Breaking rules again – it really does work

OK, what really works is small aperture and low power – that is, I was once more successful with that combination while observing from the warmth and comfort of my library through sliding glass doors with the typical double-thickness, insulated glass in them. I was using the 50mm (205mm focal length) Sparrow Hawk from Stellarvue and some very simple, ridiculously inexpensive,  eyepieces from Burgess.  What was I able to see:

• M13, the beautiful globular cluster in Hercules
• Nu Draconis, a wonderfully matched pair of fifth magnitude stars that can just barely be split with hand-held binoculars.

Mind you – through these doors I have a very small section of sky open to me because of nearby trees. But I thought about going out to observe, however it was after 5 am, the temperatures was 27 degrees, it was windy, and there was a foot of snow on the ground. With dawn not far off it just didn’t seem worth the discomfort. Then I thought of the little telescope, sitting on its cheapy tripod in the same room.  I placed it near the doors, put a chair behind it, and immediately picked out M13 in the 23mm eyepiece (9X). Wow! That was easy. So I zoomed in on it and it’s two bracketing stars with the 12.5mm Symetrical. This yields about 16X and the most pleasing view. But I pumped it up with a 6mm Symetrical to about 34X.  Now don’t get me wrong. I could not resolve the stars of the cluster. But even at the lowest power it was obvious what I was looking at and the essential experience of the cluster is available at 16X.  The little scope won’t handle well anything much higher than 34X and  I doubt that the conditions – observing from a heated room through a closed, sliding glass door – would allow much more magnification.

Nu Draconis was also in view, so I swung over to it.  Again, at 9X I could just split it, at 16X the view was very pleasing, and 34X didn’t really enhance it much aesthetically.

Still, the bottom line is this. You can have a nice, meaningful astronomical experience with a small telescope and low power while staying warm and cozy in your home.

BTW – I have been out in the Observatory several nigths and mornings since the blizzard hit last weekend. On these occasions the temperature has been lower and the conditions generally poor – but at least it wasn’t close to dawn. My endurance allows only 60-90 minutes of outdoor observing, though,  once temperatures fall below 20. So I’m a farc ry from opting for indoor observing. But it’s fun to see just how much I really can enjoy with such a small scope without going out and challenging the cold.

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Confirmed: Galileo, Jupiter, Venus and maybe the universe ;-)

Having not seen it for 10 days or more – I don’t actually count cloudy days and cloudy nights because they’re too depressing, but boy we have had more than our share for May – so I have not really seen the universe beyond our own neighborhood – the solar system – for a painfully long interval.  This morning I got a slight glimpse of it in the form of Mu Capricornis, I believe, in the same field of view as Jupiter as I put my ultimate grab ‘n go scope to the test and tasted a bit of what I am pretty sure Galileo was doing precisely  400 years ago.

Grab 'n go - 50mm Sparrow Hawk at the ready!

The Clear Sky Clock called for a brief break in the skies during the late morning, but when I got up about 3:30 am it was still overcast as expected. I meditated for half an hour and when I opened my eyes the dawn was already filling the East with light and it looked like the skies might be clear in that direction. I slipped on shoes and a coat and grabbed the ever-ready Sparrow Hawk aka “Little Rascal” and headed out. When I say “ever-ready,” I have taken a cue from my friend Dom who leaves his Sparrow Hawk on a tripod set up and ready to go. Great idea. So mine is now ut of its case and  sits expectantly in the corner of the library on its tripod with laser’finder attached and with the addition of two small pouches, discarded from some  forgotten use long ago. The pouches are attached to the tripod legs with Velcro ties and each holds an eyepiece.  I leave the 20mm Televue Plossl in the scope for wide field views. In one of the attached pouches is an 8mm TMB Planetary yielding 26X and in the other, a 5mm TMB Planetary clone giving 41X.

I haven’t weighed this set-up, but it has to be less than 10 pounds total and is easily carried in one hand through doorways and around bushes. I was soon in my neighbor’s back yard where I can see over the tree line to the southeast where Jupiter was already getting dim. But as Galileo had reported in the “Starry Messenger” in March of 1609, there were indeed four moons  just visible in the increasing light. It took the 8mm to reveal them and with the  5mm I could see the moons, plus one of the equatorial belts, as well as Mu Capricornus a star just slightly brighter than the moons that will figure prominently later this month in the scene as Jupiter makes its first of three rendezvous this year with Neptune.

