Mt Shasta Stargazers Astronomy Blog

by Jim Havlice

Glancing out my window while munching down a quick dinner before the April Star Party, I noticed the limbs of the nearby trees moving in the wind. Hmmm … a slight breeze here in Weed. What will conditions be at Lake Shastina, well-known for its blustery conditions?

Driving to the site, it didn’t seem particularly windy on US 97. Maybe the wind will be calm this evening, I hope, I hope. After parking the car and starting to unload the Orion 10 inch Dob, I knew this was going to be a challenging evening. Whitecaps on Lake Shastina were physical evidence of the wind’s speed. Those whitecaps would be with us throughout the evening.

The skies weren’t promising either. High clouds were streaming in from the West. But with so few star parties this winter, I was anxious to give it a try. So were Russ and his sons and Ted and Betty who braved the unsettled conditions to finally try and view some faint fuzzies.

First up was not a faint fuzzy, but the thin sliver of a 2 day New Moon. No stars were visible yet, so we experimented with different eyepieces, including a new 68º 17 mm eyepiece. Wow – not only do you get quite a bit of magnification (70x in the Orion Dob) but a great wide view of the sky. We tried the eyepiece in Russ’s 12 inch Dob and could easily see the central “bump” in a complex crater. The shadows on the moon are very stark at this stage of the new moon, so the views were very impressive.

Venus was a bright glowing orb in the Western sky. While the “evening star” is bright, it isn’t all that interesting from a telescopic point of view. The planet is covered with clouds with hardly any variations. So, a quick glance and onward to other objects.

Next to appear was Sirius, the brightest star in the sky. By now, the high clouds to the west began to dissipate and the sky became clear of clouds. However, the “seeing” (due to turbulence) was quite poor. It may have been particularly bad because observations were being made over the wind-churned lake. The wind was so strong that it shook our telescopes. We tried moving our cars to a position where they could partially block the wind. But, sadly, that didn’t work. I checked an out-of-focus image of Sirius and the turbulence could clearly be seen in the shimmering pattern.

Looking to the East, I saw what I thought might be Arcturus. I checked my planisphere – and, sure enough, the star should be rising. I need two stars to align the Orion Intelliscope – and Arcturus and Sirius would be perfect. First, I centered the ’scope on Sirius. Then, moving the ’scope to what I thought was Arcturus, I saw that it wasn’t a star at all. It was Saturn! Perhaps the most glorious sight in the heavens, Saturn was exceptionally clear this evening. The wind shook the ’scope, but it couldn’t lessen the great view of this gas giant. And, as a bonus, off to the side was Saturn’s giant moon Titan. Changing the eyepiece to give about 100x magnification, we all enjoyed one of the heaven’s best-loved sights.

At first glance, Titan may be mistaken as a star because, as the above diagram shows, Titan can be quite distant from the planet. But I am fairly certain that we saw Titan. None of Saturn’s other moons were evident.

Fifteen minutes or so had passed since starting the telescope alignment – and Arcturus, with its bright orangy glow, now appeared just above the hill behind our observing site. This time I was able to successfully align the telescope using Sirius and Arcturus.

What to look for? How about a globular cluster? I pushed “M” and “3″ on the handheld computer unit for Messier 3. Pushing the ’scope into position, M3 in Canes Venatici was nearly centered in the eyepiece. This is a very pretty cluster, consisting of about 500,000 stars, with an apparent magnitude of 6.2, making it quite easy to see even with the light of the moon. There aren’t very many globs visible in the winter sky – so this was a welcome sight. The most famous glob – M13 – was rising, but was still hidden by the hill to the East of our observing site.

I decided to try for some double stars. Beginning with Castor, I was easily able to separate the two main star systems. I say systems because each of the two apparent stars is a binary. So, the Castor system is actually a quadruple star. But with the wind howling and the ’scope vibrating, there was no way to separate the close binaries.

Next, Mizar, a sextuple star system, in the handle of the Big Dipper. Mizar is a quadruple system and Alcor a binary. Mizar and Alcor are very easy to separate. In fact, they are so far apart that in a telescope they almost appear to be different star systems. I was able to separate Mizar A and Mizar B as shown in the photo below.

One of my goals for the evening was to view some galaxies. I tried to find several of them – and I think I saw them. But, there was enough light from the slivery moon that the contrast was really poor. The very windy conditions and unstable air didn’t help much either.

Before packing up for the evening, we chased down some open star clusters. But the wind was not diminishing – and it was starting to get cold. So, at about 10:15 PM we all decided to call it a night.

Conditions were not ideal – but it was so much fun to finally be able to get out and enjoy a night of star gazing. The location is actually quite good – there is a lot of open sky without much light pollution. The area is paved, there is lots of room, and there is a restroom. But the wind is a real negative – enough that I think we should look for an alternate spot for those evening when the wind is clearly going to be howling.

by Jim Havlice

Call it what you will: a fad, an obsession, a rite of passage. The “it” is the drive to see lots of deep space objects (DSOs) – in my case Messier Objects. In fact, I have begun a project to see all the Messier objects, recording in my log the date and time that I “bagged” one of sometimes elusive DSOs. The project gives structure to my night time viewing. Rather than dashing off randomly, I have a plan of action, a set of goals for the evening.

