Sky Atlas Observing Logbook

22-23.11.2011 - Sky Atlas work from Tenerife

2011-11-28T19:13:00.001+02:00

So once again I had left the cloudy and humid Finland behind. This time the place was nearly exactly the same as back in 2004 - Canary Islands and namely Tenerife. It was time to do some proper Sky Atlas work for once and I had selected pages 18 and 23 for the job. This meant observing galaxies and lot of them mostly from Piscis Austrinus, Sculptor, Eridanus and Fornax.

Aaah... the great outdoors.

The caldera of Las Cañadas - roughly at an altitude of 2000 meters (~6500 feet) - offers your average European amateur astronomer a great place to observe. The caldera is easy to access no matter where you stay in the island as long as you have a car (and don't want to stay at the Parador hotel or want to do some chest hair growing camping). Humidity and sky conditions in general are almost great and even the temperatures stay at relatively high at all times. Granted, at the time of mass tourism (which also has destroyed most of the island by now) it is impossible not to notice light pollution in a place that is the most populated island (over 900 000 residents) in Spain and only a bit larger than 2000 km² in size. Good luck trying to dodge British, German and even Finnish (and often quite drunken and old) tourists during your stay. It is especially important to do so during the night when cars tend to pass the few roads off the caldera and quite often spoil your night vision if you aren't careful. It is also important to dress up warmly (duh!), mind the windy regions and be prepared for fast moving clouds even during the night.

View to the east showing the light dome of Santa Cruz

So the place isn't La Palma great, so what? I had the pleasure of spending two nights observing the vast region between Grus and Eridanus with pretty good success: I made roughly 50 sketches during that time. The night sky wasn't quite as dark as I had hoped and remembered but the altitude made up whatever the sky was missing in darkness. Despite what you might have heard or read of the night sky in the higher peaks of Tenerife, not all of it is true. The naked eye limiting magnitude generally reported by observers such as Brazell (DSO Issue 141) and Dr. Moore (Journal of the British Astronomical Association, vol.117, no.1, p.44-45) are suprisingly low as the typically reported NELM can be even as poor as 6.0! In reality, an observer with sharp, trained vision should reach at least 7.1 on a typical night and even more when the sea of clouds blocks the light pollution. Hell, if the NELM in Tenerife, at an altitude of 6500 feet was 6.0 who'd even want to go up there for such horrible skies? Nobody, I'll tell you that. In the modern age of SQMs it is a lot easier just to say SQM-L readings I got off the Boca Tauce region were those of 21.10 - 21.30 and at the same time reaching naked eye limiting magnitude of 7.2 from Pisces close to zenith. And all and all, don't believe what others say - go find out like Lt. Jean Rasczak said in Starship Troopers.

Avoid goofy looking tourists at any cost...

So as said before, I selected an observing site close to the road, behind some thick bushes (that didn't smell like pee pee) to do some observing at an altitude of 2034 meters (6673 feet). The shrubbery made sure I wasn't blinded by upcoming cars and gave me some shelter from the nonexistent winds. During the night, the humidity dropped below 20% as my weather station constantly showed "low%" in the display. Temperatures too dropped below zero but it wasn't really that cold. The first night had some thin cirrus passing in the sky but it disappeared quite quickly after night fall. The second night was clear and good.

Some of the more memorable views were those of brighter galaxies. I enjoyed the mottled structure of NGC 7793 and the curious view of NGC 55 appearing behind the mountain. IC 1613 was visible as an elongated galaxy with a mottled patch (HII region) visible on the NE side. Both Sculptor and Fornax dwarfs were re-observed. Once I get all the sketches sorted out and scanned I'll add some here as well as you can see the full list of objects observed directly from here. As with the California/Arizona updates... patience is needed. I'm really swamped now so it will take some time to get them all sorted out.

Sky Atlas work from California and Arizona

2011-09-10T12:12:00.000+03:00

Safe to say, I got some Sky Atlas work done on my two and half week trip to the Unites States. In many cases, such as with Sagittarius and Scorpius, I used more accurate, printed maps of Uranometria at the telescope instead of the Sky Atlas ones. Often when observing from Sedona, Sky Atlas simply didn't go deep enough to spot certain just within the limit of visibility (or simply faint) galaxies. This is when Uranometria came in handy. Still, when the sky is top notch, Sky Atlas will do just fine. I still vividly remember logging 200+ galaxies from La Palma (2008) and there not being a single galaxy in Sky Atlas I could not see!

As you probably can see from the sketches, for practical reasons I could not bring my trusty old 4.7" "Pepe" to the picture. I was originally meant to have a Orion StarBlast 4.5, courtesy of my friend Stephen Waldee, but the plan fell through. I was left with basically two options: telescope or no telescope. So for $240 (~175€) I ordered myself an Orion SkyQuest XT4.5 "Cuddles" from the Orion store in California and it would serve me as the primary observing telescope during my trip. The telescope wasn't quite as good as the 4.7 inch refractor but oh, was it so cute and cuddly (hence the nickname)! Weighting only roughly 8 kilos, it was easy to carry around with one hand and observe while simply sitting on the ground.

I didn't observe anything much noteworthy with the XT 4.5. I managed to nail the Sculptor and Fornax dwarfs (for my upcoming article "Dwarf galaxies of the Milky Way"), IC 1613 and NGC 6822 that can be seen as "out of the suburban observing site" category. Long story short (the longer version you can read from the Breath on a Mirror-blog), I sketched roughly 85 objects listed in the Sky Atlas mostly from Sagittarius and Scorpius - things I cannot see from home. They will all be listed in the "Sky Atlas 2000.0 sketches" link visible on the right column. I will add the sketches in the upcoming weeks (read months) as I get them scanned.

22-25.4.2011 - Easter observing (Part 3)

2011-04-26T16:26:00.053+03:00

Obs. place: Tottijärvi, Nokia, Finland (84 meters / 275 feet)
Date: 24./25.4.2011
NE Lim.mag: 6.8^m (zenith)
SQM-L: 21.10 (zenith)
Background sky: 6 (good)
Seeing: 8 (excellent)
Transparency: 6 (good)
Weather: +8 - 7°C, 1027 hPa, humidity rising...

The third night of observing was the worst. It was starting to get obvious that it would be a good time to end the season. The sun's glow started to become quite noticeable and it started to have a bad impact on background brightness. Even though M13 was fairly easily visible with the naked eye, it could be sensed that it wouldn't be so for very long. I also failed to see M3 with the naked eye despite the fairly high NELM.

NGC 2403 was beautiful and bright enough to be visible in the 6x30 finder. The low surface brightness made me go easy on this one and using 89x I could just spot brighter area NW of the barely brighter core. This is the brightest spiral arm in the galaxy but I could only see the brightest part of it. I did get a sense of it going towards NGC 2404 but the view was simply too faint for anything definite. Hitting higher magnification had one advantage: I could see several stars within the galaxy's halo that I included in to the lower power sketch. One of these stars is in fact the brightest HII region of the galaxy: NGC 2404. For me, this is the second easiest HII region in the northern hemisphere right after NGC 604. Telescopically NGC 2404 looked like a slightly fuzzy star and with even higher magnification it was clearly an elliptical blob.

NGC 2403 with 4.3 inch Tal-1 @ 134x

From NGC 2403 I moved to the faint galaxy UGC 4305 (Holmberg II) that wasn't too difficult to pick out as a faint nebula inside and west of a trio of 11-13th magnitude stars. It did indeed look a bit like a reflection nebula like described by Jere Kahanpää. After the faint galaxy it was time for another tour in Leo. The M65, M66 and NGC 3628 trio looked good. I concentrated on M66 specifically. I had little trouble seeing the massive spiral arm SW from the core and the mottled face of the galaxy. This galaxy seemed to be teeming with detail but at an altitude less than 30° I couldn't perceive anything concrete.

Some people got it, some don't. When it comes to sketching globular clusters I most certainly don't have it - whatever "it" is. Despite my gut telling me not to, I sketched M13. The only surprise came when I logged the cluster being clearly elliptical in NW-SE direction. The cluster contained several starless regions down to the very core, concentrations and several distinctive star chains. @ 134x M13 reminded me of a bug of some sorts with 5 legs and the "propeller" (which I somehow lost in the sketch!) was plainly visible in the east side of the globular. I tried to sketch the all the visible stars correctly but at some point I just had to give up. Sadly the sketch truly lacks the impact of the cluster like seen at the eyepiece but it feels like such a shame to discard a sketch you've worked on for an hour so here you go:

Messier 13 with 4.3 inch Tal-1 @ 178x (13')

In contrast, the ghostly NGC 5466 looked quite different:

NGC 5466 with 4.3 inch Tal-1 @ 178x (17')

The next session is 16(!) weeks away so it will be a long and cruel summer. Luckily the season will start with an observing in California and Arizona (19.8 - 5.9.2011) so lets hope for good skies and low temperatures!

22-25.4.2011 - Easter observing (Part 2)

2011-04-26T11:58:00.079+03:00

Obs. place: Tottijärvi, Nokia, Finland (84 meters / 275 feet)
Date: 23./24.4.2011
NE Lim.mag: 6.9^m (zenith)
SQM-L: 21.20 (zenith)
Background sky: 7 (good)
Seeing: 8 (excellent)
Transparency: 6 (good)
Weather: +4°C, 1026 hPa, humidity rising...

The second night was not quite as good as the first one with slightly decreased transparency but on flip side seeing was very good. Humidity was also a bit higher and you could feel it in the air before midnight. The stationary hydrometer showed 54% humidity but it is located in the balcony so I couldn't use it and left mine home to save space to fit more eyepieces in the backpack.

After midnight I started in Leo and with NGC 2903. I had little trouble seeing a part of the spiral structure under these good conditions: "A beautiful and a bright galaxy. Core is small, slightly elongated in N-S direction followed by a sharp bar running in SW-NE direction. Using 134x and averted vision, two small spiral stubs are visible N and S of the core. N arm is brighter and more defined while S arm is barely detectable".

