#155: A Few Useful Websites, and Messier 3

 I use a handful of websites to aid in my astronomy planning.  To me the most useful one is any weather app that shows past, current and future cloud cover.  I want to see for myself where the clouds are and what they are up to.  Astropheric is good, and their app is pretty decent, too.  Next in importance for me is Telescopius.  I use this to prepare myself for faint galaxy searches, drawing by hand the area around a faint object in the hopes of getting there easier with the scope.  My push-to computer gets me in the vicinity, but to pinpoint the exact location of a 14th mag. galaxy requires a lot more than being in the vicinity.  The site is also useful for providing info on the degree above the horizon an object is at any given time.  Those are my top two websites.  However, when I am preparing a new constellation to observe I use Stelle Doppie to prepare my double star list.  Users can customize which stars to try splitting (my way) or use their own prepared lists.  My 12" list of double stars often numbers in the hundreds for a given constellation (say Cassiopeia, for example).  Next I find Cseligman very helpful, especially when confusion arises regarding errors in the NGC or IC.  I also like to use TimeandDate to get my accurate moonrise and moonset times.  I use a host of other sites, but not as often as the ones above, which I find indispensable.

 

Moving on towards Messier 3 in this ongoing series, I should say here that I like to observe the area around bright deep sky objects to see if any other worthy sights are just a short hop away.  In the case of M 3, there is.  24' following M 3 sits faint gc 5466.  First seen in late July 1992, I was unable to see it earlier from suburban skies with my 8" Edmund reflector.  But from Lake Penage west of Sudbury in northern Ontario it was easily swept up at 36x.  It appeared as a large and faint round haze, with no resolution.  However, 59x and 72x showed some resolution with averted vision.  No bright center was seen; just a uniform dim haze.  At 112x the cluster was dimming and fading, with higher magnifications being useless.  Jump to early June 2013.  Looking at the specs this sounds like a showpiece (Mag. 9.2, 9').  It isn't, even in a 12" scope.  It is very faint, but very large.  The bigger scope resolves the cluster fairly well, and it was observed at 60x, 100x and 120x.  Stars were resolving well beyond the hazy ball itself, especially south.

 

Turning now to Messier 3 it was in late May of 1998 I viewed the globular cluster with the 8".  This is a real treasure of the sky!  Especially if one tackles the much fainter gc 5466 first.  M 3 is an amazing and brilliant object.  At 36x outliers were resolving.  At 59x dozens of stars, mostly outside the ball of bright haze, resolve.  At 112x stars were resolving to the core.  169x and 200x show countless stars, and a tantalizing sphere of unresolvable haze in behind.  This is a showpiece for 4" and higher!  

 

M3 (NGC 5272) is one of the finest globulars in the sky, and makes a very refreshing sight after viewing so many galaxies, my most frequent visual targets. Finding M3 is easy. Locate Arcturus, and then nearby Eta (just south preceding it, mag. 2.5). Make Arcturus and Eta the east-west baseline for a right-angle triangle, shooting north twice the distance of that baseline (see map: note M53 and M 64 are also shown, but are not part of this discussion). At a visual mag. of 6.3, even in binoculars M3 is impressive. It resolves nicely in a 6” mirror, and in my 12” at 170x I’m beginning to get that Hubble feeling. The main body spreads out over 18’, though outliers go well beyond. The brightest star is mag. 12.7, so in a really dark sky smaller scopes will partially resolve this cluster nicely.  This is a cluster not to be missed, enhanced greatly by its high declination.

 

 

There is also a small 13 mag. galaxy just preceding M3 (not on map) which I have not observed.  It will be added here in the future.

 

Messier 3.  Photo by Steve Mastellotto from the Windsor center of RASC. 

 

Mapman Mike

 

#154 My Astronomy Library; Messier 2

 I have a moderately large library of astronomy books, but I'm only going to mention the books I use regularly in my observing programs.  In the old days I had three books: Norton's Star Atlas, Olcott's Field Guide, and Menzel's Field Guide.  I still make use of the first two in my Space Eye project.  Using a 2" refractor occasionally alongside a 12" reflector is pretty weird, I know.  But I get a kick at what the Vixen scope can do.  Norton and Olcott both include double star tests for 2" scopes.  I will continue to use the 2" refractor off and on, depending on time available.  A few nights ago I had another look at M11, and it was a pleasing view in its own way.  I tried to locate oc 6709 in Aquila but was unsuccessful.  That is one of my favourite small clusters.

