Andromeda tonight...
I got the Andromeda Galaxy tonight. It was thrilling and disappointing at once. I tried to find it last night and couldn't. I talked to my dear friend and uber Astronomy geek Scott who told me a few important things that I took to heart that helped me tonight. First, if the stars are twinkling, there's a lot of atmospheric disturbance and that's bad for resolving faint objects. Add to that the moon was up. So I was looking for a needle in a stack of needles. He also suggested "Star Hopping." Use a star chart to identify a brigt star. Then find another nearby in the general direction of the thing you are looking for. Keep hopping until you get there.
Tonight, the stars were still twinkling, but less so. And the moon was up again and nearly full. But it set. And I star hopped. The top part of Casseopeia points to Mirach. From whence I hopped to Mu Andromedae to Nu Andromedae and then a little up from there to...
...It was blurrier than this picture. But it was Andromeda. So thrilling because I learned a new skill, and disappointing because I have a 3.1 inch refractor and, well, you just aren't going to see this...
But it was still pretty cool. I got a splinter in my foot though. So I'm going to go pull it and get some sleep. Good thing we got to keep those single use tweezers from Jake's doctor visit.
Thanks Scott!!!
Tonight, the stars were still twinkling, but less so. And the moon was up again and nearly full. But it set. And I star hopped. The top part of Casseopeia points to Mirach. From whence I hopped to Mu Andromedae to Nu Andromedae and then a little up from there to...
...It was blurrier than this picture. But it was Andromeda. So thrilling because I learned a new skill, and disappointing because I have a 3.1 inch refractor and, well, you just aren't going to see this...
But it was still pretty cool. I got a splinter in my foot though. So I'm going to go pull it and get some sleep. Good thing we got to keep those single use tweezers from Jake's doctor visit. Thanks Scott!!!
posted by Eric Soderstrom at 3:37 AM
4 Comments:
Nice star hopping, Eric. Often the thrill is in the finding, not in the seeing, as cameras have the luxury of soaking up the photons over long exposures to create a better image than you could ever see with your eyes and the biggest scope in the world.
Also, be thrilled that you looked back 2.5 million years in time while you were oberving Andromeda. As opposed to, say, eight for Sirius.
Another reason bigger scopes don't make M31 that much better to look at: It's 7 times the width of the moon. You're just looking at the nucleus, dude! (I just learned that from Wikipedia, by the way. Worth reading for a new starhound like yourself).
Cross it off the list.
-Scott
Yo whenever I point out Cassiopeia to the girlies,
they're like putty in my hands!
They think I'm like John Cusack in "The Sure Thing"
That's some trade secret shit I'm droppin on your
blog Eric! that's like Ron Jeremy showing you his
stroke! Keep it secret...keep it safe!
Ribbit
John Cusack in "The Sure Thing"? I'd think more like Patrick Dempsey in "Can't Buy me Love". But whatever.
-Scott
I read that about it being bigger than the moon as well. And it didn't make any sense to me at the time, but having seen it, I can understand that, sure, the extremities would go much farther than my eyes and scope could resolve.
Funny thing - we went to Ted's this weekend out on the coast and the weather has been great so we were looking forward to some good viewing. Well, I packed and wrapped up the scope, Rachel carefully packed up the optics, but neither of us remembered to grab the tripod. Silly that.
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