Kauphi House Galactic Observatory

Around big dipper & Coma-Virgo cluster ofcourse

2009-04-19T13:10:00.000-07:00

M81, M82 ( Bode's Galaxy ) in Big Dipper
Found out about the Bode galaxy ( M81, M82) near big dipper and had to go check it out ! So yet another trip to Cayote Lake.

It was difficult to get my scope to point in this direction since the Declination knob kept interfering with the RA drive system :-(

The two galaxies were pretty clearly visible through the 4.5" right next to each other in the same field of view. M81 being a round fuzz and M82 being a bit more flat.

Whirlpool galaxy M51 (mag 8.4)
a little more fainter fuzzy object without much definition. Given that it faces us directly i think it was much more fainter. Its located 1/4th the distance between the last star in Big dipper and Canes Venatici.

M59, M60 ( Virgo Cluster )
M60 - mag 8.8, M59 - Mag9.8.

M59 and M60 are easy to locate in the virgo cluster. From about 1/5th the distance from Vindemiatrix towards Denabola, you find 4 stars forming a triangle ( with ro Vir ) in the middle. This is also visible through naked eye and used as a mark. Move the scope on the Dec axis till you see 3 stars making a straight line. Move on the dec axis a little more and you see M60 and M59 to the right.

M60 and M59 are very hazy and light to see but they were viewable in my 4.5".

Coma Virgo Cluster ! M99, M100

2009-04-18T01:58:00.000-07:00

Date : 4/18/2009
Time : 9:30 PM
Location : Cayote Lake, San Jose, CA

Conditions : clear skies with few stray light clouds, very decent visibility

M99 galaxy ( pinwheel nebulae ) in the virgo cluster (mag9.8)
This is the first galaxy I managed to spot in the Coma-Virgo cluster. It was a ghosty fuzzball.
Point the scope @ Denebola in Leo (tip of lions tail ). Move the scope 3/8th way on the RA direction towards VindeMiatrix ( Virgo). You will see a cross like star formation. This is next to the foot of the cross.

M100 galaxy in Virgo Cluster. (Mag 9.4)
This is barely visible to not visible. Had to partially imagine it to be there :-)

M98 - Didnt have much luck locating this

I dont think i have much hope trying to spot another galaxy in Coma-Virgo galaxy rich region. pretty much need a bigger scope.

Saturn : Still hanging near Leo. The ring was not tilted towards earth. ( 2x barlow+75x lens). Moon Titan was visible clearly.

Another astronomer Lee had got his 20" scope (that thing is huge!). Got a sneek peek @ saturn and it looked beautiful ! Could not only see it very crisp but could also see 3 moons right next to it... His scope did look a bit cumbersome to use given the size !

Uranus, M15, M37, M35, M29

2008-11-30T00:41:00.000-08:00

Date : 11/29
Time : 7:30 PM
Location : Cayote Lake, San Jose, CA

Conditions : new moon, clear skies, very good visibility (~4.75 with naked eyes)

Uranus :
Second time is always a charm.
Easily located in the sky. ( see earlier observation )
with 225x mag, spent considerable time focusing the neighbouring star to a pinpoint while uranus nearby looked like a lightblue fuzzy object. Very nice

M29 :
Small open cluster near Cygnus with ~20 stars in the constellation of Cygnus located very close to Gamma Cyg ( central star in the northern cross). Not very interesting though easy to locate

M37 :
Open cluster in Auriga. Resolved nicely into individual stars when using 75x optics.

M15 :
Globular cluster. This turned out to be a faint fuzzball at 30x mag ( more like a nebula ).

M35 & NGC2158 :
Dense open cluster in the constellation of Gemini resolving into many stars.
Close observation revealed a dim fuzzball very close to this cluster which could have been open cluster NGC2158

Uranus, Crab Nebulae, M36, M38

2008-11-23T11:47:00.000-08:00

Location : Cayote Lake, Gilroy CA
Date : 11/22/08, 7:30PM - 10:30PM
Conditions : cloudy in the north. clear and dark everywhere else

The night started slowly initially overwhelmed by the number of stars ;-) trying to locate the north star with clouds was a bit hard but with help from Casseopia and Cephus , polar aligned my scope.

Locating Uranus :
Had my mac pulled out for reference.
Pegasus -> pentagon on pieces tracing below to aquarius.

With the help of my binacolours was able to identify what could have been uranus. Next challenge was to star hop with my scope.

30x mag - looked like any other 6th mag star. It was adjacent to another 6th mag and 8th mag star forming a rightangle triangle.

with 75x mag - a blue tinge was visible

Added a 2x and 3x barlow to make further observations. Became very hard to focus and get a good view though esp on 3x barlow.

