30th/31st August 2010 - Report

Another beautiful day and with no wind. I was very tempted to go observing at Bragan but with a busy day ahead of me in the morning I decided to stay at home and make the most of my time.
The plan for tonight is to finish of my double tour in Cassiopeia and then make my way onto some of the doubles in Cepheus and then start to capture those images of Jupiter and the Moon that I tried to get from the other night.

Seeing = 3
Trans = 2

Equipment = EQ6 Pro, 4" Refractor, Laptop and ToUcam.

Location = Home

Start Time = 22:48

Eat Cas = It is nice to start my night off with a good old favourite. Looking really good with strong colours.

Lambada Cas = A might find double. A very tight pair and the secondary is very faint, which can easily be overlooked by the brightness of the primary star. A great sight and well worth the effort.

Sigma Cas = Another tight pair and another beautiful view. 196x splits this double very nicely. Very little colour to pick up on, both very white.

TYC 3664 = An interesting view. Even at 196x the pair seems to be touching and both are similar size. If it were not for the decent seeing conditions I would not have seen this well enough to tell it was a double.

HIP398 = Another little gem and a real test of eye sight. The secondary star is so faint it took me some time to see it but once I did it was a pleasure. I highly recommend this, if just for the fun of the effort at least.

6 Cas = Almost identical to 398, with the differences being the primary star an orange colour and the secondary on the opposite side of the primary.

Pi Cep = Primary star is a lovely orange/red with the secondary very tight to the primary.

Alfirk = This made a lovely change with a lime green coloured primary star. The secondary is well separated.

HIP109474 = Average looking pair. Not much to write about here.

Kurhah = A lovely sight and a great way to end my session on doubles for the night. Strong colours dominated the view of this double, that provides a memorable view.

Uranus = 196x gave a nice view. The planet disk was apparent and there was also a nice hint of pale green.

Neptune = More star like than planet in appearance but there was a hint of blue.

Jupiter = A quality view. The 8 mm gave the best view with excellent detail in and around the zones and bands. With my imaging problems fixed from the previous nights griefs I got the camera into the eye piece and began recording my AVIs

Moon = I did not bother with a visual observation this time, I went straight into imaging. All equipment worked really well and I achieved very good focus.

Finish Time = 01:06

I had a great time out. Highly fulfilling and that nice feeling of a great night of observing being done.
My imagine results were rather good. Not brilliant but with the short time I spent on them I am pleased with the results.

29th/30th August 2010 - Report

It was a beautiful day with strong winds but those winds calmed down to gentle breezes by night time. The sky quality was very good with a great freshness in the air but it was also very chilly for the time of year so unlike my other nights out at home observing in my bed clothes and slippers I had to dress up for this one.
The plan tonight is to observe double stars in or around Cassiopeia and then, once rising high enough, attempt to image Jupiter and the Moon.

Seeing = 3
Trans = 3

Equipment = EQ6 Pro, 4" Refractor, Laptop with Starry Night and ToUcam Pro.

Location = Home

Start Time = 22:27

HIP8362 = A rather bland looking double at first appearance. A well separated pair and the primary star displays a strong gold colour.

HIP9312 = This is a fun double. The secondary star is so small and faint that I could only see it with averted vision. There were no apparent colours to me but a very nice pair regardless.

Iota Cass = A stunning triple! It has been a long time since I've seen any new triple systems and this one certainly has the wow factor to it. It takes a lot to split the star into all three members. My 8.1mm Hyperion showed two stars but averted vision kept making me think that I was seeing something very close to the primary star, so I put in the 5.1mm and sure enough there was a third star. Faint and very close to it's parent star. Starry nights' online info about the system said that the two stars are 100AU and 300 AU away from Iota. That to me was a rather mind blowing fact, considering that most doubles you look at are many times that distance from their parent stars. A thrilling observation and one I spend a long time looking at.

48 Cass = Quite a lovely but extremely tight pair which took all the magnification I could manage to split but once split it was a fine sight indeed.

HIP8626 = A standard looking double. Well separated with and orange coloured primary star.

HIP5950 = Very plain and standard looking indeed, with a large separation.

Psi Cass = Beautiful double. The primary star is large and golden yellow in colour with the secondary star a small and faint with a pale white appearance.

Theta Cass = A very tight double that needed the 5.1mm to split and a very pleasing sight to see, which seems to be a recurring pleasure with all the tight doubles tonight.

