Venus

At dusk on December 28th, 2008, you can not help but look into the southwestern sky and see the evening star known as Venus. Venus, our 2nd planet from the sun is one of four terrestrial or rocky planets. Venus is the closest planet to Earth at its nearest approach of 45 million km. Venus is about 108 million km from the sun and is about the size of Earth.

The photo above is unfortunately my best effort so far. This image was the best exposure after several attempts of shooting 10 exposures or more and trying to stack them into a decent picture. This particular image was taken using a 10mm eyepiece. The problems are many: Poor atmospheric conditions and more likely, Venus is reflecting too much light from the sun back to my 10" mirror, thus causing an aberration or star burst effect. After reading further, I am under the impression, much like Mercury, Venus is best viewed and photographed at dusk or even before dusk while there is still light out. I will attempt to photograph Venus again under better conditions. A planetary filter may help the situation as well.

The view of Venus through a 10mm eyepiece is better than what was photographed. Much like our moon, Venus also exhibits phases based on the sun and our geometrical view. During this viewing, Venus was a visible half crescent. Because Venus is so bright, one can not make out any distinguishing features other than a cream color.

I look forward to visiting this planet again and with more knowledge in hand, achieve better photographic results.

Uranus

Last night I visited our 7th planet from the sun: Uranus. On the evening of December 28th, 2008 at approx. 9:00pm CST under clear skies (temp 24 degrees with calm winds), I looked to the southwest and found the brightest star near the horizon which is Cetus. Then I worked my way west along the horizon into the constellation Aquarius. From the naked eye, Uranus is barely visible at about 5.7 magnitude. It would appear as a bluish star - really no different from the other stars near the western horizon. Once I found the general area star charts placed Uranus, I began probing the search area with a 25mm lense scanning back and forth. Uranus is discernible as a small greenish disc with a 25mm eyepiece, though it took several times to confirm by comparing it to neighboring stars. No matter how close a star may be to Earth (whether 2.5 light years or 2.5 million light years), a star will still appear only as a pin point of light. Thus, planets like Uranus and Neptune will actually appears as discs once ample magnification is achieved. I boosted the magnification to 5mm and could clearly make out a bluish green fuzzy disc. It was best viewed with a 10mm eyepiece and could be resolved as a planetary disc about three times the diameter of neighboring stars.

A treat indeed, as Uranus sits about 3 billion km from the Sun. Uranus revolves around the Sun once every 84 Earth years. Uranus's mass is roughly 14.5 times that of the Earth, making it the least massive of the giant planets. I was unable to make out any distinguishing characteristics like cloud patterns, ring systems or moons. Never the less, it was a rewarding find; especially being that it was only discovered in 1690 and was thought to be a star. In the future, I will attempt to photograph this planet.

NGC 2169

An otherwise ordinary open cluster in Orion, I viewed this deep space object on December 17th, 2008 at 8:00pm cst. The worthy note was that the temperature was sitting at about 5 degrees. With snow on the ground and Christmas lights causing more than normal light pollution, this was my best observational effort; Too cold, and too bright on this night. NGC 2169 is a small distinct open cluster best viewed through a 10mm lense.

M44 Beehive Cluster

On December 6th, 2008 between 11:00pm-11:45pm CST I made the following observations: The evening was clear and cold. Winds at 5-10 mph with a temperature of approx. 10 degrees. With a waxing gibbous moon at 68% full and snow on the ground, I viewed M44 the Beehive Open Cluster in Cancer. There is nothing exciting about this 4.0 magnitude object - about 500 light years away, it is comprised of approx. 40 stars. It looks more like a swarm of bees than a beehive.

I also viewed M41, another open cluster in Canis Major, about 2400 light years away. Used 12 Canis Majoris as a reference star. Also viewed the M67 Open Cluster in Cancer, a 7.5 magnitude object. M79 was a Globular Cluster in Lepus. Difficult to find at 8.5 magnitude, this object is about 54,000 light years away. I used HIP25273 and TYC6475-187-1 as reference stars. M79 can be best described as a faint fuzzy sphere using a 10mm eye piece. Even though sometimes dull to the eye, Globular Clusters tend to be more exciting to view than the more common Open Clusters.

I also viewed NGC 2266 in Gemini, an open cluster that was difficult to discern. I would have cataloged more NGC objects, but it was too cold.

Convergence

Well, unfortunately, the recent solar system convergence of Venus, Jupiter and the moon was a bust for Chicagoland star gazers. On the evening of December 1st, 2008 it was overcast and thus a missed opportunity. The next such alignment I believe is in 2052. Even still, one can look up into the southern sky at dusk and see Venus and Jupiter sitting very close together for the next week or so. Still, a rather impressive sight.

It reminds me of June 16th, 1991 when at 10:51pm PST in San Juan Capistrano, CA I viewed a impressive convergence of Mars, Venus and Jupiter making a rare triangle in the night sky. Then, less than a month later on July 11th, 1991 we were treated to a 70% solar eclipse viewed also in San Juan Capistrano, CA at 11:41am PST. These can be considered my first documented observations and preceded my formal education in Astronomy which included several classes at the college level including Intro to Astronomy, Advanced Astronomy and an additional Astronomy Lab at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, CA. I guess you could say I have been hooked ever since.