Telescope set up on a HEQ-5 mount (1st May 2024)

On Wednesday this week I was anticipating that it might be clear in the evening and I thought it would be a good opportunity to try and set up my 140mm Maksutov Cassegrain correctly on my HEQ-5 mount. I now have three stone blocks set up in the garden to rest the feet of my tripod on. Recently, I have been having trouble with polar aligning the scope and so, idly searching the net for help, I came across this video which gave me some ideas about how I could do things better.

I will describe what I did so that it may be of use to others. Firstly, I placed the tripod on the stone blocks in roughly the right position for true north. Although the three blocks are roughly levelled between themselves I adjusted the tripod legs so that top of it, using a spirit level, was properly level. I marked the location of the legs on the stone blocks so that I could replace the tripod in exactly the same place on another night.

Next I attached the HEQ-5 head and then made sure the azimuth adjustment screws were screwed in equally on both sides, so that the head was centred. I added the counterweight, then the telescope, DSLR camera and red dot pointer. I had been using a 50mm finder with crosshairs but I found it too heavy and it was awkwardly messing up the balance of the scope. The red dot pointer is much lighter and smaller. I then balanced the telescope in RA and Dec by adjusting the position of the telescope in the dovetail slot and by moving the counterweight.

I then waited until the stars were visible, lined up on Arcturus and made sure that the red dot pointer and telescope were aligned. I did need to take the camera off briefly to do this and replace it with a star diagonal and eyepiece but once the camera was back on I could focus the camera by using liveview and seeing the star on the screen.

Now, something perhaps I have not been careful about before was putting the telescope in the 'park' position before switching on the drive. This means that the counterweight is at its lowest position and the scope is pointing roughly in the direction of the pole. This helps when carrying out the alignment. Next came entering the usual date, time and location information on the handset (sometimes I get the date format wrong which can lead to all sorts of trouble!). When this is done the handset shows the location of polaris in the polar finder. This is in the format of HH:MM. From what I understand this is a 12 hour pointing system with 12 pointing directly up, 6 pointing directly down and the other locations increasing clockwise as on a face of a clock).

If you look through the polar finder you will see a small circle marked where you have to place polaris (northern hemisphere only). Suppose the handset said a time of 03:00, then you would rotate the polar scope until that circle is at the 3 o'clock position. Now using the azimuth and altitude adjustments on the HEQ-5 head only, move the head until polaris is seen in that small circle. Don't move the feet of the tripod as you might mess up the levelling you did earlier.

You should be roughly polar aligned. Then carry out a 3 star alignment. Not a 1 star or 2 star but a 3 star. This is something else I have learned. Do a 3 star as it is much more likely that the telescope will more reliably point to an object. Another thing I have learned is that you can do this ok with the camera in position. Just use liveview to centre the stars each time. Then you can be sure that the telescope remains well balanced.

I found that carrying this all out was entirely sufficient for my needs. Each time I used the controller to send the telescope to a new object it was reliably in the centre of the field. The video goes on to show how you can improve the polar alignment using certain functions on the controller which I might try sometime.

Finally, when dismounting the telescope I made a note of where the telescope was in the dovetail connection and where the counterweight was on its arm. When releasing the head from the tripod I undid the azimuth screws equally by one full turn each. Also I left the adjusted feet of the tripod as they were. Hopefully, this means that on another night when I go to set up I can return the telescope to exactly the same place and level and have the axis of the mount pointing in the same direction. It should speed up the whole set up process.

All text and images © Duncan Hale-Sutton 2024

Z and RY Ursae Majoris and TX and AH Draconis (1st April 2024)

A week and a half ago on the 1st April we had some more welcome clear weather. Further to that, the moon was one day to last quarter and wasn't due to rise until early in the morning. It is getting light well into the evening now and on the 1st astronomical twlight didn't end until 20:30 UT (21:30 BST). 

The constellation of Ursa Major is getting well up into the sky now and makes for a good target for variable star observing. The sky darkness around 10pm BST was good but the clarity wasn't 100%. I began, as usual, by looking at Z UMa. I now have a new pair of Hawke Endurance 10x50 binoculars to play with that I won at a competition at the BAA. I must say that I am very pleased with them. At 21:10 UT Z was fainter than star B (=7.3 mag.) on chart 217.02 from the BAA. At 21:18 I could see that its brightness was between stars C (=7.5) and D (=7.9) and my estimate at 21:21 UT was that it was midway between the two i.e. C(1)V(1)D, or magnitude 7.7.

I then moved on to RY UMa on the same chart. At 21:29 UT RY was much fainter than star 1 (=6.7). At 21:31 UT I could see it was fainter than star 2 (=7.4). At 21:35 my estimate was that it was roughly equal in brightness to star 4, that is magnitude 7.7.

