Observing Report, 27th June

[sathya kumar prasanna]

Greetings from a less known Amateur,

I was inspired to write this report because of the night we had at hosalli. so, read on.

We arrived at about 6:00pm at the govt school at hosahalli, a small village ~ 17km from Doddaballapur, outside of bangalore. There were a few clouds hanging around, but we expected they wont create a problem and will clear before midnight. They cleared even faster, and we were up for observing as early as 7:30pm. This is the time when scorpius and sagittarius are present mostly throughout the night, needless to say that the milky way was simply superb. Amar and Myself decided on a short walk to our nearby older observing site [ a field] and that is when the night revealed itself in full glory. Never had I seen the milky way like this. We ofcourse came back and pointed the trusty 8" scope to moon, saturn followed by M51, M57 and a couple of NGC objects. The highlight of the night was the Comet in pegasus. even though barely visible, because we saw it while it was rising above tree tps, it was pretty good. If i must estimate the size, I would put it at about 30 arcsec nucleus+coma. The dark rifts in sagittarius and cygnus milky way made for an awe inspiring sight. The trip I had made to halli on bike that day was worth it. All I did was stare at the milky way through the night. Because it stretched from sagittarius to cygnus, with a small gap in between, mid way.
All in all, the trip was a success. If anyone would have been there, he or she would be one inspired person to explore our Universe.

Sathya

[Akarsh Simha]

Wow! I'm missing out on a lot of superb sessions...!

Regards
Akarsh

[Navish Wadhwa]

Sounds great! Congratulations for the success of the session.

--
Navish Wadhwa,
Ph: +91 9740748623
email: nav...@ncbs.res.in

[Rakesh]

Dude

Could you also put up what objects you guys saw?

The milky was sincerely magnificient even in saturday night that we
went and the globulars were awesome, especially m4

The sight of lagoon nebula still enthralls me, I saw the smaller NGC
cluster next to m7 which was new thing for me, cos i dont think it
comes in one FOV in a scope.

One more trip to halli needed :)

> email: navi...@ncbs.res.in- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

[Akarsh Simha]

On Wed, Jul 01, 2009 at 12:58:20AM -0700, Rakesh wrote:
>
> Dude
>
> Could you also put up what objects you guys saw?
>
> The milky was sincerely magnificient even in saturday night that we
> went and the globulars were awesome, especially m4
>
> The sight of lagoon nebula still enthralls me, I saw the smaller NGC
> cluster next to m7 which was new thing for me, cos i dont think it
> comes in one FOV in a scope.
>
> One more trip to halli needed :)

Hope the skies do clear sometime after I get to Bangalore as well :-S

I'd love to rush with the 17.5".

Regards
Akarsh

[ravi babu]

 

   Hi,

 

           After a disheartening first observing session on 14th july (the clouds were hanging around all night), my second observing session was very good. And with an expert in deep sky observing like Amar Sharma, my session was just perfect.
 
                Me, along with my brother, Avinash Babu and Amar left Bangalore for Doddaballapur by around 3 pm and reached Doddaballapur by 4:15 pm. The sky appeared to be clear with a few clouds hanging around here and there which posed no real threat. We were joined by two of our friends Chethan and Anand on the way (who are also beginners) and we reached Hosahalli, our observing venue by around 5:30. At the observing site, we were joined by a BAS member Sathya Kumar Prasanna.
 
                 We started our observations by around 7:30 pm. The skies were good with our nearest neighbour, the moon just above us. Like it happens with almost all beginners, we started from the moon. Well, to be honest the moon's view through the 8' telescope was simply superb. The half cresent moon kick starting our observing session.
 
                  The next thing Amar and Sathya teached us was recognition of constellations. We could recognise Big Dipper, Sagittarius, Scorpious and few more. We saw some red stars like Arcturus, Antares, a blue star Vega which are important to know the directions in the night sky. We also saw the binary stars in the Big Dipper constellation.
 
                   Then we had dinner and waited for the moon to set and we started again at 12:15 am. The north sky was a bit cloudy but the south sky was brilliant with many shooting stars zipping through the skies. We saw some 7-9 shooting stars through the night. We were also able to recognize few satellites.
 
                    One observation which stood out from the rest was the view of our home galaxy, The Milky Way. Amar and Sathya were expressing their wonder and excitement and told us that we were very lucky to have viewed the best Milky Way that was viewed from Hosahalli over the years. Then we saw some globular clusters namely M4 and M80 in the constellation Scorpious, Omega Centauri in the constellation Centaurus and some open clusters. Sathya showed us the ring nebula. We also saw Saturn along with its largest moon Titan. It was a great moment for me to have viewed the Lord of the Rings through the 8' telescope.
 
