Post by Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe on Jun 8, 2013 17:12:28 GMT -6
Four Scopes, Two Astronomers and a bounty of Star Clusters
07 June 2013
07 June 2013
After an Adler BBQ event with fellow Telescope Facilitators, the skies were a beautiful azure blue and clean....can't let this coming night go without some good scope time. I had contemplated setting up scopes at our private observation site, but I had asked C.A. John if he was free this evening for a scope session. John has a decent wide open sky back yard in the suburbs...and we were a go.
Arriving at 9:30 pm, I set-up the C11 Beast and the 102mm Refractor on the CG-5 mount and John his C5 Nexstar and 10" reflector..which I have named "Helter Skelter". The scope is around the corner out of the pic shot. This would be the first real practical test of some equipment...
The multi-use powerpack, the wireless telescope control via iPad and the CG-5 mount.
The Powerpack performed beautifully all through our session, powering the CG-5 via 12v, the Wi-fi via AC outlet and charging the iPad via USB. Starting out at 13v the powerpack was down to only 12.2v by the end of our session at 2:00 am.
The mount worked as it should. The Hand Controller did it's archaic thing, stepping through alignment procedures and displaying potential targets....one line at a time. It works, but so 1990s...
I have had this CG-5 for only a few months, but already tired of the outdated hierarchy ziggurat menu procedure.Pad control is the way to go!
Utilizing the Astro-Program "Luminos", it provides an excellent method of controlling ones mount graphically and in real time. (More on the "Sky-Fi"control in a later post.) Hooking up the wi-fi hotspot, the iPad recognized the signal and communicated with the mount without a hitch - displaying a crosshair where the scope was pointing to...
Using Spica as a focusing star...
One of the first objects we slewed to M13 in Hercules. Locating it on the Ipad screen, a couple of touches and the scope slewed over to to the star cluster - almost centered. With some more calibration nudges, we can do better, but good enough for this shake out session...
Even with the limited 102mm aperture of the refractor, imaging was pretty decent. Impressed on the performance accuracy of both the mount and Sky-fi, we slewed from object to object, gathering a handful of star clusters and nebulae. No stacking and no pic longer than 15 seconds in exposure. Using the 40mm MaxView 2" Eyepiece adapted to the Canon Powershot S3, the mount tracked well...
I have forgotten about the sequence of objects we observed, but some of them were: M5, M81, Sunflower Galaxy - M63, Cooling Tower - M29, Butterfly Cluster - M6. This was a shake out session and proper logging will be taken in future sessions.
Here is M101..
Dumbbell Nebula - M27...
Here, the Trifid Nebula - M20...
I forgot what's in here, (
NOTE: This is in fact the M7 cluster
This one was surprising. Bodes & The Cigar Galaxy (M81/M82)...
I think this is M5...
Here is an old friend, with or without go-to. The Ring Nebula - M57...
Saturn got some attention, but it had already gone into the muck and not so clear...
A usual stop over during our summertime binary viewings - Alberio...
By 1:30 am...Ursa Major was on his way down and time to call this successful session to an end...
The C11 got barely used during this session, as we spent most of the time with the go-to and the 102mm. (This encourages me to adapt the beast to the CG-5 mount, but gonna take some crafty doings....but will be great if I can swing it!) The temps dove down to 47 degrees, but it was just only a bit chilly for me.
Big shout out to John for a fun time over four hours of testing gear, enjoying the skies and telling jokes. We will make this a frequent activity. All my gear worked well, but John's Hand Controller for his Nexstar went stupid and must be replaced.
Good times.
