Category Archives: Texas Star Party

TSP Day 2 – Aintnos and Ambartsumian’s Knot among others

While observing on Monday night, Jimi Lowrey who is a friend of Alvin’s and who I visited (along with some of the Houston gang) back in 2008 stopped by and invited me to join him and Alvin for a night on the 48″. Obviously this was something not to be missed, especially as there were only going to be three of us – me, Jimi and Alvin – so just after 4pm Tuesday Alvin collected me and we headed up to Jimi’s place at Limpia Crossing.
Just before dinner, Jimi and me headed over to fellow amateur Carl Swicky’s place to see his 32″. In the area, there are other observatories set up and there’s a community of amateur astronomers. With the climate, dark skies, gorgeous birdlife and beautiful scenery I can’t think of a better life, so if ever I win the UK lottery and get the chance to get out of that murky light-polluted place here is where I will come. We looked, admired and took plenty of pics (by the way, pictures will appear here but they might have to wait either until I get back to San Antonio on Sunday or when I get back to England –  I’ve just remembered that the World Cup begins next month, I’m looking forward to that, I love my football – on Thursday next week) including a prime focus capture of me in the 32″ mirror.

After dinner, we headed up to Jimi’s observatory, just up the hill from his house and set up ‘Barbarella’, his giant scope, for the night. The scope is collimated with huge bolts which need a torque wrench to turn and the laser collimater in the eyepiece can only be seen properly with a pair of binoculars!

Once the scope was set up and the mirror fans left to do their work (they suck air in and blow it out of the back of the mirror cell) we went back to the house to get our stuff and some supplies before returning to the observatory.

Fuller descriptions will appear later, but we observed quite a few objects, including NGC 3242 (aka the Ghost of Jupiter), UGC 9492, Arp 84, Arp 105 and Ambartsumian’s Knot – including the Knot itself, the bridge between the galaxies and the streamer that comes away from the bottom galaxy. This latter component is on the famous Aintno List compiled by Barbara Wilson and Larry Mitchell but, sadly, Barbara doesn’t believe us! I think Larry might, but he needs to see it for himself, he says.
Also seen were the ring galaxy VII Zwicky 466, the Double Quasar Q0957+561 A/B (nine billion light years distant, and I saw the very faint galaxy that is the gravitational lens – another Aintno, but we still can’t weedle a certificate out of Larry and Barbara!), the Jet in M87 (a long-standing observing ambition of mine that I hadn’t to date fulfilled, never got round to it. It was surprisingly easy but, then, I was using a 48″ scope), the planetary nebula DHW 1-2, NGC 6304, the compact galaxy group Rose 13, very small and quite tough to seperate the components (I saw 3 members), NGC 5907 and NGC 6543, the Cat’s Eye Nebula. We also saw three more quasars, but I need to find out what they’re called and where they are as I forgot to write them down.
I’ll pad this out with folks and scope photos and object descriptions later – ‘later’ might mean today, it might mean next week, but it will be in the near future.
The transparency was very good although the seeing was mediocre. However, we did get those moments of clarity which allowed quasars, etc, to pop into view. We packed up at 0500 and went back to the house where we all had a few hours’ sleep before Alvin gave me a ride back to the Prude Ranch.
It was an awesome night and to see stuff that’s totally impossible at home with a 12 inch is an opportunity you just can’t refuse. Jimi, I doubt you read this,but if you do – thank you very much indeed for a wonderful night’s observing! To read more about the Lowrey Observatory and Barbarella, Jimi’s 48″ Dob, here’s his website: Lowrey Observatory. By the way, while you’re there, go to the Gallery and the pic on the left side features me at the eyepiece, clinging on for dear life to the colossal ladder, taken in 2008.