NGC 2903 with 4.3 inch Tal-1 @ 134x

Continuing more to the east, I located NGC 3521. "Large NW-SE elongated galaxy. Nearly stellar core. Details difficult at least partly due to low altitude but some mottling can be discerned". Then quite quickly onwards to NGC 4725 in Coma Berenices. This galaxy is a fine object even in small apertures thus it was selected for the night. I described the galaxy as "yet another great galaxy with detail but takes a lot of time to confirm the detail. Round nucleus is surrounded by slightly NE-SW elongated halo with faint arc-like brightenings at the both edges, connected by a very faint bar visible at low power. Half a dozen stars embedded. Symmetrical and looks like a planetary nebula". Not many reports of bar can be found in literature or the internet. This makes me suspect my own perception of the object as I noted the bar only at a low magnification but not properly at high magnification. Also, an uneducated person might say this galaxy resembles a TIE Fighter but this of course looks like a TIE Advanced.

NGC 4725 with 4.3 inch Tal-1 @ 214x

First fail of the night came with M81. Despite my best efforts, I could not see even signs of the spiral structure. Messier 82 on the other hand was gorgeous with brightenings, dark bands and the typical irregularity in the shape that makes it so fine. The actual target in the region was the low surface brightness IC 2574 (Coddington's Nebula). Once again the galaxy was first picked up by the 21mm Hyperion as a slightly NE-SW elongated puff of nebulosity with several 13-14 magnitude stars in the vicinity. The best view came with 89x with the galaxy 3' x 2' in size and still visible with averted vision.

IC 2574 with 4.3 inch Tal-1 @ 107x

The second and final fail came shortly after IC 2574. In Cepheus lies one very challenging globular cluster Palomar 1. I aimed, gazed, stared but nothing! With the 21mm Hyperion (38x) I noted two nebulous patches in the field of view, close to the position of Pal 1. The first asterism contains 3 stars magnitudes 11.7, 12.6 and 13.4 with a total magnitude of 11.1 (v). The second one has 4 stars between magnitudes 12.5 and 14.8 coming down to a total magnitude of 11.4 (v). The faintest star in the field was ~14.8 (v) and yet Palomar 1 remained invisible. Maybe under better skies and higher magnification might the globular cluster be visible with telescopes of aperture 6 to 8 inches.

Negative observation of Palomar 1 with 4.3 inch Tal-1 @ 89x

22-25.4.2011 - Easter observing (Part 1)

2011-04-25T22:32:00.111+03:00

Obs. place: Tottijärvi, Nokia, Finland (84 meters / 275 feet)
Date: 22./23.4.2011
NE Lim.mag: 7.0^m (zenith)
SQM-L: 21.35 (zenith)
Background sky: 7 (good)
Seeing: 7 (good)
Transparency: 7 (good)
Weather: +7 - +2°C, 1024 hPa, slight breeze after 1 am.

What a better way to end the season than under dark skies in the idyllic scenery of lake Pyhäjärvi. The observing site is located only 22 kilometers (13 miles) from the beautiful town of Tampere (213 000 residents - being the 3rd largest city in Finland) so one can understand the place isn't light pollution free like Padasjoki. Still, the skies are amazing compared to home. And just in case you don't know, the place called Nokia is indeed the birthplace of the once mighty and famous communications corporation and mobile phone maker.

View of Lake Pyhäjärvi towards the east.

The only thing to worry about was the fact that no true darkness would no longer be available this time of the year. I'd have to do with astronomical darkness and the sun dipping slightly below -16° leaving a short possibility to observe between midnight and 3 am. This didn't really hinder the session useless since the NELM never dropped below 6.8 (under "darkness") and SQM-L measurements below 21. The observing session was bound to be good. It was time to put the little 11 cm (4.3 inch) Tal-1 back to work.

I started observing in twilight. I had a borrowed 8.5 cm (3 inch) 15-45x Nikon Spotting Scope with me and decided to give it a shot. Preasepe (M44) look especially beautiful and colorful through this little telescope @ 15x. The feeling was quite surreal with bright skies and birds singing all around me. I also had little trouble partly resolving M3 and M13 with this bird watching telescope when using 45x.

While the sky was getting darker, I started with M51 that was nearly at zenith; at an altitude of 75 degrees. I'm not a big fan of the object mostly because of the fact it is impossible for me to view the galaxy unbiased. Once you've seen the spiral structure with larger apertures, you know exactly what to expect and what you should see. With the companion galaxy in the same field of view, it is pretty impossible not to remember which way the arms go. This thought makes me uneasy when trying to give an object an honest view.

Despite my best hopes and efforts, I could still see the spiral structure, partly, but with difficulty @ 134x (6mm Baader Ortho): "Nearly stellar core, surrounded by a round, 0.5' halo. The E arm is brighter and easier to see as well as larger than the W arm which shows only a small stub in the SW. ~13.5 magnitude star is fairly easily visible between the two spiral arms in the SW. The bridge between M51 and NGC 5194 is visible with small magnifications." Not a pretty sketch but I was in a hurry.

Messier 51 with 4.3 inch Tal-1 @

The sky was getting dark, showing SQM-L reading of 21.2 in the head of Draco. I wanted to try to view an object of great challenge - UGC 10822 / Draco Dwarf. Having quickly found the correct position using Sky Atlas, I tried my best to see the galaxy first using the low quality Kellner eyepiece 32x (1° 29') but in vein. I changed to 21mm Baader Hyperion giving 38x (1° 47') providing with a far better contrast and sharper image. After 20 minutes of observing and sketching the visible stars in the region I was nearly certain I had nailed the faint fuzzy. It appeared as "only a marginally brighter part of the sky, perhaps slightly elliptical in shape and very diffuse object. Seeing any traces of it required me to use a hood to block out all of the external light". I'm fairly confident that I saw the galaxy. There are no stars in the area that could interfere with the observation and I managed sketch and log the object correctly using only a map showing stars down to 9th magnitude. I felt some pride in logging this elusive galaxy until the next morning I remembered that a good friend of mine - Californian amateur astronomer Steve Waldee - has reported seeing this galaxy with only a 8 centimeter (3 inch) telescope under undoubtedly great skies and half the humidity! Here is the updated sketch from my logbook showing the galaxy better:

UGC 10822 / Draco Dwarf with 4.3 inch Tal-1

Encouraged by my possible positive sighting of Draco Dwarf, I moved to Ursa Minor and to a yet another dwarf galaxy - Ursa Minor Dwarf (UGC 9749). My audio recording states: ""1.16 - 2.12 am, NELM ~6.88 UMi (HD 143803), SQM-L 21.35 (region). The combined light pollution veil of Nokia and Tampere apparent in the eastern sky like a sunrise. Position easy to find, just W of a brilliant 5th magnitude star. Estimated altitude of the object ~80 degrees. Four 10th magnitude stars at the correct position @ 38x forming a large "Z". With an intense study of the field, a suspicious, extremely faint, SW-NE elongated, large patch of diffuse light at least 15' in length can be suspected roughly between these 4 stars. Too faint for a proper sketch - glow might be due to high humidity, fog in the telescope or tired eyes? @ 67x the large glow is all but gone, something just visible SW from a 11th magnitude star in the middle; an extremely faint, small, diffuse glow W of 11th magnitude star. Cannot be held steady with averted vision and a hood needs to be used blocking all external light for the object to appear. Slightly brighter than UGC 10822.".

The object was few days later confirmed visible by Steve Waldee using a 4.5 inch StarBlast - although as a lot larger glow (under most certainly better conditions) @ than I did @ 67x. Keep in mind that despite the easy looking galaxies in the sketches, my notes show "V5", meaning both of the dwarfs were extremely difficult and could not be held steady averted vision. My original logbook sketch shows the galaxy best in its full glory @ 38x:

UGC 9749 / Ursa Minor Dwarf with 4.3 inch Tal-1

Next in the list was M106 - a terribly beautiful object to behold. I was quite surprised as the spiral structure was fairly easily visible even with such small aperture! I wrote: "Round non-stellar core, surrounded by an NW-SE elliptical halo. Northern spiral arm is nearly instantly visible with averted vision. Southern arm is smaller and fainter. SW edge of the halo is brighter and somewhat sharply defined. @ 38x the galaxy almost touches the 11th magnitude star in the S edge. NGC 4217 faintly visible in the SW, NGC 4248 not looked for. The spiral structure is easier to see than that of M51". I made a quick sketch to show the overall size and shape of the galaxy and the spiral structure:

Messier 106 with 4.3 inch Tal-1 @ 134x

Three quick galaxy sketches later (NGC 4449 - a favourite, NGC 4490 and NGC 4244) I still had little time to log one more object before the darkness would be engulfed by the sun. I decided to go for NGC 6791. This object proved quite troublesome and I even had to go back in and get Uranometria 2000.0 just to be sure of the position. Once again the Hyperion came to the rescue; I couldn't spot anything in the region using the 25mm eyepiece but the Hyperion showed a ghostly glow between two 10th magnitude stars. 134x started to resolve some of the foreground stars on top of the cluster but the general idea was that the cluster remained unresolved. I have to admit, the view was a bit disappointing as I still ever so vividly remember my first encounter with the cluster in 2001. Using high magnification (244x) on the 8 inch Orion DSE I could see tens and tens of very faint glittering suns within a faint background glow. Despite the faintness this has always been one of my favorite clusters after that experience.

NGC 6791 with 4.3 inch Tal-1 @ 134x

The sky was getting a lot brighter and it was time to call it a quits. I decided to give a little homage to the whooper swan (Cygnus cygnus) couple shouting at the lake by looking at - yes - Cygnus. I used the Nikon Spotting Scope for a final, beautiful view of M39. All in all, the night was fairly good, productive and warm. I could go through the entire night with just a hoodie and a tuque.

6.2.2011 - The Orion Nebula

2011-02-07T13:10:00.044+02:00

Obs. place: Koivukylä, Vantaa, Finland
Date: 6./7.2.2011
NE Lim.mag: ~5.0 (zenith)
SQM-L reading: 17.80 (zenith)
Background sky: 2 (very poor)
Seeing: 6 (good)
Transparency: 3 (poor)
Weather:-6.0°C, humidity ~87%, 1007HPa, snow depth 64 cm.

