The perfect semi rural sky getaway? Maybe...Solstice Canyon National Park Malibu

Is this my perfect "close to home" semi dark sky getaway? Do I dare say that this is THE place. I don't know just yet. I stumbled on this place, just like I stumbled upon a fellow astronomer, of whom I am now proud to call my observing buddy, a couple of weeks ago. I was just taking a leisurely stroll down to Westwood from my workplace when I bumped into a sidewalk astronomer. Being the crazy person that I am, I went up to say hi and struck up a conversation. Terry was testing out his newly acquired Orion 80ST OTA on a VersaGo mount. Turns out that Terry works at UCLA and is an avid deep sky observer like me! Cool. The very fact that he works here makes it easier as we can meet ever so occasionally to observe together (time and weather permitting of course). Terry is the ultimate "grab and go" astronomer as has his scopes with him all the time so he can observe on a moments notice. His passion for visual stargazing is infectious. He takes the bus to Malibu to observe for goodness sake. NUFF SAID. If that is not passion, I don't know what is.

Anyways after exchanging some e-mails and having a lunch together, I decided to check out Terry's semi suburban/rural sky site, Solstice Canyon National Park. The drive there only takes about 30 minutes so its much closer than Pinos. The other good thing is that it has a view of the southern sky so Omega Centauri, Centaurus A and M83 are a go. The other plus is that I can pretty much go there any time of the year as it does not snow there like Pinos. So yeah so many pluses. Any downsides, I don't know. The site seemed pretty good and kinda dark (hard to tell with the waxing gibbous moon interfering with the views last Friday night). Also the other downside is that you have to walk in. The park gates are closed at night and it is illegal to park at the entrance, so yes there is a bit of a hike to get in (which means you are restricted to truly portable "grab and go" instruments). Fortunately I am at the stage of my observing career where I rather use easy to carry instruments. My 10" f/5 practically lives at home (well until we buy a bigger car or move to a townhouse) and even my 6" f/5 on a modified EQ/Alt/Az mount does not get much use (well it is my scope of choice when I go to Pinos). My main scope currently (much like Terry) is my Orion SkyScanner mini dob mounted on a Orion Paragon tripod. This setup is surprisingly good and solid (and extremely light)!

So what did we get up to last Friday night. Humm lets see. I started to fart around with some imaging (stupid me what was I thinking) using my 6" f/5. We had almost gale like winds that night so that was strictly a no go. I would try again next time I go, but this time it will be with the SkyScanner, if and only if there are no winds!!!!! The skies there were good enough to bag galaxies. Objects tallied that night include M42, the Orion Nebula (in the 6" as well before I got frustrated and packed the damn thing up as I had to observe close to the road where I parked my car.....with cars coming by it was a practice in frustration!), Pleiades, the Perseus double cluster, M41 in Canis Major, M46 and M47 in Puppis, galaxies M81, M82 and M51 in Ursa Major, M65, M66, NGC 3628 in Leo, M104, the Sombrero in Corvus. Was planning to stay up for Omega but ended my session a little past 12 midnight. I guess I no longer have the observing stamina I once had.....I blame it on lack of sleep brought on by being a parent hahahahha!!!!! Also it was super dumb of me to forget to pack my dark jedi cloak. Squinting in gale force winds is NOT fun for observing at all. Terry was way more focused and bagged some new objects he had never seen before, plus some old friends. My plan for the next time I go there is to explore the Camelopardalis region and well as sketch the cat's eye nebula (NGC 6543) in Hydra, as well as stay up to catch southern sky delights!!!!!

Lil baby steps.....afocal astrophotography with the Orion Steadpix Digital SLR mount

Wow talk about coming a long way. I have always been a visual astronomer, and to this day still yearn for my dark sky jaunts when I can hunt down some faint elusive galaxy (or galaxy clusters) with my light bucket, my GS 10" f/5 dob for sketching. But lately I have been getting the itch to dip my toes, or so to speak in some light and easy going astrophotography (if there is such a thing!). The word astrophotography usually conjures up images of super expensive, highly precise mounts and equally expensive CCD cameras and APO scopes. Then there is the steep learning curve associated with it. Well there is also the other side of the coin, afocal and webcam astrophotography of solar system (i.e. bright) objects. While that is cool, some rudimentary deep sky astrophotography is also doable. One might still need a tracking mount and some sort of device to hold the camera in place. This would not have been at all possible in the past with film cameras as one would have to expose the film for long periods of time to get a decent photo. This is where the super expensive and super precise mounts come in. With the advent of digital cameras, one can now mimic long exposures by taking short term exposures and then digitally "stacking" these images together to produce a chimeric long exposure. There are also many software packages that enables one to modify and enhance their images, the best being Adobe's Photoshop. So yes we have come a long way from the so called "dark ages" of astrophotography.

In order to do some basic astrophotography, one would need a digital camera that has a manual setting (to focus starlight at infinity). One also needs some sort of self built in timer to minimize camera shake. Any extra functions such as the ability to control the ISO settings and the exposure time (most digital's have this functionality anyway) will greatly improve your chances of getting workable images.

