Knobs & Klingons on the Starboard Bow

[Nightspore]

Well, astoundingly, and against all odds, I’ve had twenty one sessions since September. This is after over a year’s hiatus from astronomy due to ill health. I’ve used four of my ten telescopes in total. The biggest of these has been my SW 127mm Mak-Cass. Which has managed two lunar/planetary sessions. The ST102 was used for a rich field session and the small ED doublets are basically multipurpose instruments.The twelve extra millimetres of the Evostar has given it a slight edge over the 60mm Altair, even though its glass isn’t quite as good quality. Interestingly I almost took my Orion ST80 for the twenty first session. 

 

72ED: 10 Sessions

60EDF: 8 Sessions

127 Mak: 2 Sessions

 

ST102: 1 Session

The MET site claimed Saturday evening would be clear from around 18:00 (and I believed it). It wasn’t clear. I set-up the 72ED at about midnight. It was a mild winter’s night and although there were no clouds, I knew the jet stream overhead was around a hundred KPH. As a consequence I realised the seeing would be a bit iffy. The first thing I viewed was M42 virtually at transit. I was using my Pentax 8-24mm zoom. 

 

 

The M42 nebula looked good and I could easily see the four main Trapezium stars, they seemed to be full of colour and the nebula itself appeared slightly green (OIII transmission?) to my eyes. However in the conditions, with the 72mm, I really wasn’t getting the transmission with the Pentax. This zoom can be fine on larger scopes, but a 72mm aperture is a little small for good transmission and was a bit ‘through a glass, darkly’ for my taste. The Pentax zoom was originally intended to be used in conjunction with a Pentax daylight spotting scope, and it shows. The BHZ does not suffer from this as it was designed specifically for astronomical use. I got a view of a setting Jupiter at around 141x (6.7mm ES EP + Baader Q-Barlow), it was a little undefined with slightly hazy surface detail. It wasn’t much better at 105x (4mm orthoscopic) or even about 63x. I could see the Galilean moons, with well defined outlines that were disc-like with rich colours. I naturally attributed these colours to the BBHS prism. 

 

 

Then, shock, horror, my knob fell off! It was my own fault as I’d been pulling it for a while. The altitude knob on the Vixen Porta II had become slightly loose. Being a ‘man of action’ I decided to fix it in situ. Although it turned out that I was the ‘knob’ as I’d forgotten where I’d put the screwdriver for the aforementioned altitude knob screw. I walked back to the house to swap the Pentax for the 14mm Morpheus and try to find a screwdriver that fitted the troublesome screw. When I got back it dawned on me that the Allen key required for the knob screw was actually contained in the Porta mount. It isn’t stock, I’d placed it there myself. That’s brain damage (or being a knob) for you I guess. 

 

 

After I’d secured the loose knob with its appropriate tool (hint; I’m the tool lol) it was time to get back to the cosmos. With no Moon and little cloud cover I had a Dave Bowman moment “My God, it’s full of stars”. So I put the Morpheus to good use and had a pleasant sweep (76°@30x) of as many open clusters and the like as I could. The Owl Cluster aka NGC 457/Caldwell 13, inter alia, was great. As usual, I always get a real thrill when I see this. It will always be an owl for me, I just don’t see a dragonfly, ET or even a Zeta Reticulan Grey. Apparently discovered by Herschel on August the 18th, 1780 with a 6.2” reflector. The cluster is over 7,900 LY from Sol. Which is also longer away than Tipperary. Although a bus trip to Birmingham from Worcestershire probably seems longer. I also found NGC 1662 on my first attempt pretty easily as I’ve been using Stellarium (but not actually running the telescope) as practice makes perfect apparently. This is also one of my favourites of all time. It has had other names (Jolly Roger Cluster/Golden Harp Cluster), but as it supposedly resembles the running lights of a Klingon spacecraft, it has been dubbed the Klingon Battle Cruiser (by Star Trek nerds obviously).  

 

 

After a while I decided to split some doubles then use the Baader Eudiascopic for some clusters that are better at only 12x or so. I’m talking about you: the Big Subaru in the sky and the Serpent Cluster in Orion’s Belt! I then realised that I could see Al Zara, which meant  145 CMa aka ‘The Winter Albireo’ was not far behind. I often have to wait for just the right moment when it is in the gap between my neighbour’s house and mine. But this time it was just above my neighbour's roof (the great advantage of lightweight portative rigs). I rarely get to see this seasonal wonder. So I was overjoyed to witness its sublime and subtle colours.

 

 

I wasn’t quite in seventh heaven yet though. I ended the session on a triple high. I got to split the beautiful orange double Algieba in a rising Leo. The orange colouring was mouthwatering with the BBHS prism. I switched to the 35mm Eudiascopic to get a better view of Berenice’s Hair, which I haven’t observed for a couple of years. Finally ending the session by seeing the Engagement Ring around Polaris at 12x. I was an extremely happy bunny, regardless of my knob falling off.