Pete's Observing log of 5-6 May 07
Objective: Spend some time
under the stars with the Garrett 28x110 binocular on a production version of the
EZ Binoc Supermount.
5 Jun 07
22:00
hrs. I’d intended to observe
Mercury tonight but a friend needed help with something.
It’s a bit late to start observing, but I want to log some more hours
on my new Garrett 28x110s. Moonrise
isn’t until a bit after
midnight
. Temperature is in the 60s, with no
wind, and the sky is cloud free and moderately transparent.
The mosquitoes aren’t particularly aggressive – maybe due an
application of Deep Woods Off.
This is my first opportunity to use the Garrett red dot finder.
I’ve modified the finder with thumbscrews for quick & easy on/off,
and aligning it to the binocular with the supplied hex key takes all of 1
minute.
22:06
hrs. Using a star wheel to verify
that globular cluster M13 is on the near side of the “key” in Hercules I put
the red dot on that spot and peer thru the binoc.
Bingo! M13 is dead center in
my field of view (fov) – big and bright. I
can’t resolve individual stars but there’s a significant granularity in the
“nebulosity”.
22:15
hrs. Globular cluster M92 is just
above the “key” in Hercules. Once
again using the star wheel for orientation, I put the red dot on the appropriate
spot. Would you believe that M92 is
centered? It’s about ¼ the size
of M13, and not as bright, but once again I can see granularity in the
“nebulosity”.
22:45
hrs. Finding M57 (the Ring Nebula)
took a full ½ hour. I haven’t
figured out the angular field of view of these binoculars yet, and I had trouble
with star hopping because of that. The
little star wheel is useless for the Ring. I’ve
changed over to Sky Atlas 2000. Once
the Ring rose high enough for its two bracketing “navigation” stars to
become naked eye visible I forsake star hopping and aim the magic red dot.
With the 28x110s I can actually see the ring!
22:48
hrs. Albireo is beautiful!
Nice split. Nice colors.
22:50
hrs. Globular cluster M56 appears
as a nebulosity. It’s so faint
that I can’t tell if that’s granularity I’m seeing or just a trick of my
eyes.
20:54
hrs. Just for chuckles, I find
Epsilon Lyra. Naturally, I can only
split the 1st level of doubles but since I was in the
neighborhood…...
23:26
hrs. M51 (the Whirlpool Galaxy) is
really faint – perhaps because the lights from
Providence
are reaching over to that part of the sky.
I’ve been on it and over it a dozen times before I find this just
discernable gray fuzzy. How does one
use averted vision with binocs? Cross
your eyes????
23:37
hrs. I’m on Galaxy M63. Absolutely.
Positively. Got it nailed
with the surrounding guide stars. But
I can’t see it! It’s listed by
the
AL
as a “tougher binocular object” but it’s not supposed to be a challenging
one.
23:44
hrs. Galaxy M94 is a small, compact, bright fuzzy only 4 or 5 arc-minutes in
size. It takes a couple of long star
hops to reach it but its bright enough that there’s no question about it.
23:49
hrs. As I’m removing the
binocular, I notice that Jupiter’s climbed over the tree line.
All of my earlier observing tonight has been from my Zero Gravity
recliner, but for Jupiter I just stay standing and swing the mount around to
bear. How pretty.
I can see the two major equatorial bands, and there are 2 moons
symmetrically placed on either side of the planet.
Checking later, I found that from L to R the order was Callisto,
Ganymede, Io and Europa.
June 6, 2007
I want to do my annual viewing of Mercury, just to make sure that all’s
right with the worlds. It reached
its highest elevation for ’07 back on June 2.
The plan is to bring the new Garrett 28x110s over to Walker Farm (a large
flat site on 100 Acre Cove with a very low 360° horizon).
Binoculars aren’t designed for planetary use, and I know that I’m
pushing the envelope, but this binocular is begging to be pushed.
I’d sent out an observing invitation to the Astronomical Society and the
participants in my most recent Backyard Astronomy class, but no one had
responded. So when I pulled in at
20:30
hours I was pleased to find that Rich Vernon from the class was there and had
set up his 4.5” Meade polar mounted Newtonian.
Observing is always so much more enjoyable when you have someone to
kibitz with, and Rich is SO enthusiastic.
Prior to heading out, I’d had a phone call regarding the portability of the EZ
Binoc Supermount. Since I was only
driving about 3 miles in my little Chevy S10 pickup I only removed the main arm
counterbalance weights and then tossed the Supermount into the truck bed with
the balance arm sticking out over the tailgate.
Once I carried the mount and weights separately to the observing spot,
reassembly took less than a minute. In
addition to the 28x110s, I also had my observing chair, the little star wheel,
and Sky Atlas 2000. Mounting the
binocular and the red dot finder took all of another 30 seconds.
While the EZ mounts are intended as garden mounts, they do tend to get
transported a lot. The Supermount
shouldn’t be much more difficult to break down for transport than the regular
mount. Just unscrew the 3 legs and
the counterbalance arm. I’ll
verify that on Saturday when I bring the Binocular and Supermount to the
club’s monthly meeting in the trunk of my Chrysler Sebring convertible.