My initial forays into afocal imaging was met with frustration and grief. This was partly due to me using a non too suitable digital camera. I originally started imaging using my old 5 megapixel Kodak P850 (regular CCD chip). This camera has served me well over the years and I have taken some really spiffy wide angle shots of constellations, comets (McNaught and Holmes) and also some lunar eclipses by holding the camera up to the eyepiece. Seeing how I now had something that could hold the camera to the eyepiece, I though things would be easier. Wrong. Getting the camera lens to align with the eyepiece FOV was quite painful (becomes easier with practice). Also the chip on this camera was not very sensitive to low light conditions. So after playing around with the setup for a couple of weeks, I gave up as the results I got, even with bright objects like the Pleiades cluster and M42, the great nebula in Orion was dismal.

Enter my new camera, the Kodak z990. I bought this camera due to the fact that it was the first Kodak camera to have backlit CMOS sensor as opposed to a regular CCD sensor. This translates to excellent low light shooting capabilities. I have tested this time and time again and the results are nothing short of astonishing. I can hold the camera by hand and shoot constellations from a suburban setting and still get some pretty spiffy shots. With this camera I seldom have the need to resort to flash photography! Needless to say I was itching to try afocal photography again on those mentioned objects. Boy was I not disappointed. I played around with getting the magnification and exposure right to minimize star trailing. With the Orion Skyscanner with the 20mm in at 20x, I found I could push the exposure time up to about 8-10 seconds without significant trailing. Best results however were obtained from 5-6 second exposure. I also played around with ISO settings and generally ISO800 and ISO 1600 gave the best balance of brightness. Also it helps greatly when you can set a 10 second timer to reduce vibration and shakes that show up in your images. With these settings, I managed to capture some of the pastel hues in M42. Bear in mind that these are not stacked images but single images! Can't wait to try imaging under pitch black skies!!!!!!

So what's next on my list? I hope to try and shoot for some of the brighter planetary nebula's such as M57 and M27, the ring and the dumbbell, globular's M13 and maybe some of the brighter emission nebula's like M17 and M8, the swan and the lagoon nebula. Also I would like to try for some brighter galaxies from dark skies sites.....that is when summer rolls around ;)

Quick Dark Sky Fix Mount Pinos 27th August 2011

What do you do when you are stressed out and need a quick getaway to dark skies.....Mount Pinos to the rescue!!!! Was feeling stressed from stuff not working at work and wanted to unwind. That and plus the fact that I have not been under dark velvety skies since my first trip to Pinos way back in May. Seeing that the summer observing season only last between April and October (it gets too cold after that with snow and what may), one has to make the most the the 6 month window. I also wanted to go, but did not want to have to content with the crowds during the summer season. The solution....go a week before the new moon!!! Going there a week earlier can be a two edged sword though. On one hand you have the whole place to yourself. On the other hand, there is the worry that there might not be anyone there, making this kinda creepy. Good thing that there are some like minded astronomers who also happen to enjoy a quiet respite. After making the decision to go, I decided to throw everything together at the last moment. I had no intentions of staying the night as the last quarter moon would come up at approximately 11pm. Hence I only packed my 20x80's (no tripod even!), my trusty Celestron C6 on EQ converted alt-az mount and my Celestron Firstscope 75mm micro dob. I also had with me a recently acquired Orion StarBlast 4.5"f/4 imaging OTA that I wanted to try out. One of the other reasons I wanted to go was to spend time with the summer northern milky way, as well as the centre of our galaxy.

Leaving at 5.30pm from home proved to be a really stupid idea, especially since I know how bad LA traffic can be, even on the weekends. I was surprised to encounter traffic this late on the 405, and on a Saturday! After driving frantically, I managed to get to the top of Mount Pinos before sundown. The views of the mountains as the sun was settling was magical. There is a feeling no words can describe when you are driving, on your way to dark skies, as the sun sets after a gloriously clear day! The temperature was also quite pleasant when I got there, and since I was not staying the night, I did not have with me a beanie or gloves. Bad move on my part (read on later to find out why). I now know never to go up to Mount Pinos without those two essentials. I was also glad to see Dave and his Meade 12" SCT up there. At least I was not going to be there by myself. Another astronomer pulled up later as well, also sporting another 12" SCT. Setup time was minimal for me as did not even bother folding up the tripod. I just collapsed the legs and stuck it in the backseat. As soon as it got dark, about 1/2 hour after I arrived, I started to look at some of the more familliar sights. First up was M57, since it was almost overhead at that time. The ring looked spectacular in twilight skies. Kinda weird, seeing that the views were markedly better than from night skies over suburban Culver City. I noted how the NPB filter made the views even better under such skies. I next looked at M27, the dumbbell nebula, also with the filter in place. As the skies were not totally dark, the views were not as good as when I revisited it later. The dumbbell looked like a ghostly football suspended in space!