One can do very little deep sky observing from my current location during the winter. With all the lights nearby and snow covered ground, the limiting magnitude drops a whole magnitude and observing is more of a joke than anything else. When the sky is covered in orange hue, you really should just stay inside and wait for spring. It is not easier in darker sites either. You can barely get there by car and even if you do, you have to be prepared to do a lot of snow removal before you can set up the telescope. So it is not easy.

Still, there are few objects that are bright enough to be worthy targets even in city conditions if you're lazy enough to go anywhere. One of these objects is of course Orion Nebula - the bane of every deep sky observer out there. Anyone who has honesty and common decency cannot possibly say they have a good and accurate sketch of this object - it is impossible to achieve. I have sketched the named object more than a dozen times and cannot say I can show any of my sketches and say I'm proud of them.

Ignoring all the warnings, I decided to give it a go. Despite the low altitude (~20°) of the nebula and poor sky conditions, the Orion Nebula revealed herself quite well even to the small aperture. I observed the object for an hour before and past the culmination point using high (and maximum) magnifications and hood over my head to shield me from the local streetlights and providing me with some sort of a night vision. After sketching, I knew my best efforts had gone in vain and that once more no sketch can do the nebula any justice. Looking at the historical sketches, there are as many variations of the nebula as there are observers. The best one is probably that of Hunter & Trouvelot (1875) which represent the structure and the dark patches in a good manner. So as can be suspected, the sketch represented here is just my own version of the object and should not be taken "photographically". To preserve most of the faint nebulosity sketched, the drawing was left unedited so it displays some grain on the edges among other places. The sketch is rotated slightly to match the photograph by Hubble.

So what is there to see in the Orion Nebula? Well, a lot obviously! Too many of the modern photographs show the Great Orion Nebula well (size-wise) but badly overexposed and lacking finer details that can be seen through the telescope. For this reason, I've attached a simple map below, showing the commonly known details from the Orion Nebula as seen by the Hubble Telescope - with small edits done to it. This will make it a bit easier to follow my observing notes. Click here for a larger version of the region map.

The notes are cut down to parts so they're (at least a bit) easier to follow.

Trapezium region: This is probably the most obvious feature of the entire nebula. Four stars (A, B, C and D respectively) are visible with medium magnifications such as 58x (52'). Trapezium shows only weak nebulosity in the background. SW of the cluster is the brightest part of the nebula showing a complex structure of uneven brightness. Slightly more to the W is a dark bay this might be the one listed as "Schnecke". NE lies the dark bay "Sinus Magnus". Due to the low altitude of the object, seeing more than 4 stars from the Trapezium is quite difficult from high northern latitudes. I could only a single observation from the Finnish Deep Sky Archive (97 sketches) that shows more than 5 stars from the region despite the large telescopes (12" and up) and high magnifications used (200x and up). The sketch is that of Riku Henriksson showing 6 stars with a 6" telescope done at the Tampere observatory at at extremely high magnification (1600x).

Sinus Magnus region: The most obvious dark bay in Orion Nebula. It appears as an ear shaped bay (Van Gogh's left ear?) NE from the Trapezium.

Sinus Gentilii region: After "Sinus Magnus" this is the most obvious dark patch in the nebula. It appears as a cylinder-shaped feature in the S edge of the field.

Frons region: This is the brightest part in the SE region - running through from the eastern edge all the way down to Sinus Gentilii. I was however unable to see the "islands" in this region although there is a definite sense of "patchiness". There is a faint, elongated dark patch NW of Theta2 Orionis [Marked "A" in the region map, around 671 Orionis] and a smaller puffs of nebulosity visible in the NE region.

The smaller features include:

Lacus Secchii region: Visible barely as a darker section in NW of the Trapezium.

Pons Schroteri region: Slightly brighter extension in the NE edge of the Sinus Magnus. On both sides of V1230 Ori there are two very faint, darker patches [Marked "B" and "C" in the map]. More to the SW is yet another darker arc [Marked "D" in the map].

Spitze region: Barely brighter part in the extreme NE edge of the Orion Nebula. Quite sharply defined.

Lacus Lasellii region: Darker part in the very NNW edge of the field - at the edge of Proboscis Minor.

Negative sketch of Orion Nebula with 4.7" Sky-Watcher @ 360x

After the Orion Nebula, I sketched some Collinder clusters in the NGC 2244 region; Collinder 91, 97, 106 and 107. One thing in particular comes to mind when looking at these clusters: do you really have to catalog everything? Of course, things come blatantly clear when one remembers that the catalog was done by a Swedish astronomer (Per Collinder in 1931)! Especially Collinder 107 & 104 are a good example. A couple of bright stars and in a rich Milky Way field. Collinders 106 and 97 are a bit on the better side but it all comes back down with Collinder 91. What is even more amazing is that these are still cataloged as true open clusters although I find it hard to believe in the case of Cr 91 and Collinder 107 & 104. The 2003 book "Star Clusters" by Archinal and Hynes does agree with my run of thoughts as listing Cr 91 and 107 as "probably not a cluster[s]". Only actually a worthy cluster was NGC 2264.

NGC 2264 with 4.7" Sky-Watcher @ 48x

23.12.2010 - Christmas with the 4.3 inch scope

2011-01-31T13:42:00.028+02:00

Obs. place: Tottijärvi, Nokia, Finland
Date: 23./24.12.2010
NE Lim.mag: ~6.5 (zenith)
SQM-L reading: 20.24 (zenith)
Background sky: 6 (good)
Seeing: 5 (fair)
Transparency: 5 (average)
Weather: -27.0°C, humidity ~47%, 1022HPa, no wind, lots of snow and 93% moon below the horizon.

The crispy cold weather, and with the fact that the past 3 months had been without clear skies, was too good to miss and I decided to give the night sky a go with only a few Sky Atlas maps (Auriga & Orion) with me. I started in Auriga with IC 417 which turned out to be fairly difficult even with the UHC filter. The nebula appeared as a irregular glow of uneven brightness east of PPM 70403. 5th magnitude Phi Aurigae is the brightest star to the NW and it was annoyingly bright. I have to admit, I failed to see the open cluster Stock 8 in the position given by SkyMap Pro 10 which is not a surprise. The cluster is actually centered on 9th magnitude PPM 70403 - more to the east - with a size of 15' and not being all so obvious.

IC 417 with 4.3" Tal-1 @ 134x + UHC filter

Open clusters NGC 1662 and NGC 1663 were next in line. NGC 1662 is the brighter and larger one of the two with the brightest member being 8th magnitude and size roughly 20'. The cluster is quite sparse and gets lost to the background with higher magnifications. It is slightly concentrated towards the middle having two double stars in the center. The field gets better at low power when the asterism (brightest star is TYC 687-1068-1) to the SE is visible as well.

NGC 1662 with 4.3" Tal-1 @ 89x

NGC 1663 is quite the opposite of NGC 1662. The cluster is directly north of NGC 1662 and is fairly faint and small concentration of 13th magnitude stars. The DAML02 catalog of open clusters places the cluster a little too west. The correct position is roughly 04 49 28 +13 08 44.4 with ~20 stars within 5' x 3.5' and the brightest star is magnitude 12.8 (v). As the sketch below shows, telescopically this is quite sparse and poor group.

NGC 1663 with 4.3" Tal-1 @ 89x

The second "double cluster" I viewed and sketched was NGCs 1807 and 1817. I decided, against my principles to sketch both of the clusters to the same sketch which turned out to be pretty difficult (very time consuming!) and in many cases I made some simple mistakes. For practical reasons I first sketched NGC 1817 while the moon was still low in the sky and returned to NGC 1807 as a final sketch. Larger version of the sketch is visible here.

The most beautiful cluster viewed that night was NGC 2194 in Orion. I described it as "Quite beautiful. With low power, round glow with a handful of magnitude 11 stars visible in a wedge-shape. Higher power breaks the cluster in to 40* mags 11-14 in a geometrical pattern. Slightly concentrated".

NGC 2194 with 4.3" Tal-1 @ 134x

6.10.2010 - More suburban clusters

2010-10-12T18:02:00.036+03:00

Obs. place: Koivukylä, Vantaa, Finland
Date: 6./7.10.2010
NE Lim.mag: ~5.6 (zenith)
SQM-L reading: 18.92 (zenith)
Background sky: 4 (average)
Seeing: 3-4 (poor)
Transparency: 5 (average)
Weather: +8.0°C, humidity ~70%, 1040HPa.

There are some clusters, such as The Double Cluster and Pleiades, that you simply don't want to sketch. There are just so many stars to draw and if you want to do it properly, accuracy can be quite difficult to achieve. To minimize the amount of stars to sketch, the best way is to observe from a bad observing place, close to full moon and even by using half the normal aperture. Another good example of these kind of objects is Melotte 20 / Alpha Persei Cluster. As if the number of stars wasn't annoying enough, then there's always the massive size. Even though the cluster is generally considered to be about 180' in size, the updated version of DAML02 (Dias et al.) lists this cluster nearly double in size: 300'! There is very little my 4.7 inch Sky-Watcher can do against such "force" but luckily at least visually the cluster is smaller. With my 40mm Celestron Omni eyepiece the magnification of 18x (3° 20' fov) Melotte 20 was framed fairly well but not well enough so I had to do a composite sketch and stretch the whole thing a bit.

Then there's the question of the center coordinates. I personally estimated the cluster's center to be at 03 28 24 +48 32 39 and the size quite exactly 185'. Apart from the richness in stars (maybe even as many as 200* within the area) I noted a quite symmetrical region without stars close to the center. I didn't use high magnification to hunt down fainter stars since they were numerous enough just as it is. Then, safe to say, I had to take several breaks during sketching as there were simply so much to do and I couldn't do it accurately enough in one sitting. The sketch ended up being a bit too large for my taste but the sketch being in the "once in a millennium" category it'll have to do. I also left the sketch unrotated since the "smiley face" figure, obvious to me, is now correctly displayed - NW up. I'm also uncertain if the cluster actually continues all the way down to Sigma Persei but at least through my eyes it seemed so.