Turning now to my main observing library, I mostly use Uranometria (1 volume edition) for all my observing work, alongside its companion volume, The Uranometria Deep Sky Field Guide.  Both volumes are essential to my observing program.  Supplementary books are The Night Sky Observer's Guide (2 volumes) by Kepple and Sanner, along with Atlas of Star Clusters (2 volumes) by Mike Swan, published by the Webb Deep Sky Society.  For lunar work I use Atlas of the Moon by A. Rukl, published by Astronomy back in the day.  I also use The Stars: A New Way to See Them by H A Rey, children's classic that is still very useful today, especially when talking about constellations with groups or individuals unfamiliar with the night sky.

 

I also have a whole host of books I use to use a lot but seldom refer to now, such as Burham's 3 volume Celestial Handbook, Observing Handbook of Deep-Sky Objects by Luginbuhl and Skiff, and the on-going series Annals of the Deep Sky by Kanipe and Webb.  However, I stopped purchasing these books when they published Cassiopeia and left out my favourite open cluster, oc 7789.  How this could have been left out I don't know, but it made me stop buying their books.

 

In future columns I will discuss some of these books in detail, and why I think they are essential tools.  I will also list my favourite and most useful websites.  My list is small but vital to my program.

 

Time to move on.  Messier 2 is one of 29 globular clusters in the full list of 110 objects.  Here are its stats:  Messier 2, gc 7089: 16', Vis. mag. 6.6, Br. star mag. 13.  Here is my first report: "Though I've been using a telescope since 1969, I first saw M 2 on August 29th, 1994.  Skies were near perfect and the temperature was around 13 C.  It was swept up in the finder of my Edmund 8" reflector, and at 36x in the main viewfinder the globular cluster was very large and bright.  A very few outer stars were resolving.  At 59x it was very granular.  A bright star was noted just preceding the intense core.  72x gave very minimal resolution, with the outer areas showing quite large.  At 118x the very brightest members began to resolve.  169x showed a tiny swarm of stars resolving around the now irregularly-shaped bright core.  There was an ovalness to the very center.  200x gave fair resolution to the very rim of the core.  Resolution improved with 254x, with core now quite magnificent and crossed with stars.  This is an object not to be missed with an 8" scope."

 

1994 sketch using my Edmund 8" scope. 

 

Next came a view of M 2 using my 12" Orion Dob.  It occurred on September 2nd, 2024.  I remarked that it was night of rare transparency, with excellent conditions and a temp around 50 F.  Here are my notes: "This is the kind of showpiece that a 12" aperture was made for!.  First viewed in 1994 with the 8", tonight I began at 107x and full aperture.  The cluster is compact but still a good size, with a large and bright central area.  there is already good resolution, especially in the outer regions.  120x provides a stunning view, with some resolution to the core.  At 166x the resolution of stars becomes spellbinding, especially near and now in the bright core.  231x and 333x provide the best views, and M 2 resembles an amateur astronomer's stellar fantasy come true!  The core is bright and tightly packed with stars.  Streams and lines of stars resolve across the entire object.  M 2 is a wonder in a 12" Dob!"

 

I followed up on October 2nd of 2024 with Space Eye, my 2" Vixen refractor.  This is truly a superior instrument for its size.  Here are my notes: "This globular cluster looked fantastic in the 2"!  It was very bright and a few of the nearby stars also appear in the field.  The cluster shows a large, bright core and a good size surrounding fainter haze.  I was happily surprised at its brightness!  It wasn't difficult to locate, despite not using the instrument since November 2016."  Why look at it with such a small aperture?  Think of Messier and why he made the list.  Does M 2 appear comet-like in a small refractor?  It sure does.

 

https://skyview.gsfc.nasa.gov/current/cgi/titlepage.pl 

 

See you next time.

 

Mapman Mike 

 

 

#153: Musings and Messier 1

It has not been a great year for observing.  I have only been out four times so far in 2026.  We are currently amidst a wicked heat wave, with wild fire smoke drowning out the skies.  It's been cloudy a lot of the time, and I really did poorly on spring galaxies this year.  Most of my remaining work requires spring skies.  I have nearly completed all summer work with the 12" Dob, with only a bit more of Corona B. remaining.  A few nights ago I managed to finish up work in Ophiuchus, tracking down all of the NGC and IC objects (my main goal), as well as over 200 double stars and something like 37 deep sky objects from other catalogues.

 

Summer observing brings with it warmer temps, but also a lot of bugs.  I was kept amused a few nights ago by swarms of fireflies.  When they flash in front of your mirror it is quite the experience.  As far as mosquitoes go, they are usually the worst pests.  However, since I have been using a Thermacell device, the problem has disappeared!  I place the small on the ground a few feet away from where I usually stand at the eyepiece, and where I won't trip over it.  It works like magic!  No more using stinky Off (and still having them buzz around my ears).  My last night out it was 80 F when I began observing at 10:30 pm EDT.  That is usually prime mosquito hunting time.  When I left the site at around 2 am it was 74 F.  Not a single bite, or even a pesky buzz in the ear.  However, next day I always have to wash the front end of the car, which is usually loaded with bug kill from the drive there and home.