Looking south, Scorpius and Sagittarius were looking good and most of the scorpion's tail was above the pine tree line. Now's a good time to revisit some old friends before they get too low when I come here next month. The centre of our milky way was, by now, very evident. I started off the region by just scanning the region between M6/ M7 and M17 using the Celestron Firstscope 76mm. The best views came using the Meade SWA 24.5mm and the Shorty 2x barlow. M22, the crackerjack cluster in Sagittarius and M4 in Scorpius was nicely resolved. The butterfly cluster and Ptolemy's cluster, M6 and M7 filled the FOV with nice sparkly stars. The butterfly shape was clearly evident. M8, the lagoon and M20, the trifid nebula fit in the FOV. I also noted how nice and tight the stars looked and did not notice any spherical abberation. I must have gotten lucky with this scope as they have spherical mirrors and the primaries cannot be collimated. I, however, only use this scope for low to mid power scanning and generally do not use it for high power study. For that I have the 6"f/5. With this scope, both M6 and M7 were much prettier, with more stars visible. M22 and M4 showed even more resolution, with M4 showing the bar of stars clearly, as did M80 in Scorpius, although this cluster was not totally resolved. I next wandered over to Ophiuchus and scrutinized M10 and M12, both globular's showing nice resolution in the C6 at high power. M8 and M20 showed so much nebulosity, even without the NPB filter in place. I like getting lost in the twirling mist of nebulosity, with some dark nebulae splotches thrown in for good measure (i.e. I really miss the Eta Carina Nebula).

Using the lagoon and the trifid as jumping off points, I wandered over to the small Sagittarius star cloud, which appeared "congested" with stars even in the small Firstscope minidob. M17, the swan nebula showed its characteristic swan shape, as well as feathery structure coming off its back (I liken them to vapours rising from its back after a swim on a hot day!). The extra nebulosity around the swan was also very evident. M16 the eagle nebula could easily be made out, resembling the little ghost (as O'Meara puts it). M11, the wild duck cluster was pretty in the Firstscope, with some resolution, but was totally resolved in the C6! I also spent some time with the bug nebula, although details were not as evident when compared to the views I got in my 10"f/5 dob.  Also spent heaps of time perusing globular alley in Sagittarius. I have not done this in a while so it was a blast using the C6. Most of the globs just showed central condensation with little or no resolution. By now my fingers were starting to numb up from the cold, so I decided to have one more look at M27, the dumbbell nebula, then the North American Nebula (it was visible to the naked eye, but almost overhead and very painful to find in the scope) in Cygnus, M13, the great Hercules cluster (nice propellar effect evident in the C6 at 150x) and finally the veil nebula. Have not looked at this supernova remnant in ages so this was a real treat. I spent some time admiring the ghostly cigarette smoke wisps around 52 Cygni and its surrounds. Was all packed by the time the last quarter moon was up...till the next time....

On another topic Transformers ROTF vs DOTM

I guess this is kinda related to astronomy and is one of my many passions. Seeing that this might be the last of the great (or not so great depending on how you view these movies) Transformers movies, unless it gets the reboot like all the other movie franchises, I felt a writeup/review/comparo was in order. I guess I am one of minorities from the original G1 generation (man I have followed everything Transformers in every media format so trust me I am a BIG fan...well with the exception of Beast Wars and anything without Optimus Prime) that actually likes Bayformers. Although I do not agree with everything he has done with our beloved Transformers, I felt he has listened to the fans, and generated many more newbie Transformer fans. At the end of the day you can only please so many people. I guess that's what makes the human race so unique, we all have our own opinions.

I remember reading about a possible live action Transformers movie way back in the early 2000's. I can't even remember when. I was ecstatic. I was excited. I knew CGI had come a long way, with Jurassic Park being the first of the superb enmeshing of CGI and real life human actors. I knew what CGI could do. I also knew that if done in a wrong way (i.e the Naboo fight scene in the 1st Star wars prequel, The Phantom Menace), everything could fall apart and blow up in the producer's face. So I had my fingers crossed. Fortunately the first Transformers movie in 2007 was good. Well not the best in terms of storytelling, but still better than what I had expected. Also the redesigned Transformers were also not as bad as expected, with most of the characters retaining their G1 identities. I actually like the redone Optimus Prime (a combination of Prime's original red and blue, and Hot Rod's flames!). I initially did not like Bumblebee's new design, but it quickly grew on me. Other bot designs that I really liked were Jazz (they should not have killed him off in the first movie!!!), Ironhide and Sideswipe. It was also fortunate that Peter Cullen, the iconic voice of Optimus Prime, got to reprise his role as the leader of the Autobots. I was bummed that Frank Welker did not get to voice Megatron, but I got over it pretty quick when Frank was involved in Revenge of the Fallen (ROTF) and Dark of the Moon (DOTM-he is the voice of Soundwave and Shockwave). Most people also liked the first movie as it introduced the characters and gave them more depth. The hardcore fans hated the lack of robot action and the fact that there were too many human scenes (this unfortuntely made its way throughout all three movies). I hated the fact that Prime was made to look weak in the first movie. Fortunately for us, Bay listened to the fan base (come on people he does listen!) and redeemed himself (in my eyes at least) when he made restored Prime to his former fighting glory (i.e. the now iconic forest battle scene in ROTF). In short I really liked ROTF. In my eyes, it came close to what the original animated movie (still the best movie of them all...Till all are one!) was in terms of the epicness, plus it had really badass fight sequences that even Jet Li would be proud of!