                     By the time we observed all these objects, it was around 1:45 and some more clouds had set in. So me and my friends decided to take a nap while Amar was busy doing deep sky observations. By the time i got up it was 5:15 in the morning. But the sky never appeared to have cleared. But syill there were some parts in the sky where the clouds were absent. We viewed Venus, the next brightest thing in the sky apart from our moon. Then we saw Jupiter along with its four Galilean moons (Io, Callisto, Europa and Ganymede). With this we concluded our observing session.
 
                     For beginners like me, my brother  and my friends, the session was just perfect. We would like to thank Amar and Sathya who helped us out through the session and BAS for giving us a good opportunity to know more about our Universe.
 
                     Its a good feel for me to have started my carrer in Astronomy, 400 years after Galileo first looked at the sky through his telescope.
 
Regards
Ravi Babu S

[Prashanth Bangalore]

Hey,

I am relatively new to this. I have never been on an observation trip. I request u to pls put up the dates for the next one to hosahalli.... The description you guys put up here has pushed my desire to start of on these trips....

Introduction:

Name; Prashanth Bangalore

Finished my 2nd year BE in Mechanical Engineering at RVCE. 

-Prashanth Bangalore

[Akarsh Simha]

On Wed, Jul 01, 2009 at 07:40:05PM +0530, Prashanth Bangalore wrote:
> Hey,
> I am relatively new to this. I have never been on an observation trip. I
> request u to pls put up the dates for the next one to hosahalli.... The
> description you guys put up here has pushed my desire to start of on these
> trips....
> Introduction:
> Name; Prashanth Bangalore
> Finished my 2nd year BE in Mechanical Engineering at RVCE.

Just keep track of either this or the bas-announce mailing list (if
you like only announcements) and keep checking e-mail.

We announce any events on these two mailing lists.

Regards
Akarsh

[Amar Sharma]

Hi Prashanth and All, As a thumbrule, we have observing sessions around all New Moon dates (a week before and after). We try not to miss this even in the monsoons (as you are seeing), so observing is conducted virtually all year round.   Mostly we announce here or its also up in the BAS website Calendar. For the next month, we would be having a couple sessions after we return from the Eclipse (as usual hoping skies remain clear). Thanking You. Amar.

--- On Wed, 7/1/09, Prashanth Bangalore <prashan...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hey, I am relatively new to this. I have never been on an observation trip. I request u to pls put up the dates for the next one to hosahalli.... The description you guys put up here has pushed my desire to start of on these trips.... Introduction: Name; Prashanth Bangalore Finished my 2nd year BE in Mechanical Engineering at RVCE.

-Prashanth Bangalore

[Amar Sharma]

Thanks to Sathya and Ravi for typing out the 28th June observing experience. Some points from my side. The skies background in the daytime was acutally blue with fluffy white weather clouds covering the sky, and appearing non-threatning. This assured me the skies at night would be very good, unless a bad miracle takes place.   At evening we waited for the bright Half-Moon to set, and yet we saw a wonderful MilkyWay up in Sagi until Cygnus on the other side. Once Moon was setting, I think it got hazy with moments of clearing, and we couldnt do much. Anyway by midnight when we were dozing under the open sky, we were awoken up and saw a very good clearing. The Sagi MW then onwards was PHENOMENAL...and to my senses, it felt better than before.   This time the stellar density was also great, and hardly any background glow. What I realize is this happens only when transparency is very good and no traces of upper-most thin haze (...Akarsh).   I observed many globulars this time, revisiting few of them in the Southern skies, literally after a long 2 years! I caught the 9th mag bright Comet Christensen just as it was rising above the tree, earlier than I expected. This was just without a finder chart from only memory, glancing into Cartes only once. I was waiting for it to rise until zenith to get a real good view, but haze later on spoiled the show.   We still saw some mysterious meteors. I do not know which shower it is persisting from, since so many days, when there is no major shower scheduled now. Could it be an extended outburst of the lesser known Lyrids? Another eventful session, among the many. Thanking You. Amar.

[Akarsh Simha]

> This time the stellar density was also great, and hardly any background
> glow. What I realize is this happens only when transparency is very good
> and no traces of upper-most thin haze (...Akarsh).

Yes, yes...

I'm waiting to come back to Bangalore.

Regards
Akarsh

[Rakesh]

Were these meteorids radiating from delphinus?

Parag last saturday said he did see these meteors zip off from
Delphinus. Are there any Delphinids

> > This time the stellar density was also great, and hardly any background
> > glow. What I realize is this happens only when transparency is very good
> > and no traces of upper-most thin haze (...Akarsh).