Moon = I decided that it was now time to start capturing some AVIs in the hope to make a small mosaic of the terminator. It took a long time for me to get things working because during set-up and trying to focus the image on my laptop screen the drivers for the cam corrupted and resulted in my seeing nothing but a black image no matter what I did. So I spent a long time downloading new drivers, editing the inf files so they would work with Windows 7. In the end I got all working and was able to capture 7 AVIs of the moon and two test AVIs of Jupiter. After this I packed up and went to bed and while in bed I had the laptop with me to try stacking the AVIs to preview the results but I was quickly disappointed to discover that during my annoyance of have to fix the cam I forgot to set the resolution to its highest so all my recordings were tiny and useless.
At least everything is working again and will, hopefully, be problem free the next night I use this equipment.

Finish Time = 01:44

21-22nd August 2010 - Report

I am beginning to feel spoiled by the amount of observing time I've had recently. Mainly due to the unexpected clear spells during the night. Unexpected they may be but I am still very thankful for them all the same.
The only problems with tonight was the moon and the high levels of moisture in the air caused by the shocking down pours of rain from a few shower clouds earlier in the day. Strangely enough I never encountered any dew problems. On nights like these I'd usually be plagued with wet equipment and eyepieces but I never once felt a wet surface or had to de-mist a eyepiece.
The plan for tonight was the same as last night, double star observing - focused around Cygnus - and using my laptop to control the mount as an aid to finding those tricky stars. With the lessons learned from last nights setting up it only took me a few minutes to get everything ready and fully operational.

Seeing = 3
Transparency = 2

Equipment = EQ6 Pro, 4" Refractor and laptop with Starry Night Pro 6.

Location = Home

Start Time = 23:35

52 Cygni = A fine sight. I enjoy this double more every time I see it. Beautiful size differences between primary and secondary stars and lovely rich colours.

48 Cygni = Nothing exciting with this pair. A large separation. This could look nice in binoculars.

49 Cygni = This is a stunning double. It took the 5.1mm to split it but the view of the companion was a delight, to say the least. The primary star was a rich amber colour with the companion exhibiting a lovely diamond blue.

E2700 = An average looking pair that  are well separated from each other and easy to see at low power. Good display of colour though, with a reddish shade for the primary and a deep blue for the companion.

E2705 = A delightful pair looking like two pin points of light and close together. I could not detect any sense of colour from either star but observing with the 5.1mm made for a fine view indeed.

44 Cygni = I knew trying to split this was a long shot and even after spend quite a bit of time and even trying the 2x barlow lens along with the 5.1mm failed to split the pair.

Lambda Cygni = Not a very excitable pair, rather bland in colour and appearance.

E2762 = A lovely pair. The companion start is so small looking beside its primary that it could easily be overlooked. Both stars seemed to appear as cyrstal blue in colour.

69 Cygni = Average, standard looking double with a large separation. Not much to write about here.

61 Cygni =  A neat pair of similar size and colour, which appears as a copper orange.

60 Cygni = Another lovely pair, with the companion very faint and close to the primary. The 5.1mm and averted vision help to show the loveliness of this pair.

59 Cygni = A nice pair that is similar to 60 Cygni but with more separation and the companion being a brighter star.

Omicron 1 Cygni = It has been a while since I observed this system and the striking colours are a wonderful sight indeed, with one of the stars in the group being a, rare, green colour.

Jupiter = A great view. Not as fantastic as last week perhaps but still highly detailed with the GRS clearly visible and all the moons we on view.

Finish = 01:12

20th August 2010 - Report

It was an unexpectedly, partly, clear night. After a night and morning of terrible heavy rain and strong winds persisting through out the day. It was a welcome sight to see clear skies after such weather.
I decided to stay at home and have some fun with my equipment. I was in the mood for double star observing and for a long time now I wanted to properly use my laptop and Starry Night Pro to control my mount and make observing those hard to find double stars easy to observe.

Seeing = 3
Transparency = 2

Location = Home

Equipment = EQ6 Pro, 4" Refractor, Laptop and Starry Night Pro 6

Start Time = 23:12

Sheliak = A nice triple system, all of a similar colour. I always meant to observe this as it's a star that famous to me through Star Trek: The Next Generation.

17 Cygni = A very tight double which was a pleasure to observe. The 8mm eyepiece just managed to split this.

Finish = 23:44

In typical Irish weather fashion the weather decided it would be a brilliant time to cloud over while I was observing my second object. The night end far, far sooner than I had expected but it was time well spent getting my laptop and mount setup, configured and teaching myself how to used it correctly.
As always when you try to use technology there will always be problems to over come and spending time on getting this all set up did use up a lot of valuable clear skies time. At least now I know what is involved and how to troubleshoot any connectivity problems that can occur so future setups like this should only take a few minutes.

14th August 2010 - Report

The forecast was predicting a clear night even though the day has been completly overcast with heavy cloud. Looking at the weather data online showed that clear skies were moving in for early eveing so I decided to trust the data and load my equipment into the car for a night up at Bragan. Sure enough, by 19:00 the coud started to break and a lovely skies quickly took over.
Two club members joined me for the night but I arrived at the site first and the drive up the mountain I was graced by a fine sunset with a setting moon. It was a beautiful setting to what was going to turn out to be an fine sight.