Melotte 20 with 4.7" Sky-Watcher

Moving south in Perseus I located NGC 1528, one of my all time favorites. "The cluster appeared as a beautiful nebulous splash of 30* with averted vision @ 34x. Zooming in with 90x the gaze cleared and roughly 60* were visible and had four separate dark areas around the center. The brightest star is in the NW edge. Size 20' but continues further to the east so might be larger". The near by NGC 1545 was sketched as well but without the double star at the center I would have moved right past it. The only good thing in this cluster is the huge difference between NGC 1528.

NGC 1528 with 4.7" Sky-Watcher @ 90x

The second most southern open cluster (losing only to IC 348) in Perseus is NGC 1342. This object is probably most famous from the several, long strings of stars and curious shape. Under dark skies and with a larger telescope (8 inch) I've logged this cluster as large as 23' while most commonly accepted value is anything between 15 to 20'. The most obvious and concentrated part is 17' x 11' in size which is roughly what is visible with the 4.7 inch telescope. The brightest star in the region of the cluster is a magnitude 8.7 HD 21728 while a magnitude 8.4 star HD 21773 is just to the NE. The book "Star Clusters" by Archinal and Hynes list the brightest star in the cluster as a magnitude 8.0 but there is none to be found. Star count (from Lund's) is listed as 99 while in reality, there are roughly 60 stars in NGC 1342.

NGC 1342 with 4.7" Sky-Watcher @ 60x

One left to go and it will be brief. In Camelopardalis, there is yet another wonderful, compact (8') cluster called NGC 1502 which every one should have seen by now. The object is dominated by a 7th magnitude double with roughly 60 stars between magnitudes 7 and 14 around them. This is a beautiful for small apertures such is nearly directly to south a planetary nebula NGC 1501 (fairly easy ring structure and 14th magnitude central star).

NGC 1502 with 4.7" Sky-Watcher @ 120x

I also sketched M52, NGC 457 and the Pleiades with the 4.7 inch scope for the SA project. I will add these later on once I recuperate from my 14-hour shifts at the hospital.

18.9.2010 - Quick NGC 663

2010-09-19T15:54:00.040+03:00

Obs. place: Koivukylä, Vantaa, Finland
Date: 18./19.9.2010
NE Lim.mag: ~5.6 (zenith)
SQM-L reading: 19.01 (zenith)
Background sky: 4 (fair)
Seeing: 4 (fair)
Transparency: 4 (fair)
Weather: +9.0°C, humidity ~90%, 996 HPa, wind from south 3 m/s, random clouds and showers.

There is something about NGC 663. Not only is it one of the most beautiful open clusters in Cassiopeia, it has a tendency to look good no matter the aperture and conditions. With an impressive ~130 stars brighter than magnitude 14, it is a well suited target for especially small apertures such as my 4.7 inch Sky-Watcher.

The main part of the cluster is roughly 11' x 9' in size and the overall size is 16'. The most obvious feature in the cluster is the 8' long and nearly 2' wide void in the middle of the cluster. This dark curve cuts the cluster nearly in half in a beautiful manner and is especially apparent with smaller apertures. The two parts of the cluster are quite similar, eastern one being slightly richer in stars and larger in size. Both parts do have a pair of "eyes" on the northern edge - with a concentration of stars below both of them - so the cluster appears, at least to me, quite symmetrical.

I had a quick look at this cluster with my 4.7" @ 96x between scattered cloud and even showers. With the clouds running interference, the sketch didn't come out as well as I had planned but you win some and you loose some.

NGC 663 with 4.7" Sky-Watcher @ 96x

That's not all. The field surrounding NGC 663 is a lovely one. Given enough aperture (even a simple small refractor will suffice) and just the right amount of magnification, 4 other open clusters can be seen around NGC 663.

NGC 654 is the easiest with a magnitude of 6.5, located just NW from a 7th magnitude star HD 10494 and appears as an elongated nebulous patch of stars with low power. Higher magnification reveals roughly 30* between magnitudes 10 and 15 of which at least 8 are double stars. Brightest individual star in this cluster is magnitude 10.0. There is also an anonymous faint nebula SW from 9th magnitude star PPM 13210 which would be a great challenge to larger apertures.

NGC 659 is quite similar to NGC 654 but is not as rich and has a total magnitude of 7.9. Size (6') and brightest star are identical to those of NGC 654. The brightest stars in the cluster form a sort of a box and the rest of the stars are located on the NW-SW side of this feature.

Berkeley 6 is located nearly directly E from NGC 663. This is just a small knot of 7 stars magnitudes 13 and 14. This too appears as a nebulous patch with smaller magnifications.

IC 166 is quite similar to NGC 6791 and IC 1311. The cluster was discovered by the British astronomer William Frederick Denning in 1890 with a 10 inch telescope. With smaller telescopes, this object - yes you've guessed it - looks nebulous with some foreground stars resolved in front of it. The true members of this cluster are generally listed as being magnitude 17 but with a simple DSS inspection and CMD it seems that the some turnoff point stars are a full magnitude brighter. With larger apertures such as 8 inches IC 166 starts to shown signs of granularity. This is a fine object to anyone who is interested in hunting down fainter and more challenging open clusters.

One cluster was omitted from the list. This is Czernik 5 as it faint and not especially cluster-like object (nor is Berkeley 6) with only a dozen stars magnitudes 14 and fainter. Both SIMBAD and NED coordinates for this cluster are so way off that it might be best to post better coordinates here: 01 55 40.7 +61 21 08.6. For those using "Star Clusters" book by Archinal and Hynes there is no reason to worry: the cluster is perfectly plotted on the table on page 51.

5.8.2010 - Season starter in Padasjoki

2010-08-08T23:08:00.062+03:00

Obs. place: Kasiniemi, Padasjoki, Finland
Date: 5./6.8.2010
NE Lim.mag: 5.6^m (zenith)
SQM-L reading: 19.10 (zenith)
Background sky: 1
Seeing: 6
Transparency: 6
Weather: Nautical twilight, +12.0°C, humidity ~97%, 1012 HPa, 23% moon low in Taurus, no wind. Bats flying around, Great Crested Grebes (Podiceps cristatus), Black-throated Loons (Gavia arctica) and Cranes (Grus grus) shouting in the distance.

Nothing like the great outdoors is there. Compared to the noisy, polluted and all around ugly environment at home, the cabin provides just what is often needed by the most: peace and quiet. Like millions of summer cabins in Finland, this one is nothing out of the ordinary. A small cabin near a lake with a pier, boat and more importantly for the nocturnal activities: no light pollution. Here on a typical good night the naked eye limiting magnitude tops 7th magnitude and on the best of nights climbs even past 7.5 magnitude, so one can't complain. Based on a year of SQM readings, the measurements move between 21 and 21.7. But as can be suspected, no spot is perfect. There's the typical high humidity during the good months and it is always annoying. Fog from the lake often creeps to the shore during nights without wind and as is accustomed to Finland, the nights aren't what I'd call cloud free. I mainly use two observing spots in here based on the objects and level of laziness. First is, yes you guessed it right, the small dock at the shore just some meters away from the cabin. The second spot is more secluded with horizon kissing views nearly to every direction. It is a huge boulder in the middle of the lake, easily large enough to haven me, a telescope and a pack bag full of gear. It also takes care of the fog problem as on the boulder, one will be above it.

The nights would be far from dark since the sun would never set below 12° but I decided not to let it stop me from having a relaxed session. I pretty much started where I had left some nights earlier with the 3 inch telescope. Here, 200 kilometers more to the north, M24 looked better but still far from its original glory under dark skies. I quickly had a look at M9 above the treetops just to confirm its visibility. Surfing back east in the sky, I had little trouble locating a fine southern open cluster M23.

Due to strong twilight, sketching required quite a lot of work. I had to use the 6mm Baader (120x) to darken the background sky and hunt the fainter (in this case 11th magnitude!) stars from the cluster. Other than that, the cluster appeared symmetrical with all the stars in several curves running from SE to NE.

Messier 23 with 4.7" Sky-Watcher @ 36x

On the other side of the Sagittarius star cloud was M25, yet another cluster. Not quite as impressive as M23, the object is large, sparse and has a large brightness range, reminding some of us of M47. The cluster is clearly in two parts, with the W side being richer and slightly concentrated towards the center. In the core of the cluster is a bright, 7th magnitude variable star U Sagittarii. The field around M25 is quite hollow so I decided to increase the magnification a bit from the M23 sketch and settled with 48x.

Messier 25 with 4.7" Sky-Watcher @ 48x

Messier 11 was phenomenal. The half-ring surrounding the 8th magnitude foreground star was mottled all around as well as several double and triples stars looked nebulous all over the field. After three attempts at sketching, it proved to be too difficult a task so I moved on. I simply couldn't resist another look at the Ophiuchus trio: NGC 6633, IC 4665 and IC 4756. IC 4756 was exceptionally beautiful so I decided to sketch it yet again, only few months later.

Using 32mm (23x) Plössl eyepiece, I could see five distinctive chains of stars running away from the 8th magnitude star (HD 172189) in the middle and looking like an octopus attached to a window. Star count was estimated at 50. With 15mm Omni (48x) the cluster was already too spread out and had lost most of its beauty. However, now the chains were no longer present and it seemed like the stars had aligned to form two arcs running in W-E direction. I decided to switch back to 23x for the sketch.

IC 4756 with 4.7" Sky-Watcher @ 23x

Since only bright objects were visible, the list of objects to view was quite limited. I had a look at M27 and while in the region NGC 6830 and NGC 6885. NGC 6830 wasn't much to look at. I could manage to see only 15 stars from the cluster, forming a cross of sorts. To honor all the stupid and flamboyant (what a fancy word!) nick names for deep sky objects, I'll call this "The Aegis of the Penitent". Only the penitent man shall pass...

NGC 6830 with 4.7" Sky-Watcher @ 80x

Compared to the previous object, NGC 6885 was obvious. Slightly concentrated towards the NW edge, the cluster is a fine splash of 40 stars surrounding a 6th magnitude 20 Vulpeculae.

NGC 6885 with 4.7" Sky-Watcher @ 60x

The second night was of lower humidity (70%), warmer and all ways better. The only problem was fast moving clouds, horrible background brightness due to Russian forest fires and hundreds of mosquitoes. It didn't take me long to get bored with both and retire to the tent. Third night was peppered with cirrus and all around smoke polluted background sky. Next session will be in September when the twilight is no longer a problem and hopefully the Russians will learn to control the forest fires like civilized countries do.

