You Can Observe Every Night

By Bill Pellerin

Houston Astronomical Society

GuideStar Editor

On December 18, 2010, the Saturday night before the full moon that became the total lunar eclipse (that I didn’t see because of the clouds) I did some visual observations of interesting stars. In particular, these were carbon stars on the new Astronomical League Carbon Stars program. I didn’t expect to see much with the sky as bright as it was, and using a 3” telescope. Most amazing to me was the fact that I was able to see all but one of the stars on my observing list for the night. That is, I could see 7 of them, but not the 8th. Not bad. The fact that the sky wasn’t totally dark meant that the brighter star patterns were easy to see and match to the star patterns on the maps on my computer.

You Can Observe Every Night

By Bill Pellerin

Houston Astronomical Society

GuideStar Editor

On December 18, 2010, the Saturday night before the full moon that became the total lunar eclipse (that I didn’t see because of the clouds) I did some visual observations of interesting stars. In particular, these were carbon stars on the new Astronomical League Carbon Stars program. I didn’t expect to see much with the sky as bright as it was, and using a 3” telescope. Most amazing to me was the fact that I was able to see all but one of the stars on my observing list for the night. That is, I could see 7 of them, but not the 8th. Not bad. The fact that the sky wasn’t totally dark meant that the brighter star patterns were easy to see and match to the star patterns on the maps on my computer.

Who’d have thought that a bright moonlit night would be good for anything? There’s nothing that compares with seeing a sprinkling of stars against a truly dark sky, but there is still a lot to do and see on less-than-perfect nights. You may miss an opportunity to do some interesting observing and advance your observing program if you skip nights when the moon is in the sky or when there’s some high haze.

How do you identify those objects you can observe under less than ideal (sometimes way less than ideal) conditions?

Constellations – how many of us really know where to find all of the constellations that become visible to us throughout the year. Not too many months ago I saw Corona Australis for the first time with binoculars. Do you know where it is? I’ve been observing for over 20 years, and I had never seen this constellation before. The main stars remind me of Corona Borealis (probably no surprise) and being on the edge of the bright disk of the Milky Way there are many stars included in the little constellation.

Double Stars – these jewels of the sky can be a lot of fun to chase down and observe. There are so many varieties of double stars – colorful ones, close ones, easy ones, difficult ones – that you could spend your observing career on these objects alone.

The Moon – I have a refrigerator magnet that says, “I need to move to a planet that has no moon”. Cute, but there is no object in the sky that shows itself in as much detail as the moon. While the moon has been mapped in very fine detail by lunar spacecraft this shouldn’t take anything away from your observing efforts. There are two AL programs for lunar observing to give you a head start.

Stars – Yes, stars. There are many interesting, bright stars. Observing is something you do with your mind as well as with your telescope. When you look at something that you have studied you realize how interesting and special the object is. Betelgeuse, for example, is a red supergiant star arising from a high mass main sequence star that has consumed much of its hydrogen. Someday, (today, perhaps?) it will become a stunning supernova. Carbon stars – the last gasp of stellar life for low mass stars – are beautifully red and wonderfully interesting.

Bright deep sky objects – You won’t see them as well under brightly moonlit skies, but the fact that you can see them at all can make them fascinating. Bright open clusters can be quite nice as well as bright planetary nebulae.

Planets, comets, and asteroids. For the planets dark skies are not a requirement. Have you ever seen Mercury? Not all of us have, so plan to observe it at its next elongation. Comets come and go, but some of them have been bright enough for me to see from my very urban location, 3 miles from downtown Houston, Tx. I’ve also seen asteroids in binoculars from this location. Your astronomy magazines will let you know when such an object will be available for viewing.

Here are some resources:

Astronomical League Programs

• Constellation Hunter’s Club – Observe the northern (or southern) hemisphere constellations and sketch them.

• Double Star Club – Many of the stars on this list are bright.

• Open Cluster Club – Many of these are bright and will be available on any clear night.

• Carbon Star Club – Late life low mass red stars. Variable, but can be bright enough to be seen with small telescopes or binoculars.

• Lunar / Lunar II Clubs – The observer’s nemesis becomes the object to observe

• Sun Spotters Club – What could be brighter? Read the warnings carefully about proper telescope filtering.

• Urban Observing Club – Objects that are bright enough to see in an urban location

Books / References

• Visual Astronomy In the Suburbs – Antony Cooke

• The Sun and How to Observe It – Jamey L. Jenkins

• The Brightest Stars – Fred Schaff

• Viewing the Constellations with Binoculars – Bojan Kambic – Comment: Binocular observing lists are also quite useful for wide field telescopes

• Binocular Highlights – 99 Celestial Sights for Binocular Users – Gary Seronik

• Cambridge Double Star Atlas – James Mullaney and Wil Tirion

• Double Stars for Small Telescopes – Sissy Haas

• Astronomy and Sky & Telescope magazines – have regular items on observing the moon and everything else.

Software

• SkyTools is an outstanding product. You can develop an observing list based on various criteria (brightness, object type, observing instrument, among others) and let the software create a list for you at your location. Or you can input your list and let SkyTools tell you what’s available for you to see tonight. Many of the AL programs have SkyTools observing lists already created and available for download. Check skyhound.com.

Being a good observer is all about diligence. Keep at it and you’ll find that you can enjoy observing every day of the month.