Total eclipse of the heart (I mean partial eclipse of the sun lol)

Two astronomical extravaganzas in one weekend, how much more can one take! Firstly it was Omega Centauri and now a partial eclipse right in my own front lawn. This was supposed to be an annular eclipse, meaning that the moon is too far to fully obscure the entire disc of the sun, resulting in a ring of fire, rather than a total solar eclipse. However this was only viewable from the northernmost part of CA. From our location in Los Angeles, 86% of the sun would be covered by the moon. According to reports, LA has not had the moon take such a large bite out of the sun in a long time, with the last being an annular eclipse in 1992, that was highly anticipated but ultimately got washed out by clouds. To prepare for the eclipse, I ordered some eclipse shades off amazon.com and was all ready to pony out some cash to NorCal based Orion Telescopes and Binoculars for some Baader mylar filters for my C6. Alas that was not to be as they did not have those filters in stock. I could not justify buying glass solar filters as I don't think I will be using them frequently enough. The mylar ones are good and a tad cheaper! Will have to wait and see if I will eventually get those since they won't be shipping till well after the June 5th transit of Venus.

We were out for the day in Irvine visiting Pretend City (which incidentally is next to Meade Instruments lol) and then getting some groceries. Did not get home till 5pm. Good thing the eclipse started about 5.43pm, with the moon slowly starting to "nibble" away at the sun's disc. I tried shooting the eclipse through my wife's Kodak point and shoot and my eclipse shades without any success. Desperate, I cobbled together my 10x50 binoculars, two pieces of cardboard and my Paragon HD tripod to do solar projection. That too did not work out as well as I had hoped as the image formed was way too small. After fiddling around, I got my Kodak Z990 to take semi decent (albeit shaky) shots of the eclipse. Realizing that the only way I was going to get decent shots was to use the video capture/ photo capture mode, I placed the camera on my Orion Paragon tripod and shot the eclipse through eclipse shades. That was until the marine layer and clouds rolled in and create a natural filter. The end product was quite spectacular, at the peak of the eclipse at 6.38pm.The photos I got were pretty spiffy! Here are some.......

So what's up next....fortunately there will be a Transit of Venus in a couple of weeks time (June the 5th to be precise). This is when the shadow of Venus can be see traversing the disc of the sun! I have seen such a transit before from back home in Malaysia. I got good pictures of this using the solar projection method with my Celestron Cometron CO40. Wish I had my firstscope here.

Night of the Omega

I have been waiting to head back to Solstice Canyon Park in Malibu ever since the last trip there. The main reasons have been to try and see some old southern sky friends such as the good old globby Omega Centauri and radio source/hamburger galaxy NGC 5128 Centaurus A. Got the chance to catch them last Friday night. Terry also happened to be back from his European trip and was itching to try out his Bushnell Ares truss dob on his Orion VersaGo mount. So away we went.

The first stop of the night was of course the above mentioned. Terry got there earlier than I did so he got the first shot at it. We were observing from a small elevated spot inside the park (not my usual next to the car spot).  We both spotted Omega in our scopes (I had with me my Celestron/Vixen C6 6" f/5 on Vixen PortaMount...this setup is much lighter than the C6 on EQ/alt-az mount so it might become my "grab and go" Malibu scope). It looked like a pale ghost of its glory from way up north! Through both our scopes, Omega was barely resolved and appeared faint even. In fact Omega did not look much better than the views I got from back home in my light polluted skies in Malaysia! I guess being this far down, we had to contend with the marine layer and maybe some low level wispy clouds. Best views were at low to intermediate power. While in the region, we also took a sneak peek at Centaurus A, NGC 5128. It was visible, but there was no trace of its dark dust lane. This is so prominent, even in the C6 from southern skies. Oh well at least I can say that I have seen it from way up here in Malibu!

I then went through the "usual suspects", M83 (Hydra), M104 (Sombrero-Corvus), M65/66 (the galaxy pair seemed brighter tonight for some strange reason!), M95/96 (Leo), M94, M81/82 (Ursa Major-same as M65/66, appearing a little brighter), M101 (Ursa Major-looked better tonight in the C6), NGC 4565, M64 (Black Eye Galaxy), M53 (Coma Berenices), the Virgo-Coma Cluster and looked at a few objects that I had previously missed or forgot to look at, such as M63 (Sunflower galaxy) and M106 in Canes Venatici (both bright with some mottling visible in M63); the Corvus Planetary NGC 4361 (nice with the NPB filter in place); NGC 2903 in Leo (another bright galaxy) and NGC 6543 (Cat's Eye Nebula). After looking at M57, the Ring Nebula in Lyra and NGC 6302, the bug nebula in Scorpius later in the night, I was reminded of why I like looking at planetaries. They are just so varied and wonderful, plus they have a high enough surface brightness to render good views at high powers.