Fast forward to 2011 and DOTM. Could this be the last? It is still not certain if the franchise will be given the reboot, or as rumours would have it will continue in another trilogy (how they would do that is still anyone's guess as they killed off all the main antagonist). So what did I think of Dark of the Moon? I am assuming everyone has seen the movie so I am not going to hold back with the spoilers. So if you have not watched the new movie DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER THAN THIS!!!! To me the movie was good. It was not great, definately better than the first, but sure as hell wasn't the best of the three as many people would like you to believe (well in my opinion anyway). Many people hated ROTF. To me that was the best movie of the bunch. As mentioned in the previous paragraph, the movie came a close second to the iconic animated Transformers Movie . This one had its moments, but lacked in many aspects. I was hoping for DOTM to be what ROTF was and more. Sadly it did not pan out that way.

Firstly the good. As I mentioned before, contrary to what everybody thinks Bay actually listens to the fans and tries to stay true to the G1 stories and timelines, even though he oftentimes goes overboard (like mixing up his bots and cons and calling them weird ass names such as Devastator {who was really Brawl}, and then renaming the Constructicon combiners Devastator again, or calling Wheeljack Que, even though I did not really care as the design was crap anyway and Mirage dino...go figure!). It terms of pacing, the balance between humans versus robot scenes and corniness and lewdness, this one was the best of them all. The flow and pacing of the movie was heaps better than both its predecessors and there was minimal corniness or lewdness (although Bay still does those annoying lingering woman bum and curve shots, as well as bad toilet humour...the scene where Jerry "Deep" Wang ambushes Sam in the cubicle). I also did not find the human bits too long like in the other two movies (I could not stand the college bit and Sam's annoying roomie.....what's his face name again in ROTF!). Also Bay held back on cutting the scene too soon and you could follow plotlines a whole heap better. I also though he tried to differentiate the robots better in this one by giving them more color. At least the Decepticons were not all metallic grey in colour, making them hard to tell from one another. An example world be the Decepticon dreads were black in colour for one. also there was no annoying Megan Fox, although I really missed her after watching the other broad...she can't act to save her life...Bay get actresses not lingerie models!!!!!

Now for the not so good part. This movie seemed like a standalone movie. There was no direct mention or reference to the previous movies. How did the Fallen fit into the whole story and why was he not aware that Sentinel Prime was still alive? Also that was no mention of the allspark. And Fox's character got dismissed just like that. How could she have just dropped Sam after going through so much with him. they should have just written her character out of the story and not replace her with another even more annoying character. By contrast the second one had a good mesh with the first movie. Then there are the deaths. I think Bay wanted to make the movie a much darker one with a more serious feel. He managed to achieve that, but again failed to fully flesh out the characters. Shockwave for one was a big disappointment. After reading the prequel comics (which is mandatory if you want to know what's going on with the story..even for this one...and more so for ROTF where most people did not have a clue what was going on!) I had high hopes that he would have a much bigger role than in the movie. Non Transformer's fans and lay people would have a hard time telling him apart from the rest of the cannon fodder. By contrast Starscream had much more screen time this time round, even though he had a pathetic death, at the hands of Sam no less (goodness gracious what a way to go. This is worse than his death by Galvatron's hand in the 90's animated movie! he is a warrior and he deserves a proper warriors death...even if he is a sniveling and conniving character). Most people also questioned Optimus Prime's often violent reaction, and his sheer lack of emotion in this movie. Reading the prequels and comic book adaptation fleshed his emotions out a whole heap more. Bay should have focused more in that aspect than showing Carly's bum while walking up the stairs, or Brazzo's (Malkovich's character in the movie) mock fight with Bumblebee...what's up with all this nonsense). The main reason he was so mad at Shockwave was that, in the comics anyway, he killed so many of Prime's colleagues, Jolt among other and especially Elita 1! Also there were longer fight scenes with Shockwave in Chernobly (which should have made its way into the movie) and the ending in the comic and novels were heaps better. Prime did not kill Megatron in cold blood! As to why badass Prime could not take on Sentinel, if you watch closely, Prime was fighting but not giving his all. He could have impaled Sentinel right at the start of the fight, but chose to not stab him directly with his energon sword or axe. It looked like he hit him with the blunt parts of his weapons. I felt he was holding back and hoping Sentinel would feel remorse and make the right choice.

So did I like this movie better than ROTF. I am sorry but I did NOT. Plotflow aside, this movie offered me nothing more than I had already gotten from ROTF. I remember watching ROTF and really liking it and wanting to see it for a second time. The epicness and sheer scale of ROTF was also one of the main drawcards for me. When I watched ROTF, I also kept asking myself how Bay was going to top this!!!. I really liked how Bay brought in the Fallen (easily one of the coolest villian's in the Transformer's comic universe!!!). The fight scenes in ROTF were also way better or more cheoreographed and unlike most people, I did like the spiritual aspect to ROTF. The forest battle scene (especially the extended IMAX version) has to be one of the best, if not the best fight scene EVER. I rank that one right up there with the Prime versus Megatron battle scene in the original animated movie. How could you not like a fight scene with Prime taking on three Decepticons and beating them down (well until he gets run from behind by Megatron). For me that was the highlight of the Bayformers movies. Well the highway chase scene between the Dreads and Bumblebee and company and then Ironhide and Sideswipe's fight scene was pretty awesome too....but not even in the same mold as the forest fight scene. Plus the awesome fight, transform in mid air, catch Sam and then transform back into a car scene. I rest my case.......

