Blogs

Report - 08/31/2007

Used Bushnell 8x50 binos; Night Sky familiarization session. Also specific point to identify M31 (andromeda)

Also intended to re-locate yesterday's pattern, and see if I could identify enough points in the sky to identify it on a start chart.

Made a specific point of going out before moon rise. Started off with locating (again)
-the big dipper and the little dipper (tough with the light skies and cloud cover).
-casseopeia (seemed overly bright compared to the rest of the night sky)
-observed most of draco (partly masked by the clouds)
-observed Cepheus

Due to the tree line's close proximity, I moved in front of the barn (about 100 yards east), and made a specific point of looking for Pegasus's main ‘diamond' pattern. Per the assistance of some previous research on www.earthsky.org/skywatching, I followed their instructions to the "Great Square". A very tough task considering that the bottom ‘point' (aka home base using the baseball diamond analogy) was blocked by the clouds. Regardless, I was successful in locating the of the 4 stars, including Alpheratz, which in turn allowed my to locate Mirach , and then Mu Andromedae. Once that was done, it was an easy task (relative) to join the two stars, and continue to the fuzzy spot, straight up from Mu Andromedae the same distance it is from Mirach.

Although using the binos allows for a less than spectacular view of Andromeda, the very fact that I found something in the sky, not normally visible with the naked eye is an awesome feeling. Within the binos, andromeda was perhaps the size of a dime, in a circle the size of a basketball/soccerball, but what excitement!!!

It'll be really cool to get hold of a telescope with better aperture to get a better look at M31, maybe even get a photo of it...

Once finished, I took a quick walk to the driveway (about 400 yard west) because the clouds had moved, and took a good look at the Big Dipper. It was about this time that the moon started to rise.

Spent about 10 minutes watching the rising moon, and saw the "man in moon". Almost looked like a lady/woman with longish hair

Before finishing up for the night, I decided to relocate the pattern Jan had discovered last night. After looking for at the 3-star "helper pattern", for about 10 minutes, and downloading Cartes du Ciel, I've concluded that it is I've concluded these 3 stars are ALSHAIN, ALTAIR and TARAZED, which are the beta, alpha and gamma stars in the constellation AQUILA.

The pattern we saw last night, is about halfway between the direct path between ALTAIR and VEGA the two brightest stars in that particular region of space. Using cartes des ceils, the pattern falls directly in blue overlay of CR399. A quick google of CR399, reveals that this is known as "Brocchi's Cluster" or as the asterism of the "COATHANGER". Granted, using terrestrial binoculars, the coathanger appears upside down, but still pretty cool. If I ever get a telescope that I can connect to a camera, I'll make a point of photographing this for an ongoing collection.