Tuesday Night

I had pretty much given up on Tuesday weather-wise. It was cloudy and drizzling into the evening when my wife and son and I headed to the mall. When we stepped out a couple of hours later, I was pleasantly surprised at how clear and calm it had become.

The first thing that caught my eye was Jupiter lingering brilliantly just 3 degrees NW of the half-full moon. Then the bright stars punched through Brampton's light-polluted skies, and I was geared up for my first night of observing in a week. Over the previous few days I'd made a list of "Night Targets," including about ten double stars, that I'd focus on next time I was at my scope.
Once I got home and the baby was asleep, I grabbed these lists, as well as my trust Sky Atlas 2000.0 and my copy of "Nightwatch" and headed to Mississauga. I think it was around 2230 or so when I got to my parents' place and set up my scope in their backyard. Unfortunately this left little "cool down" time for my scope, which it definitely needed considering it was only about 10 Celsius outside. There was clearly some turbulence in my scope for the first part of the night, and I got some annoying "spiking" on the brighter stars, which can be a pain when trying to separate particularly close doubles. I tend to test my scope first thing on Epsilon Lyrae, the famous "double double," to see how well I can expect to separate relatively close doubles. I could make out the companions to both primaries, but there was deinitely a rising and falling "bridging" between them, which I knew would make it difficult to separate other systems I wasn't familiar with.

I set my sights on Pegasus first. I found Kappa Pegasi rather quickly, a bright yellow-white primary F-type star with a companion that was little more than a fine speck of light just 14" away. I tend to start with either my 35 mm or 25 mm eyepiece, then step up to my higher power 10 mm, and some times add a 2x Barlow on top of that. The seperation showed well at all magnificatons. But with my 25 mm, given its wider FOV, I "discovered" another double approximately 0.5 degrees WSW of Kappa Peg. I haven't consulted my books yet to determine any specifics on this double, but prolonged viewing suggested it was a reddish and bluish pairing, with the blue at a PA of roughly 280 degrees. It's always nice, when star-hopping, to come across these fine little gems.

Continuing through Pegasus, my next stop was Pi Peg, which formed a pair of doubles with Pi2. A nice set of yellow stars in a neat, diagonal line. Again, I always love the dim, dust-like specks some of the companions make next to their much larger and brighter primaries, as was the case here.

57 Peg revealed a constrasting set of colourful stars. I got a hint of yellow-orange from the A star; the B star, which was just fainitly visible in my light-polluted conditions, eventually revealed a bluish tint with prolonged viewing.

Side-stepping from double stars for a moment, I hunted down 51 Peg, an otherwise plain, 5 mag, G-type star (similar to our sun, in fact), which is only made interesting with the knowledge that it was the first star found, in 1995 I believe, to have an extra-solar planet in orbit around it. It made a nice star to look at knowing it was the first to give promise to other worlds well beyond our own solar system.

I next spent considerable time tracking down the spiral galaxy NGC 7331, also in Pegasus, but had no luck finding it. I'm not sure if my star hopping was bad on this one, or if it was just difficult to pick out in my sky conditions. Oh, well - another night!

Swinging my Dob over to Cassiopeia, I quickly set my focus on Eta Cass, a very famous and nice-looking yellow-white and red double, with the latter being a fine red pinpoint next to its much brighter companion.

It was time to knock off a couple more items from my Messier checklist, so I sought out M103, an impressive elongated cluster in Cass. I thought it looked like a spider, with wispy, grey legs curving out from a spine of soft stars. The brightest stars consisted of two in the north end of the cluster, giving the spider a set of glaring white eyes. To my pleasant surprise there was a double to found in the NW point of the cluster - Struve 131, a dim pair with a hot blue primary and a companion that was little more than a fine point next to it.

As my FOV drifted from M103, my eye caught a faint, hazy nebula which I almost ignored. But it was unique in that it appeared wedge-like in appearance. A bright star was immediately distinguishable in the N end, and with averted viewing at med. power for several seconds I was able to make out a triangular pattern of three stars at the opposite end of the "wedge." I've since learned this nebula is NGC 7635; what's interesting - something I certainly didn't see at the time - is that under clear, steady, dark skies and with the right magnification a bubble-like shape is supposed to be noticeable in the centre of the nebula. That'll make a neat future target!

Turning back to my Messier List, I next hunted out M52, a rich, well-scattered open cluster also in Cass. Most of the stars are hot, blue B-types, with a few yellow G-type stars adding contrast.

By now it was into the early morning hours. It was cold and my feet - and my books and equipment - were soaked with dew. I took the time to seek out Gamma Andromeda (Almach), simply one of the most beautiful doubles in the night sky, rivalling Albireo and Rasalgethi. This is probably the most viewed double next to Albireo, and rightly so - it is a real treat, with a bright, golden primary and a lustrey blue companion sitting nearby at 10". This fine sight was a good way to close off my double star hunt, though I still had two others in And and three in Cepheus I wanted to find (to be continued another night).

Before packing up, however, I swung my scope to the east, where Vega was flickering just over the horizon, and Cygnus was preparing to set above it. I aimed at Eta Cygni using my 35 mm eyepiece to give me a wider FOV. This way I was able to encompass in my view a 9th magnitude star known as HDE 226868, a blue supergiant located 0.5 degrees ENE of Eta Cyg. The star is apparently made to look more orange than blue thanks to a cloud of interstellar dust that separates us from it, but I couldn't really discern any distinct colouring to it. But what made the star interesting is the fact that right next to it is the most convincing candidate for a black hole, known as Cygnus X-1. Naturally, there was nothing of this to be detected visually, but - just like 51 Peg earlier - it was the idea that I was staring across space at such a profound object that intrigued me.

By now Orion - my favourite constellation - was rising to the SW. I took a quick peek at the hazy nebula and trapezium within, but it was still too low on the horizon and affected by light pollution and turbulence to make the sight as incredible as I know it is. Until later in the fall then...

It was 0400 when I packed up for the night and headed home. The baby was up at 0530 which meant I was too! I guess lack of sleep is the only real hazardous part of amateur astronomy, but it can certainly be worth it.