Observation reports - Kerridge ...

Reading about other people's experiences at the eyepiece of a telescope often inspires us to view the glory of the night sky. Go forth and explore ...!

Remember, don't forget to send your observing reports to observations@maccastro.com.

09/10/04 - Observing report

On Thursday 7 October I had to travel to a conference in Newcastle by train from Manchester Oxford Road. I arrived early in central Manchester and decided to walk across the city from Victoria Station to Oxford Road Station (I live in Prestwich). To my surprise, despite the glare of the street lights and the light pollution of the city, as I walked through Exchange Square I could clearly see Venus shining brightly and the waning crescent of the moon neatly framed around the Arndale Centre tower. The time was 06:25 and it was slowly beginning to get light. Later that week I would also be able to see the disc of Venus in full daylight on a bright sunny day through my ETX 90. This was the first time I had seen Venus since observing the Transit from Egypt earlier in the year.

Andrew and I had originally arranged to go to Scotland for the weekend of 9 - 10 October (we had been invited to a star party near Brig o' Balgie) but unfortunately we had to pull out at the last minute due to some overcomplicated logistics in getting to the remote observing site. After an attempt to set up a last minute trip to Hardraw also fell through - and still determined - we planned on some observing at Langley cricket ground preceded by some solar observing (with Andrew's new Coronado Personal Solar Telescope) at Kerridge.

We undertook the solar observing in Andrew's back garden on Saturday afternoon and Andrew again managed to successfully take some photographs using my Nikon Coolpix 4500 via a Scopetronic adaptor attached to the 26mm Meade eyepiece. The Sun displayed a superb large prominence on the upper left edge (as viewed through the scope's orientation) which showed an alternating thin and wide strip like a ribbon writhing and twisting in profile from the 8 o'clock to the 10 o'clock position. The Hydrogen-Alpha tuner brought this side into view whilst the smaller prominences on the opposite side of the disc remained out of view. It is sometimes easy to forget when observing that we are in fact looking at three dimensional objects and that although these prominences were in profile they were at different spacial distances relative to the edge curvature of the Sun's disc. Andrew also reminded me that the large prominence we were observing was so large in scale that dozens of planet earth size objects could easily fit within that ribbon (and be instantly vaporised!)

Late afternoon on Saturday and we were blessed with an almost completely clear sky - therefore it was with high spirits that we set off for an early evening meal at Andrew's favourite pizza establishment in Macclesfield. Needless to say by the time we left the restaurant the sky had completely clouded over. Despite this we decided to load up all the equipment into my car and head for the observing site at Langley cricket ground. For once I'd made a tremendous effort and brought every kind of optical device I had at my disposal down to Kerridge - determined to do some serious observing. I'd even remembered to bring the bracket which connects my binoculars to one of my photographic tripods. Andrew's brand new 8 inch Orion OTA was also carefully secured into the back of my car. (Andrew had only just collected this scope from Crewe earlier in the day - it was a replacement for the one I had accidentally demolished during the last Hardraw trip!)

We waited in vain for clear sky at Langley for an hour and forty-five minutes. Layers of thick grey cloud seemed to swirl ominously around Teggs Nose and shroud the entire sky like the 'Industrial Light and Magic' cloud effects in Poltergeist, Close Encounters and ET. The cloud cover seemed to reflect the light pollution down to the ground and so it was far from completely dark. Not a single star was visible and to add to our woes it even started raining. Jason and Zee arrived at about 22:00 and we chatted with good humour despite the cloudy sky for an entire hour before finally giving up and returning home. Andrew set his alarm for 03:00 and again for 04:00 but it remained cloudy throughout the night. At breakfast Andrew told me he'd spent 20 minutes during these early hours updating the Macc Astro website - such dedication!

Sunday at Kerridge dawned as another glorious October day, breezy and bright with large areas of blue sky appearing between swiftly moving billowy white clouds.

To test the accuracy of the ETX (I've still not really had a chance to give this telescope a through shakedown) we decided to see if the computer controller could accurately locate Venus in daylight. Carefully we levelled and positioned the telescope and set it tracking having made the assumption that it was accurately locked on the two stars the computer needs to be able to calculate its 'go-to' commands (even though we could not of course see them in daylight).

At approx 11:50 on Sunday we saw the disc of Venus in the eyepiece. It looked like a small shiny shard of glass suspended in the bright sky. The phase could be seen clearly in my 26 mm eyepiece. We attempted for a short period of time to see if we could spot this planet with the naked eye - but neither of us managed this 'Steven James O'Meara' feat.

