Since then, a lot of cloud, rain, and a few fogs impeded observing. The only clear nights during this past month were high percentage waxing gibbous moons and full Moon.
This has squeezed me on a project I’ve been meaning to try for the past few years, astro-limbo.
I got off to a bad start. Cutting firewood this afternoon, I was using my foot to hold still a fallen branch that I was cutting for kindling and 50-75mm billets with a bow saw. I got my foot caught in a branch fork. As I was falling, I managed to work my foot free so that I didn’t break an ankle or foot and rotated in mid air so that I fell flat on my back on the capping of a small brick retaining wall. Ouch!
I was really tempted to scotch the astro-limbo competition but tonight could be the last clear night in June and July is too late. I’d be forced to wait another two years as I’ll be travelling during limbo season next year.
I took the 18”
At this time of year, several
I set up the scope as the sun was setting, collimated it and left it to cool. I went inside and made myself a cruciferous vegetable based dinner. Brussels sprouts with onion, garlic, and parsley stalks sautéed in turmeric and mild curry powder served with wide ribbon pasta, a simple quick but quite delicious meal.
I went out a bit after astronomical twilight 6:30 pm and began observing. I had the transit times listed for each object. With such a short semidiurnal arc, it’s important to observe as the object culminates.
Conditions were interesting. Transparency was 3.5-4 / 5 but seeing was probably about 1/5, or worse. I was limited to using the Nagler 17 Type IV as my highest magnification eyepiece, a maximum magnification of about 150 and a field of 0.55o. However I mostly used the Nagler 31mm Type V.
M106 was the first to transit at 8:39 UT just minutes after the end of astronomical twilight. By the time I had sorted myself out, it was about 8:55 UT before I observed it. Wow at such a low altitude, and with awful seeing, it was large, diffuse and with only the barest of structure. I could pick up a condensed core, eccentric shape but no sign of the spiral structure. With my back sore and the tube almost horizontal, I had to use some novel observing squat positions to see through the eyepiece.
I moved straight on to M51. After M106, I wasn’t expecting much. But M51 did reveal some of its spiral structure and the outer linked spiral was easily visible.
Returning to the telescope, I moved onto M94. It’s smaller size and relatively high magnitude made this a brighter object. With the poor seeing, it resembled an elliptical galaxy more than its spiral form.
I moved onto M63. I have observed M63 previously and when growing up in SE Queensland. A hint of the dark lanes could be detected with one side of the galaxy obviously darker than the other. Rather than appearing as dark lanes, they appeared more like a dark void in the galaxy.
So with 4 primary targets observed, it was time for some fun. Next target was
Next I continued with my galaxy quest and moved onto
The waning gibbous moon was set to rise at 9:15. With transparency good, and I still couldn’t see any hint of a glow on the horizon at 8:40 so I spent the last few minutes on Eta Carina. Using the 17mm Nagler, the dark lane at PA 70 was just black black black contrasting nicely again the bright edge of the nebula.
With all the “how low can you go?” limbo observing, my back was definitely starting to complain after my late afternoon fall, dew was accumulating and the Moon was a risin', so I disassembled the 18"
Thanks for reading.
Joe
