC200L is so much lighter than the refractor and I've only two nine-pound counterweights --nothing lighter-- to fit on the mount. We'll make do. The motor drives seem to have no problem with the scope (again, it's lighter than the refractor) and the whole assembly seems to be more stable with the (yet again) lighter load. If the weather forecast comes to fruition, we'll go for First Light tonight! Right now it's partly cloudy but the blue sky that does show is hazy.

Something New has been Added!

My Beloved "Monster" Meade AR-6

Don't get me wrong, I love refractor telescopes! Since the time my grandfather gave me a 3-inch "spyglass" (actually, the best telescope I owned for a long time), to my 6-inch refractor "dream scope," I've only owned lens-type telescopes,

Thing is, my long-tube Meade 6-inch refracting scope is a monster: I love the contrast of the images it presents and it simply requires no maintenance. But setting it up and using it are difficult. For one thing, it's heavy, and hoisting it up to the top of its mount and securing it there is tricky. I haven't dropped it. Yet. Aligning the scope to known stars and even looking through the telescope at objects high in the sky are neck-aching tasks: as the lens points evermore skyward, the eyepiece lowers closer to the ground!

So, for some time, I've been considering a reflector. Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescopes (SCT) are probably the most popular configuration in serious amateur astronomy. But they are big, and they are heavy, and their "corrector plate" outer lenses are subject to significant dew issues. A Cassegrain telescope seemed to be the answer.

Oh boy! Something great arrived this morning. Annie's excited, too, can't you tell?

Right after Christmas 2018, in an act of blind optimism (optimistic our skies would eventually offer some cloudless nights) I ordered up my first reflector. It arrived today, January 2, 2019. I have high hopes!

Vixen VC200L - So Pretty

The highly-respected company Vixen Optics of Japan is the maker of my new 8-inch OTA. Cassegrain design does not include a corrector plate -- it's open at the skyward end of the optical tube which reduces weight and the dew-collection issue. The whole thing weighs in at 12 pounds!

I'll attach this scope on the big Meade's go-to mount and see how it goes.

Tomorrow night is predicted to be mostly clear of clouds; first light?

Not much to show for it but it was fun trying!

Quite frankly, 2018 was not a good year for my astronomy interests. So very many nights were cloudy. I don't know whether the clouds are the result of climate change or what but it seems to me we've had fewer and fewer clear nights as the last several years have passed. That and, perhaps a bit of laziness, has kept me from posting much here.

At any rate, we did have a clear night in December.

Star Chart for December 18, 2018, showing the position of Comet 46P

I'd been reading articles about Comet 46P/Wirtanen and how it was making one of the 10 closest comet flybys of Earth in 70 years "...the brightest comet of 2018." It certainly wasn't a spectacular, or even very prominent comet: bright, with a long glowing tail. Others' images showed a small, pretty, green glowing ball. Still, a comet's a comet and most of us don't get to see that many in a lifetime, so I thought I'd give it a try. The trouble was the weather. We, in Northeastern Ohio, have been experiencing an unusually long stretch of cloudy and overcast days and nights and the night of Wirtanen's close approach (Dec. 16/17) was no exception. The night of December 28, however, was to be clear but (there's always a but) the Moon would be bright and not far from the comet's position in the sky. You've gotta go with what you've got so I set up my ancient but solid Orion telescope mount managing very good polar alignment.

Camera will Piggyback on Telescope on Ancient Orion Mount with Simple Motor Drive

 
Piggybacking a big DSLR camera atop a telescope, I waited til 10 PM so that Wirtanen would be high overhead where the atmosphere is thinnest. The night was cold --about 24ºF-- but quiet. As feared, that Old Devil Moon had lit up the sky making dim celestial objects invisible. And waiting til my target was near the zenith may have made sense technically, aiming the camera straight up was literally a pain in the neck. Thank goodness the camera has an articulated LCD panel so I could examine results without having to twist my neck or move the camera.

Warp Speed? Er, Camera Zoom Lens Slipped During Exposure!

Starting out, I adjusted the camera settings so as to not overexpose due to lunar and terrestrial light pollution. It turns out those first two exposures were very useful. Then I blindly aimed the setup and shot about 10 exposures at wide angle. I re-aimed and shot 10 again. (For best results, astrophotographers often shoot more than 10 times that many exposures of the deep sky.) Then I tried zooming in, hoping greater magnification might isolate my quarry. I peeked at the camera's LCD panel for a preview. Oh. It looked like we had jumped to light-speed! The zoom lens, pointing straight up, had slowly slipped from around 85mm to 24mm during the multi-second exposure. It's a really good lens, a Canon L-Series, but I normally don't point it up like that. Gotta get myself an 85mm prime (non-zoom) lens. The lens did hold at 105mm so I shot a few exposures at that focal length. (Note: This post, written in December 2018 was added here after I purchased and received a new telescope. Interestingly, the OTA cost about the same and maybe a bit less than a high-quality 85mm lens!)

Orion’s Belt (Three Stars Near Top) and Sword with Glow of the Famous Nebula (Near Center)

 
Feeling I'd done what I could to record a comet invisible to my eyes, I aimed the camera at constellation Orion's belt and sword region now just above the trees, made a few exposures, and with cold fingers packed it in.

Riding the Telescope, the Camera’s View of the Sky. Think that’s a Comet in the Upper-Left?

As it turns out, I think I did image the comet but with all of the challenges and some inexperience at shooting "faint fuzzies," the results were less than impressive: a hint of a glowing ball is all I got of dear, departing Comet 46P. The camera recorded far more stars than I could see in the far-less-than-perfect sky.

Annotated. The Lens Flare looks Better than the Comet

I did get a fairly nice shot of Orion, which helped make the effort worthwhile.

Otherwise, not much to show for it but it was fun trying!