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Re: YRSP Tonight: it's a 'Go"
Troy...sorry, I won't be able to make it tonight. Good luck, don't freeze... Stu On Sat, Jan 4, 2025 at 8:03?AM Troy Riedel via <troy.riedel=[email protected]> wrote:
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YRSP Tonight: it's a 'Go"
Good morning, I'm making an early 'Go" call for tonight. It will be breezy today - more so Southside & Coast than up here at YRSP - but it should lessen later this AFTN.? Obviously, it will be cold so dress accordingly. I live nearby so I'm willing to go as late as people are comfortable?... (I know there is concern by some re: the temperature forecast - near freezing at sunset & dropping with 'feels like' temps. generally starting in the mid-20s and dropping). If no one shows up I'll pack-up, drive the 5-miles home & set-up in my driveway?? Cheers, Troy |
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Re: The Pleiades double challenge
Here are my results from the other night. STT 64 did see all three components after about 30 to 40 minutes work. SAO 76126 Just did the AB pair. G&H components not too hard separation, actually easy, but they are dim compared to Alcyone which draws your eye. Easily overlooked in the whole scheme. STF 450A not too bad. Cant remember the others but pretty sure the rational components were seen. I'll have to revisit and write notes. My impression was all were fun. Though some took a pretty fair amount of patience and eye strain. Maybe from your darker site they may be a bit easier. 12th magnitude in these skies is a real ghost. Can be done but you have to want it.
On Friday, January 3, 2025 at 12:58:14 PM EST, Roy Diffrient <mail@...> wrote:
Holy expletive Mark! ?At least one of those doubles looks maybe on the edge of impossibility. ?SAO 76126 is Celaeno, the faintest naked-eye star of the ¡°seven sisters¡± Pleiades at mag 5.46. ?It has two companions which might be possible (and a third, impossible at 0.006¡±): Sky Safari says the B star is mag 13.2 at 88.4¡± separation, and the C star is mag 11.5 at 217.6¡±. ?That¡¯s six magnitudes difference (!) for the ¡°easy¡± one that I think you intended. ?Extra credit for the B star? ?
?
Oh, but wait, this is all in a bright nebula! ?The Maia nebula, mag 5.4, puts it all in a fog, and the fog is lit up by Celaeno. ?Yeah, that should be a challenge ¨C hope I have a good transparent night to try for that one. ?Thanks for the eyestrain, Mark.
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Re: The Pleiades double challenge
Naw, draw the line at the ridiculous components! I try to stop at 11th magnitude more or less. Those are challenging enough.I didn't say it was easy :) I just changed the internal battery in the Losmandy. You have to know to set the location and time data quickly or the battery drains. OBTW a GEM mount may help with a few of these! I am keeping the mount control in the house prior to observing. Cold seems to kill batteries pretty quick. But it was most likely time to renew the battery anyways. Probably should be done annually anyways.
On Friday, January 3, 2025 at 12:58:14 PM EST, Roy Diffrient <mail@...> wrote:
Holy expletive Mark! ?At least one of those doubles looks maybe on the edge of impossibility. ?SAO 76126 is Celaeno, the faintest naked-eye star of the ¡°seven sisters¡± Pleiades at mag 5.46. ?It has two companions which might be possible (and a third, impossible at 0.006¡±): Sky Safari says the B star is mag 13.2 at 88.4¡± separation, and the C star is mag 11.5 at 217.6¡±. ?That¡¯s six magnitudes difference (!) for the ¡°easy¡± one that I think you intended. ?Extra credit for the B star? ?
?
Oh, but wait, this is all in a bright nebula! ?The Maia nebula, mag 5.4, puts it all in a fog, and the fog is lit up by Celaeno. ?Yeah, that should be a challenge ¨C hope I have a good transparent night to try for that one. ?Thanks for the eyestrain, Mark.
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Re: The Pleiades double challenge
Holy expletive Mark! ?At least one of those doubles looks maybe on the edge of impossibility. ?SAO 76126 is Celaeno, the faintest naked-eye star of the ¡°seven sisters¡± Pleiades at mag 5.46. ?It has two companions which might be possible (and a third, impossible at 0.006¡±): Sky Safari says the B star is mag 13.2 at 88.4¡± separation, and the C star is mag 11.5 at 217.6¡±. ?That¡¯s six magnitudes difference (!) for the ¡°easy¡± one that I think you intended. ?Extra credit for the B star? ?
?
Oh, but wait, this is all in a bright nebula! ?The Maia nebula, mag 5.4, puts it all in a fog, and the fog is lit up by Celaeno. ?Yeah, that should be a challenge ¨C hope I have a good transparent night to try for that one. ?Thanks for the eyestrain, Mark.