It’s about 55°F, and there’s a 15mph wind out of the north.
I’m wearing 3 heavy sweatshirts and could use a 4th.
20:40
hrs. Venus is brilliant in the
twilight, visible before anything else, so naturally we start out with viewing
Venus. During the early testing
stage with the Garrett 28x110s and the prototype Supermount my view of Venus was
unsatisfactory. It was so bright
that I couldn’t see whether it was crescent or gibbous or whatever.
Zach has since supplied me with a pair of 1¼ inch 25% transmission
neutral density filters – one to screw into each eyepiece.
Once I’ve verified the alignment of the red dot with the center of the
fov I install the filters. Son of a
Gun! It works.
The filters allow a clear view. Venus
is 23 arc-seconds in size tonight, and its easily and clearly viewed as being
about 60% phase. Although the wind
is strong, Venus appears steady. (Subsequent
checking shows that there was still some distortion as its actually 51%
tonight.)
Now for a bit of complex
scientific discourse. I’m reading
Neil deGrasse Tyson’s Death by
Black Hole, and he noted that “…were we to find life-forms on Venus, we
would probably call them Venutians, just as the people from Mars would be
Martians. But according to rules of
Latin genitives, to be “of Venus” ought to make you a Venereal.
Unfortunately, medical doctors reached that word before astronomers did.
Can’t blame them I suppose. Venereal
disease long predates astronomy, which itself stands as only the second oldest profession.”
20:48
hrs. After using the red dot to
point the binocular to the general vicinity, it takes me about 20 seconds of
scanning to find Mercury. Scanning
with hand a held binocular is very imprecise, and you’re never sure where you
are. On the mount one simply swings
one axis for a sweep, moves the binocular ¾ of the fov on the 2nd
axis, and swings the first axis back on a reverse sweep.
So this kind of search is quite easy.
Mercury is 9 arc-seconds
angular diameter. It isn’t yet
visible to the naked eye, and I left the two filters on the eyepieces, but
I’ve got it easily. Although I
should be viewing a 28% illuminated crescent, Mercury appears as a very bright
distinct disc about 1/3 the size of Venus. Dawe’s
limit for 4.33-inch lenses is 1.1 arc-second, but obviously all bets are off
when viewing only 11° above the horizon on a windy evening.
I’d blame this slight planetary distortion on the very short focal
length associated with binocular optics. Only
I don’t think that that’s the case because I caught a quick look at Mercury
through Richard’s Newtonian – It was also a disk.
And, Richard even had a red filter in place in an attempt to minimize
atmospheric distortion.
At
20:55
I removed the filters and noted that glare makes seeing Mercury more difficult.
So far we haven’t been able to find it naked eye, but using the red dot
and averted vision I can now see it. Continued
to observe Mercury until
21:13
as this is a once-a-year-thing for me.
21:15.
Putting the red dot on Saturn places it squarely in the center of the
binocular fov. I can see Saturn’s
ring very distinctly, with separation from the planet.
And I can see Titan. The sky
is still relatively bright in the west, so I don’t have a chance of observing
other moons. At the time of
transcribing my field notes I see no comment regarding equatorial banding on the
surface, and I suspect that the 28x110s showed banding during prior observing
sessions the seeing wasn’t allowing viewing them this time out.
21:23
hrs. The red dot works its magic on
Jupiter and I’m viewing the Big One. Jupiter’s
only 15° above the SE horizon. The
wind’s picked up and there’s a small amount of scope movement because of it.
The two main equatorial bands were very clear last night but under these
conditions I don’t see them. I’m
also missing a moon. There’s an 8th
magnitude star off to the left that could be mistaken for a
moon, but from L to R I’ve got Callisto, Ganymede, Io and Jupiter.
Europa must be occluded by Jupiter.
I’m chilled. With the wind,
conditions are far from ideal for observing, and I’ve had enjoyable views of 4
planets with an instrument that generally isn’t supposed to be able to do
planets. So I load the truck, bid
adieu to Richard and head for home.
Conclusions and lessons learned:
The Supermount and the
Garrett 28x110s make a kick-butt observing setup.
Both work very well, and when combined observing is dreamlike.
The Supermount renders the Garretts weightless.
They just float where you want them.
I've always struggled with aiming big binoculars. Garrett's sturdy red dot
finder improves the binocular experience ten-fold.
Viewing with two 4.33”
lenses makes images appear much brighter than with only one.
This was easily proven by just closing one eye at a time.
So logic dictates that this binocular is equivalent to a somewhat larger
telescope. How much larger?
I’ll have to compare image brightness against a 5” and 6” scope to
better quantify this neurological phenomena.
I’ve done binocular
astronomy for years, but since there are so few objects that can be viewed
satisfactorily with a binocular my viewing has been limited to observing comets
or to relatively brief deep sky observing sessions.
This is the first binocular I’ve
experienced with telescope capabilities. And
I’m having a ball!
Pete
transcribed from notes on 7
Jun 07
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