Texas Star Party '11 - Part 2

While this year's Texas Star Party could have had better weather for observing, it still had a lot of "surprises." Some of these surprises were seen through the eyepiece, while some just sneaked up from behind a parked car. I spotted this tom on my way out of the ranch on Friday morning.

Below are a few of the other surprises that I saw through the eyepiece last week. These were some of the best objects of the week.

The first one is The Splinter Galaxy, or NGC 5907. This is a 11th magnitude, edge on spiral galaxy in Draco. At 78x, the galaxy shows no real sign of a core, just a subtle brightening towards the center. I guess the attraction here is because of the thinness of the edge on galaxy. It really lives up to its name as the "Splinter" galaxy. Had I had more observing time or better seeing, I would have liked to come back to this object to see if  any of the dark lanes were visible.

The next object is M27, the Dumbbell Nebula. This is a very nice planetary nebula in Vulpecula. It is a 7.3 magnitude PN which displays quite well in the dark skies of West Texas. At 42x, it appears as a hazy patch, somewhat squarish in shape. At 100x, you see two brighter sides joined by a bright central bar. I suspect this is what gives it it's "Dumbbell" name. This is one of the finer objects of the week.









The last showpiece object was NGC 6826, otherwise known as the "Blinking Planetary." At 100x, this PN is bluish green in color. Direct vision makes the PN appear as a fuzzy star. When viewed with indirect or averted vision the PN suddenly swells in size, resulting in the so called "blinking." It was a truly amazing thing to observe as I switched from direct to averted vision and then back. The PN seemed to pop out and back in size. Moving the power up to  139x makes the blinking effect go away and the PN remains steadily swollen. Pretty cool!

Well, that's it for TSP'11. Two and a half nights of so-so observing, 34 objects logged, some new friends made, and a farewell wish from a turkey. Not a bad way to spend a week of vacation.

Clear skies;

rw

Texas Star Party '11 - Part 1

Last Sunday, I made what has started to become my annual pilgrimage to the West Texas Davis Mountains to attend the Texas Star Party. This is one of, if not the largest, star party in North America. The Davis Mountains offer extremely dark skies at an altitude of about 5,000 ft. A combination that draws amateur astronomers from all over the country, and some from across the globe.  I personally met people from Wisconsin, California, Washington DC, South Carolina as well as Ontario, Canada.  The fellowship, and presentations from other amateurs was truly amazing and  makes up a very large part of the whole experience.

The other part of the experience is of course the opportunity to observe under some of the darkest skies in the United States. Unfortunately this year, Mother Nature did not smile on the star gazers as well as in past years. Sunday and Monday nights were fair. Tuesday evening presented itself with a wind storm with 50+mph wind gusts. Wednesday evening had extremely poor seeing until the clouds showed up. Thursday teased us all day with perfectly blue skies only to end with clouds and smoke from a grass fire to the West.  With Friday not looking much better, I decided to pack up and start the 10 hour drive home.

Well, I do not want to dwell on the "what could have been," and instead, I would like to describe some of the true showpiece objects that I had the privilege to observe. All of the following observations were performed on my Zhumell 10 in Dob on May 30th between 10pm and 1am.

NGC 4826 - Black Eye Galaxy - Sirus Plossl 9mm, 139x Elongated with some brightening towards center. No defined core. Mottled appearance. Some dark lanes visible. Looks very much like a globular cluster.

M 81 - Bode's Galaxy - Smart Astronomy 12.5, 100x Slight brightening towards center, mottled appearance on the arms.  Core is non-stellar, halo visible.

M 82 - Cigar Galaxy - Smart Astronomy EF 16, 78x Edge on galaxy, slight brightening towards center, distinct core not visible.


M101 - Smart Astronomy 12.5, 100x Face on galaxy, core non-stellar. Individual stars visible in arms. Dark lanes between the arms. Arms appear to wrap clockwise from center.

M104 - Smart Astronomy 12.5, 100x Elongated, central bulge visible with stellar core. Averted vision reveals some mottling or dark lane down major axis of the galaxy. Sirius Plossl 9mm, 139x more mottling visible, core becomes non stellar, dark lane more visible.

M63 - Sirius Plossl 9mm, 139x Elongated in E-W direction, bright star on western edge. Central portion brighter, core is non stellar, some hint of arms.


M20 -  Smart Astronomy EF 16, 78x Star cluster with associate nebula. Nebula is to the east of the cluster.Nebula has central dark lane. Cluster is also dissected by dark line. Several faint stars shine though the nebula. Majority of the cluster stars are on the east side. Stars in cluster have similar brightness.
Cluster is detectable with the naked eye.

SN2011BY - Smart Astronomy 12.5, 100x Supper Nova is very faint. Host galaxy NGC 3972 is only visible with averted vision.  It is an edge on mag 13 object.


More next week.....

Clear skies
rw