From Messier to Barsoom.

The Plough - Join the dots.

I set the telescope up at about 10.30 p.m. and waited for Mars to show its face from behind the trees at the end of the garden.

While waiting I trained the scope on to a few Messier objects around the Plough.

It would be the first time I had used this scope (305mm/f5) from my home location.

Here are some of the observations I made last night:

M-97 - The Owl Nebula. Stands out easily as a faint fuzzy patch!, though no doubt a darker sky background will add to the overall contrast.

M-108 - Easily spotted in the 30mm eyepiece (x50) plus M97 was spotted in the same field of view.

Move M108 to one side of the 30mm eyepiece field of view and you will find M97 at the other side of the field of view.

M-51- The Whirlpool Galaxy. Considering that the sky background was not totally dark the whirlpool was easily found.

Both fuzzy patches noted, with a hints of added surrounding nebulous detail.

After spending some time circling the Plough, I slewed the scope over towards Cygnus the Swan.

M-13 - This globular cluster in Hercules looked amazing, much brighter than in the Schmidt C8. With the 9mm eyepiece the cluster filled the field of view.

M-57 - The Ring Nebula in Lyra, stood out from the not yet dark background really well.

M-29 - OMG! the open cluster in Cygnus, filled the field of view through the 30mm eyepiece. Stars were spilling out everywhere. 

Helen hogged the eyepiece with this Messier object, I had to wait my turn to grab a view.

Mars was now well placed for viewing and so I grabbed my chance to observe before it took refuge in the big tall trees to the west.

Through the x2 Barlow and 9mm plossl (x333)  I was able to see slight martian surface detail.

Seeing wasn't up to much, but after inserting a 80a filter in the optical path, the planet was noticeably sharper looking and more detailed.

The blue tinge of the 80a filter made Mars look like an habitable planet.

I spent the next 10 minutes lost in thoughts of Barsoom, the world of John Carter and Dejah Thoris, Princess of Helium.

Actual sunset on Mars.

NASA have amazing pictures of the surface of Mars, click on this link to find more:

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_347.html

Yesterday was cloudy, windy at times, and spotting with rain, the Sun was nowhere to be seen for much of the day...!

I really was looking forward to visiting Cygnus with the Tal.

I wondered if I would be able to observe at all tonight.

The evening arrived, the clouds moved away, and a glorious summery evening was revealed.

By midnight the skies had darkened enough to get out there and observe.........

First on my list Albireo........

Albireo was the first double I ever viewed, back in 1979 with my 40mm Tasco table top refractor.

This double will always evoke fond memories.

Tonight though it was not shining with it's usual intensity, probably because of atmospheric turbulence.....

Sadr was next on the list, but as always, there are so many stars in this region that I was easily distracted.

I happily wandered of on a mini tour of our Galaxy with my 32mm eyepiece.

I then spotted a beautiful meteor......

It's radiant was close to Sadr and it made its way fairly slowly towards Ras Algethi.

It was at least of first magnitude, maybe slightly brighter, and golden in colour.

This event brought on a haiku:

Bright Meteor 
Racing across the night sky
But a speck of dust....

M13 next.... the 25mm plossl displayed it easily .
The view with my 8mm hinted at individual stars on the perimeter with averted vision.

M57 was easily found with the 25mm. The 8mm didn't  give any more detail, as expected.

From M57 it was up to the Double Double Epsilon Lyrae.
The 8mm xcel and x2 barlow displayed lovely Airy discs on all four marble white stars, a fitting testament to the Tals mirror.

I like John Herschels' description of these discs:     ...the star is then seen (in favourable circumstances of tranquil atmosphere, uniform temperature, &c.) as a perfectly round, well-defined planetary disc, surrounded by two, three, or more alternately dark and bright rings, which, if examined attentively, are seen to be slightly coloured at their borders. They succeed each other nearly at equal intervals round the central disc....   * source at foot of this post

Gamma Delphinus was next, though tonight like Albireo it was slightly fuzzy and not at it's best.

M71 in Sagitta...  found it with the 25mm plossl, but it was fainter than usual, probably due to the light pollution from a nearby streetlight....

Vulpecula next and M27...I found it easily with the 25mm, and it was quite impressive with the 8mm.
The dumbell shape was slightly hinted..very slightly.

An interesting point was.... that with the 25mm eyepiece I could make the Dumbell disappear with direct vision...then make it reappear with averted vision..


It was getting late by now, so I decided to have one last look at Cygnus.

I spotted M56, it was barely a smudge in the 25mm plossl... a little bit more of flying over the Milky Way ..

Then it was time to pack up....

I spent another 10 minutes or so just lying on the observatory floor, looking up and just marvelling at it all.

As John Cage once said "Everyone is in the best seat"

Whilst spying the glorious heavens above tonight..it sure felt like it......


*   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airy_disk