EDIT: For an up-to-date version of my ‘Astronomy log-book’, please click on the tab above called ‘Astronomy Log-Book’. Or click here Thanks.

I am relatively new to the wonderful and awe-inspiring world of astronomy. However, I wanted to keep an astronomy ‘log-book’ in order to record what objects I have found and observed using my telescope. I have started from the month when I first got my telescope, which is a small Newtonian reflector (Celestron Astromaster 130 EQ-MD). I will try to keep this post as up-to-date as possible and welcome any target suggestions, recommendations or general comments. You can now click on the ‘title links’ for each object I have observed to go straight to their Wikipedia page.

May 2014:

The first targets I observed with my telescope were the Moon, Jupiter, Mars and Saturn. I have already written a short blog about my experiences viewing these targets (see my previous blog posts here and here), so all I will write here is a list of objects I observed in May.

– The Moon: Numerous phases.

– Jupiter: Gemini, setting in the West in the early evening.

– Saturn: Libra, rising in the East in the early evening.

– Mars: Virgo.

– M13: The Great Globular Cluster in Hercules.

This was the first deep sky object (DSO) I observed with my telescope. Now, it must be stressed that viewing DSO using a small telescope under fairly light-polluted sky requires patience and a certain amount of imagination. We are looking at very distant and dim objects; there is a reason they are known as ‘faint fuzzies’! However, when your eyes are dark-adapted, and you understand what you are looking at, boy are they worth it. M13 is a globular cluster; an ancient, and colossal, spherical collection of stars. Through a small telescope, M13 looks like this…

It looks like a white, fuzzy circle, right? However, this circular blob of light is 145 light years in diameter, over 25,000 light years away and contains some of the oldest stars around, about 300,000 of them. Indeed, the age of M13 has been estimated at c. 11.6 billion years old. To put this in perspective, our star, the sun, is ‘only’ c. 4.6 billions year old and the whole universe is c. 13.7 billions years old. So, when you think about all these things when viewing M13, the ancient globular cluster really comes alive, moving from a faint fuzzy to a thing of intricate beauty.

I should also stress that even in a small telescope, individual stars can be seen in M13. However, this requires dark, clear skies and the use of ‘averted vision’ (i.e., not looking directly at the object of interest; using peripheral vision like this utilises the dim, light-sensitive rod cells on your retina as opposed to the colour-sensitive cone cells) vastly improves observing M13. I also viewed M13 through some large telescopes (5″ Celestron Cat; 8″ Skywater reflector) at the Bristol Astronomical Society weekly meetings. Wow! These bigger telescope sure gave fantastic views of M13 and loads of individual stars could be resolved. Using long-exposure photography the true beauty of M13 can be seen.

– M81 and M82 Galaxies.

M81 and M82 are both galaxies and they are located relatively close to each other in the sky, meaning they can both be observed in the same field of view. M81 is a spiral galaxy 12 million light year away and contains > 250 billion stars. M82, which is also known as the Cigar galaxy because of its side-on appearance, is also 12 million light years away and contains > 30 billion stars. Once again, these two DSOs appear as faint blurs of light through a telescope, as shown in the simulation image below…

These galaxies make great targets for amateur astronomers and astrophotographers. Due to the fact cameras can collect far more photons than the human eye (they can collect hours of worth of light due to long exposures), photographs can really show beautiful details these pretty galaxies.

I viewed M81 and M82 using telescopes at the Bristol Astronomical Society (BAS) (5″ Celestron Cat and an 8″ Skywatcher reflector). As of the 06/07/2014 I have not located and observed M81 and M82 using my own telescope; this is one of my next targets to hunt down.

– Mars

Whilst at the BAS I was also lucky enough to observe Mars through an 8 inch CAT (Celestron C8 OTA – XLT)…wow, what a piece of kit. I have never seen Mars with so much detail; it was beautiful. I could clearly see the polar ice caps and lots of surface detail when the sky remained steady. The picture below is a fairly good representation of what it looked like down the eyepiece.

I should also note that Jupiter and Saturn looked stunning through the Celestron C8 OTA – XLT. The banding of Jupiter was extremely clear and the Cassini division of Saturn was visible, too.

May 2014 Summary: I thoroughly enjoyed the first month with the telescope and I saw some amazing sights. I would be happy if Saturn was the only thing I could look at in the sky; I love gazing at Saturn’s beautiful rings. The moon, too, has been a favourite.