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The Pleiades double challenge
I got in a few hours of? observing before my Losmandy mount gave up the ghost with power failure indication. It truly does not like the cold weather. The battery had been sitting for a few weeks so I figured the battery was a bit low. I run the mount off 18 volts usually. This has happened before. Runs fine for two hours then just quits due to voltage drop. But anyways I did accomplish what I wanted to do tonight. Everyone has shown someone the Pleiades but there is more to the story. I looked for hard doubles within the cluster and there are quite a few that are challenging. All look like singles but are not. This is a fun challenge. I used the 5 inch tonight and had to run fairly high power for all but one or two. Here are the ID numbers: Otto Struve 64 SAO 76249 SAO 76236 SAO 76126 SAO 76189 Struve? 450A The G and H components of Alcyone Oh Jupiter had a very fine transit tonight. As Io transited off the face ahead of it's shadow another moon came around from the back of the planet. At the same time as Io was leaving, Ganymede came from in back of the planet on the opposite limb. Pretty good. Two moons right on the limb of Jupiter and one moon shadow. |
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Re: Reminder: YRSP Saturday Night, 4 January
Hey Troy. These clear winter early sunset nights are enticing. I am actually considering getting off my couch and coming up. Carpe Noctem Bill McLean
On Thursday, January 2, 2025 at 12:17:25 AM EST, Troy Riedel via groups.io <troy.riedel@...> wrote:
The good news: Transparency looks good & Seeing looks decent for wintertime.
The bad news: the Sunset temperature forecast is 30F, the 11PM temperature?forecast is 18F. Brrrr ... You know the drill ... if you need specific event details, please check-out last week's post re: our back-to-back December-January Saturday Nights. If the weather holds, I'll post an early 'Go' on Saturday. Layer-up folks, I doubt anyone can over-dress based on the forecast. Cheers, Troy |
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Re: Mars tonight
That's how it goes it seems. Red spot tonight on Jupiter around 10. I have an AR 152 but have not had much luck getting the power up for planets that require higher power. I do like it for deep sky though. Usually for solar system stuff and doubles I use my 2004 Stellarvue 102mm LOMO doublet or my ES 127 carbon triplet. Fortunately you can only use so much power on Jupiter anyways so actually my old (1989)? Stellarvue 80/9D achro does a pretty credible job for a quick look. I just ignore the purple. or use a 56A green filter. It has good detail for what was originally intended to be a good beginners scope. It actually is a very good scope by any standards. I don't expect mars to be like it was a couple of apparitions ago. It was low then but fairly larger in diameter. The best view ever, in a couple of decades worth, was with Kent's Takahashi 6 inch The last go around. We had one exceptional night and his 6 inch is a planet killer (albeit at great cost). Jupiter through that scope has to be seen. It is amazing.
On Thursday, January 2, 2025 at 11:44:47 AM EST, Troy Riedel via groups.io <troy.riedel@...> wrote:
100% agree. I used my 6" ES AR152 refractor instead of the C11. It was indeed "rough" as you said. On nights like this, I get my astro 'fix' from Jupiter b/c no matter how bad the seeing is, it's tough for The 'King Planets' to disappoint.
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Re: Mars tonight
Not much of one last night. Since Mars is about the same rotation as we are you get the same face for nights in a row.
On Thursday, January 2, 2025 at 11:08:32 AM EST, Ian Stewart <ian@...> wrote:
Thanks Mark - always like to read your observations. On 1/1/2025 10:38 PM, jimcoble2000 via
groups.io wrote:
Seeing was pretty rough as
expected with a cold front coming in. It was not impossible to
do any work on Mars but only the most rudimentary stuff. In
short, the usual. I toggled between 239x and 197x. Takahashi
TOE 3.3mm and Zeiss ZAO I 4mm respectively. As always, the
polar cap and Mare Boreum were fairly obvious. Mare Boreum is
the thin band of darker albedo surrounding the polar cap.
Being spring, the cap is not particularly large. Seeing
prevented seeing the darker areas at the bottom of the disc
opposite the pole very clearly. It was there but that's all I
could say about it. 30A magenta filter gave the most natural
coloring. I did use an 82A Light blue to see if any clouds
could be seen but none were visible to me. The 82A does light
up the cap though. Syrtis Major has not been on the disc most
of this observing year.
Selecting the right power is
always a bit of a judgment call. At 197 the disc was sharper
but seeing still presented a problem. At 239, seeing wasn't
that much worse and the disc is larger so maybe you can wait
for a moment of clarity. At least you have a larger disc to
work with should the miracle occur. It did not BTW.
Good news this go around:
Mars rides pretty high in the sky so less air to have to go
through.
Bad news this go around: Mars
is not as large as the last two apparitions.
Still fun and cold but
nothing to get up granny about.
