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| Venus and Moon conjunction 9 November |
Wow, it's been a while. Feels like things have slowed down despite the darker skies even though I still average about an outing per week. I've got quite a few pictures but I've been lax in my cataloguing. Hopefully this entry will clear things up.
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| Half phase moon, out of focus picture :( |
One problem with the pictures lately has been consistent focusing. Maybe I need new glasses for when I'm looking at my phone when it's mounted to the scope. Anyway, I took another trip to Stellar Vision (https://stellarvisiontucson.com/) ostensibly to look at eyepieces. Frank not only talked me out of spending any more money on an eyepiece he felt would be superfluous, but he also gave me a bahtinov mask that fits my 8" Dob. Free. It's been a tremendous help for subsequent viewing and pictures.
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| M34 cluster in Perseus |
Still dabbling in the sketches with mixed results. But it's a nice side trip in the same activity. Plus it does give you the opportunity to examine things in further detail. I don't think (at least for now)
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| M30 globular cluster in Capricorn |
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| M72 in Aquarius. Another globular |
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One thing which has become apparent is that the wider aperture on my new Dobsonian has been a boon towards better viewing, especially for the deep sky objects. The Alt-Az mount, though, limits the amount of time I can hold the camera exposure open.
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| M81 & M82 on a 4 minute exposure with the EQ |
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| Same galaxies, but with the 8" Alt-Az at 5 second exposure |
I read somewhere that 10 seconds is the maximum amount of exposure time before things start to streak. My camera app only does 5 seconds or 4 minutes, so I found a deep sky camera app where I can dial in any desired exposure time.
Made it out early one morning to see about the Leo Triplets. I found them without very much hassle along with the Blackeye galaxy. My log for that morning put the temp at 37 F. My session only lasted around an hour before going back in was a priority.
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| Two of the Leo Triplets |
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| M64, the Blackeye Galaxy |
Finally on 13 December, I got a breakthrough. First, I was able to mark off another DSO: NGC 253. The Sculptor Galaxy in....Sculptor. It's a little wispy and dim, but at 11 million light years distant, the brightness gets affected. Second - and this is after months of trial and error - Uranus gets logged into my documentation. I had searched around and told myself that, yeah maybe that's it. Then the other night, bang! Definitely resolved to a small bluish disk at about 5.8 magnitude. This leaves Neptune as the last one in my planet collection, since Pluto got kicked out and at a 14 magnitude will make it impossible to glimpse.
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| NGC 253 |
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| Uranus, ice giant behind Saturn |
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| The Family Portrait |
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