Gail and I are hoping to end the Binbrook observing drought this Friday night. If the promised clear sky materializes, we’ll open the gate about 7:30pm.
Check back for confirmation – I’ll post by 6pm, Friday.

Saturday, February 25, 2006

Trying to observe, last night, was a lot like trying to cross a busy street. Though the low level winds had subsided, the upper level continued to push through batches of clouds that had me swinging the scope all over the sky.
Despite that, the transparency over Grimsby was quite good and the sight of Saturn sitting adjacent to a pretty combination of stars and moons made the effort worthwhile.
The sucker holes also afforded me brief glimpses of Nebulae M42, M43, M78, NGC2071, and open clusters NGC2244, NGC2112, and NGC2232.
A nice comparison, right now, is Aldebaran and Mars. Exhibiting nearly the same colour and brightness, if you observe Aldebaran first, the roundness of Mars is a good example of what to look for when identifying Uranus and Neptune among their neighbouring stars.
I just had time for a quick visit with M81 and M82 before the “busy street” turned into a parking lot but it was nice to finally do some observing.

I have received an update to the recent outburst of RS Ophiuchi to naked eye levels (mag 4.8). This recurrent nova has not outburst to naked eye levels since 1985. If it dims according to past observations, it should lose about 0.1 magnitudes a day for about a month, returning to normal in about 110 days.

For those that may want to look the star up with planetarium software, Starry Night Pro does not list RS Oph in its variable database. However a similar star in the vicinity with the same J2000 co-ordinates is TYC5094-550-1.

According to the AAVSO ?A? level chart (1744-06A), RS Oph is almost midway on an imaginary line between the globular cluster M14 and M16, the Eagle Nebula. It should be possible to frame M14 with RS Oph in a pair of 7×35 binoculars!

The original Special Notice #6 concerning RS Oph is listed at this link:

http://www.aavso.org/publications/specialnotice/6.shtml

The update was released as Alert Notice #335 and is available at this link:

http://www.aavso.org/publications/alerts/alert335.shtml

Charts for this recurrent nova are available at this link:

http://www.aavso.org/cgi-bin/searchcharts3.pl?name=rs%20oph

Variable star observing is a fun and rewarding aspect of amateur astronomy and is one of the many ways that amateurs can contribute to real science. Unlike supernova hunts or astro-imaging, it does not require a great deal of hardware to start; a pair of binoculars or small telescope will do just fine.

With no Moon, and good seeing and transparency, last night was a rare one, of late, for backyard astronomers. Gail and I set up our 6″ reflector and immediately went to M42. As soon as we saw the Trapezium, sitting like 4 diamond chips, at low power (57x) we knew we were in for a good session.
The nebula, itself, looked like a hawk with outstretched wings, the southern portion extending right out of the 1 degree FOV.
As I looked up to get my bearings, a short, bright, meteor flamed down from Kappa Orionis and burst into fragments close to Mu Leporis.
Saturn was a real joy with Titan, Rhea, Tethys, and Dione. We also checked out galaxies M81/M82, M1 the Crab Nebula, M44, M45, and Polaris and it’s companion.
I finished the night by tracking down M79, a small glob below Lepus. Anytime I can see this from Grimsby, I know I’ve had a decent session. Hope you had a good one too!

Saturday, January 21, 2006

Although it was a promisingly clear night, members of the HAA “working group on planetary definition, and other related stuff” (HAAWGOPD,AORS) gathered at Teamster’s Hall for a thoroughly entertaining discussion.
Many informed and interesting opinions were expressed, and some general consensi were reached.
For a synopsis of our conclusions be sure to attend the February 10th meeting and pick up a copy of Event Horizon.

If Sunday’s clouds don’t encroach on Saturday night, we may be able to get in a Moon/Mars session at Binbrook.
We’d probably open up about 7’ish, but we’ll see how the weather is. Check back Saturday afternoon.

With the last few weekends dedicated to public Mars viewings, we hope to get back into the Binbrook observing sessions soon. Check here often for upcoming dates and times. Directions to the observing sites can be found via the links to the right.