The next chart I had was for two stars in Draco (chart 106.04). At 21:52 UT TX Dra was between stars K and N in brightness (magnitudes 7.0 and 7.7, respectively). At 21:54 my estimate was that TX was midway between these two stars, namely K(3)V(4)N, or magnitude 7.3. This value is on the brighter side compared to other observers at the BAA but when looking at the AAVSO data it isn't unexpected.

Finally, at 21:01 UT I saw that AH Dra was fainter than star 1 (=7.0) on the same chart but not by much. My estimate at 22:04 UT was 1(1)V(2)2 that is magnitude 7.1.

All text and images © Duncan Hale-Sutton 2024

Comet Pons-Brooks (24th March 2024).

Two weeks ago now on the 24th March, we had a break in this what seems like endless cloud, and I was able to get out and look for Comet 12P (Pons-Brooks). Although the sky was clear, conditions weren't perfect because we had a virtually full moon shining in the darkening sky. The comet was in the constellation of Pisces which was setting in the west during twlight. My first intention was actually to look for the planet Mercury and this was well-placed in the sky being at greatest elongation east on this day. It was near Eta Pisces and was quite obvious in the twilight.

I then set about looking for the comet as the sky darkened further. Not being sure about quite where it was it was difficult to pick up even in binoculars. I think I eventually located the fuzzy blob and decided to go and gather my camera and tripod to take some pictures. This was one of a number of 15s exposures I took on my Nikon D90 at ISO400:-

 

The comet is marked by a red line near the centre of the image ('click' on the image to see it at full scale). It certainly isn't that obvious. To the right of the comet in the full-scale view is the star 91 Piscium which is magnitude 5.2 and the comet is not dissimmilar in brightness to it. You can see that the field of flowering rape at the bottom is well lit by moonlight. Also seen are Jupiter and the Pleiades to the left of the image. I must admit that when I began taking more pictures I mistook the fuzzy blob more to the right of the image as the comet but this turns out to be M31! 

To see more detail of the comet I combined 19x15s such exposures, taken in the same sequence as this single image, in DeepSkyStacker and the result can be seen in the inset at the bottom right. This does show a bit more detail of the tail.

All text and images © Duncan Hale-Sutton 2024

RW Cephei and CH Cygni (15th January 2024)

We had another cold and clear night here over a week ago on the 15th January. The moon was waxing and three days before first quarter. It lay in the south early in the evening and wasn't due to set until 21:49 UT. Astronomical twilight ended at 18:20. 

My first target of the night was the variable RW Cephei. If you know the constellation of Cepheus, the star is relatively easy to find. The constellation was still relatively high in the sky when I went out to observe about 18:40 UT. The five stars of Cepheus Alpha, Beta, Iota, Xi and Zeta make a sort of cross in the sky and if you look at Zeta it makes a sort of triangular 'foot' with two other stars Delta and Epsilon. RW is to be found on the other side of the foot from the cross. As an aid to finding it, if you look at the binocular chart 312.02 from the BAA the stars P and B and another star of similar brightness make a sort of parallelogram with RW.

At 18:44 UT with 7x50 binoculars I could see that RW was fainter than P (=6.2 mag.). At 18:48 I judged it to be brighter than B (=6.5) but only just. At 18:49 I thought it was much brighter than E (=7.3). Therefore my estimates at 18:48 was P(2)V(1)B i.e. magnitude 6.4.

This is all a bit curious because it seems, relative to other observers at the BAA, I am a bit bright in my estimate yet I am sure that this is what I saw. For example, another observer estimated the brightness to be 7.0 at 18:45 UT on the same day! So we are 0.6 magnitudes apart! Their estimate makes RW 0.3 magnitudes brighter than E and 0.5 magnitudes fainter than B. This seems very at odds with what I recorded. One of the other things I think is strange is that I was very much more aware of the colour of RW (which was red) whereas usually for these stars the colour isn't very obvious at these magnitudes. Hey, ho. I will stick by what I saw.

I moved on to look at the variable CH Cygni in the wing of Cygnus the Swan. This constellation was flying down towards the west and would be difficult to observe in a couple of hours. At 18:58 UT CH was much fainter than star A (=6.5) on chart 089.04 from the BAA and star W (=7.3). At 19:03 I thought it was brighter than star D (=8.0). My estimate at 19:06 was that CH was near to being midway between W and D but slightly nearer to W, that is W(3)V(4)D which is magnitude 7.6.

I am pleased to say that there is no disagreement with this observation and those from other BAA observers on this date!

All text and images © Duncan Hale-Sutton 2024

Perseus and the Pleiades with a Sony RX100

A friend of mine asked me to try taking some pictures of the night sky with my Sony RX100 as he was thinking of purchasing the camera himself. On the 9th January when I was also making some variable star observations I took this image of the sky with this camera:-

My settings were as follows: aperture f/1.8, shutter speed 15s, 35mm equivalent focal length 28mm, ISO 1600, white balance auto, manual exposure and colour space Adobe RGB. The main features are the constellation of Perseus (upper centre) and the Pleiades star cluster (lower right). Also the constellation of Auriga is poking into the picture at the bottom (centre left).