City Stargazing : Finding gems under indifferent skies..my writeup from the equator!

I don’t know what is it that compels me to gaze skywards. Maybe it was the impressions I got as a young teenager looking upward in awe. Maybe it was parental influence. Maybe it was peer pressure. The funny thing is that many of my close friends of whom I grew up with stargazing are no longer looking up.  I only know of one other friend who still continues to observe like I do. I never lost that special feeling, the bond, the oneness with the universe above. I never lost that special feeling when I first spotted Saturn’s rings through my small 40mm Celestron Cometron.  I am so draw to the stars that I look up even when most would not. One such place is my light polluted backyard back in JB, Malaysia. I grew up in the same compound where I lived half my adult life. It was also here when I first gazed upon some now familiar DSO’s. The skies have changed dramatically from the days of yore. I remember being able to see things in my small scope that would be impossible now. The skies that were once dark are now pink and, at its best grey. They have gotten so bad that DSO’s are only visible if I use the 127mm Celestron Firstscope. My Cometron CO40 is only good now for bright solar system objects. And it is set to get worse with new skyscrapers adorning the southern sky (mostly KSL City’s new office and hotel block).

Its funny how people take things for granted. I used to just say meh to observing here. I had it good in Brisbane, Australia. The skies there are heaps better than back here in Malaysia. Suburban observing was good. And I had a whole new southern sky to gawk at. The old saying goes that all the good and bright stuff is in the southern hemisphere. That is very true. I now live in the northern hemisphere, and while I still have the same urge to gaze skywards, I miss the times when I could just go out and scan, at low magnification, the glorious star jammed regions surrounding the Eta Carina Nebula. There is no northern sky equivalent to this region. Those skies seem so far way now. From my dark sky site at Mount Pinos, the heart of our galaxy is a horizon hugger (maybe I am exaggerating things a bit as it is a tad higher than that). My once fave objects such as Omega Centauri just skims the horizon now. The only way to see them again is to brave the hordes of mozzies and the heat and humidity when I come home to visit. I guess the advantage of living on the equator is that you get the best of both celestial hemispheres.

Observing from the tropics has its downsides too. The weather is often uncooperative and there are many days of clouds and rains. In fact the recent longest lunar eclipse on June 16^th got washed out by rains, right when totality was about to happen. Major bummer? I think so. The best times are to observe are right after a huge thunderstorm. The skies are the clearest and most transparent during these times. Fortunately I came back in the May/June period when Centaurus and the southern cross are riding high in the southern sky. Well higher than Los Angeles for sure.  Coming back for five weeks gave me more time to plan my observations. The number one object on my list was my good old friend Omega Centauri, and the jewel box. I also wanted to see Eta Carina, but at this time of the year, it lies uncomfortably close to those stinking KSL towers. Will try for it in my trusty 10x50 binoculars. More to come on this……

My first try in early June was disastrous. I had not quite come to grips with using the relatively heavy 127mm Firstscope OTA on a photo tripod with no fluid panhead or slow motion controls. In order to get an object in the FOV, one had to overshoot the target, tighten and then let the object drift into view. With a whole heap of cussing, I finally managed to get some DSO’s in the field. It was a practice in frustration! Mental note to myself to bring back a EQ1 head (without counterweights as that would be too heavy) next time. This scope will be my nephew’s firstscope. I want him to get a better headstart with a much larger scope than my puny CO40. Such a small scope would no cut it under such observing conditions!!!!!!

The first object on my list was the jewel box. Not as pretty as I remembered it from Brissie, but then the skies are a whole heap better there (5.6 versus 4 magnitude limit at zenith!!!!!). I played around with magnification, but overall the best views came using the 24.5mm Meade Superwide in the 1000mm focal length scope for a magnification of 40x. The jewel box looked prettier at 50x with the Orion 20mm Expanse. Next stop Omega Centauri. Boy did I have trouble finding this one. Going from memory, I pointed the puny 5x24 plastic finder and then stared into the eyepiece. No go. Had to scan around a bit and finally found the fuzzy cottonball that was Omega. Was it pretty??? The answer was no. But as I found out that night was not a very good night. I have seen it better on three separate occasions, using the same magnification. I can almost make out some graniness to it, with some stars winking in and out. Any attempt to look at it with higher magnification was met with failure. I need a better mount with slow mo controls.