Crab Nebulae (M1)

Mag : 30x
This was the easiest to find. Pointed the scope at zeta Tau in the constellation of Taurus and a fuzzy nebulus ball popped up nicely at one end of the view. centered on it. This is very distinct though not much details can be seen. There are lots of stars in this region.

increased mag to 75x. Could continue to see it but it became much hazier and dimmer.

M36 and M38 open clusters in Auriga
Centered the scope between Theta and Beta stars in Auriga and moved perpendicular to it and at first you see M36 and then M38.

New toys - collimation laser, Drive system

2008-09-07T11:43:00.000-07:00

Got some cool new toys for the scope -

LaserMate Laser Collimator

Ok my visual collimation was totally off ( and I was kinda guessing that it was ). This helped getting the optics nicely aligned. Fairly easy to use. The batteries died off on me though after 2 days :-(

EQ-1M Electronic Drive System

Fairly easy to add to the scope. It works reasonably well and kept stars in the center of view even at high magnification. Though i noticed that after a few minutes or so the stars would go off-center. I dont know if this is due to the drive system or my telescope alignment not being perfect.

Ring Nebula (M57)

2008-09-01T21:40:00.000-07:00

Date : 9/1/08
Location Mountain view - outside my house
Conditions : lot of ambient light pollution from street lights
time : 930PM

Ring Nebula ( M57 )

After a futile effort yesterday (with 15mm eyepiece) and armed with lots of useless research from google :-) managed to spot the Ring Nebula.

This time with a 6mm lens ( ~75x mag ). Seen as a blury dirty brown hazy ring (size of a washer used with small screws) in the constellation of lyra. M57 lies about 40% of the angular distance from β Lyrae to γ Lyrae

Tried adding a 2x barlow to the setting hoping for a 150x magnification and more distinct ring but pretty much nothing was visible :-(

ps: color photo (taken with the 200-inch Hale telescope at Mt. Palomar)

Andromeda, Triangulum and Double Cluster

2008-09-01T11:11:00.000-07:00

Date : 8/31/08
Location : Henry Coe State park
Conditions : New moon, Very good view of the stars and milky way

Observations :

time : 9:30pm
Andromeda Galaxy (m31) - Nice blur image of the galaxy. Couldnt see much details

Triangulum Galaxy ( m33 ) - Very faint blur ( some left to imagination ) in the Triangulum constellation. One of the other astronomers in the field was imaging this and you could see the spirals and lots of details.

Skymap :

Double Cluster (open clusters NGC 884 and NGC 869) - Very nice double cluster view in the constellation of Perseus

skymap

Ring Nebula : Tried spotting the ring nebula in Lyra. After multiple tries gave up. Was reading that you can observe the ring @ 100x mag while i was using 36x.

Earlier Observations

2008-09-01T10:27:00.000-07:00

Date : May 27, 9PM
Location - mountain view
Conditions - hazy skies.

Constellations -
Identified Booties and Lyra constellation for first time.

Messier objects seen -
lens : 15mm

M44 (NGC 2632) , is also called Praesepe (Open cluster) - In Cancer
Mars was currently positioned in cancer and this was used to identify the cluster

--------------

Date : May 28, 2AM
Location - mountain view
conditions - clear skies

Identified Sagittarius constellation for first time. It was west of Jupiter on the southern sky.
The centre of the milkyway passes through Sagittarius.

Messier objects seen -

lens : 15mm
M22 - faint cloud. Not sure if this was M22. Looked more like a faint comet / galaxy
M25 - cluster of stars.
M24 - Cluster of very many stars.
--------------

Date : june21, 10:30PM
Location - mountain view
conditions - clear sky. Lots of ambient light from neighborhood

messier objects seen -
lens 15mm,

Scorpio -
M6 ( butterfly cluster ) - Mesmerising object seen near the sting of scorpius. Initially mistook it for M7 but after looking at charts correctly identified it.

M7 - Ptotemy cluster - Nice global cluster of lots of stars

M4 - very hazy object (like a comet ) spotted next to Antares in scorpio. internet shows this as a spectacular object and it didnt appear so. Perhaps due to poor lighting

M80 - Another comet like haze seen in scorpius.

Virgo -
Tried to spot the galaxies in virgo but no luck :-(

My Telescope

2008-09-01T10:11:00.000-07:00

StarBlast 4.5 EQ Reflector

Accessories -
Eyepiece - 15mm , 6mm
Barlow Tube - 2x and 3x

Specs :

Optical design	Reflector
Optical diameter	114mm
Focal length	450mm
Focal ratio	4.0
Optics type	Parabolic
Eyepieces included	3-Element 15.0mm, 6.0mm
Magnification with included eyepieces	30x, 75x
Resolving power	1.03arc*sec
Lowest useful magnification	17x
Highest useful magnification	180x
Limiting stellar magnitude	12.1