I concur with amar on these, its mostly in the monsoon with the rain
trapping off the haze that we get he best haze-free skies. I mean
preemptorily we could say this is the best and the worst part of the
season to observe :)

[Akarsh Simha]

> > > This time the stellar density was also great, and hardly any background
> > > glow. What I realize is this happens only when transparency is very good
> > > and no traces of upper-most thin haze (...Akarsh).
>
> I concur with amar on these, its mostly in the monsoon with the rain
> trapping off the haze that we get he best haze-free skies. I mean
> preemptorily we could say this is the best and the worst part of the
> season to observe :)

Right. The skies are really transparent if they clear during monsoons
:)

So far, I guess the 17.5" has been underperforming because of
haze. People on CloudyNights gave me brighter impressions of the
telescope than what I've gotten to see. Collimation is one aspect, and
sky transparency is the other. I guess we should make it a point to
try our luck on new-moon nights during the monsoon months.

Regards
Akarsh

[Shankar Lahiri]

Thanks Akarsh, You are an angel. As you gave me the web address of SWA-Kolkata, I wrote to them immediately and have enrolled as a member. Thanks for your guidance. But I have seen their website; - their activity level is perhaps 1/100th of what BAS is doing.  I wish I could be in Bagalore for sometime to learn from you guys directly. I'll keep in touch.   For amateurs, do you think a 3" scope is good enough, or one should possess  at least a 6" size, if we do not go very deep?   Shankar Lahiri   --- On Thu, 2/7/09, Akarsh Simha <akars...@gmail.com> wrote:

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[Akarsh Simha]

Hi Shankar

> You are an angel. As you gave me the web address of SWA-Kolkata, I wrote
> to them immediately and have enrolled as a member. Thanks for your
> guidance.

Well, it's just our way of sharing our interest in astronomy with
others.

> But I have seen their website; - their activity level is perhaps 1/100th
> of what BAS is doing. I wish I could be in Bagalore for sometime to learn
> from you guys directly. I'll keep in touch.

It would be nice if you could boost them into activity! We don't hear
much from Kolkata, which is why I suspected if they were active.

BAS is kept active by 4 ~ 5 active people - and they are enough to
enthuse an entire host of amateur astronomers. We had 70+ participants
in Vishnu's National-level Workshop; in the back end, the whole thing
was the brainchild of 2 ~ 3 active members of BAS and Vishnu!

So one active member is enough to enthuse several others.

> For amateurs, do you think a 3" scope is good enough, or one should
> possess at least a 6" size, if we do not go very deep?

It's a good idea to exhaust all objects visible through the 3". The
entire Messier catalog (the "M" objects) should be possible from a
dark site, and some bright NGC (New General Catalog) objects should be
possible too.

Once you "exhaust" the capabilities of a 3" scope, you can graduate to
whatever aperture you want, because you would have gained the basic
knack of deep-sky observing. Moreover, you'll be in a better position
to decide what aperture you want.

Regards
Akarsh

[Rakesh]

Actually I am just curious

>>Collimation is one aspect, and
>>sky transparency is the other. I guess we should make it a point to
>>try our luck on new-moon nights during the monsoon months.

Isnt collimation a measure of your telescope's effeciency?

Dude can one see all messiers through a 3"; even m109 etc i dont think
so!!

[Akarsh Simha]

> Dude can one see all messiers through a 3"; even m109 etc i dont think
> so!!

I think Amar was telling me that you can see all Messiers through a
big binocular.

M74 and M109 might be a problem, but I think dark skies and
experienced eyes can show it to you in a 3".

[Prashanth Bangalore]

Thanks guys for the info... Will surely come for the next trip....

Prashanth Bangalore

[Amar Sharma]

@ Rakesh and Shankar - Aperture-wise, a 3-inch should show all Messiers, but with two conditions - very good skies and good experience of the observer. I have good personal reasons to believe this is also possible with a 10x50 binocular, if the two conditions are satisfied. Many have claimed to have done it, including likes of M97, M108, M74 etc.   Like, I am lingering at 87 Messiers (some insanely difficult) (most verified by Akarsh by comparing software with the observed star field) with a 10x50 binocs. That's a good 80% of 10x50 Messiers even with limited binocular sessions! Am sure to reach more with increased practice. (review an earlier thread from archives on this)   As a matter of fact, the limiting magnitude of an aperture "increases" with experience. You will see "deeper and fainter" 5 years from now, than now. For example, some folks at CloudyNights Forum claim they have seen 12th mag galaxies in Virgo with a 25x100, which I dont think I could manage without constant practice in next 3 years!   So start like Akarsh has said - with a small aperture, get acquanited and confident of it's aperture, after few years move ahead. I would intuitively trust the power of a 8" f/8 I've been using ever since, more than a new unacquinted 12" in hand...   @ Rakesh - There are no showers like Delphinids, even they might appear to. The only one in this period is the minor Lyrids.

