Posts Made By: Dave Mitsky

I'm posting my list of deep-sky objects for October. My lists are based on two hour swaths of right ascension and consist of all the Messier objects and the best of the NGC, IC, and other catalogs. Only a few are difficult, given reasonably dark skies, and none are true challenge objects.

Thirty deep-sky objects for October: NGC 7640, NGC 7662, NGC 7686 (Andromeda); NGC 7184, NGC 7293, NGC 7606, NGC 7723 (Aquarius); M52, NGC 7635, NGC 7789, NGC 7790 (Cassiopeia); B173-4, King 10, NGC 7354, NGC 7510 (Cepheus); IC 1434, NGC 7209, NGC 7243, NGC 7245 (Lacerta); NGC 7217, NGC 7320, NGC 7331, NGC 7332, NGC 7339, NGC 7448, NGC 7479, NGC 7619, NGC 7626 (Pegasus); NGC 7541, NGC 7562 (Pisces)

I've been thinking about replacing my venerable 12mm Nagler type 2 with a 13mm Nagler type 6 next year. I currently own the 7 and 9mm type 6 Naglers and have been very pleased with them. Comments?

Dave Mitsky

Among the many deep-sky objects that my friend Tony Donnangelo and I observed on Monday night from a dark site near Mifflintown, PA, were NGC 7492, NGC 7723, and NGC 7727. We used Tony's 14.5" Starmaster SkyTracker Dob and a number of different Tele Vue oculars. All three are located in Aquarius and were featured in the September 2003 issue of Astronomy Magazine in the Deep Sky section of The Sky This Month.

NGC 7492 is a dim 11.5 magnitude globular cluster located to the east of Delta Aquarii and appeared only as a faint, unresolved glow, perhaps due somewhat to the surprisingly variable transparency that night.

A member of the Astronomical League's Herschel 400 list the barred spiral galaxy NGC 7723 is a fairly large circular patch.

The spiral galaxy NGC 7727, another Herschel 400 object, is smaller and has a very bright stellar core.

Both galaxies are north of Omega 1 Aquarii and were located near bright field stars. They struck me as being easier to see than when I first observed them in 1997 from the ASH Naylor Observatory (without question a brighter site) using a 12.5" Cave Newtonian.

Dave Mitsky

I observed Mars with the ASH 17" classical Cassegrain at 249x with a Wratten #25 filter and at 202x with CC30M and 80A filters around 02:00 UT on Wednesday night. Hellas was near the receding limb. It was not particularly bright through the #25 filter. The Pipe (Sinus Sabeus and Sinus Meridiani) straddled the CM, as it did the night before when I viewed Mars with the ASH 12.5" Cave Newtonian at 258x and the magenta and blue filters about the same time. The NPH was visible through the 12.5" on Tuesday night. The seeing was noticeably better that night.

BTW, an excellent September image of Mars from ASH member Mike Snider and a very modest sketch of mine are posted at http://www.astrohbg.org/gallery2/mars_2003

Dave Mitsky
Harrisburg, PA

I stopped at a fellow ASH member's roll-off roof observatory briefly last night to have a look at Mars through his 152mm f/9 Astro-Physics Starfire refractor. A 7mm Pentax ortho and a Wratten #21 orange filter provided us with some rather good views of the now obviously gibbous -1.7 magnitude Mars. The CM was 308.7 degrees at the time and the SPC, Syrtis Major, and other features were evident. Hellas was bright but so was another area near the daytime limb, another dust storm in the making perhaps.

We also observed the waning gibbous Moon. The crater Gutenberg (the Lobster Claw) was well illuminated as were several interesting rilles and other features in that general area.

Dave Mitsky

String theorist Brian Greene was on David Letterman's show last night to promote the 3-hour Nova miniseries "The Elegant Universe". The show airs on PBS on October 28th and November 4th. For more information browse http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/about.html
and http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/

Dave Mitsky

I observed the gigantic active region AR 10484 on Wednesday afternoon. It was the one of the easiest to detect naked-eye sunspots that I've ever beheld and was unmistakable through my polymer solar shades. I was able to see considerable internal detail with my Celestron C4.5 Newtonian at 53, 72, and 82x. I also noted the CME producing sunspot AR 10486 working its way in from the trailing limb.

Dave Mitsky

On Friday night two fellow ASH members, a fellow DVAA member, and I successfully observed the periodic comet 2P/Encke through a 14.5" Starmaster SkyTracker Dob from a dark site in western Perry County, Pennsylvania. This comet was one of the dimmest that I've ever seen and it was only through Tony Donnangelo's painstaking efforts that we were able to see it. It was not even visible until it was close to the zenith and certainly was not nearly as bright as the 11.6 magnitude figure predicted by the IAU ephemeris (see http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/Ephemerides/Comets/0002P_1.html ). From what I've gathered on various astronomy forums this comet has a very large, gaseous outer coma and a very faint inner coma which makes it an easier binocular target than a telescopic target.

We also observed Comets LINEAR T7 and LINEAR-NEAT HT50, LINEAR T7 being the easiest of the three to detect.

Three asteroids (29 Amphitrite, 532 Herculina, and 674 Rachele) and a multitude of deep-sky objects, including B33 (the Horsehead Nebula) and some great galaxy clusters in Pisces, were seen as well. Muted pinks were evident in the wings of M42 and blue and green hues near the Trapezium through John's 16" Meade equatorial Newtonian. A great deal of detail was present in the North America Nebula and the Pelican Nebula was visible through my filtered 101mm Tele Vue refractor as were the Rosette Nebula and the California Nebula.

Dave Mitsky

There was a very nice auroral display in the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, area on Thursday evening, 2003/10/31 UT. I was at the ASH Naylor Observatory near Lewisberry for much of it but I could see red sheets in the east as I drove along light polluted I-83 on the way there. After I arrived at the observatory a stunning coronal arc was visible at approximately 00:15 UT. Unfortunately, it subsided before I could get my camera set up but I did go through a roll of 800 speed film before activity ended about 45 minutes later. During that time we saw rays, curtains, and isolated patches colored red, green, and white. Most of the red patches appeared in the northern sky. At one point the aurora streched from the eastern to the western horizon.


Dave Mitsky

I observed Saturday evening's lunar eclipse from the Astronomical Society of Harrisburg's Naylor Observatory through a number of instruments including the ASH 17" f/15 classical Cassegrain, a 10" f/10 Meade SCT, the 5" f/5 finder scope for the 17", my 101mm f/5.4 Tele Vue refractor, a Celestron 80mm f/5 refractor, a Celestron 20x80 binocular, and a Celestron Ultima 10x50 binocular. Many other telescopes were in use including the ASH 12.5" f/6.5 and 10" f/7 Cave Newtonians. I took afocal shots through the 5" and my scope with a Canon digital camera and eyepiece projection shots through the 5" with my Pentax K1000 SLR and a 32mm Brandon.

We had clear skies for most of the event. Clouds encroached during the partial phase but were gone before totality began. Temperatures dropped to the mid-thirties.

To my eyes the moon was a pinkish orange hue during totality with a bit of brightness at the southern limb, perhaps an L of 3 on the Danjon Scale. During totality I showed some of the onlookers M45, the Double Cluster, and Stock 2.

There were at least 100 visitors and many ASH members present. Two of the local television stations did broadcasts from the observatory.

All in all it was a most enjoyable evening.

Dave Mitsky