TSP Day 1 – Galaxies Galore

After a six-hour drive from San Antonio, we (that is Robert Reeves and I) arrived at the Prude Ranch on Monday afternoon. Two things were apparent when we stepped out the truck – very high winds and heat. The high winds were particularly unwelcome as they’d make observing difficult, if not impossible although we were told by ranch staff that they’d die down by dusk – and they were right, the winds did die down as dark fell. It’s always nice to meet friends from previous TSPs and before long I’d run into Alvin Huey, Barbara Wilson, David Moody, Amelia Goldberg, Steve Goldberg, Keith and Jan Venables, Matt Delavoryas and many others.
The Upper Field

Depsite unpromising conditions (lots of high clouds and high winds) at first, the observing was pretty good on Monday night and Alvin, Dennis Beckley and I knocked off Larry Mitchells 2010 Advanced Observing list which, this year, was Flat and Super Thin Galaxies, Dennis’s 18 inch Dob. I’ll post the observations at a later date, but we observed UGC 5267, UGC 5270, MCG+2-25-42, UGC 5341, CGCG 63-37, UGC 5164, UGC 5495, MCG 3-26-39, UGC 5509, NGC 3579, NGC 3501, NGC 2820, NGC 2805, UGC 6378, UGC 6667, UGC 8040, UGC 8146, UGC 7321, NGC 4183, NGC 4222, NGC 4244, NGC 5907, UGC 10043, NGC 3245A, NGC 3432 and UGC 4719. We then claimed our pins from Larry who was pretty impressed that we’d done this in one night.
After a chat with Larry, and a peek at M17 through the 36″ we went our separate ways, as it was now 0430 and some of us, including me, had been up since 0600 the previous morning.

New website!

I have moved my website from webs.com (who are truly excellent, but a tad limited) to a new host and I have my own domain name fjastronomy.co.uk. The reason I changed was that I was in PC World yesterday, looking for some new web-building software, and the program I bought included free hosting. How good the host is remains to be seen but you can’t go wrong if you don’t have to pay. If they prove to be unreliable with loads of down time then I will move in due course to another host, but they are supposed to be quite good and, normally, their hosting starts at £33 per year but they have done a deal with the makers of the software.
My new site looks great and I am really pleased with it as the software was incredibly easy to use and comes with an FTP client, which is always better than cumbersomely using a web browser. Click here to see it: FJ Astronomy

Off to TSP on Friday, all being well. I leave home on Thursday and fly to San Antonio via Houston on Friday. I’ll spend a couple of days in San Antonio with Robert and Mary Reeves before driving out with Robert on Monday to the Prude Ranch. The couple of days in the city will be spend birding (I am hoping to photograph Cardinals among others) and shopping for those bits I’ll inevitably forget to bring from the UK.
Eyjafjallajokull is still erupting, with ash blowing south over the Atlantic. I have my fingers firmly crossed that the winds, which are currently keeping the ash away from the UK continue to remain favourable and I can get away ok. I don’t mind being stranded in the States but I’ll be pissed off if I can’t get there! Funnily enough I’ll be going through Heathrow Departures on my way to the States and my sister, who has been to a wedding in the US Virgin Islands, will be coming through Arrivals at the same time.
I have bought myself a sweet little laptop to take with me, for blog updates, which I got in PC World yesterday. My other laptop is a big heavy thing but this is small, with a 10 inch screen and will easily go in my camera bag. It has a 250GB hard drive so I can put my photos on it as well.

Texas, here I come!

I booked my flight to Texas this morning. I could have booked online or phoned an airline but, wanting a change of scene, I headed to town and went to a travel agents. My flight is with United Airlines and I fly to San Antonio via Houston (and return the same way) on 7th May. It wasn’t as expensive as I thought, only costing £457; last time I paid nearly £600 but that was because I’d left it very late to get a ticket.
Less than three months to go; I am looking forward to seeing everyone again!
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Through a link on Cloudy Nights I found this lot. Cloud Appreciation? I take it none of them – or not many – are astronomers. Mind you, having said that, I suppose there’s a slight crossover when you think of noctilucent clouds, which astronomers love. Noctilucent clouds notwithstanding (and they dissiapate after nightfall), I hate clouds – at night – and I don’t think I’ll be joining any love-in over them. However…maybe the CAS can have their clouds in daytime and we astronomers can have clear starry nights? That way we’d all be happy as the cloud-people won’t moan about astronomers complaining about the clouds.
Mind you having just said all that…I am not above saying ‘Hey that cloud looks like the starship Enterprise, or an elephant, or a bird, or the starship from Alien…’ and so on. I may not like ’em much but clouds can be entertaining, for a few minutes, anyway.