The rising Sun, still well hdden below the horizon, was drowning out this scene quickly, however, so I switched to the much brighter – and lower – Venus. Though there were high clouds around it – and sometimes over it – it too was just as Galileo had reported, showing a phase going from crescent to “quarter moon.”  Magnificent!  Here the twilight was a help rather than a hindrance. Venus showed best with the 8mm, I thought, but in any event also showed some ghosting – a second image just to its east. This is typical, at least in my experience with this brilliant planet. It’s shinning at about -4.5 right now and I find it very hard to see well in a dark sky. But put some light behind it and it comes into sharp focus. Put more light behind it and the ghosting vanishes, so it got better as twilight brightened the sky.

How brilliant, though, of Galileo to see those four moons doing their dance about Jupiter – and to understand what he saw. And to see lovely Venus, going through these phases and to understand that this, too, was world-shaking news – clear evidence that  the universe did not revolve around the Earth, but as incredible – and uncommonsensical – as it seems, the Earth itself was both rotating on its axis every 24 hours and revolving around the Sun. I wonder if later in that Spring of 1609  he perhaps looked at Venus and Jupiter again, as I did this morning, and said “Yes, yes! I am right!” And, of course, for being right he landed in jail and suffered the ridicule of colleagues. I just recently came acrosss this wonderful quote from philosopher Jean Bodin writing in 1628, 18 years after Galileo had made his key discoveries, reported on them, and others had confirmed them independently.

No one in his senses, or imbued with the slightest knowledge of physics will ever think that the earth, heavy and unwieldy from it sown weight and mass, staggers up and down around its own center and that of the Sun; for at the slightest jar of the earth, we would see cities and fortresses, towns and mountains thrown down.

Understand – I am not making light of Bodin. I am in complete sympathy with his view. It makes excellence common sense. But Galileo was showing us something else. He was showing us the uncommon sense of science. He was revealing that there is much more to this universe then what we see and comprehend from the perspective of our own scale and viewpoint. What an incredible breakthrough. And how much fun it is indeed to grab the Sparrow Hawk, step out into the rain-drenched dawn, listen to the resident cardinal greet the day, and confirm for my own soul and sanity, that Galileo had it right.

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Defining the playground of the Sparrow Hawk

Little Rascal -aka Sparrow Hawk - riding sidecar as a "companion scope" to the SV102EDT.

Just came in from another pleasing observing session with the 50mm Sparrow Hawk riding sidecar to the 102EDT. Both scopes are new to me, but I must admit, I’m as fascinated with what the Sparrow Hawk has to deliver as I am with the 102 EDT. Tonight I was playing around the feet of the Twins and diving into the black depths of the Unicorn. I also went over to the tip of the Bull’s Horn to check out M1. Here’s what I learned about the Sparrow Hawk’s capability in my mag 5 skies:

• At 40X ( 5mm Nagler) the Christmas Tree cluster (NGC2264) looked like a respectable tree, showing about 20 stars.
• With M35 I learned I could crank it up to 59X (3.5 Nagler) and the result was pleasing – roughly 30 stars lying on top of lots of powdered sugar.
• The two anchor stars of the core cascade in M35 – one on either end – showed nicely, but the cascade itself was like a glowing rope arcing between them. I couldn’t pick individual stars out of it. (In the 102EDT I could see eight of these stars.) I tried bumping the power up to 82X with a 2.5mm Nagler – no luck. The image just deteriorated.
• I thought I could see NGC2158, the much more distant companion cluster to M35, as a tiny puff of smoke at 40X, but I wan’t positive. I know where it should be and maybe my brain was playing games with my eyes.
• M1 was not visible at 9X with the 23mm native eyepiece – but boy it popped right out at 40X. I was surprised at how easily it was seen.

Earlier I tried a couple multiple stars. Sigma Orionis did split – I could see it as a triple – at 40X. Beta Monocerocis remained stubbornly double at 40X, but was a beautiful triple in the 102EDT. I should have pushed the Sparrow Hawk with the 3.5mm, but I had had bad experiences another night with this eyepiece and scope, so I didn’t expect it to do well on these stars. I was probably wrong.

Ah well-another night! Tomorrow morning I hope to tackle the Virgo cluster and there I think the Sparrow Hawk will assume the role of finder only. I’m also experimenting with an inexpensive prism diagonal in the 102EDT – I’d really like to keep everything right side up and not bass-ackwards if I can do so without serious loss of light and quality. Will see. The juries still out, but my early experiments are very encouraging.

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