Seeing = 3
Transparency = 3

Location = Bragan
Equipment = EQ6 Pro & Orion 10"

Start Time = 23:21

The observations for the night are as follows:

M54 = Being so low down I expected this to look average at best and it was rather poor. Starting for a while did start to reveal some stars but otherwise this cluster just looked washed out and blurry.

M22 = A beautiful sight, with so many stars giving a great sense of depth. A rare treat.

M25 = A rather sparse OC that doesn't show very well in a scope but good colour difference could be seen well.

M16 = Pretty much the same thing as M25 and, sadly, no sign of the nebula.

M8 = The best nebulosity I have seen with this nebula but the image was very blurry due to its low position.

M20 = A decent view with a clear view of faint nebula and the dark lanes were easily onbserved.

M21 = A very small OC with only a handful of stars to observe but still pretty to look at.

M23 = A fine sight. Wonderfully dispersed and the imagination can run wild tying to creat asterisms.

M17 = Not as good as last year but still very good. The image of the swan was still very pronounced and strong.

NGC 6781 = Very stong nebula structre. There was actually to much detial seen to be able to see the wonderful faint ring that makes this nebula famous and such a pleasure to observe.

M27 = Looking very good.

NGC 6888 = Very faint. Using AV for a long time shows a ghostly arch. Certainly not my best view.

M75 = A very small and compact looking gobular cluster, appearing nothing more than a fuzzy ball

NGC 7293 = With help from the UHC-S filter I was able to see the Helix for the first time. It was still very faint, and completely invisible with out the filter, but what little detail there was the shape of the nebula was evident and made this a thrilling first time observation.

M15 = As usual, a stunning view with mass of stars.

M2 = Every bit as good as M15. Simply marvlous.

Stephan's Quintet = A fair view, considering the average transparency, with four out of five in the group visable and well seen when viewing conditions permits.

Jupiter = Easily one of the best observations I have ever had. Exquisit details in the zones and bands and the red spot very prominant. This was a view that certainly had the wow factor.

NGC 891 = A fair view of this elusive galaxy. Shape and structure was decent but not hint of the lovely dark features through the centeral region.

NGC 772 = A new object for me and surprisingly good, much better than I was expecting. A bright core with an irregular looking shape.

Finish = 03.15

13th August 2010 - Report

A very cloudy day but the weather forecast did show the night to be clear so I made the decision to join in on the NIAAS annual Perseid meteor watch and BBQ at Killylane.
I also invited my brother along, to which he agreed.

I didn't bring any equipment with me apart from my reclining chair, laser pointer and 15x70 binoculars. I never used the binoculars though so it was an observing night with a set of eye balls only.
There was a nice display of perseids but not as many as I was hoping for.

I did have a gander through Stevie's C6 to see Jupiter, M29 and a very good view of Uranus.

The night was a shortish one as cloud thickened up just after 1am but the food was good and the company and banter even more so.

10th August 2010 - Report

At last! My first night out of the new observing season, after a summer of bad weather that felt too long and no chance for observing. It felt exciting to be out again.

Seeing = 3
Trans = 3

Location = Home
Equipment = EQ6 and Orion 10"

Start Time = 23:20

M57 = A really fine sight with the nebula very bright in appearance along with some good detail. I looked at this for quite some time.

M27 = A wonderful view. The nebula filled the FOV of the 8mm and after staring for some time I could pick out stars lying in around the same area of the nebula. The 20mm along with the UHC-S filter showed M27 in all it's glory.

M71 =  A fine view of a cluster that gets overlooked. A lovely swath of stars that were resolving nicely at all magnifications.

M56 = Resolving well. It has been some time since I looked at this globular cluster last while looking so well.

NGC 6960 = Superb structure, along with some lovely filament like details.

NGC 6995 = So delicate yet so intricate looking. The darker features between the nebulous regions and the areas where the blackness of space peak through and the stars scattered around this large expanse provides for a very moving sight. A truly beautiful part of this glorious SNR.

NGC 6826 = Quite possibly my best view of this PN. The center star showed very brightly and pin point and the strong and well defined nebula was well seen.

NGC 7331 = An average view. Not an ideal night for galaxy observing it seems but bright regions along the central regions provided something interesting to look at.

Almach = I couldn't end my night with out saying hello to my old friend and looking beautiful as always too.

End Time = 01:02

By this time the cloud had started to move in from the north and feeling quite fatigued it was time for bed. There were also some great Perseids on show too. It was a very short but very thrilling observing session and has really wetted my appetite for some serious nights out at Bragan. I just need to find an astronomy site that sells clear skies...