I don't think the camera has done too badly. I had to rely on autofocus as I hadn't looked up how to do it manually, but I think it is possible. The star images are a bit distorted into triangle shapes as you go to the edges of the frame but at f/1.8 this is probably to be expected. I reckon you can see stars down to about 9th magnitude. I have also marked a few other objects (mostly star clusters - click on the image to get a better view) that can be seen but it is good to see the galaxy M33 appear near the edge of the frame at the top right. I think the California Nebula was probably a bit of wishful thinking but I thought I could see a bit of red colouration.

All text and images © Duncan Hale-Sutton 2024

Four variable stars in Draco and Ursa Major (9th January 2024)

Earlier this week we had a couple of nights of very cold clear weather. On Tuesday the 9th January the moon was 2 days before new and astronomical twilight ended at 18:15 UT. I went out early evening to do a bit of variable star observing. Even though I was well wrapped up it felt exceptionally cold as the temperature was only a few degrees above freezing and there was a bit of a wind. Still, the cold clear air meant that the sky looked stunning especially as Orion began to rise over the tree tops.

I thought I would start with the two stars I monitor in Draco as they were beginning to become low down in the north west (even though they are circumpolar). Using my 7x50 binoculars I began with TX Dra which is found on chart 106.04 of the BAA. TX is always easy to find. Firstly, you look for the Little Bear (Ursa Minor) and use the two stars Gamma and Beta as a pointers to Eta in Draco. TX forms part of a pentagon of stars near Eta Dra. Two useful comparison stars lie sort of North-South of TX and these are marked as K (=7.0 mag.) and N (=7.7 mag.) on the chart. At 19:11 UT I found that TX was between these two stars in brightness and my estimate was K(2)V(5)N or magnitude 7.2.

AH Draconis  is on the same chart as TX. A line drawn from Eta through the star marked P brings you neatly to AH. It sits at the tip of a collection of other brighter stars. AH looked to be pretty faint. At 19:13 AH was much fainter than star 1 (=7.0 mag.) on the chart but brighter than star 8 (=8.4 mag.). At 19:20 UT I saw that it was fainter than star 6 (=7.8) and my estimate was 6(1)V(2)8 or magnitude 8.0.

I went in for my dinner about this time and then came out to face the cold about 10pm. By then Ursa Major had risen more in the North East and I could look at the variable stars Z and RY on chart 217.02. Finding Z UMa is fairly easy. The star Flamsteed 66 forms an equilateral triangle with the two prominent stars Delta and Gamma at the "back end" of the bear and Z is close to FL66 and just south of a group of three faint stars making an unmistakable triangle. Like AH, Z was pretty faint too, if not fainter. At 22:10 UT Z was fainter than star C on the chart (=7.5) and star D (=7.9). At 22:17 I estimated that it was between stars E (=8.4) and H (=8.7) namely E(1)V(2)H giving magnitude 8.5.

Finally, on the same chart is RY UMa. If you draw a line between Gamma UMa and star B you come to a little group of stars which includes RY. At 22:14 RY was fainter than star 1 (=6.7) and star 2 (=7.4). At 22:29 my estimate was that it was between stars 4 (=7.7) and 5 (=8.3) but so close to 4 as to make no difference. So magnitude 7.7.

All text and images © Duncan Hale-Sutton 2024

T Coronae Borealis on the morning of the 26th December 2023

T CrB is a recurrent nova that is currently of interest because it is likely to go nova sometime soon. The last two eruptions were in 1866 and 1946 (a separation of 80 years) and the current prediction for the next one is 2024.4+/-0.3. It could reach magnitude 2 which would mean it would be roughly as bright as alpha CrB.

The BAA have 3 useful charts to use when locating T. These are a wide 50 degree field, a 9 degree field for use with binoculars and an inverted 2 degree field to be used with a telescope. The chart number is 025.04. T is located near Epsilon CrB. This star (labelled A on the 9 degree chart) forms a roughly equilateral triangle with the stars labelled E and F. T is to the west side of the line between A and F and a roughly halfway between them. There is a small group of three stars to the east of this line which point towards it.

At the moment (5th January 2024) T is about 10th magnitude. Members of the BAA variable star section have obviously been asked to keep an eye on this star but currently the constellation of Corona Borealis is only visible in the morning before sunrise.

On Boxing Day morning just passed (the 26th December) I happened to be awake around 6am and so I thought I would check to see if the nova had appeared. The sky was clear but the moon (1 day before full) was still in the sky in the west and astronomical twilight began at 06:00 UT. Nothing was obvious to the naked eye around that time. With 7x50 binoculars I searched for the location of T without seeing anything. The faintest star I could see in the area (at 06:32 UT) was the star labelled P which was magnitude 8.4. So T was fainter than this at this time. The last confirmed visual observation of this star was around the 1st December but there have been some CCD determinations. So I must try and get up early one morning soon and have a go with the telescope.

All text and images © Duncan Hale-Sutton 2024