Finished off the night with some good old fashion southern sky viewing, perusing the rich starfields close to the heart of our home galaxy. Starting with M4 (nice bar of stars resolved), M80 in Scorpius and then moving onto M8 and M20, the Lagoon and Trifid nebula, onto M17, the swan nebula and finally M16, the eagle nebula. All looked fantabulous with the NPB filter in place with heaps of nebulosity, swirls and dark lanes. Oh and yes did also look at M13. The skies were kinda moist and did not support high magnification. My scope maxed out at 125x with the 6mm TV Radian, with the stars looking blobby. You can't win all the time.......till my next trip there.....

Malibu galaxies on two seperate occasions with two different scopes...niceee

I think I am going to be going to Solstice Canyon Park at Malibu more frequently from now on. I had a chance to go on two separate occasions when the moon was new and out of the way and got heaps of observing done. The site, while not the best dark sky site, offers skies that are dark enough for serious galaxy observation and hunting. The very fact that it is only half an hours drive from where I live makes it a whole lot more accessible than say Mount Pinos. Heck I can even go for in prompto observation sessions during the week! Another plus is that I can easily drive to a nearby ocean site that has clear views of the southern horizon (and therefore I can have access to objects that are otherwise invisible from Pinos). Also it does not get nearly as cold as Pinos (which is pretty much covered in snow for half of the year!). My only gripe with the site is that I cannot drive my car into the park, which pretty much limits which scope I can use. I currently park just outside the barricade that leads into the park and setup my scope there. My weapon of choice is usually my Orion SkyScanner on an Orion HD2F tripod. However my Celestron/Vixen C6 on my newly acquired Vixen PortaMount is just as light and portable, plus it shows more detail in objects (read on to find out), so that setup might get more use in the near future.

Anyways onto the observing sessions. The last time I was there, on a Saturday night, I had with me my C6 on PortaMount configuration, as well as my Celestron Firstscope micro dob (which I used on the bonnet of my car to look at objects which were not that high up in the sky and were skirting the treeline). The first stop, just like on Thursday was M81 and M82. Both galaxies looked better in the C6 (of course with the added aperture advantage) than in the SkyScanner. The main advantage I found using a larger aperture was that I could  increase the magnification to ferret out minute details such as mottling in the main body of the galaxy, etc etc. This was the same for M104, the Sombrero Galaxy in Corvus, as was M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy in Canes Venatici. M104 did not show its dark dust lane or its characteristic somebrero shape in the SkyScanner. This was very evident using the 6mm Radian in the C6. Also I though I could make out the bridge connecting M51 with its companion galaxy, and more of its spiral arms were visible around the nucleus. Other galaxies that showed substantially more detail in the larger scope included M64, the black eye galaxy, NGC 4565 in Coma Berenices (its edge on visage much easier to discern), and M94 in Canes Venatici. All these galaxies benefited from added magnification. The Leo galaxies M65/66/NGC 3628 and M95/96 and M105/NGC 3384/NGC 3389 looked good in both scopes, but again the C6 won out with its greater aperture. I then spent some time just wondering around the Virgo-Coma cluster. This is a superb field to spend some time just surfing from galaxy to galaxy! M83 in Hydra was a disappointment as only the core of the galaxy was visible, even with the C6. I guess this galaxy is southern object and it was not very high in the sky, hence the washed out views. Still better to be able to see it than not at all! The only galaxy that appeared better in the SkyScanner was M101, for some strange reason (go figure). One thing to note though is how spoilt I have become with me using my 10" dob extensively back in Australia. Many of the galaxies looked foreign and even difficult to spot in my smaller scopes. Will have to get used to this until we get a car large enough to transport my 10" dob. Our current Corolla sedan, with the baby seat installed is just not convenient for throw in the back seat observing.

Back to the observing report. As the night progressed, more of the summer constellation started to climb higher into the sky. I got fantastic views of M13, northern hemisphere's best glob (pales in comparison to Omega Centauri and 47 Tuc still...even M22, the crackerjack cluster in Sagittarius). Some of its outer stars showed up in the SkyScanner, although the cluster was cracked wide open with the C6. I noted that the views were very nice even in the Celestron Firstscope! M4 in Scorpius showed its bar of stars in all three scopes, with the brightest views coming from the C6 at high mag. M80 was unresolved in all three scopes. I finished off both nights with M57, the Ring Nebula in Lyra. This still remains my fave planetary nebula as its ghostly annulus is apparent even in the smallest scopes. The ring shape is obvious even in the Celestron Firstscope! Will have to try and image this the next time I am at Malibu!