Shortly after finding Venus in the ETX we decided to see if we could spot the nearby waning crescent moon with the naked eye. Andrew of course spotted it first and tried to describe to me carefully where it was - look as I might I could not spot it - and then suddenly I saw it - I had been looking too low and I was immediately struck by the strangest of effects - for it seemed to me for several seconds to be hurling at speed diagonally towards the sun - it took a while for my brain to adjust and realise that in fact the clouds were being blown in the wind far faster than I had originally anticipated (with no fixed point of reference) and the moon of course was relatively static. The waning crescent of the moon was becoming incredibly fine and the edge was barely brighter than than the background sky. However, looking through the ETX in the 26 mm eye piece I could clearly see crater details.

I also spent a little time again looking at the sun in Hydrogen-Alpha light through Andrew's PST scope - but Saturday's large prominence was now less impressive and by now had moved around to the lower left of the Sun's disk to the 7 o'clock position. It did however now seem to show a large detached section - whether this was the effect of the edge-on effect of part of the 'twisted ribbon' I could not determine.

At approximately 13:00 we decided to use the computer controller of the ETX to search for Jupiter to see if we could spot this object in full daylight. At first I could not see it and I wondered if I ever would - Andrew chided me for being my usual impatient self - but I did persevere and suddenly I spotted it ! - very faint but a definite distinct disc only slightly lighter in tone than the background sky - it was hard to see because it was much closer than Venus to the bright sunlight and of lower apparent magnitude. Again this was using the 26mm eyepiece, Andrew tried a higher powered eyepiece but we lost the image.

Despite the lack of night time observing I can honestly say we had a great weekend and still managed to enjoy some very interesting observations.

Andrew W Huggett

01/02/03 - Observing Orion

One thing that I immediately noticed when I stepped outside was the position of Orion. It has moved so far over to the West since we last observed it (at the Red Lion a month ago)! I fear winter will soon be over and The Hunter will be sinking below the horizon for another 6 months.

I at least managed to image M42 and also the Horsehead and Flame nebula. Hopefully I'll have a range of exposures that will allow me to digitally combine them to produce something that I can be proud of ... You know, it's taken me 4 years to get around to taking some detailed pictures of the Orion nebula and I still don't think I've devoted enough imaging time to it!

At the same time as taking the astro images (I can multi-task!), I also observed M42. I can honestly say that I have never seen so much detail as I did on Thursday night. It has to be said that I was using a 10" Dobsonian (being kindly lent to me by SBTC) and a 2" 42mm eyepiece, so this may have something to do with the stunning view. But I have to say that the best image wasn't given by the 2" ocular, but my trusty 20mm Televue 1.25" eyepiece.

I seen lots of detail around the Trapezium and the surrounding area on many occasions, but this time I could see considerable detail in the 'shell' of the nebula - well beyond the Trapezium stars. I was blown away by it - and this wasn't at Langley, but at home in my garden!

I suspect a secret of this (don't tell anyone else will you - you never know who else might be reading this) is the way I observed the nebula. Everyone knows that you need to use averted vision to get the best view of faint objects, but I've never heard anyone suggest alternative ways of looking at objects. I can only describe it by saying I looked 'through' or 'behind' M42. Do you remember posters which could be bought that were essentially a random pattern, and to see the 3-Dimensional image you had to look through them? Yes? Well this is kind of the method I used. Next time you are observing try it - you might be surprised at what you see!

The rest of the night I unsuccessfully tried to chase down faint, obscure nebula in Auriga and the upper boundaries of Orion. I did however stumble across M35 whilst I was sweeping around with the Dobsonian. It's been a while since I have seen it and I thoroughly recommend you track it down - it's definitely worthy of a 'Wow!'.

Andrew Greenwood

01/04/02 - Ikeya-Zhang

I hope that more than just myself had chance to look at the comet tonight. It was definitely the best I've seen it over the last 7 days. I guess that's because of the lack of moonlight and the fact that a cold front has recently passed over ... The sky appeared to be very transparent.

Both myself and Rebecca believe that the tail is approx. 4 degrees long. To me there's a hint of a split into two halves and the appearance that the tail is no longer straight, but slightly curved. Given that I could see more than I have of late, my feeling is that this comet might, *just might* not be observing the 'power law'. This law generally states that once past perihelion, a comet starts to fade. However, it's my feeling that it has brightened a little and I now place it at around mag. 3.5-3.6. Of course, it could just be that with the absence of Lunar interference it now *appears* to be brighter. I'd appreciate other peoples point-of-view on my estimates.

I did notice that 5-ish degrees to the right of I-Z, lies M31. There'll be an exquisite conjunction of the Great Andromeda galaxy and the comet on April 4, when they'll only be separated by 1.5 degrees ... Cameras at the ready everyone!

Talking of cameras, I've sent my first exposures of I-Z for developing today - 24 frames in all. Fingers crossed, I hope to have one or two reasonable images.

Andrew Greenwood

27/03/02 - Ikeya-Zhang

Thank you to all that participated in today's clear sky voodoo dance - it worked! I managed set up my equipment and snatched Ikeya-Zhang out of the sky at around 1915-ish.