13. and 14.4.2010 - Season finale part deux

2010-04-15T00:00:00.052+03:00

Obs. place: Koivukylä, Vantaa, Finland
Date: 13./14.4.2010
NE Lim.mag: 5.6^m (zenith)
SQM-L reading: 19.10 (zenith)
Background sky: 3
Seeing: 3-4
Transparency: 2-3
Weather: +3°C, humidity 80 - 98%, air pressure 1023 hPa and W wind 2 m/s.

The fishing spear

This night the transparency was quite good considering all the dust and pollen flying around. The day was cloudy so that is what might have cured the dust problem. I did a set of observations using my 8" Orion DSE including NGC 6939, NGC 6207, NGC 7023 and NGC 40. After 1 am I went back in to get my 4.7" Sky-Watcher. Low in the sky was IC 4665 but I decided to sketch it anyway along with NGC 6633 and IC 4756. These three would be impossible to sketch next season with the light polluted western skies so now would be as good time as any.

"The Fish Spear of Poseidon" is what I called this cluster back in 2005 while using my 3" refractor: "Large, very bright and obvious open cluster in Ophiuchus. Brightest * mag ~7 with a large brightness range down to 12th magnitude. ~20 stars within 50'. Looks like a "fishing spear"."

For me, seeing individual stars from the cluster with the naked eye is a good challenge. First time I "resolved" the cluster was back in 2002. I was serving in the military and while on a two hour guard duty in Santahamina, I decided to make the most out of it. It was a crisp, cold night (-1°C), and the sky was quite exquisite after the rain. "Faint glow, with at least 2 stars resolved without (full) night vision. The brightest star is ~6.9 magnitude, the second 7.15 magnitude."

6 years later I could only resolve a single star with the naked eye from Pico de la Nieve, La Palma, Spain (1540m / 5052ft): "Round glow with a single, faint star resolved from the S edge."

With the 4.7" refractor the cluster looked lovely as usual: ""Very bright cluster of blue stars. Not concentrated. Beta Oph in the field of view. Sketched to a wider field of view."

IC 4665 with 4.7" Sky-Watcher @ 15x

Buck naked

I barely got to finish the 4665 sketch when clouds started to roam in at 1.30 am. I decided to bring my 4.7" back inside and go to bed. I changed my PJs on and was ready for bed. I looked outside and it was fully clear. How annoying. I was quite angry after having missed the two remaining clusters so what to do?

I wasn't ready to give up. I put my sandals on, took my telescope and marched back out with nothing more on than my pyjamas. I wasn't going to let the cuddly temperatures of +1C (34F) stop me, oh no! Of course I didn't want to get a frostbite on my nipples either. I marched behind a medium sized spruce and aimed low. Both clusters were easily visible with the 4.7" - of course. Luckily no one was there to see me as I was quite dressed up for the occasion:

Tasty sketching in PJs and +1°C temperature...

Considering the frosty temperatures and steamy clothing, the NGC 6633 sketch came out quite fine. The spider-like shape was evident but the rich background sky was one of my primary worries. If too many field stars were sketched the cluster would get lost in the drawing. If I sketched no field stars... the sketch would look too empty. So I did something in between. Here's the result:

NGC 6633 with 4.7" Sky-Watcher @ 29x

Objects observed:
NGC 6633, IC 4665, IC 4756

Obs. place: Koivukylä, Vantaa, Finland
Date: 14./15.4.2010
NE Lim.mag: ~5.6^m (zenith)
SQM-L reading: 19.00 (zenith)
Background sky: 3
Seeing: 3-4
Transparency: 3
Weather: +2°C, humidity 75 - 84%, air pressure 1023 hPa and W wind 2 m/s

Metallica and Bruce Lee

It was quite amazing to have four clear nights in a row. Just like the night before, I started with the 8" Orion, sketching NGC 7008, NGC 6951 and NGC 188. Transparency was down from yesterday but humidity was lower. I was also a bit more prepared that the night before: I had my MP3 player with me and the first random song was, in a very fitting way, Metallica's "Astronomy". I don't often use the player for the simple reason that I cannot hear anything with my headphones on. I really hate people sneaking up on me. Luckily this didn't happen tonight. I was well placed with my back in the apartment's wall and my eyes furiously scouting the area in front of me for "intruders". The only thing that I saw during the night was a mama hedgehog looking for worms from the ground.

I had one object planned for the 4.7" on this night - IC 1396. I did however first stumble upon Bruce Lee by accident and decided to admire the packs a bit. The cluster is dominated by two 7th magnitude stars as the "eyes".

NGC 7160 with 4.7" Sky-Watcher @ 72x

The gigantic IC 1396

Moving south from the cluster, I came upon the true object, IC 1396. The cluster and nebula complex was apparently discovered by Barnard and the cluster is still sometimes known (incorrectly) as Trumpler 34. The whole complex is a good naked eye object and both UHC and O-III filter held to the eye will enhance the view of nebulosity. The nebula is still, in my opinion, best viewed with small telescopes giving wide, over 2° field of view. The cluster is easy to see consisting of three magnitude 7 stars and several fainter members over 90' area. As can be suspected, the cluster does not stand out very well from the background.

The nebulosity is quite faint and requires pretty dark skies to see without filters and less dark skies if the observer is using an O-III or UHC filter. Also it is huge (170' x 140'), fairly even brightness and round. On my session, I managed to see very faint, barely visible nebulosity streaming down from Mu Cep and suspect some variations in background brightness near 8th magnitude star HD 206328. This didn't make me confident enough so I just sketched the cluster:

IC 1396 with 4.7" Sky-Watcher @ 23x

Feisty M29

I was ready to call it quits but still had some strength left in me. Cygnus had climbed fairly high in the sky so it was time for NGC 7000 and Messier 29. NGC 7000 showed up fairly faintly @ 18x + O-III filter. Sketching was a pain and scanning was even more painful since my Canon scanner couldn't even show half of the faint nebulosity I sketched. So I had to discard the sketch. M29 on the other hand was quite a lot easier. The cluster is in two parts consisting of seven bright 9-10th magnitude stars. Despite the fact that M29 is quite small and poor, it still is quite enchanting and not to mention quick and easy to draw. Interesting fact of the clusters comes from W.A. Hiltner who found that without the dense interstellar matter, the cluster would shine full 3 magnitudes brighter. Maybe then it would be a bigger hit among the deep sky observers.

Messier 29 with 4.7" Sky-Watcher @ 114x

Objects observed:
Messier 29, NGC 7000, NGC 7160, IC 1396

12.4.2010 - Season finale with Messiers

2010-04-13T00:00:00.009+03:00

Obs. place: Hindsby, Sipoo, Finland
Date: 12./13.4.2010
Bortle class: Class 4 (rural / suburban transition)
NE Lim.mag: 6.2^m (east)
SQM-L reading: 20.06 (east)
Background sky: 3
Seeing: 1-2
Transparency: 3
Weather: +4.0°C (-2.0°C ground), humidity ~60-80%, air pressure 1025 HPa, no wind.

Session length: 2 hours

I started my session from Cepheus with a swan (lat. Cygnus cygnus) flying just above my head shouting like a madman. My observing site, just like the one in Sotunki, is actually a part of Sipoonkorpi Nature Reserve. The clash between humans and nature is very evident in Storträsk (in Sotunki) and especially when it comes to snakes. Every time I visit the lake I stumble upon frog and snake carcasses. What kind of sick, retarded person kills these beautiful, totally harmless things? People are often just so simple minded when it comes to nature and I swear to you if I ever come a cross someone harming these little things in any way... I'm taking you down. If you don't believe me, you can ask the guys at our old summer place who hunted down lizards and ripped their tails off.

Anyway, the sad thing about the entire Sipoonkorpi Nature Reserve is the upcoming metro and huge residential area planned to the south by Helsinki. This means the whole area will probably just die out thanks to us. If you haven't yet visited the reserve I highly recommend it while it still is possible. A day's hiking trip is a good idea and for those who enjoy cycling, the scenery in this area is typical yet quite beautiful Finnish farmlands and rivers. Common animals in the region include Western Capercaillie, several hawks, deers and birds. Some have reported seeing Siberian Flying Squirrels as well! You surely don't want one of those attacking you at night... but as a man, you got to take your chances.

Fail on NGC 6939 and 6946

Returning back to the topic, first in line were NGC 6939 & NGC 6946 pair. After a frustrating search I gave up and the flipped image of the Deluxe 45° diagonal didn't help at all. I'm also assuming the sky must have been not good enough for these two. This was a setback since I had only a handful of objects in mind for the night and now I had lost two. NGC 188 wouldn't be well enough visible to be sketched so I needed a back-up plan. What else to do than concentrate on objects I've sketched a dozen times but not with this telescope. Something bright, preferably from the light polluted part of the sky... this left me with the Gemini-Cancer region of the sky.

From here I started with Messier 35. There is something in this cluster that makes it very difficult for me to sketch accurately. It is not the star count but something in the shape. I really struggled with it and had to start over two times. As with all of my earlier observations, the star chain "Bridge of Mist" was the most obvious part of the cluster. My first observation of the cluster is from 1999 made with a pair of 15x70 binoculars. First (of the ones I have left) sketch is from 16/17.1.2001 made with 3" (80mm) refractor from a suburban observing site. Description is as follows: Large, rich cluster but not very compressed. About 20* seen mostly in chains. Box-shaped.

There was no box-shape in it for this time though: "SE-NW elongated, rich cluster of 50* mags 7-13. Several dark patches in the cluster with high magnification. The most obvious dark void, U-shaped, dividing the cluster in two in E-W direction. Brightest star in the group has a faint yellow color. 8th magnitude orange star slightly south from the middle. Best suited for low magnifications and field of view no smaller than 60' with 6th magnitude star 5. Gem to the east. Size 22' x 16'.