We had some rains in the day yesterday, the 20^th of June and with the skies clearing to a glorious nice and clear day, I brought out the scope and was once again under the stars. The jewel box seemed a lot snazzier last night, easily revealing more stars within it’s a frame of brighter stars. Star colors were also a lot more noticeable tonight (even better than Friday’s session). Omega stood out more boldly and there were many more stars “resolving” tonight than on previous occasions. Still a vague caricature of its spellbinding self under dark skies but one cannot complain when all one has is this. Also as it was almost 2 weeks since my first observation session here, Scorpius and Sagittarius were much higher too. Visited more old friends such as M6, Ptolemy’s cluster and M7, the butterfly cluster. Both looked better under my light polluted LA skies than here, which only showed how bad the skies here have grown. I tried for the planetary nebula, the bug nebula but had no success. Maybe I should try for it with the NPB filter in place. Speaking of the NPB filter, I also had a chance to look at M8, the Lagoon Nebula in Sagittarius. Wow hardly any nebulosity apparent. With the NPB in place, I could just about make out some. I guess the 40x magnification did not help either. From experience the best views I have gotten of M8 is at very low magnifications, even better if you can get both the Lagoon and Trifid nebula in the same view. Also had a good look at the Sagittarius starcloud and the false comet cluster at the tail of Scorpius. No luck with M17, the swan nebula as yet. Will try for it and have another write up when I do.

Fastforward to the 23^rd of June. We had a huge downpour in the morning, leading to gloriously clear skies, the best I have seen since coming back! I estimated the magnitude limit at zenith to be 4.5 or better. This was the make or break night seeing how I will be leaving for the northern hemisphere in a couple of days time. Both Omega Centauri and the jewel box looked spectacular tonight (well still nowhere near as nice as what you would see from a dark sky). I think I have finally mastered the mount! I find I can now push the magnification higher. Plus it helps when you elevate the mount to eye level (what was I thinking duh!).  I guess bending over to look in the eyepiece makes it harder to make out detail, or very faint objects! Omega once again looked “peppery” with stars winking in and out at 50x magnification. I generally find the best views of Omega come at about 50 or 60x magnification.

Seeing how good the skies were, I decided to go for broke and hunt some of the objects I failed to see the nights before. M104, the sombrero galaxy was “glimpsed” barely at 80x magnification (skies in LA a definitely better as it was much easier to see in LA). More like a smudge with no detail with averted vision. I tried for M83 at the head of Centaurus with no success. I was hoping to at least see the core of the galaxy.  I then moved over to the Sagittarius-Scorpius region. The first stop was M4. I know its crazy but I have not had any luck finding this bright globular on previous occasions. Not today. It was faint but definitely visible. The bar of stars going through the middle of the cluster was definitely visible at even 50x magnification.

M6 and M7 were glorious tonight. At least the skies did not appear as grey (must be all the dust and moisture in the air on the previous nights). Both filled the eyepiece with sparkling diamonds, with the butterfly cluster’s shape standing out.  The false comet cluster looked great tonight too. Seems like all the open clusters were showing off (even the ones around Eta Carina were visible earlier on while scanning, with the glow of KSL towers not far off!). The next logical target was the bug nebula. This was a no show a couple of nights ago too. Tonight, using the blinking method, I finally confirmed that I was indeed seeing it. Again unspectacular, looking like an unfocussed elongated star.

By now the whole constellation of Sagittarius was easily visible. Started off at M22. Big cotton ball with only a slight hint of resolution. I felt I needed more magnification on this one, so I popped in the 2x Orion Shorty Barlow. The views were only marginally better. M8 and M20, the Lagoon and the Trifid looked heaps better tonight though. The views of the Lagoon tonight sans the NPB filter looked just like what I saw a couple of nights earlier with the NPB on! Niceeee. Tonight the dark lane that gives the Lagoon its name was clearly visible, as well as some of it outer wisps. Even the Trifid was visible tonight. No details were visible though, just some faint nebulosity surrounding a star.

Emboldened by my success, I set out to see if I could find M17, the Swan Nebula. No luck there as well…what gives. My final two objects of the night were bright objects, a globular in Hercules and a planetary in Lyra. M13 was a nice concentrated ball of unresolved stars. The core looked starlike with no resolution. M13 appeared brighter than Omega and M22, probably due to its compactness. And M57, good old M57 the Ring Nebula, my old nemesis. Was never certain I ever saw this object from JB skies. I caught glimpses of it in my CO40, but was never certain. Looked like an out of focused star. But tonight I finally saw its ring shaped visage at 80x with the NPB filter in place. Guess my observing career in JB has come full circle with me spying M57!

The moral of the story is stargazing and DSO observing is possible even from the worst locations. One just has to be very persistent and have sufficient light gathering power (nothing smaller than a 4.5” in my opinion). Oh and I forgot to mention my most valuable tool to combat light pollution, my ever trusty dark monks hood cloak. Never leave home without it!!!!

Blast from the past....my writeup for Orion Show and Tel......Stragazing Downunder

It has been a while since my last sidewalk astronomy experience. Seeing how I was going to write up an abbreviated version for Orion Telescopes Show and Tel contest, I decided to put up the full version of my prose here on my blog. I do enjoy the occasional “street” session to educate the masses about our fantastic hobby. So without further ado, here is the full version….

I have always tried to promote our hobby of stargazing to the masses. I have a couple of colleague that have more than a passing interest in looking up. Being in Brisbane, QLD, Australia has its perks. I have been stargazing here since the late 90’s and have seen the sky get progressively worse. The milky-way used to be a lot more structured, even from my apartment balcony in suburbia. Back then I could go down to magnitude 5.7 easy and hunt galaxies brighter than magnitude 10 with my C6. I have even spied M33 in my 15x70 on excellent transparency winter nights. These days the best I can manage is 5.5 under similar conditions (still much better than at my current abode in Culver City, CA where the best I can manage is 5.2). The milky-way is still visible in the direction of Sagittarius-Scorpius region, although devoid of all structure, and the SMC and LMC can barely be made out. One has to know where to look.

