Hello, friends and fellow star nuts! Lovely night for viewing last night. I was oh-so-determined to finally spot Comet Hartley 2, now that it's tripping on by the "Big W" of Casseopeia. I focused in on Schedar, the bottom point of the W, furthest north, and searched below it with 7x50 binocs and my scope on low power, but no sign of it. It's supposed to appear as a blue-green fuzzy star, though I'm hoping a tail will spring forth as it grows brighter.
Tonight it's passing within a DEGREE of Schedar, so I'm planning on nailing it with my scope. You can't escape me this time, Mr. Hartley II, I'm onto your tricks! : )
The good news from last night's session, however, is I FINALLY spotted the Andromeda Galaxy with my scope--but only after hanging a sheet to block a floodlight on one side of my balcony and piling up boxes to block the streetlight on the other side! Sheesh, the lengths we city-dwellers have to go to see a few blinkin' stars! Anyway, I'd been able to locate it with my binocs but never with my scope--because the finderscope is so pathetic... I can't pinpoint anything but the brightest stars with it. So this time I decided to try "star-hopping," and it worked! I focused in on Mirach, a bright star in Andromeda, and then I headed for "Mu," north of that. I peeked in the eyepiece to look at Mu, and there was the telltale smudge of the Andromeda Galaxy! Wow!! I had to laugh, because anyone not interested in stars would've certainly said, "That's just a silly old smudge. Are you sure it's not just fog on the lens?" But I was freakin' thrilled. I tried higher-powered eyepieces, but just like all the books say, the wider field, lower-power lens is best for viewing nebulae and galaxies. Now, of course, I'm beginning to lust after a larger-aperture scope. Sigh. Better fight that urge until I have a few hundred smackers to spare.
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