January

[Nightspore]

A Half Dozen of Mercury, Focuser Calamities, and Klingons on the Starboard Bow.

 

For the past few years I’ve rarely been able to get outside with a telescope in January. It’s not a month traditionally amenable to astronomy. This year has been a bit of an anomaly. On New Year’s Day I saw a twilight Venus and Mercury with my 90mm Orion StarMax.

 

 

The very next day, not only did I repeat this experience, I even managed to get my modified ST80 out for a rich field session as well. Notwithstanding my 102mm Mak’ has been out half a dozen times for lunar viewing.

 

 

I managed to catch Mercury for an unprecedented six times in twelve days. Observing it over a period from when it was 6 arcseconds in size and 76.6% illuminated until it was 7.9 arcseconds in diameter and only 34.4% illuminated. 

 

 

My short tube refractors have been out a total of ten times. All but one of these sessions have been with one of my ST80’s. On the 8th I had a bizarre equipment failure when the aftermarket Crayford focusers consecutively detached from both of my modified ST80’s! I often use an ST80 for rich field when the conditions are not optimal. An 80mm aperture is 130x better than the unaided eye compared to the approximately 70x of a 60mm aperture.

 

 

Admittedly the 72ED DS Pro is 105x better than the human eye but I can have difficulties using 2” accessories with it. When the conditions are clear, but the seeing is distinctly below average, one of the basic but sturdy 80mm Synta short tube achromats suffices for rich field grab and go observing. 

 

 

It transpired that over a period of years the three tiny grub screws in the rotating mechanisms of the aftermarket TS Optics (GSO) focusers had become loose. Loosening and tightening a large thumb screw facilitates the rotation mechanism. I didn’t realise that the grub screws which prevent the entire rotation unit detaching from the V-ring were now ineffectual on both focusers. Either way I was determined to finish what I’d started. So I fetched the 72ED out and hoped that it didn't decide to disassemble itself either. I successfully ended the rather calamitous session by observing two of my winter favourites: M41 and the Winter Albireo (145 G Canis Majoris). I later repaired the ‘bisected’ ST80’s.

 

 

On the 27th and 29th, with the now fully complete and repaired Orion ST80, I got to see the Flaming Star Nebula, NGC 1647, the Little Beehive and a Klingon battlecruiser. NGC 

1662/Collinder 55 is a 6th magnitude open cluster in Orion and was discovered by William Herschel on January the 18th, 1784.

 

 

It is 1425 light years from the solar system and its apparent size is approximately 20 arcminutes, corresponding to a physical diameter of 8 light years. Apparently, Russell Sipe writing in the Sky & Telescope magazine (2005), was the first person to suggest that the stars in NGC 1662 closely approximated the running lights of a Star Trek Klingon battlecruiser. Once found NGC 1662 takes a bit of magnification to see properly. Anywhere around 40x and 70x is good. I have to admit that I really can see the similarity to a D7 Class battlecruiser. There’s Klingons on the starboard bow. Beam me up, Scotty!

 

 

Edited January 31, 2022 by Nightspore

[ApophisAstros]

Some of my best imaging culminating with this.

And Starless.

25.5 Hours integration

Roger

[Nightspore]

7 minutes ago, ApophisAstros said:

Some of my best imaging culminating with this.

And Starless.

25.5 Hours integration

Roger

 

Looks good. Let's hope February gets us as many, if not more, nights under clear skies.