I have organized several sessions in the past, mostly using my Orion 80ST on a photo tripod, and my old beat up Celestron C6 6”f/5 newtonian (mostly involving two or three close friends). I usually organize such sessions closer to the southern austral winter as there are many brighter things to look at. Also I usually choose public parks such as Robertson’s Park in Indooroopilly, a site also used by the Brisbane’s Suburban Astronomers group, and Mount Cootha, used by the Brisbane Astronomical Society. I have successfully “infected” two of my non astronomer friends to take up the hobby, with one getting just a 76mm Alt-Az scope not unlike the 3” Orion Spaceprobe, and the other a 6” f/5 Eq Newtonian.  Both have just a passing interest and occasionally look up at the planets. Guess you have to start them somewhere right?

This time however I had a much bigger group, approximately 10 people in total. I put a note up on the whiteboard at work and have been talking it up all week!!!!! Everyone knows I am the labs astro geek. I chose a site not too far from home and work, a site used frequently by my then lab for Melbourne Cup day picnics, Perrin Park in Taringa, Brisbane, QLD. I have also used that site extensively since moving to Taringa on nights I want to use the 10” f/5, and I am not at my society’s dark sky site in Leyburn. The dob is way to big to be carried up three flights of stairs or to be used in my apartment balcony. My target this time was to get the 10” f/5 GS out, in addition to my trusty C6 6” f/5, Orion StarBlast 4.5” f/4 and my 20x80.

This time of the year (mid September) Orion is still up for a bit, and the winter milky way rises not much later. First up was the seven sisters in Taurus. I think everyone agreed that the views were much better in the 20x80’s, with the StarBlast coming a close second. I challenged them to visual test to see how many Pleiads they could spot with the naked eye. Most could see 6.  Then we moved onto M42, the Orion Nebula. This one drew gasp through the 10” with many commenting that the nebula looked distinctly “greenish”. They also liked the open flower impression. This also allowed me a chance to start explaining about young open clusters (i.e. the Pleiades) and how stars form from collapsing gas in nebulae (they also liked how nebulae is the latin word for cloud ;)

Taking it from the top, I began talking about forming stars, galaxies (sadly the skies were not nearly good enough to show them any bright galaxies…I did try NGC 5128, Centaurus A later but no one could see it…I find beginners generally find it hard to see galaxies, even the brighter ones!!!), globulars (everyone was impressed with Omega Centauri, M22 and all could make out individual stars in the 10” and the 6” at high magnification). It was also a good time to explain the difference in light gathering since I had a good representation of scopes (4.5”, 6”, 10”) as well as the effects of light pollution and the use of ultra high contrast (UHC) nebula filters. Most liked the views of open clusters better in the StarBlast and in the 20x80 (especially views of open clusters such as the Pleiades, M6 and M7 in Scorpius…they commented that they could make out the butterfly shape better in these) and the numerous star spangled fields around Eta Carina Nebula.

Throughout the night, I showed them more examples of gaseous nebulae. They got to compare and contrast M42, the Orion Nebula versus Eta Carina Nebula. Most of them agreed that Orion was easier to look at, but Eta Carina showed more character due to dark lanes, that were emphasized much better with the UHC filter. But it wasn’t these two celestial showpieces that stole the show, it was  the swan/omega nebula (M17) in the northern reaches of Sagittarius. When some could not quite make out the shape, one of my female colleagues dropped onto the grass scrunched herself up to make a swan shape……definitely the highlight of the night!!!!!!  Finished off the night right at the end of a stars life and showed them examples of some of the skies best planetary nebulae, M57, the Ring Nebula in Lyra and M27, the Dumbbell Nebula in Vulpecula. My colleagues loved my association of M57 to Homer’s doughnut, but they could not quite understand why M27 was called the Dumbbell Nebula. Apple-core or football nebula was more appropriate ;) As some of them put it, without the UHC filter, it looked like someone took two bites on either side of the football. Overall a fantastic night out with great company. Although I really enjoy my quiet moments under pitch black skies, I occasionally yearn for the companionship that only sharing the universe with some other like people can provide. This is also a good way to educate people on why we must preserve our night skies for future generations to come…….

Visiting SoCal's temple to the stars...Mount Pinos

I was stoked...and I mean stoked! Have not been out under dark, transparent skies in more than a year. Given our huge move from the southern skies in Brisbane, Australia to its northern counterpart in Los Angeles, California, the birth of our firstborn, my lil angel in June, I guess I can be excused for not being able to get out a whole heap sooner. Now I have checked out some of the northern sights that I have been itching to see, but under less than dark suburban skies. So this was a treat for me. I initially had apprehensions going there by myself, but as it turned out, my fears were unfounded. I met some wonderful and friendly neighbourhood SoCal astronomers :) And the site, Mount Pinos was every bit as good as my southern dark sky site in Leyburn, save maybe the tall pine trees that obscured much of the southern horizon...well they pretty much obscured all horizons. Was also worried about the temperatures this time of the year as it got down to below freezing the weekend before, and the weekend after I went. As it turns out, Pinos really is that cold at night. Imagine my surprise seeing snow on my drive up. Yup there was still snow up on Mount Pinos....in early May! Oh well.