Messier 35 with 4.7" Sky-Watcher @ 36x

The Frogger

Next I moved up to Auriga. I've sketched Messier 37 with 4.3" Tal-1 but not M36 or M38. I especially like M36 since the stars are placed in quite a symmetrical pattern and thus making it easy to sketch. The star count isn't too high either and the cluster is well detached from the background. I've also considered this cluster to be the easiest of the trio - it is very conscious even with small apertures and magnifications. Sadly to my eye, this cluster looks nearly always like a frog and I just can't shake it. Messier 36 has roughly 180 physical cluster members with the brightest star being 8.8 magnitude PPM 70594.

I felt that the problem with the actual sketching of the cluster is the fact that it will probably end up looking just like the previous sketch of the object. Also not always rotating the sketches showing east to the left and north up would secure more different views of the cluster every time. My description from the night:

"Obvious @ 23x (2° 13'). Small concentrated glow of handful of stars. 72x (42') seems to be good enough for a sketch although some of the fainter stars require 120x (20'). Bright double star E from the center, both components being ~10 magnitude (Σ 737 9.1 and 9.4 separated by 11"). Stars slightly concentrated towards the center. Core of the cluster is roughly 10', visual size ~15'. 40*

Messier 36 with 4.7" Sky-Watcher @ 72x

The Doughnut

I sketched M44, M103 and moved to Messier 57. The ring nebula was quite low in the sky but would still be visible enough for a quick sketch. With a 6mm Baader eyepiece and 2x barlow the nebula faintly showed the usual ring structure and 13th magnitude star to the SE. However the disk was round not elliptical as it usually is larger telescopes.

Messier 57 with 4.7" Sky-Watcher @ 240x

The central star is a good one when seeing is good. I've seen it a few times but never with my own telescope. It apparently requires very high (400+) magnification to be spotted. The magnitude of the star is reported at 15.8 magnitude. Here are some my notes from few years back:

First sighting is from 2006. Using Marko Tuhkunen's 12" Meade GSD I wrote: Simply put, the central star was invisible at 375x but fairly easy with the 2x Barlow as a sharp, faint, colorless star inside faint nebulosity. It could almost be held steady with averted vision. Altitude of object, at least +60 deg.

Second sighting is two years later, this time using Iiro's 12" GSO Dobson: Central star was invisible @ 429x (Nagler 7mm + Barlow) but fairly easily spotted @ 600x (Hyperion 5mm + Barlow). Two brightenings visible on both sides of the ring.

Before leaving I used the SQM-L meter to measure the most light polluted part of the sky and got 18.40 (western sky (Procyon) altitude 10°). At the same time 20.06 was logged from the eastern sky (Bootes, altitude 56°) so there is quite a big difference between the light dome and the darker part of the sky. M13 was fairly easily visible with the naked eye using averted vision. Seeing was quite good and in fact probably one of the best I've seen in years (from Finland).

Objects observed:
Messier 35, Messier 36, Messier 38, Messier 44, Messier 57, Messier 103

19.8.2009 - Humidity and sore ass in Sipoo

2009-08-20T10:57:00.042+03:00

Obs. place: Hindsby, Sipoo, Finland
Date: 19./20.8.2009
Bortle class: Class 4 (rural / suburban transition)
NE Lim.mag: 6.6^m (E)
Background sky: 3
Seeing: 2
Transparency: 2
Weather: +9.0°C, humidity ~90%, air pressure 1022 HPa, no wind

Session length: 2 hours (+ 1.5 hours of travel)

Never do squats at the gym before going for a 45 minute (one way) bicycle ride with 25 kg weights in your back. Like my recording from the ride says: "My ass is on fire and legs feel like jelly".

I packed my bags and started cycling towards the observing spot in Hindsby at 22 hrs. I (finally) arrived there 45 minutes later and was covered in sweat. It was quite a workout - carrying the telescope and all the equipment in my trekker backpack and riding my old bicycle (with a nearly flat tire) for 12 kilometers. I unpacked everything and started the session with a heavy sweat and 10 minutes later I was so cold that I was trembling. But let's get to it shall we.

The first interesting object of the night was Tombaugh 5. Clyde Tombaugh (the dude who nabbed Pluto) discovered 5 open clusters:

Tombaugh 1
R.A.: 07 00 27, Dec: -20 34.2, Size: 6.0', Brightest star: 14.0
Tombaugh 2
R.A.: 07 03 06, Dec: -20 49.1, Size: 3.0', Brightest star: 16.0
Tombaugh 3 (IC 166)
R.A.: 01 52 22, Dec: +61 51.3, Size: 8.0', Brightest star: 17.0
Tombaugh 4
R.A.: 02 29 10, Dec: +61 47 06, Size: 5.3', Brightest star: 16.0
Tombaugh 5
R.A.: 03 47 44, Dec: +59 05.4, Size: 15.0', Brightest star: 14.0

Tombaugh 5 in Camelopardalis is probably the easiest. I spotted the cluster for the first time on 24th of September 2001 at 23.51 with 8" Orion DSE: "Round, not so obvious or bright cluster. Total of 10* resolved. Stars pretty much even brightness at 11th magnitude. Looks rather much like moderately rich cluster. Not much cluster-like object. The glow can be only visualized around the cluster." So I managed to spot only the faint haze of the true cluster and a few 11th magnitude non-members from the glow. Sky conditions were pretty bad so I couldn't do much more.

Few years later on 10./11.10.2004 I was using the same 8" telescope with slightly better results as can be seen from my "shorthand" description: "30 * mags 11...14, 15', bg haze." which was later translated as "Moderately faint, but very obvious with averted vision. 30 stars resolved against a very faint background glow. Stars mags 11...14. Scattered. Size 15'."

The latest of endeavours with the object was the best. With the 4.7" I described the object as "Ff, bg glow @ 60x + 50* mags 11-15 res, 18', even scatt, V3, VI2" and in plain English: "Fairly faint, background glow with 50 evenly scattered stars mags 11-15 resolved. Size 15'. Visuality 3 (easy with averted vision), Visual Impression 2 (good)".

This is what the sketch looks like when it is fully resolved:

All of Tombaugh's clusters are faint and fairly difficult to spot under less than dark skies. But they are also rich and quite beautiful once you get to see them properly. The first two clusters were discovered in 1938 and the final three in 1941. 3rd object was also previously discovered as IC 166.

The most rewarding object of the night was IC 342 - a faint, somewhat famous galaxy in Camelopardalis. Wolfgang Steinicke's NGC/IC data lists this galaxy as visual magnitude of 8.4 - yammy! How about surface brightness? It is listed as 14.9 mag which makes it very faint. Compare it to some other galaxies with low surface brightness: M33 (14.0), NGC 6822 (14.4) and IC 1613 (15.1). So it is faint and when you go after it, use very low magnification. Without all of the galactic gas and dust between us and the galaxy, IC 342 would shine whooping 3 magnitudes brighter! It would surely be a rival of M33 in the northern hemisphere.

My first confrontation with the galaxy was back in 2001, on a dark night (~6.6^m in Taurus) in August the 15th. I was observing from the family cabin of my good friend Eero Holmström in Pernaja. With my new 80mm (3") refractor I managed to spot IC 342 @ 32x: "A faint blob, just like described in the book by Skiff and Luginbuhl. Visible also with 40mm. Even brightness, diffuse disk. No nucleus spotted. Totally round. In a rich field. Fainter and more difficult with the 8" dobson."

I was in the region again on the 10th of October 2004. I wanted to try if I could spot the galaxy from my suburban backyard with my 8" telescope. The weather was excellent: -0°C, cold breeze from north and naked eye limiting magnitude 5.9 in Perseus. My description was: "Extremely faint. Only the very core is visible, being almost stellar about 1' in size @ 76x. The halo is nearly impossible, 10' gradually fainter, slightly elliptical halo around the nucleus. A line of stars mags 11...12 visible W from the nucleus. 11th magnitude star N from the nucleus. In a rich field. Very challenging."

Tonight I was out with the 4.7". I wrote: "Tasty little galaxy. Spotted @ 23x (2° 13') as a very faint, round glow. 60x displays a nearly stellar nucleus surrounded by a bright, round halo. Galaxy slightly elliptical in E-W direction. Several 11-13 magnitude stars can be spied inside the halo - only the brightest sketched. Details very difficult and annoying. Occasionally some mottling discerned and faint spiral arms suspected.

I moved on to another galaxy in the region - IC 356. My recorded notes on this are slim. Date of the observation is unknown (early 2000 anyway) but the description is short and simple: "Very faint, elliptical. Small, round nucleus. Size about 3' x 2'.

The new notes cover the galaxy only slightly better with the 4.7": "Bright, non-stellar nucleus surrounded by a NW-SE elongated, very faint halo. Bright 8th magnitude star N from the galaxy.

Objects observed:
NGC 957, NGC 1027, IC 342, IC 356, G1 (Mayall II), VdB 1, Tombaugh 5

15.8.2009 / Perseus and Cassiopeia clusters

2009-08-18T20:55:00.021+03:00

Obs. place: Koivukylä, Vantaa, Finland
Date: 15./16.8.2009
Bortle class: Class 5 (suburban sky)
NE Lim.mag: 5.9 (E)
Background sky: 4-5
Seeing: 2
Transparency: 4
Weather: +9.0°C, humidity ~79%, air pressure 1011 HPa, NW wind 3.0 m/s. 27% moon low in Taurus.

Session length: 3.5 hours

The night of 14./15 August was fairly clear as well but with some annoying scattered cloud roaming the skies constantly. I did manage to sketch NGC 281 (that I fondly described as "a puke on a mirror...") Trumpler 1 and NGC 957. The next night was a lot better so I decided to do the three sketches again.

This time I really started with Collinder 463 as it was still twilight. The cluster stands fairly poorly from the background and it can be difficult not to mix it with at least one obvious asterism (HD 11704-Group with a size of 24') in the region. Collinder 463 contains 12 stars brighter than magnitude 10 and roughly 50 stars brighter than 12th magnitude. A good, easy cluster for small apertures that is. The most obvious feature in the cluster I noticed was a long chain of stars to the NE. The 40mm Celestron Omni (2° 23' field) worked wonders on this cluster.

