Post by Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe on Mar 24, 2005 2:54:36 GMT -6
Boötes and a cold March Night
Anxious to try out my new Rigel Finder, I set out to do a bit of observation since the skies were fairly clear, although very moonlit. The temps were rather cold in the high 20's, but regardless I was ready to go.
I put on my handy dandy headlamp, (which I must say, I don't know how I got along without it before), set up my charts and so we began, challenging Chicago skies. I switched to wearing my contacts lenses, as I get a better visual experience than with my glasses, and I don't have to keep putting them on and taking them off.
My clear patch of sky lies directly to the east, with two damned city streetlights fighting me all the way. So I proceeded to start off with the brightest star in the eastern sky, Arcturus in Boötes. I turned on my Rigel quickfinder and set it to pulse slowly, centered the star in the 1/2 degree circle and viola...there it was in my eyepiece...centered and ready for examination! Much too cool... ;D. I don't know how I ever got along without this apparatus for the past decades.
Arcturus appeared it's usual hue of pale red. I did a out of focus star test, and as expected, I am way off in proper collimation, but what the hell, so I continue.
How interesting that in Boötes, that a planet revolves around a star:
The circle shows the location of the class F star Tau Bootis (in the constellation Boötes). The planet, which has a mass at least 3.9 times that of Jupiter, has one of the shortest known periods, only 3.3 days, and orbits at a close distance of 0.046 astronomical units from the star (6.9 million kilometers, 12 percent Mercury's distance from the Sun) in a nearly circular orbit. The planet, while not actually seen, may have been detected in light reflected from the central star.
I never really outlined the entire constellation of Boötes before, so I thought I would give it a try. Starting with Arcturus, I worked my way around to the upper right and found the small triangle, (n,7, t &u) that makes up the faint asterism that fits nicely in 10x50 binos. Working my way to the left I target stars B,E, O & P, but really lose it from there. I forgo the Greek lables for brevity. I cannot make out the entire constellation and am rather disappointed. I try to catch M3 and M51 but have no luck there either. The sky is just too mucked up with Chicago light pollution and Moon glow.
Jupiter was just now peeking from behind the next door building and I slew the scope to it. Using the Rigel again, I catch it in the focuser dead center...and that makes my happy. Jupiter was shining thru my now dormant tree branches, and was a bit fuzzy. I could still make out the two major bandings and the four moons, two on each side. Considering I didn't have a clear view this night, I did not bother with filtering.
I then slewed to the moon, and caught a nice shadow terminator. While I was observing the moon, I couldn't help but think about the recent posts regarding sighting the Apollo sites, as I scanned the Mares that the landers rest upon. The Moonlight illuminated my entire work area, so much that I really did not need any external lighting to read my charts at the time.
I then turned my back upon the moon, and concentrated on the northern sky. Finding Polaris I attempted to locate M81 & M82, but again...no dice. So I tried to make out the Ursa minor constellation, and could make out the majority of the stars, but not all with the naked eye. Binoculars helped to finish out the grouping. While in the area, I thought I would try to target Macholz...sigh, and again no luck. I thought I spotted it, but with all the ambient light around, I just couldn't be sure. It will be saved for a darker night.
It was now about 1:00 am, clouds starting to roll in, and besides...I was cold. So I left the scope assembled in the garage and called it a night for this session.