What a lovely object. It looks so different that when I saw it two weeks ago. Instead of sporting a thin 5 degree tail and the two nuclei jets, it now has more or less a 3.5 degree tail much wider than before (almost fan-like) with no real distinguishable jets through my 15x binoculars. It still has its attractive turquoise-blue hue, noticeable even though it is currently being subjected to full moonlight and longer twilight.

I was able to make 16 exposures on 200 ASA transparency film (blue-sensitive Fuji Sensia II), from 1 to 6 minutes using a 135mm and 270mm lens. I suspect that only the 1 and 2 minute exposures will be useful due to the lightness of the sky. At 2020, I decided to return inside for dinner, leaving my GPDX mount tracking the comet. I returned to the camera at 2125 to find it still in view, but much fainter as it has sunk into the all-pervading light pollution of Stockport and Manchester.

All in all a very useful observing session. Here's to a few more in the company of Ikeya-Zhang ...!

Andrew Greenwood

14/12/01 - Observing the Geminids

Picture this ... December 13 2001 at the French Brasserie in Wilmslow, enjoying a thoroughly good Christmas meal and copious amounts of red wine (Flat Rock - Californian, definitely worth seeking out) with my work colleagues. Sounds good? It was!

Now picture this ... Arriving back home at gone one o'clock in the morning on the 14th, feeling a little worse for wear and deciding to set my alarm clock for 0400. Had I gone completely potty?! No, not as far as I was concerned, because even though it was raining, the weather forecast for later that night was for clear skies. The combination of a starry sky and 14 December is significant – it’s the peak of the Geminid meteor shower and from previous experience, this display is certainly not worth missing. The Geminid meteors are a joy to watch because they enter the Earth’s atmosphere at 35 km/sec, which is relatively slow in meteoric terms, so they gracefully traverse the sky sporting bright, attractive yellow tails as they go.

Anyway, come 0400 when my alarm rudely awoke me, I was feeling more than a little de-hydrated (yes, I know you can relate to this!). Still, I crawled out of bed and drew one of my bedroom window blinds and was immediately greeted by a Geminid streaking across the sky to the North.

This was nice to see, but I then entered into decision mode … ‘Hmmm, meteors and freezing conditions, or sleep and warm bed …?’ Believe me, I was verging on the warm bed scenario until a very bright Geminid shooting towards the NorthWest quickly made me decide otherwise.

At 0425 I was outside looking very much like the Michelin Man dressed in umpteen layers of clothing, aligning my Vixen GPDX mount ready for capturing meteors on film. By 0445 I was ready to observe and image. I settled down and watched, the first Geminid to appear was in the West, so I quickly pointed my camera in the same direction and opened the shutter. Patiently I waited for more activity in the West, but no, it was all happening around the Zenith, between Ursa Major and Leo. I soon felt I might be playing cat and mouse all over the sky trying to snare one of these fleeting streaks of light … For my sake, I hoped no-one was watching!

I decided I would simply point at the Zenith and hope for the best. It was a good place to choose as some really lovely meteors were making me ‘oooh, ahhh and YES!’ Whilst making an exposure, I saw a bright yellow Geminid streak through Ursa major, quickly followed by a dazzling pure white sporadic meteor flying by Virgo and Leo. Double ‘YES!’. The contrast in colour between the two was very apparent, with the latter leaving an ionized train for a couple of seconds in the upper atmosphere. Later on, I saw one other sporadic of similar brightness taking the same route through Leo, so I wondered if this could have been an active minor shower? Unfortunately, I can find no record of anything that would point to this possibility. Sheer coincidence, it seems.

Once I had used-up all the exposures on my film, I could concentrate on just looking for Geminids. The number of meteors I recorded soon climbed. I decided I would only observe for one and-a-half hours, and as I approached 60 minutes worth of observation time (0545) my count had reached just under 50, including 5 sporadics.

The best was yet to come. At 0600, a stunningly beautiful Geminid, at least magnitude –3 (measured in relation to Jupiter at mag. -2.5), travelled from the radiant in a Southerly direction. It appeared to be moving in slow motion, gathering brightness as it did and once extinguished, had left a glowing train lasting 3-4 seconds. Wow, that was worth getting up for! Just having mentioned the radiant has brought something to mind; I have always noted that of all the showers I have observed, it is only the Geminids that I can ever recall seeing meteors appear directly from the radiant. Has anyone else noted this I wonder?

A little after the previous event was a burst of three meteors all appearing within one second, streaking Eastward. Another ‘Wow!’. This made me think of what might have been if we had been fortunate enough to see the mighty Leonids ‘storming’ on November 18th.

Soon enough, 0615 had arrived and my 90 minutes were up. How many Geminids had I seen in total? Sixty-nine – a very worthwhile observing session. Did I manage to capture any meteors on film? Nope, not a single one. I think I need an all-sky camera …

Andrew Greenwood

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