Hunter's Two Dog

At begining of summer season, the Canes Venatici is close to zenith, it helps us to observe the deep sky objects within it. Canes Venatici has two major stars, a mag 3 star (Cor Caroli) and mag 4 star Chara

First object is M3, which is easy to locate around 40% from arcturus to cor caroli. It is completely resolved through my 16" with 7 mm EP, it is a globular contains yellow stars, like gold sand float in space.

Then M51 Wirlpool galaxy, is it generally use to test your star hopping ability, if you see anyone aiming at Alkaid at a star party, most of the time they are looking at M51, its spiral arms are sometime visible from silicon valley.

M63 Sunflower galaxy locates around 25% from Cor Caroli to Alkaid, look for a wedge arrangement in the area, M63 is 1.5 deg north from apex.

M94 is a bright, face on galaxy, look for a bright star 20% from Chara to Cor Caroli, center finder there, there are a cluster of stars perpendicular to the line connect alpha/beta on the edge of view circle, M94 is 1.5 deg east of the cluster.

M106 is a spiral galaxy that is devoured by a supermassive blackhole, most galaxy contains blackhole at center, our milky way contains a rather small blackhole (4 million sun) compare to Andromeda (200 million). God is merciful, or it is rather difficult for us!

Marvelous C14

I got a second hand Celestron 14" Schmidt Cassegrain telescope ($2,800) recently, I set it up during weekend, compare to my F4 newtonian reflector, it has much better contrast, the sky background is dark.

Use TV Panoptic 41mm, Saturn is beautiful, what surprise me is the dark background, I can easily pick out 9 mag stars, even better, NGC 5605 can be recognized with a little effort.

Conclusion: I have to praise Celestron engineers for their flag ship product - C14, it is the dream scope for light polluted sky.

Later on I did a little engineering to put sky commander digital setting circle and use parallel port to communicate with it. Now I can cruise through sky from my laptop, cool!

Queen's Hair

Coma Berenices is the only constellation named after a real person, queen of Eygpt, sacrifies her beatiful hair to goddess in return to her husband's safety return. The open cluster Mel 111, virgo galaxy cluster give add hint to her blonde hair.
Coma Berenices is near galaxy pole, so there are no star brighter than 4 mag, and lots of galaxies, include famous virgo cluster.
To observe most of the wonders, locate Gamma Com, point the finder scope at 40% from Denebola to Alkaid, the Mel 111 open cluster is easy to distinguish, focus on a binary star located as No. 4 from Gamma, then move east about 1deg. NGC 4565 is a side on spiral galaxy with dark absorbing line.
The alpha com is located 40% from arcturus to denebola, center the fiinder at a binary star less 1deg north- east. M53 will be in scope. Within my 16", 220x, M53 looks memorable, some granularity into the core.
About third from alpha to gamma, there is a 5 mag star, there is a 5 mag star, 35 comae, centered on it and look north-east about 1 deg, there is M64, the black eye galaxy, it has dark dust edge looks like a ladie's eye wear shade.
Compare to NGC 4565, M100 is a face on spiral galaxy, point the finder at 20% from denebola to arcturus, notice there are two array of 5-6 mag stars converging at about 90 deg in the finder scope, center the finder at intersection, M100 should be in the view, it is small and dimmer than M51, but is conceivable!

Lion's Den

Leo is a magnificant constellation for its meteor shower and closeness to equator, Regulus (alpha Leo) is about 1 degree north of equator.

NGC 2903 is a spiral galaxy close to the mouth, put Lambda Leo at center of finder, about 2/3 of the radius south, looking for a star of 7 mag (unique in the area), center finder there and look through ep. the elongated faint smudge of light at east south edge of ep should be it!

M105/NGC 3384/NGC 3389, draw a line connect Alpha and Theta, put the finder on the line around 40% of the distance from theta, looking for two stars, of 5.5 mag, vertically separated 3.5 deg, and center the finder in the middle of these two stars, M105 should be in ep!