But DSO hunting requires a dark sky. Those “dim fuzzy things” are hard to find when the moon is shining brightly. Earlier in the  year, I would put away the telescope and wait for a new moon. But the warm evenings of August drew me out and I lugged my trusty ETX 125 MAK out onto the driveway to enjoy – what? The first evening, I “explored” the waxing crescent moon. Well, it’s right there, bright as can be.  And it was fun – I found myself lingering over details, like craters within craters. The moon is great for testing your optics at high magnification. I cranked the ’scope up to about 300x. But, your mount better be steady and your hand light on the focuser.

The next night was again warm and the moon larger and higher in the sky. I decided to spend an hour or so looking at stars – double stars, in fact. Strange, isn’t it, that we call ourselves the Mt Shasta Stargazers, but we (or at least I) spend so little time looking at stars? We search for star clusters, nebula, galaxies, planets, and moons.  Stars are often last on the list of things to look at! I placed the ’scope so the moon was hidden behind some tall pine trees – trees that often block DSOs, but now serve a useful purpose of avoiding the direct bright light of the moon.

Stars are a great choice in a moonlit night sky. Most are bright enough to “punch through” the moon glow. In fact, if my experience is valid, the varied colors of the stars are more evident with a brighter background.

Just before our first star party, one of our club members (Emily) suggested Albireo as a great double star for the group to view. Albireo is easy to find – it’s the head (or neck or eye) of the “Swan” in the constellation Cygnus. Or, if you prefer, it’s the bottom of the Northern Cross with Deneb at the top.  Deneb, Vega, and Altair form the “summer triangle.”

Albireo  is also quite easy to “split.” Even a small telescope will show the two stars and the beautiful color difference between them. Albireo is approximately 380 light years away from the Earth. These two nuclear balls of fire are comparatively far from each other and take about 75,000 years to complete a single orbit.

Another easy double, both to find and observe, is Mizar, the second to last star in the handle of the Big Dipper.

Even binoculars will show Mizar with its companion star Alcor. In a telescope at 75 power, Alcor and Mizar appear to be so far apart that it can be hard to associate the two as part of the big dipper handle. The stars in Albireo are separated by about 35 arc seconds; Alcor and Mizar are  separated by almost 12 arc minutes! (There are 60 arc seconds in 1 arc minute). But wait! Mizar itself is a double star – Mizar A and Mizar B. These two stars are separated by about 14 arc seconds. So, you may need to crank up the magnification to see the two Mizar components, but you should certainly be able to see them. Amazingly, both Mizar A and Mizar B are each a double star! So, there are actually FOUR stars in the Mizar system. Forget about seeing these doubles – they are too close to be resolved with our amateur ’scopes.

I wasn’t looking for a challenge. But one found me!  After easily viewing Albireo and Mizar, I turned my attention to epsilon-Lyrae, the famous “Double – Double” near the bright star Vega, now directly overhead in our clear August sky. The first problem was that epsilon-Lyrae is not listed on any of the “Go-To” name lists on my Meade Autostar – the computer that controls the telescope. Oh, oh. This writer has become very spoiled (lazy?) by the ease of finding objects using this “Go-To” computer. Now I would have to find the star “the old fashioned way!”  Still, with the star so close to Vega, how hard can it be?

Extend your arm and place the right side of your index finger on Vega. Epsilon Lyrae should be very close to the left side of your finger. That’s the theory. But in the fairly bright moonlit sky I had trouble seeing the star at all. It didn’t help that Vega is almost straight  overhead. The telescope has a right angle mirror that makes viewing easy. But the finder does not – and that means looking up in a very uncomfortable position trying to find the star. The finder is one of those “red dot” pointers with a coated glass plate that you look through. The glass plate diminishes the light enough so that, even when I thought I detected  the star with my bare eyes, I couldn’t see it through the finder. I have a new-found appreciation for those of you without a “Go-To”  ’scope who find those “faint fuzzies” on your own!

Eventually, I stumbled onto the double. At least I’m pretty sure it was the double. The two major components are separated by about 3.5 arc minutes – a very easy split.

But the double associated with each component are separated by only 2.3 to 2.6 arc seconds. I was about to crank up the magnification to see if I could split the stars when I noticed the image  degrading. A quick look showed drops of dew forming on the front corrector plate. Splitting the double double should be possible with my telescope. My ’scope has a theoretical angular resolution of 0.9 arc-seconds – so the stars are separated by about 2.5 times the resolution limit. But splitting will require clean, dew-free optics. Even a turbulent atmosphere can cause problems (the average size of a turbulent cell is about 1 arc second.) So, I  stopped for the evening.

The next night I tried again. Forgive me, but I cheated! During the day I looked  up the SAO  (Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory) number for epsilon-Lyrae (SAO 67310), entered the number into the Meade Autostar computer and hit GoTo. In just a few seconds I was staring at the double!  My neck thanked me.  At 73x magnification I couldn’t split the stars. Changing to 125x magnification, the stars seemed elongated, but definitely not split. Maybe the “seeing” wasn’t very good again. It probably doesn’t help that my driveway is asphalt and warms up considerably during the day. The heat radiating off the surface could cause enough problem turbulence to obscure the split.

I am looking forward to the next star party  where I won’t have any “asphalt” excuses. Perhaps one or more of the other telescopes there will try to split the “Double-Double”.

Even when the moon is shining brightly and those pesky “dim fuzzies” are obscured, explore the beauty of the great balls of fire.

Enjoy your night skies.

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