NGC 637 was next. This cluster is easy to find (as are 95% of all deep sky objects) and fairly easy to spot. Seeing it clearly resolved is another matter. Four bright 11th magnitude stars are visible inside a faint glow. I maxed out the magnification (6mm Baader + 2x-barlow) and the brightest star in the center became a double, with a few fainter members around it. Size is also small - roughly 2'. An older observation (11./12.10.2004) of mine shows pretty much the same with an 8" telescope: "Small, 2', faint haze around three 10th magnitude stars. Half a dozen stars resolved".

Swinging back to M103-region of the sky. It was time to re-sketch Trumpler 1. Long ago I named (well not me but the queen bee) the cluster as the Superman cluster due to the S-shaped form I once saw it in. Tr 1 is really once piece of work. It is bright and obvious even at 20x but is also very small (2'). The sky wasn't dark enough to show the true colors of the cluster and did manage to see only 7 members. Apparently I was also in such a hurry that I forgot to sketch the field stars!

I moved forward to King 14. I sketched the most obvious group in the field but it turned out to be the Y-shaped NGC 133. Darn it. With NGC 225, however there was not going to be any problems with the identity. 15 stars between magnitudes 9 and 11 makes the cluster really stand out. Brightest members are packed to the E side and the object is divided in to two. Another fine target for small telescopes.

On the previous night I was unable to spot NGC 1245 in Perseus. This night was clearly better than the last one so I gave it a try. Finding it is easy - just find your way to HD 20023 and look north. There's the cluster. Suffering from clear case of low surface brightness NGC 1245 is not always easy to see. With averted vision I managed to spot about a dozen members and a faint background glow. What I found interesting was this: http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0312083. According to the 2003 paper, the actual size of the cluster is 40'! Over four times the common value!

It was time for the Giraffe-border. First in line was Trumpler 3. A good binocular cluster to start with and not too bad in a telescope either. The size is roughly 20' and from my perspective the cluster stands out fairly boldly from the background. There is one interesting object near the cluster - PK 138+4.1. This planetary nebula is faintly visible on Palomar plates as a round, diffuse glow surroinding an obvious asterism of stars. The central star appears to be a bright one - magnitude 12.4 GSC 4053:643. American deep sky observer Kent Wallace failed to see this with a 20" telescope but in all honesty I suspect this can be seen with a telescope half that size using O-III filter.

Stock 23 is even better. The brightest star is 7.5 magnitude and the shape of the cluster is very unique. This might also be visible with the naked eye under good conditions. Something to try later on surely.

Time for a re-sketch. NGC 281 was high up in the sky and showed quite much. On a previous night I only managed to spot a haze surrounding the 8th magnitude star in the center. It was round yet somewhat crescent-shaped. Tonight the shape was much more obvious and size larger. Without filter the nebula was only marginally visible. With O-III and UHC filters it came quite obvious. I used both to for the sketch. The faint extension to the SE was extremely difficult. It does look like a Pac-man a bit or like a comma.

The final object of then night was back in Cassiopeia - open cluster NGC 559. With the 4.7" it appears only as a round haze of unresolved stars surrounding a bright triangle of three 11th magnitude stars. I used 160x to sketch the object. According to Star Clusters book (Archinal and Hynes) the brightest star in the group is magnitude 9.0. However, there is no star of that magnitude anywhere near the cluster. Looking at a UBV colour magnitude diagram shows the cluster has few 11 magnitudes stars with the main sequence starting at 13th magnitude with about 110 members in total down to 16th magnitude.

The weather was fairly good considering the location. Background brightness was still very bad - Milky way was only visible in Cygnus and barely. Seems I have to get out of the backyard and go to somewhere darker. The next chance should be on the 19th. Until then...

9.8.2009 / Clusters in the moon

2009-08-09T00:00:00.009+03:00

Obs. place: Koivukylä, Vantaa, Finland
Date: 9./10.8.2009
Bortle class: Class 5 (suburban sky)
NE Lim.mag: 5.3 (86% moon)
Background sky: 4-5
Seeing: 2
Transparency: -
Sky conditions: Sun never below -15°
Weather: +14.4°C, humidity ~62%, air pressure 1021 HPa, NW wind 3.9 m/s. 86% moon in Pisces.

Session length: 2.5 hours

I was prepared to do 3 sketches tonight: Collinder 463, Stock 1 and Messier 45. I took the telescope out to my backyard, left it to cool down for 20 minutes and then joined in. Humidity was not an issue (surprisingly) and the air seemed to be pretty clear of particles. The moon was high in Pisces and would obviously have a major impact on observing but I was prepared for that. I could squeeze the limiting magnitude (Perseus) to 5.3 but only barely with the naked eye and down to 12th magnitude with my 4.7". The Double cluster and M31 were both visible with the naked eye which I found somewhat surprising.

I started with Stock 1 in Vulpecula. This cluster has 17 members and are mostly B or A type stars. The cluster was easily spotted @ 20x but would be pretty much lost to the background without the following two characteristics:

1.) Half a dozen stars brighter than magnitude 9.
2.) Two spots of concentration. The trapezium-shaped box in the SE edge and Y-shaped asterism in the NW.

I chose 25mm Omni eyepiece as the best on to sketch the object on. I used 12mm Omni + 2x barlow to hunt down the "fainter" stars in the area. The description was as follows:

"Roughly 30* in a 30' area. An obvious wedge without stars in the middle. Fairly obvious. No obvious color in any of the stars."

Stock 1 with 4.7" Sky-Watcher @ 29x

I was starting my journey to locate Cr 463 when I stumbled on the Double cluster. SE from it was an obvious grouping of stars that I remembered was Trumpler 3. I was wrong. It was actually Trumpler 2 and it looked so good that I decided to stop for a moment and sketch it. The best view was with 12mm Omni (60x).

"Clearly elongated in E-W direction. Brightest member in the middle has obvious blood colored hue. Less than 20*. Size roughly 15'. No points of concentration, stands out well from the background."

Trumpler 2 with 4.7" Sky-Watcher @ 60x

When I finished I had completely forgotten about Collinder 464 and was already moving on to M34. The weather seemed to be so-so and I could squint my eyes down to maybe 12th magnitude with the 4.7" telescope. That was enough for me to sketch M34 and NGC 752 in Andromeda.

Messier 34 looked lovely as always. I especially like the several doubles in the cluster and the huge crescent of stars surrounding the cluster.

Messier 34 with 4.7" Sky-Watcher @ 60x

In order to get the most out of NGC 752, I used very low power - 23x (2° 13'). The sketch came out fairly average at best so I might have to draw it again later.

NGC 752 with 4.7" Sky-Watcher @ 23x

I swung back to Perseus, assaulted NGC 1027, Trumpler 3, Markarian 6 and Stock 23. I sketched them all but later on cropped everything else but Mrk 6. I could do so much better with those objects without the moon. What I find amazing is that both Markarian 6 and Stock 1 are not listed in MegaStar V5. SkyMap Pro shows them both though. Anyway, Mrk 6 is a small and poor cluster in the SW border of the nebula IC 1805. Despite the small number of stars and size the cluster is quite obvious. Brightest star is a variable(?) V529 Cassiopeia.

"Small chain of 12 stars mags 8-12. Both stars in the S are doubles. Two questionable stars spotted (see arrow)."

Markarian 6 with 4.7" Sky-Watcher @ 120x

The Pleiades was still behind trees and was too lazy to walk 2 meters to the other side of the house to spot it. So I went back in and washed my teeth (it was already close to 2am). 15 minutes later M45 was high enough so I went after it. The view was quite beautiful - 40mm eyepiece gave me 2° 23' field of view and Pleiades fitted into it perfectly. In the end I wasn't happy with the result of the sketch so I will have to do it again another time.

20.7.2009 / Collinder 399

2009-07-21T00:00:00.008+03:00

Obs. place: Koivukylä, Vantaa, Finland
Date: 20./21.7.2009
Bortle class: Class 5 (Suburban sky)
NE Lim.mag: - (twilight)
Background sky: 5
Seeing: 3-4
Transparency: - (twilight)
Sky conditions: Sun -8° 45' below the horizon
Weather: +13.5°C, humidity 93%, air pressure 1002 HPa, NE wind 5.2 m/s.

As usual the season did not start with a bang but with something else. I received my new set of eye pieces and I wanted try them out. What better way to do so but to go out in bright twilight and do your worst. The best bet was to go after something that is pretty much visible no matter what - asterism Collinder 399 / Coathanger.

The sad thing is the fact that this obvious asterism is still often cataloged as an open cluster. I've always had trouble understanding why.

1) It takes roughly 2 seconds in the eye piece to figure out that it is an asterism. (Visual) CMD is obviously not that of an open cluster.

2) Proper motion data from the Hipparcos satellite (1997) shows no link in star motions.

3) Back in the 1970s(!) a study (Hall and Landingham) found out that the "cluster" had only 6 members. Hello?

And of course the cluster has no business in being in the Collinder-catalog to begin with as it only lists open clusters. So at least in my mind Collinder 399 is a clear asterism.

Having said that one could say Cr 399 is not on my top anything list but it is on Sky Atlas 2000.0 and this was a good day to start the season before the upcoming trip.

"Obvious asterism in Vulpecula. Size roughly 90' x 45'. Brightest star orange, one to the NE slightly red, rest light blue. The 40mm Celestron Omni and Deluxe 45° diagonal (99% pass) provided an excellent image". In loving memory of Kiri, my little queen of stars.

Collinder 399 with 4.7" Sky-Watcher @ 19x

See you space cowboy...

14.7.2009 / Preparation - Part 2

2009-07-15T00:00:00.000+03:00

Getting it all together

One of the key aspects in my observing is mobility. So how to get all the gear (or at least some if it) to fit into something that can be easily transported by me driving a bicycle? This is where my 40 litre backpack comes in handy. When you consider that the length of the tripod is over 90 centimeters (35 inches) it won't fit into a regular backpack. The amount of gear to carry is not that massive and the weight is not a problem either:

I packed everything up and it did indeed all fit in. Being maybe a bit on the large-side and missing some external beauty but it gets the job done. Trust me it is all in there. Stuffed, packed, hacked, slashed and kicked:

Making the most of it

Speed is the key in astronomy - especially when you have roughly 30 good clear nights in a year so you don't want to waste a single night in thinking what to look tonight. So just as I did with my last large project I have divided all the objects in the northern hemisphere to four different categories based on difficulty and sky quality requirements as follows:

Class 1 - Bright suburban sky (limiting magnitude 5.2 - 5.8)
Class 2 - Suburban sky (limiting magnitude 5.8 - 6.4)
Class 3 - Rural sky (limiting magnitude 6.5 - 6.9)
Class 4 - Truly dark sky (limiting magnitude >7.0)

For example all galaxies are added into classes 3 or 4 and will mostly be observed under rural skies. Some brighter open clusters and asterisms are in class 1 which means they can be observed even with the moon up and/or from a more light polluted location than rest of the objects. This all will save considerable amount of time.