Starting again at 40

I have signed up to do a BSc (Hons) degree with the Open University. The first course I am doing is a basic science course in order to get some practice in as, since doing a Foundation course in Science during 1995/96 and starting then abandoning, through lack of funds, a BSc Geology degree the following academic year (96/97), I have done nothing academic whatsoever.
The reason for this decision to do something academic after so many years? Well, I was 40 back at the end of January and the realisation that, a stint in the Royal Navy until 1992 and the aforementioned foundation degree aside, I have actually done bugger all with my life and achieved nothing. So, instead of being depressed about it, I decided to do something about it and contacted the OU who sent me a prospectus. I phoned them and registered to do the basic science course as a preliminary to doing a more in-depth course, as a first step to getting a degree. I have initially linked it to a Geosciences degree (I can make it more astronomy-oriented by doing courses which have Planetary Science content) but there is scope to change it to an Astronomy and Physics-related degree if I decide my maths is good enough and if I decide that’s what I want to do. I have more interest in Astronomy and Physics than I do in Geology but these are very maths-heavy so I might stick with the rocks.

Hopefully, I can get the degree done in five years, or even four if I put some effort in, so I will stand some chance of getting a decent, if short, career before I get to my sixties. However, as I am doing this for interest and a sense of achievement, a career will be a bonus although, to be honest, I really don’t want to spend the whole of the next 20-25 (or even more) years temping and working in shit retail jobs!
I have begun a blog about this, rather lamely titled ‘Science, me and starting again at 40‘.

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On a sadder note, I see on the Texas Star Party website that John Robert Prude, the patriarch of the famous Prude Ranch, the home of the TSP and my favourite place in the world, passed away on Tuesday. Quote from the TSP website:

“TSP and its attendees which to express condolences to the Prude family, for the passing of John Robert Prude on Tuesday February 9, 2010. John died at his home (“the Big House”), where he kindly gave permission for TSP 1982 to be hosted on the ranch. Over the past 27 years, we have enjoyed a lot of astronomy-inspired history because of the Prude’s consideration and efforts. Vaya con dios, John! You will be missed!”

Stuff…

I haven’t gone away, I am still here. However, since getting off to a flying start 2010’s observing has taken a nosedive, with endless crap weather and almost constant cloud cover. We did have three clear(ish) nights at the end of January, but these were – typically – around a Full Moon, so I didn’t bother. I haven’t even seen Mars this opposition.
Like other amateurs, I am hoping that the coming spring will bring clear skies and galaxies.
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I got my registration confirmation for TSP a couple of weeks ago. It’s looking likely that I’ll be there but that’s subject to an upcoming temporary work contract which begins on 15th February. If that falls through and I can’t get anything else, I’ll have to give TSP a miss. My fingers are crossed that all will be well, though
In the meantime, we have the now annual Isle of Wight Star Party to look forward to in March, from Thursday 11th to Monday 15th March. I am a volunteer for this event, so I’ll be there from the Friday night until the Sunday evening. Obviously, I hope we have good weather for this, not only for the – hopefully lengthy – observing sessions, but because I am camping and don’t fancy it if the weather’s unpleasant.