 

I am still committed to old fashioned at the eyepiece observing.  I am probably one of the last of my kind.  I drive 50 minutes to my secret observing site, far enough away from the lights of Detroit/Windsor to be bothered by the lights of Cleveland to my south.  There are only two traffic lights, so it is a pretty relaxing drive on county roads.  I can still pull in very faint objects, however, so it is worth the drive.  From my suburban home I can just make out the Milky Way from my driveway on a clear night, overhead only.  From my dark site I can see it pretty much from horizon to horizon.  So that's 100 minutes of driving for a night of observing.  My 12" Dob stays set up in my VW Taos for the two weeks per month that I use it.  That means that I merely have to plop down the stand, drop in the assembled scope, align the mirror (60 seconds) and the finderscope and I'm good to go.  Ten minutes set up upon arrival and about twelve minutes to pack up following last viewed object.

 

I am going to revive my Messier object list review beginning now.  I have never bothered to track down all the objects on the list and write about them.  I have seen most, but not all, of the objects on the list.  Maybe this project will help me finally finish them off (I have been observing with a scope since 1969).

 

Messier 1: The Crab Nebula (this is a repost from my 2020 blog here)

 

Approximately 7500 years ago, a star exploded in the direction of the constellationTaurus. Seen and recorded over a thousand years ago by the Chinese in 1054 A.D., the remnant from this supernova was the first astronomical object to be identified as such. The Earl of Rosse drew the object in 1840, observing it with his 36” telescope. His drawing was said to resemble a crab, and thus the nickname. This is one of the most studied objects in the sky, and provides for some fascinating on-line reading. Stunning photos reveal the object in breathtaking detail. What is highly unusual about M 1 is that on very detailed professional photos, significant changes can be noted in less than a month. Even so, I still like to view it in a small scope. In a really dark sky it can be seen with binoculars, though my views have been only through telescopes. And it continues to expand, being significantly larger now in photos than when I first began the hobby.

My first look came in March, 1973, using my 4.5” Tasco reflector. With fresh snow on the ground and an unshielded streetlight only a few meters away, it wasn’t the ideal first look at such an object. A much better view came from my back deck in Anderdon Township in March, 1994. I was using my trusty Edmund 8” reflector. At lower powers it reminded me somewhat of a very large and bright galaxy. The edges appeared smooth, even at 169x. Skip ahead to late November, 2016. I viewed it with the 12” Dob from Hallam, and found it impressively large, very bright, and quite elongated. The large central area is much brighter than the outer areas. Several faint stars appear to me very close, or even touching the outside edges. The south-following end is very patchy, whereas the north end tapers and fades gradually.

My Space Eye view came in October, 2015, from Hallam Observatory. I did not have high expectations of seeing M 1 with the 2” refractor, but it was located at 30x! The nebula was really faint, but quite unmistakable. It was oval, and though fairly small, averted vision really helped bring it out.

Messier 1 (NGC gn 1952): 6’ x 4’ emission nebula in Taurus.

 

https://skyview.gsfc.nasa.gov/current/cgi/titlepage.pl

 

Photo by Steve Mastellotto, member of RASC Windsor ON, Canada branch, using a Seestar. 

 

I would love to feature your images on these Messier pages.  Contact me if interested (click on comments).

 

Mapman Mike 

 

 

 

 

 

#152: NGC Count Update

It's been a while.  I would write more blogs if I knew anyone was actually out there reading them.  More comments would be nice as well.  While the hit count for this blog is over 75,000, comments are few and far between.  I am still an active visual observer, still using my Orion 12" Push To and Space Eye, my 2" refractor.  I continue to chip away at the NGC list, as viewable from my location in Essex County, Ontario (42 lat. N.).  Every two years at this time I update my print list and recount how deep sky objects have been seen.  Here are the latest totals:

NGC: 3045 objects viewed and logged.

IC:      540 objects.

Other Catalogues (every other deep sky catalogue): 985.

 

My grand total of deep sky objects viewed and logged currently stands at 4590.  That does not include double stars, which I enthusiastically view but do not keep count.  I am hoping to get back to the eyepiece in March.  It has been a brutally cold and severe winter this year since mid November (my last observation) through February.  It seems that cold weather will continue on into early March.  

 

If and when I get back out there I will continue detailed work in Puppis, then continue on with Crater.  By late March I should be able to resume in Coma.  For the first time in my life I plan to tackle part of Virgo!  Aside from the major Messier I have done no official work in this constellation.  It took me 7 years to get through Leo, and it will take me at least that long to get through Coma.  Of course if I had access to more clear nights.....

 

Mapman Mike