[Rakesh]

>>As a matter of fact, the limiting magnitude of an aperture "increases" with experience. You will see "deeper and fainter" 5 >>years from now, than now. For example, some folks at CloudyNights Forum claim they have seen 12th mag galaxies in >>Virgo with a 25x100, which I dont think I could manage without constant practice in next 3 years!

Interesting that you say that, so do you mean to say that with 10
years of observation it is theortically possible to do all messiers
and many ngc's with binocs, i dont know whether you can push the
optical limits so much?

Anyway id take ur word since u have more experience than me :)

On Jul 2, 9:36 pm, Amar Sharma <amar_unive...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> @ Rakesh and Shankar - Aperture-wise, a 3-inch should show all Messiers, but with two conditions - very good skies and good experience of the observer. I have good personal reasons to believe this is also possible with a 10x50 binocular, if the two conditions are satisfied. Many have claimed to have done it, including likes of M97, M108, M74 etc.
>  
> Like, I am lingering at 87 Messiers (some insanely difficult) (most verified by Akarsh by comparing software with the observed star field) with a 10x50 binocs. That's a good 80% of 10x50 Messiers even with limited binocular sessions! Am sure to reach more with increased practice. (review an earlier thread from archives on this)
>  
> As a matter of fact, the limiting magnitude of an aperture "increases" with experience. You will see "deeper and fainter" 5 years from now, than now. For example, some folks at CloudyNights Forum claim they have seen 12th mag galaxies in Virgo with a 25x100, which I dont think I could manage without constant practice in next 3 years!
>  
> So start like Akarsh has said - with a small aperture, get acquanited and confident of it's aperture, after few years move ahead. I would intuitively trust the power of a 8" f/8 I've been using ever since, more than a new unacquinted 12" in hand...
>  
> @ Rakesh - There are no showers like Delphinids, even they might appear to. The only one in this period is the minor Lyrids.
>

[Shankar Lahiri]

Thanks Amar. Very well explained. Since my 3"-scope got broken while shifting to Kolkata, I have now purchased a 10x50 bino. (I have to have a stand to hold it)   shankar --- On Thu, 2/7/09, Amar Sharma <amar_u...@yahoo.com> wrote:

From: Amar Sharma <amar_u...@yahoo.com> Subject: [-BAS-] Re: Observing Report, 27th June To: b-...@googlegroups.com

Date: Thursday, 2 July, 2009, 10:06 PM

@ Rakesh and Shankar - Aperture-wise, a 3-inch should show all Messiers, but with two conditions - very good skies and good experience of the observer. I have good personal reasons to believe this is also possible with a 10x50 binocular, if the two conditions are satisfied. Many have claimed to have done it, including likes of M97, M108, M74 etc.   Like, I am lingering at 87 Messiers (some insanely difficult) (most verified by Akarsh by comparing software with the observed star field) with a 10x50 binocs. That's a good 80% of 10x50 Messiers even with limited binocular sessions! Am sure to reach more with increased practice. (review an earlier thread from archives on this)   As a matter of fact, the limiting magnitude of an aperture "increases" with experience. You will see "deeper and fainter" 5 years from now, than now. For example, some folks at CloudyNights Forum claim they have seen 12th mag galaxies in Virgo with a 25x100, which I dont think I could manage without constant practice in next 3 years!   So start like Akarsh has said - with a small aperture, get acquanited and confident of it's aperture, after few years move ahead. I would intuitively trust the power of a 8" f/8 I've been using ever since, more than a new unacquinted 12" in hand...   @ Rakesh - There are no showers like Delphinids, even they might appear to. The only one in this period is the minor Lyrids.

--- On Thu, 7/2/09, Akarsh Simha <akars...@gmail.com> wrote: > Dude can one see all messiers through a 3"; even m109 etc i dont think > so!! I think Amar was telling me that you can see all Messiers through a big binocular. M74 and M109 might be a problem, but I think dark skies and experienced eyes can show it to you in a 3".

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[Amar Sharma]

What I would mean is there is always a limit any aperture would ideally reach, exploiting it completely. If a 13th mag galaxy with a 8" appears a fantasy now, it could be possible with that much practice and training your eyes. In essence, you should be able to do a lot more than you expect your aperture would. There are certain formulae which determine the limiting magnitude of any aperture, and it should be achievable.