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Re: Mars tonight
¿ªÔÆÌåÓýThanks Mark - always like to read your observations. On 1/1/2025 10:38 PM, jimcoble2000 via
groups.io wrote:
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Reminder: YRSP Saturday Night, 4 January
The good news: Transparency looks good & Seeing looks decent for wintertime. The bad news: the Sunset temperature forecast is 30F, the 11PM temperature?forecast is 18F. Brrrr ... You know the drill ... if you need specific event details, please check-out last week's post re: our back-to-back December-January Saturday Nights. If the weather holds, I'll post an early 'Go' on Saturday. Layer-up folks, I doubt anyone can over-dress based on the forecast. Cheers, Troy |
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Mars tonight
Seeing was pretty rough as expected with a cold front coming in. It was not impossible to do any work on Mars but only the most rudimentary stuff. In short, the usual. I toggled between 239x and 197x. Takahashi TOE 3.3mm and Zeiss ZAO I 4mm respectively. As always, the polar cap and Mare Boreum were fairly obvious. Mare Boreum is the thin band of darker albedo surrounding the polar cap. Being spring, the cap is not particularly large. Seeing prevented seeing the darker areas at the bottom of the disc opposite the pole very clearly. It was there but that's all I could say about it. 30A magenta filter gave the most natural coloring. I did use an 82A Light blue to see if any clouds could be seen but none were visible to me. The 82A does light up the cap though. Syrtis Major has not been on the disc most of this observing year. Selecting the right power is always a bit of a judgment call. At 197 the disc was sharper but seeing still presented a problem. At 239, seeing wasn't that much worse and the disc is larger so maybe you can wait for a moment of clarity. At least you have a larger disc to work with should the miracle occur. It did not BTW. Good news this go around: Mars rides pretty high in the sky so less air to have to go through. Bad news this go around: Mars is not as large as the last two apparitions. Still fun and cold but nothing to get up granny about. |
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Re: I just checked heavens above and that bright satellite I mentioned a couple of days ago. It was the solar sail.
Oh yes the brightest thing in the sky when? it does reflect
On Wednesday, January 1, 2025 at 02:46:20 PM EST, Will Kiff <modok4@...> wrote:
I didn¡¯t even know that nasa had a solar sail. I¡¯m out of the loop.? Will On Jan 1, 2025, at 1:43?PM, Mark Ost <jimcoble2000@...> wrote:
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Re: I just checked heavens above and that bright satellite I mentioned a couple of days ago. It was the solar sail.
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
On Jan 1, 2025, at 1:43?PM, Mark Ost <jimcoble2000@...> wrote:
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Re: Mars detail question
I hope it doesn't bother you because there are loads of them. The picture enclosed is a good example of what can't be seen telescopically.? But I do recall a couple of nights, 3 to 5 years ago, when things were certainly very good. But prior to that for the 20 previous years only fair views. That is the charm of the place. Mars makes you earn every square inch. One life time of observing may be enough. The greats could count seasons on one hand usually with maybe a finger from the other but not much more. Stand about twenty feet back from the picture, squint a bit and that is a good approximation.
On Wednesday, January 1, 2025 at 09:40:51 AM EST, Jonathan Scheetz <jonathan@...> wrote:
Thanks Mark.? I didn't really expect to see any surface detail in my scope.? When I set these kinds of challenges for myself I really don't expect to see anything.?
But sometimes I do get my hopes up but for some reason failures in astronomy never seem to bother me. I've probably looked for three times as many galaxies as I've ever seem but sometimes I get to see something I didn't expect. ?
According to SkySafari Olympus Mons was supposed to be about dead center in mars when I was looking for it (see attached photo).? But of course I didn't see anything - and didn't expect to.
?
You comment about a "big disc" got me attention so I went out and found some info on that (see attached) - I didn't realize that mar's diameter changed that much at opposition.
The next "big disc" will be in 2035 and then again in 2050.? ?I'll be pretty old by then but I'll try to make it. :)
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Based on some of the "comments" in Cloudy Nights I thought some of the folks in our group with big scopes might have been able to see Olympus Mons or the Tharsis Volcano grouping but based on your feedback I know that isn't possible.
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Thanks for the information.
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- Jonathan
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Re: Mars detail question
Thanks Mark.? I didn't really expect to see any surface detail in my scope.? When I set these kinds of challenges for myself I really don't expect to see anything.?
But sometimes I do get my hopes up but for some reason failures in astronomy never seem to bother me. I've probably looked for three times as many galaxies as I've ever seem but sometimes I get to see something I didn't expect. ?
According to SkySafari Olympus Mons was supposed to be about dead center in mars when I was looking for it (see attached photo).? But of course I didn't see anything - and didn't expect to.
?
You comment about a "big disc" got me attention so I went out and found some info on that (see attached) - I didn't realize that mar's diameter changed that much at opposition.
The next "big disc" will be in 2035 and then again in 2050.? ?I'll be pretty old by then but I'll try to make it. :)
?
Based on some of the "comments" in Cloudy Nights I thought some of the folks in our group with big scopes might have been able to see Olympus Mons or the Tharsis Volcano grouping but based on your feedback I know that isn't possible.
?
Thanks for the information.
?
?
- Jonathan
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Jonathan Scheetz
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