M105 is round and easy to see, NGC 3384 is elliptical and darker, south east of them are three stars line up in ep, around the barycenter is NGC 3389, it is very dim and negligible!

Going south for anothe degree, M96 jumps into my ep, it is elliptical, about same magnitude as M105, continue going west while keep M96 in ep, M95 will be included, it is round, also same magnitude.

Leo Triplet refers M66/M65/NGC3628, put the finder on Chort (theta leo), there should a 5 mag star around south edge of finer, assume it is 6 o'clock, center finder around 7 o'clock, M65 should be in ep, hove around east, the leo triplet should be contained within one ep! M65/66 are elliptical, NGC3628 looks like cigar!

Rose on Qilin Head

Orion is famous for its M42, where massive star formation occuring. Another this kind of area is orion's neighbor,  Monoceros (Qilin). A line between head and right should of orion, (Betelgeuse) and extending the line east, until see a 4.5 mag star (Epsilon Mon), center finder here! there should be a star cluster on north east edge of the finder (NGC 2244), center on the cluster and observe with low mag eyepiece (22 mm is the longest focal EP I can find, 41mm pan has two big exit pupil.), don't forget OIII filter. A foggy background is confirmed as the rosette nebula!

Gemini - Brothers

After we had all the excitement about the wonders of orion constellation, we move to Gemini, which is located north east, next to orion's right arm.

Castor is a visual binary, it is seperated nicely under 220x.
Eskimo (NGC 2392) and M35 open cluster are the enjoyables among my 16" in santa clara, to find Eskimo, we start from the torso star of the elder brother (delta), in the finder, there should be three bright stars (5 mag) north east ward, they are forming a 'L', move scopy among the upper part and start to scan within EP. Eskimo is a grey/bluish planetary nebula, enjoy!

M35 is near left foot of younger brother (eta Gem), center the finder on it, M35 is on the east edge of the finder, there are several dim nebulas within finder circle, IC443 is between eta and mu, IC444 is around north of eta, SH2-247, NGC 2174/2175 are in south area, they are just dim, requires 5-10 hours of exposure to capture

Crab Nebula

After working on my Newtonian Reflector Project for over half a year, I finally have my Telescope ready, it is a newtonian reflector, 16" of diameter, focal ratio f/4. The mirror is purchased used, but the quality is pretty good, 12th wave, Strehl ratio .96. So I decide to start my Messier marathon.

First goal, M1 crab nebula

The Crab Nebula is a supernova remnant. Embedded within it is a radio pulsar.

The supernova was observed in 1054 A.D. by Chinese The supernova event was visible to the naked eye in the daytime; it was as bright as Venus. The filaments in the nebula are seen to be expanding at 1000 km/sec. The total mass of ejected material is about 0.1 solar masses. The distance to the Crab Nebula is about 6500 light years. The diameter of the remnant is 6 light years. A pulsar was discovered in the center of the nebula in 1969. The neutron star in the center of the Crab rotates 33 times per second. Since it expands at speed of 600 miles in a sec., it grows 1 arcsec every five years, so during Messier time, it was more brighter!  Sounds interesting, yesterday, I see its face! How? First find Constellation Taurus, it is close to zenith in winter evening, the alpha (Aldebaran) is a orange star (ranging bull), the zeta star is at end of its left horn, it is above Orion's head, going north from zeta star about 2 degree is the M1 crab nebula. The field angle with my telescope is about 1 degree, so I just need to do star hopping from zeta star. The hopping path zeta tau -> 77308 -> 77293 -> 77269 -> M1. Finally, this is what I saw in eyepiece

Introduction

When I consider your heavens,
    the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
    which you have set in place,
what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
    human beings that you care for them?    - Psalms 8:3-4

Lift your eyes and look to the heavens:
Who created all these?
He who brings out the starry host one by one,
and calls them each by name.
Because of His great power and mighty strength,
not one of them is missing. - Isaiah 40:26
"Two things inspire me to awe: the starry heavens above and the moral universe within.” - Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason