April 2007
Local:Pátio (Leiria 39.75N 8.82W alt:60m)
Humorous Moon
Small session between the clouds at Pátio using the Fujinon 16x70 and 20cm dobsonian.
It has been some time that didn't look through my 20cm dob. With it I've observed the Moon and Saturn with its inner satellites Dione, Rhea and Thetis and also the then moved away from its home planet Titan.
At this moment the collimation is a bit off, because one of the collimation screws head had broke and left the remaining portion stucked on the cell , magnifications above 100x are mediocre at best.
The lunar terminador always provides some interesting regions to see, and in this case on its southwest where can be found Mare Humorum with Gassendi's crater almost perfect 110 km circle on its edge and to the South the then salient and prolongated Schiller. Photograph captured through a televue radian 14mm eyepiece on the 20cm.
I continue the pointing training with these binoculars without using a finder and try to keep them firm without any support. Moonlight and light pollution did not alllowed the observation of much more than double stars and one or another galaxy or open cluster. The Lovejoy comet was still at the red zone of the pollution and remained unobserved and at this moment is shinning with a 9 magnitude between Lyra and Hercules on the direction to the Dragon.
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2007.04.21
Local:Atalaia (Montijo 38º44N 8º48W)
Atalaia XXVIII
A typical "atalaian" night, with many habitués and some visits. The sky was practically clear all the night, with some humidity and a confortable temperature. The zenithal magnitude was limited to 5,5 after the moonset.
This was the first effective first light of the 16x70 binoculars , having started with easy targets to practice aiming and to get used with its 4 degrees field.
The most obvious candidates were the bright planets, first Venus that showed to be almost round, the Saturn rings perfectly resolved with its Titan satellite. On the 15" an interesting arrangement made by it's 5 brighter interior satellites.
Meanwhile on the Alberto's Obsession the Moon provided a dramatical partial view on its terminador of a lunar fault very similar to Rupes Recta, the Rupes Cauchy who has a similar extension of 120 km, but seemed much more contrasted . At the time we thought to be to look at Rupes Recta (that it is at the opposite signal longitude ), which also has another almost parallel rima , this lunar landscape is the Rukl's 26 , and has the nickname “hyperboles”. The 80 km diameter Petavius was magnificent with its prominent rima across, as well as the Sea of the Crises that has a truily mountainous border. I reached the conclusion that does not exist such thing as excessive aperture to observe the Moon.
The earth illuminated side had a strange bluish tonality with stars to blunt very close to the limb, making me remember the ones that if see during a lunar eclipse.
Returning to the 16x70 binoculars , the limb of the Moon showed a somewhat exaggerated lateral color (that it is not chromatic but equally unesthetical aberration) and was almost impossible to mantain a head position to prevent this . The Moon near the quarter or older is not a very advisable target. Any way the image's cut and crispness were exemplary.
The binoculars were most of the night mounted on a paralelogram on a medium photograph tripod, but that setup was somewhat subdimensioned. Without any support it is almost impossible to keep them quiet when on foot, but for me they had been amazingly usable when seated. They have (precisely) 2 solids kilograms , but remarkably well balanced .
Next we tried to observe a recurrent nova ( var. 9-18 mag): the GW Librae. With the aid of a AAVSO card and MSA's 861 cart , it's localization was zeroed, but it did not have positive confirmation on the binoculars, even so on the Obssession the 10 magnitude was not properly a challenge. On this search I was happy to verify that the binoculars almost reached its theoretical maximum of visibility that is of about 11 magnitude (the Millenium Star Atlases limiting magnitude), and this despite the region was far from being dark.
One of the night's high moments was the observation of the comet Lovejoy C/2007 E2. This recently discovered comet had rised up since the last time that I tried to see in the Pulo do Lobo, being in that time passing by Sagittarius, at this moment is crossing with s good pace the Eagle's constellation. I detected it quickly, but was over a bright star (8 mag SAO 124372), leaving some doubt if it would not be a small condensation on the binoculars lenses . However the condensation moved:). Its speed was quite notourious even at 16x. The coma was colorless a very little condensed and it did not present any tail. Its dimenion was slightly bigger than M27 having about 7-8', but much more faint.
I then started to jump randomly by all the sky to get a notion of what could be seen. At Ursa Major for M81/M82 (beautiful field), M101, in the Hunting Dogs for the M94, M106 and M63, M51/NGC5195 (well distinct the nuclei and dimensions) and M3, at the Lion M65/M66, M104 (alongated) in Virgin this in the field with small star triplets, in Lira M57 (very small) and M56, M13 and M92 in Hercules, M71 in Arrow, M27 in Fox, Albireo and M29 at the Swan. After Ophiucus's globulars M10, M12 and M14, M5 in Serpent being this globular the most interesting with this instrument. Interesting also were the wide double stars like Nu Draconis and Beta Capricorni.
Starting at the Shield with M11 and M26, descended to M16, M17, M18, M24, M25, M21, M20, M8, M21, M28, M22, the globular at the base of the "Pot" M70 , M69 and M54. M55 gave some fight as well the M75. I passed for Scorpion to the M80, M4 and the M6 M7 clusters.Decidi to try to finish the last marathon with the M72 and M73, having shamelessly forgotten to see the M30... even cheating I failed to complet it.
This was also the night of the Lyrid's meteor shower maximum - saw some and bright ones, but nothing of abnormal activity, not diferent from the sporadical ones
Then it was until the Sunrise . And as always the usual story and images from the night's companions.18/04/2007
Local:Aeródromo da Gândara do Olivais ( 39.77N
8.82W alt:52m)
Crescent
After in the previous day having trying the impossible mission of observing a Moon with only 8 hours of age with clouds, it remained the image of it on the following day. This photograph is very similar to what can be seen with binoculars on still quite blue sky, having also this been the crepuscular premiere of just arrived Fujinon FMT-SX 16x70.
The comet 2P/Encke was supposedly an easy target , but again without luck. it did not seem to had the forecasted magnitude of 4 , or most likely the Atlantic coast has done it again . It is necessary a perfect conjugation of various factors, in special luck and persistence to obtain a photograph of a fine crescent, but sometimes it happens:
The most thinner was obtainsed at the beach of S. Pedro de Moel on February 2006 and other at my hometown Leiria on October 2004.
