Observing Report -- June 22, 2013

This is the first time I've been out in a while, and the first clear skies too -- and I almost didn't bother: it's a full moon right after the summer solstice, so what's the point of going out when it's not going to be dark? Two things changed my mind. One was catching up on Uncle Rod and reading this bit:

When I hit the field, I was a little surprised to be playing Lone Astronomer once again, but some folks will choose to sit in front of the cotton-picking boob tube if the weather forecast ain't perfect. Hell, I've been known to do that myself, but the problem is that we don't get many "perfects" in the summer down in The Swamp, so you have to take what you can get if you want to see anything. I am back to my old mantra: "If it ain't raining, head to the dark site."

Another was running into a friend of mine at a local park (the one I observe at, coincidentally); while our kids were playing he asked me how long I'd been interested in astronomy, and what it meant to me. That's a comprehensive question, and my answer was: the beauty, stamp collecting (challenge of starhopping, thrill of completing a catalogue) and the science. All that was off the top of my head, but I think that's a pretty close answer. Without further ado, then.

The sky was clear, just gorgeously so. I headed out about 10:30pm and the moon was already visible not just above the horizon but above the trees where I observe. This week's wedding reception was finishing The Proclaimer's "500 Miles" just as I caught an Iridium flash -- not the brightest I've ever seen, but still.

After that, it was time to start in on Saturn...and man, what a treat. I experimented with my Barlow, and found that the 12mm Vixen behaved quite nicely in it; the generic 7.5mm Plossl, by contrast, shows a lot of fringing, makes things look smeary and is hard to focus. So, stuck at 200X rather than 320X...but wow, what a sight. Cassini's Division came easily, and the C ring was visible intermittently in the elbows (yeah, that'll work) of the rings. I could see one band of clouds on Saturn itself, maybe two...hard to be sure. The A ring was noticeably darker and seemed textured, which is something I haven't noticed before. I saw four moons: Titan, Rhea, Tethys and Dione; no sign of Enceladus, though I wasn't searching for it.

Eventually Saturn disappeared behind a tree, so it wsa time to move on. I moved to Cor Caroli, which is just a lovely double. And then for fun I looked for M94...and found it! Neat to think what was going on when that light started out. Wandered over to La Superba, a carbon star, and it was pretty too. Tried for M63 but no luck whatsoever. Looked up M11, the wild duck cluster, and was utterly taken with how the bright sky from the full moon made a veery appealing sight: it was harder to see because of the lower contrast, but the joy of seeing it at last was thus the greater.

Finally had a look at Xi Bootis, a double star that's close (only 22 light years) and a candidate for having its own Kuiper Belt. The colours were reported to be blue and yellow, but I couldn't get much blue out of it...

Home again at 1am, making for an amazingly fun few hours. I'm glad I went, and I'll never feel reluctant to go out on a full moon again.