Arrived at the parking lot in Pinos relatively early as I was worried the area used by a whole heap of astronomers in summer would be there. As it turned out, I was the first one there (most people started pulling up at 6pm...and there weren't even that many of them 5 groups to be precise, some of them campers and only one serious amateur). Scopes in attendance included a Meade 12" goto SCT, a 5" Celestron Nexstar goto and a 8" Orion SkyQuest dob. Since I got there early, and I had never been to Pinos, I decided to do some bushwalking to the summit of Mount Pinos, which was only about a 2 mile walk one way. Needless to say it did not take me very long to walk to the summit. The views were breathtaking. The walk up was okay. Had to stomp my way through some pretty thick snow (and got my hiking boots wet in the process). It was not as cold as I thought it would be (I only had a single thermal layer on and a long sleeve tee and jeans!). Saw some chipmunks and squirrels on the way up. Totally worth the walk up.

Astronomical twilight only descended on us closer to 9pm. We kept ourselves busy looking at the rather new moon (took some afocal shots but my steady pix mount kept unscrewing itself...sheesh!) and Saturn. I only had with me my C6 f/5, my 20x80's on my Orion Paragon tripod and my 76mm Celestron Firstscope (first maiden dark sky voyage for the baby dob, which I used on my car boot and bonnet ;) Once the skies got dark enough, I pushed forward onto the realm of Ursa Major's galaxies. This is one of the constellation that was too far south in good old oz to explore. Galaxies galore...and big and bright ones too. First stop M81, Bode's galaxy and M82. I have seen this pair of galaxies from suburbia, but the views from Pinos were heaps better. M82 showed intense mottling and the dark rift down the middle. Not that much structure in M81, but I though I could make out traces of its spiral arms. Next stop M97, the owl nebula and M108. Both were easy catches as they are close to the bottom of the panhandle. At high mag I started making out traces of the dark owl eyes, with one more prominent than the other. Then it was onto more galaxies. M51 the whirlpool easily reveled its spiral arms as well as traces of the bridge in my C6, appearing much more detailed than I have ever seen, even when viewed in my 10" f/5 from oz. I guess its much higher elevation in the skies made the difference. My final stop was M101, the huge face on spiral in Ursa Major. This galaxy is an impossible catch from bright suburban locations due to its large size and low surface brightness. But it is a sight to behold under dark, transparent skies. Again spiral arms were pretty obvious in the C6.

After tackling target objects (and sketching them), I slowed down my pace and leisurely took a stroll through some of the more famillar constellations. Starting in Corvus, I revisited some old friends like M104, the sombrero galaxy (dust lane obvious at high mag), the Corvus planetary NGC4361. Moving onto Leo, I scrutinized the Leo trio M65, M66 and NGC3628, then moved onto M95, M96. This wetted my appetite for the multitude of galaxies Virgo-Coma cluster. Started my journey in Virgo, first port of call M59 and M60, and then worked my way past M87 and into the markarian chain (M84, M86, etc.). After taking some time to soak in some faint galaxy photons, I moved into the Coma area and began my tour of this region, starting with the pencil thin edge on NGC4565, appearing as a thin needle of light bisected by an even thinner dust lane. Also the black eye galaxy, M64, showed its dark eye.

Now the temperature was dropping rapidly, to the point that I started to shiver. Also as it was getting later, people started going home. David, the first astronomer I met, who owns a Meade 12" SCT, came over and we chatted a bit and we decided to look at some stuff using his goto mount. Revisited some of the galaxies I mentioned earlier. Also took a look at the cat's eye planetary (never seen this one) NGC6543. Nice envelope within envelope detail. He wasn't using a very short focal length eyepiece, but I guess SCT's have a much longer focal length so no worries there.

Now the winds that were strong earlier on seemed to be getting stronger. David was packing up and then finally left at 11.30pm. As the summer milky way was rising, I decided to stay a little longer (original plans were to stay all night...but then with the dropping temps, the howling winds, and me being there by myself...I decided to drive home that same night...not a very long drive from LA, approximately 1 1/2 hours drive). Went back to the C6 and had a good look at the globular M13 in Hercules. Propelar effect was very obvious in Dave's 12", and definately visible in my C6 too. The ring nebula (M57) in Lyra was awesome as was M27 the dumbbell nebula. These are my two absolute fave planetaries. They look good even from light polluted skies! That was when I realized there was a still another couple around. They came over and I showed them some of the sights. Started packing up the scope at 12.30am, and then used the 20x80's and the Firstscope 76 to look at the wonderful sights in the Sagittarius-Scorpius region (M6, M7, M8 the Lagoon Nebula, M17 the swan nebula and M22 the crackerjack globular). Started driving down the mountain at about 1am. All in all an excellent night. Will I be back in the summer? Most definately.......but I will be driving home ;)