Here are some examples from Sky Atlas 2000.0 Chart 1:

Class 1: NGC 869 & NGC 884, Stock 2, NGC 1545, Messier 34
Class 2: NGC 957, NGC 663, NGC 129, NGC 1023, Messier 76
Class 3: Tombaugh 5, NGC 1245, NGC 2403, IC 342, IC 1805, IC 1848
Class 4: All dark nebulae, Sh2-205, IC 10, PK 158+17.1, PK 164+31.1

The fate of Hyperion

I have only once eye piece that I'm particularly proud of - the Baader 21mm Hyperion. It is of good quality has a nice leather pouch (must be Kosher too) and a sturdy box to keep it safe. The problem is the weight: whooping 410 grams! Having used it a few times on my 8" Orion DSE it completely changes the balance of the telescope. I have used it two times on my 3" Konus refractor and on both times it ended up with the entire telescope falling down. I'm not planning on trying this on my lovely 4.7" Sky-Watcher. I don't necessarily need the 21mm eye piece but compared to my whacked 8-year-old 20mm Sirius Plössl the difference is like kissing a frog instead of a real girl (no matter how funny the frog tastes).

It might be a good time to purchase new eye pieces as the old ones are mostly 8-year old Plössls. I will have to think about it and consult the only person I trust when it comes to choosing new equipment that need to be of good quality - Steve Waldee. But the fate of the Hyperion still remains.

12.7.2009 / Preparation - Part 1

2009-07-13T06:28:00.000+03:00

I wanted to secure a decent observing place with good views to the west and north before the season starts. I already have a so-so place in Sipoo with fairly good view to the east and south - roughly 11 kilometers by bicycle.

The new place I looked up from the map was located less than 10 kilometers to the NW from my house (by bicycle) in Tuusula. The only problem I could come up with beforehand is the heavy air traffic in the area. Most of the internation airplanes that land to the Helsinki-Vantaa airport probably go right above the spot - so close that you can nearly touch them and see the angry captain give you the finger.

After about 45 minutes of driving, the only reasonable place I could find was at an edge of a huge rye field. This might not be a very optimal place for me to do my business (high humidity/fog during Autumn) but this would have to do. I might have to find a better site later on and I did indeed note some "cliffs" near by. These might be an option. Anyway, the view from the spot looked like this from west to north:

I also bought a pair of waterproof gloves yesterday. These might come in handy:

10.-11.4.2009 / Tottijärvi, Nokia, Finland

2009-04-10T10:00:00.001+03:00

Telescope: 4.1" Tal-1
Obs. place: Tottijärvi, Nokia, Finland
Date: 10./11.4.2009
Bortle class: Class 3
NE Lim.mag: - (not measured)
Background sky: 2
Seeing: 1-2
Transparency: 2
Weather: +0°C, no wind, 98.1% moon rising from the east.

There was a small chance of clear skies on the 10th so I packed up some gear with me before taking the 200 km train trip to my in-laws with the apple of my eye.

It did clear up on that night and luckily this time I was, in some way, ready for it. I had no observing plan (which is quite typical of me) but was armed with my laptop and my girlfriend's Tal-1 telescope. I estimated I had approximately 2 hours before the moon would start to interfere badly enough to call it quits so I had to be quick.

I started with something simple and easy that I could locate without maps - Messier 37 in good old Auriga. I am not at all pleased with any of the previous sketches I have of it so here was my chance. The sky was still quite bright and twilight was obvious but I didn't have much time to waste. The shape came out pretty peculiar but I was still pleased enough to scan and upload it. The best view came with 107x. I counted roughly 90* of different colors (mostly light blue and few reds and oranges) within a 10' radius.

Messier 37 with 4.1" Tal-1 @ 107x

After sketching M37 I moved the telescope gently down to Cancer and M67. The cluster is one of my favorites. Maybe it has something to do with the first time I viewed the cluster and clearly saw an octopus or maybe not but there just is something about this ancient cluster I just find hypnotizing. It is quite not as rich looking as M37 with small apertures but still is quite the eye catcher. To keep the cluster as compact as possible I decided to go with the 64x for the field of view.

Messier 67 with 4.1" Tal-1 @ 64x

The best was yet to come. Viewing NGC 3172 has nothing to do with the Sky Atlas-project but I've always wondered if it could be spotted in an instrument smaller than 6". In the 1996 book "Syvä Taivas" ("Deep Sky" in English) the author and legendary deep sky observer Risto Heikkilä states that "The galaxy can be seen even with small instruments. Stephen Knight from Maine, US has reported seeing the galaxy even in a 6" telescope". So could I do it? The moon was rising from the east and it was going to be big and ugly. Wolfgang Steinicke's NGC-data has the galaxy listed at 14.4 (v) magnitude with a surface brightness of 13.9. This does seem a tad bit too faint. Uranometria field guide has it at 13.8 (v) magnitude and surface brightness at 13.5. This seems to be closer to the truth.

I popped quickly back in house to get my laptop and a printed map of Uranometria's page 1 (which proved totally useless). I thought that even if the galaxy itself was invisible I could do some limiting magnitude tests with the telescope. Luckily that wasn't necessary. Using the telescope @ 162x I was able to spot a faint but still an obvious round, even brightness glow in the correct position - SE from the star GSC 4644-0086. I sketched all the stars in the field and the faintest one visible was roughly 14.8 (v) magnitude.

NGC 3172 / Polarissima Borealis with 4.1" Tal-1 @ 162x

I have to say I was quite pleased. All this was done with a low quality 3x barlow lens and even worse quality 15mm Kellner eye piece. I'm sure I could have gone a lot deeper with my own Baader Hyperion oculars.

I had time for one more object before the girlfriend would be out and demanding to see something more... "rewarding" with her telescope. I wanted to try for a planetary I haven't seen in a few years - IC 3568. I maxed out the magnification and long story short, here is the result: "Bright disk with a fairly bright central star".

IC 3568 with 4.1" Tal-1 @ 321x

Just when I was finished the lady came out all keen in seeing a planetary nebula and Saturn. I showed her NGC 6543 and moved away so that Saturn wouldn't destroy my night vision. I was quite amazed at what she could see. I made her sketch all the "stars" near Saturn (to see if she could see any of the moons) and you know what, she spotted 4 moons without any difficulty. One of them was Hyperion roughly at magnitude 14.2! At this point the moon was already above the horizon and was lighting up the entire eastern sky so it was time to pack up and go to bed. Lovely and very relaxed session after all.

26.-27.3.2009 / Hindsby, Sipoo, Finland

2009-03-27T09:00:00.000+02:00

Telescope: 4.7" Sky-Watcher
Obs. place: Hindsby, Sipoo, Finland
Date: 26./27.3.2009
Bortle class: 4 (Rural / suburban transition)
NE Lim.mag: ~6.5 (UMi - SAO 8211)
Background sky: 3
Seeing: 2
Transparency: 2-3
Sky conditions: Light domes evident in SW-NW
Aurora activity: None (~10 nT/sec)
Weather: -7.7°C, humidity ~58%, no wind

This was a very quick session - less than an hour. I was searching for a decent observing spot no more than 20 minutes away (by car) from the house. The good thing was that the observing spot I had in mind is less than 10 kilometers away with limiting magnitude clearly above 6 in the best direction (east). This would have to do as I find it a great waste of time to drive around in the dark looking for something better. Scouting for a better location is best done in daylight and with a bicycle.

Now to the observing part. I have plenty of objects I've drawn a million times but the sketches end up looking like crap for one reason or another. One of these objects is the Double Cluster (NGC 869 / NGC 884) in Perseus. I've sketched it at least a dozen times with at least 5 different telescopes but the results have always been poor at best. I've sketched it on twilight and with the full moon (removing fainter background stars). I've tried my best with high magnification, low magnification, medium magnification and whatever comes in between but none of these just seems to do the trick.

The pair was setting behind the tree line and sitting in some light pollution so here was my final chance to get it right. I started with NGC 884. Here is my description "More scattered than NGC 869 with about 80* within 20'. Three stars have obvious red color rest blue/white. Two clumps of stars slightly W from the center. A lot of empty space in the E side of the cluster".
NGC 884 with 4.7" Sky-Watcher @ 61x

Next was NGC 869 that I didn't find quite as impressive: "Not as rich or as colorful as 884 but more concentrated toward the middle. Needs more magnification than 884. . ."

NGC 869 with 4.7" Sky-Watcher @ 76x

I moved north to Stock 2 in Cassiopeia. I've always liked the "8 Persei Cascade" that leads from the Double Cluster to Stock 2. It contains roughly 10 stars of magnitudes 5.8 - 9.6 and is actually visible with the naked eye as a "stick" pointing to NW. A little like the "Golf Club" asterism next to NGC 752. I sketched the cluster with 25mm Sirius Plössl eye piece which obviously wasn't the best of choices. I should have tried the 40mm Plössl instead providing the tasty field of view of 2° 32'. The description was as follows: "Rich and very large open cluster. Low in the sky. Impressive with small apertures and small magnifications. The "Muscleman" shape was obvious but not so in the sketch.".

Stock 2 with 4.7" Sky-Watcher @ 30x

Last in line was NGC 7789. Under darker skies (or a larger telescope) the several dark lanes run across the face of the cluster making the view truly breathtaking and find it safe to say it is Cassiopeia's finest. My description of the object says: "Rich cluster with a strong background glow. Roughly 40* resolved within 15' area. Only a few field stars sketched to save time.

NGC 7789 with 4.7" Sky-Watcher @ 61x

And that was that.