Binocular observing session 11-12 December 2009

Sod’s Law was in action last night as I had a severe cold which prevented a proper observing session with the 12 inch, and it was the clearest and most transparent sky we have had in ages. I had spent most of the day in bed with coughs, sneezes and fever, having been sent home from work at lunchtime, but something compelled me to look out of the window at 2330, I am not sure why I expected it to be clear as most of the day had been cloudy and a bit foggy. I felt a bit better and I hate wasting clear skies so decided on a short session; besides it would have been a bit foolish to have stayed out for any real length of time and get cold.
Obviously I didn’t feel like lugging the big scope out, or even one of its smaller friends, but I put on jeans, jumper and shoes and went out with the 8×42 binoculars instead. I also pulled out my UHC and OIII filters out to see what winter nebulae I could see with the binoculars.

11-12 December 2009; 2330 – 0005 GMT/UT
0.5

° above freezing
No wind
Excellent transparency apart from the odd bit of clouds on the horizon; out of 5, where 1 is bad and 5 excellent, it was 5. The seeing was reasonably steady too, Antoniadi II.
Naked eye limiting visual magnitude was 6.5

Of course, I just had to go for M42, the Orion Nebula. It is an irresistible object in any instrument, including binoculars, and is worth looking for even if it is the most observed deep sky object in the sky. I make a point of saying hello to it every year, as I do all my favourites, and I can’t wait to see it in the 12 inch. Huge, very bright, fan shaped, with four stars visible in the Trapezium. Needs no filtration, although UHC brings it out slightly better (OIII not as effective). M43 also visible as a little round patch.
Also looked at NGC 1981 and NGC 1980.

I also had a (over optimistic it has to be said) look for NGC 2024, the Flame Nebula, but I did not see it. I didn’t think I would in binoculars but, as they say, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

NGC 2237-8/NGC 2246; the Rosette Nebula in Monoceros.
Large, round and bright with the star cluster NGC 2244 at the centre. The nebula is only just visible without a filter, but the UHC makes it very easy to see. The OIII is also effective but it’s best with the UHC.

Ursa Major was low behind the trees but M81 and M82 were above the trees and easily seen with the 8x42s.

M31 was bright and huge through the binoculars, spanning the entire field of view. The core was bright and the spiral arms extensive. Good view of the dust lanes.

NGC 869 and NGC 884; the Double Cluster
Gorgeous through the binoculars. Very rich and large with the stars easily resolved.

Trumpler 2
Small fuzzy patch just SE of DC. Also NGC 957, another hazy patch.

NGC 1499; the California Nebula. This isn’t quite as easy to see as the Rosette, especially without a filter, but the UHC filter brings it out and you can see a hazy brightening of faint nebulosity extending east-west, immediately north of Menkib.

By then it was 0035 (GMT/UT) and I was getting cold and coughing a lot so I had to reluctantly drag myself away from the sky and head indoors and back to bed.

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The odds on me attending the 2010 Texas Star Party have slightly improved. I have got a temporary job until Christmas and have so far, managed to save nearly half the air fare. Hopefully, a run of employment between now and April will enable me to get there. The air fare’s most of the battle, with prices ranging between £350 and £550 (of course I can’t leave it too late before getting the plane ticket, must get that in January or February or it’ll become more expensive), while the TSP, including accommodation, is fairly cheap and doesn’t require a lot of saving for. The other big ‘expense’ is the cash for any goodies that might catch my eye when I am there such as a 2-inch UHC filter that I want for viewing large nebulae with my 35mm Televue Panoptic.

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I have retrieved my clear sky spreadsheet from the wreckage, scanned it twice with Norton, and loaded it onto the new computer. I had been keeping a note of the weather in the intervening period – not exactly hard when it’s mostly been cloudy! – and have been able to pick up where I left off. November makes dismal viewing with two clear nights and one partially clear night in the whole month, but I wasn’t able to take advantage of those clear nights unfortunately. As noted in a previous entry, it has been two months of nearly continuous wind and rain, with a large part of the UK affected by flooding.

New website, clear skies and the TSP

I have finally got round to rebuilding my main website. Actually, I started again from scratch with a new URL. It’s on a free host for now, until I can afford to pay for hosting. I have uploaded existing sketches, but these’ll be replaced with better ones in due course when I have scanned in ones from recent sessions and also done some more observing. The new site can be found here: FJ Astronomy.
Mentioning observing, the clear sky spreadsheet has gone for a burton as my computer died last weekend, and prat here forgot to back up the spreadsheet, but I have a new computer and can rebuild it. All isn’t lost because the files are still accessible and I might be able to print it off and then type it in from scratch. What I can say for certain is that October only had nine clear or partially clear nights, while November has had one clear night and one partially clear night, both of which I couldn’t use due to being ill with a staphyloccocal infection in my face after a visit to the dentist. The rest of November has been bloody awful with near continuous rain and gales and the UK under a permanent grey blanket of cloud. Half the UK is also under water.

I have registered for the 2010 Texas Star Party, but I really only have a 50/50 chance of attending at best. I haven’t got a permanent job at the moment and the temping has got really hit and miss. I decided to register anyway and keep my fingers crossed for a miracle (and it will take a miracle for me to get something as over 1000 people have/will have lost their jobs here on the Isle of Wight in 2009/2010 – and my qualifications and skills are sorely lacking). I’m not optimistic but here’s hoping…

Texas Star Party 2010…???

I am getting itchy feet about going to the Texas Star Party again. I am hoping I can get to the 2010 event, depending on my finances. I am currently temping while the economy remains shot to pieces and permanent jobs are few and far between, so my getting to TSP 2010 is looking 50/50 at best.

The 2010 TSP is from 9th to 16th May inclusive, which gives me just under ten months in which to save up some money.

Here are my accounts of previous TSPs I’ve attended:

TSP 2006
TSP 2008

Texas Star Party 2008 – Part 2

Here’s the second – and final – part of my trip to the 2008 Texas Star Party.


Day 5 – Friday 6th June 2008:

I had put my name down for the Friday trip to McDonald Observatory but ended up not going and crossed myself off the list because I was too tired and didn’t fancy a 12 mile trip in an old non-air conditioned school bus in 100 degree heat. I wasn’t that bothered because I had been before in 2006.

In addition to the Globular program, I have also finished a binocular program so there’s another pin to add to my collection. Cool! Talking of observing pins, I have seen several people including Ben Jones, Barbara Wilson, Larry Mitchell, Steve Goldberg, Amelia Goldberg and Matt Delavoryas wearing dozens of TSP and Astronomical League observing pins on hats, scarves and jackets. That’s pretty inspiring and I am going to aim for some AL pins – one reason I joined the AL was to do their observing programs. I have just about completed my binocular Messier project – and I’ll send the observations off to the AL soon. Observing programs and their associated pins are a great way of doing a structured observing program.

I have what seems to be a cold, but it could be just an adverse reaction to the dust and smoke.

Visited the ‘swap-meet’ at the vendors hall and somehow came away with a 4 inch Meade SCT and a 2-inch diagonal to fit it, for the bargain sum of $160 (the scope was $110). I also went into the vendors again and bought some decent-looking software ‘Deepsky’ from Bob Kepple’s (he of ‘The Night Sky Observer’s Guide’ and ‘Astro Cards’ fame) stand.

Visited Jimi Lowrey’s 48 inch scope for an observing session – wow, what a beauty and a thoroughly enviable set up; Jimi is living the dream. I was there at the invitation of Larry Mitchell, who was invited and was asked to invite a few people of his choice. I was really pleased to be asked as opportunities for observing with such a big scope are few and far between.



I didn’t do any sketching, not enough time as we had a big list of objects we wanted to see. I also didn’t write down what we saw, but as we all saw the same things another member of our group, Jose, did and is going to send me the list.

The 48 inch makes the unobservable observable, the faint, dim and fuzzy bright and detailed and the bright and spectacular simply awesome. M51 filled the field of view – it looked like the size of a saucer – and was better than a photograph. The arms were full of detail, HII regions shone and the whole thing was akin to a ‘religious experience’. The Cat’s Eye Nebula (NGC 6543), the Saturn Nebula (NGC 7009) (bright blue-green and showing lobes and ‘layers’), Hickson 88, Stephan’s Quintet and the Ring Nebula (M57) were also incredible. The Ring showed massive amounts of detail and, for the first time ever, I actually saw a colour other than blue or green in a deep sky object. The Ring was blue-green, but the outer portion of the ring was pink. The pink was subtle but it was obvious. The central hole was filled in, giving a gauzy effect and the central star was visible.

As for the globular M13, this was more detailed than I have ever seen before. The propeller feature was very obvious, looking exactly like a ship or aircraft propeller, a black mark on a bright background.

Another first for me was seeing Neptune as a disk and its moons. The planet was a lovely blue. Jupiter’s moons were also disks (these firsts keep on coming!) and as for Jupiter itself, wow! It was tack sharp in moments of good seeing and the detail was – at the risk of being cliched – photographic, with the Great Red Spot (more pale pink than red) and other spots seen, as well as belts, bands and festoons.

Jimi kept saying how the night wasn’t very good and the seeing was soft – actually it was a little soft – but to someone from the UK used to really shit observing conditions it was an awesome night. It’s all relative.

At the end of the night we all agreed that it was one of the most magical nights of astronomy any of us had ever had. The ‘feeling’ of the occasion was also helped by the native American music (‘Sacred Spirit Vol II’ and ‘Wolves’) that Jimi – who is of Cherokee descent – put on his stereo.

We eventually got back to the Prude Ranch at 0600.

Day 6 – Saturday 7th June 2008:

The last day of the 2008 Texas Star Party, sadly. It may be hot, but I wish it could go on forever. There are some ominous-looking clouds to the north of us but hopefully they will move away and we can have a final night of observing at TSP 2008.

Later: the clouds have filled the sky, it’s not looking good for any observing.

The evening’s talk was ‘The Mysteries of the Universe’ by Bob Berman of Astronomy Magazine, which was a fun and entertaining talk. The questions were almost hijacked by a guy who wanted to take Bob on on some issue until Barbara Wilson (the MC) shot him down in flames. It was the same guy who tried to bore Robert Reeves and myself to death earlier in the evening at dinner by talking about mathematics. Won nothing in the ‘Great Texas Giveaway’ this time, but I never do anything in raffles anyway. The grand prize this evening was a 13mm Televue Ethos. Faux prayers were offered but sadly, it was not to be.

By the time we left the meeting a spectacular lightning storm was underway, so it was time for chat and farewells before going to bed before 1am.

Lightning over the Davis Mountains – best shot I got.

Sunday 8th June 2008:

Long drive back to San Antonio via Fort Stockton for breakfast and Ozona. Heat exhaustion, tiredness and a chest problem due to dust and smoke caught up with me and, combined with plain old car sickness, necessitated a stop alongside Interstate 10 near Junction for me to get out and part with seven dollars’ worth of breakfast, but this was a small price to pay for the amazing Texas Star Party we all had.

I flew home on Tuesday evening on an overnight Delta flight to Gatwick via Atlanta, arriving back on the Isle of Wight late Wednesday morning.

All-in-all this, my second, was a fabulous TSP and people were saying it was the best, observationally, for years due to the wonderfully clear skies and warm night-time conditions. The smoke on Wednesday night and the cloud-out on Saturday were minor irritations.

All that’s left now is to say a MASSIVE thank you to – first and foremost – Robert and Mary Reeves (and the cats!) of San Antonio for hospitality and lifts to and from the airport and the Prude Ranch, Larry Mitchell, Amelia and Steve Goldberg, Bob Summerfield, Mike Planchon, David Moody, Richard and Connie Brown, Becky Ramatowski, Tracey Knauss, Barbara and Buster Wilson, Ben Jones, Jim and Ana Chandler, Todd Hargis, Jose Sancho, Jimi Lowrey, David Nagler, Matt Delavoryas, Bill Christian, Keith and Jan Venables (fellow ‘Brits’) and many others for help, telescope use and hospitality over the week.