June 2014

The nights are getting brighter and shorter, but that has not stopped me getting out there as much as I can.

– M57: The Ring Nebula.

M57 is a planetary nebula located in the small constellation of Lyra. A planetary nebular is a giant cloud of ionised gas that’s ejected from red-giant stars as they evolve into white dwarfs. The Ring Nebula is 2,300 light years away and has a diameter of 2.4 light years. When we gaze at M57 we are viewing the dramatic death of a colossal star; albeit a very slow demise. Like most DSOs, M57 is a faint object in a small telescope. However, with dark-skies, dark-adapted eyes and averted vision, the M57 can clearly been seen in a small telescope. The sketching shown below gives a good impression of how the Ring Nebula appears in a small scope.

Once again, it is understanding what M57 is that makes is more beautiful than just a white, smoke-ring in the telescope’s eyepiece. Furthermore, it is very easy to find in the sky. Cameras can also capture beautiful images of M57, with colour, such as the photograph below.

– M64: The Black Eye Galaxy.

This was the first galaxy I found and located using my own telescope. I also found it by pure luck/chance and I had to look up which galaxy it was on Stellarium. M64, or the Black Eye Galaxy, is c. 24 million light years away and located in the constellation Coma Berenices. It is 40,000 light years in diameter and contains billions of stars. The image below is a fairly good representation of what M64 looks like down a small telescope.

– M31: Andromeda Galaxy.

I know this time of year is not M31 season, but one night I just could not sleep and headed out into the garden in the early hours of the morning. At the time, I was staying in a very light polluted part of town, so I know she will look much more impressive in winter away from the city lights. I still got to tick her off my list, though. Through a small telescope, M31 looks like a wispy, white cloud (like most galaxies) and the image below gives a good idea what I saw down the eyepiece.

For more information on M31, see my previous blog here. Once again, photographs give M31 much more credit…

– Albireo (beta cygni); Cygnus.

A beautiful double star, potentially the most stunning in the sky, and easily split in any small telescope. This beautiful star is 430 light years away from Earth, so the light we see today left the star when Queen Elizabeth the 1st was Queen of England. The binary star is consisted of a bight gold star and a smaller blue star and is situated in the constellation Cygnus. It is unknown whether Albireo is a true binary star system (i.e., two stars that orbit around each other). However, if they are, it has been estimated that they would orbit around each other once every 100,000 years.

– Mizar + Alcor.

Another famous double star system, perhaps the oldest one ever identified. However, Mizar and Alcor are only optical double, not a true binary system. Their names come from the Arabic ‘horse and rider’ and the ability to split the two stars with a naked eye has long been a test of keen eyesight. When using higher magnification, it is easy to see that Mizar does have a smaller, true binary partner.

July 2014

– M3: A globular cluster.

This was the first time I have seen the globular cluster M3, which is located in the constellation Canes Venatici, with my own eyes. I managed to locate this using the bright star Arcturus and a 30 mm eyepiece (for a wide field of view). This globular cluster is 8 billion years old, situated 33,900 light years from Earth and contains a staggering 500,000 stars. Although significantly smaller than M13, M3 was still a pretty sight in my telescope. I could clearly see individual stars using averted vision and higher magnification. Through my telescope, M3 appeared just a tad smaller than the image below.

– M51: The Whirlpool galaxy.

I was very excited to locate and observe M51 with my telescope. This was only the 3rd galaxy I have seen with my own bit of kit. M51 is one of the most well-know galaxies in the universe and it is estimated to be located 23 million light years from Earth. The Whirlpool galaxy is estimated to be 100,000 light years in diameter; this means that in the time it takes light to travel from one side of the galaxy to the other, anatomically modern humans evolved and moved from primitive hunter-gatherers, to walking on the Moon and driving car-sized rovers on the surface of Mars (estimates of the evolutionary origin of anatomically modern humans range from 100,000 – 300,000 years ago). Although small, and very fuzzy, the circular shape of the galaxy was obvious and appeared as very similar to the image below.

I look forward to adding many more deep sky objects to this blog post over the next few weeks. Clear and dark skies, everyone!

Summary

Object Observed Month Moon Yes May Jupiter and moons Yes May Saturn Yes May Mars Yes May M13 Yes May M81 Yes May M82 Yes May M57 Yes June M64 Yes June M31 Yes June Albireo Yes June Mizar + Alcor Yes June M3 Yes July M51 Yes July

Future targets:

Targets M1 M5 M27 M42 M45 M63 M101 M101