Thursday, February 27, 2025
Issue 613: How about a Challenge?
Do you have a telescope? Would you like to see some of
the same night sky objects from the ground that Hubble has from space? We
invite you to commemorate Hubble’s 35th anniversary by accepting our year-long
stargazing challenge. On a clear night, find a safe location with a dark sky
away from bright lights, point your telescope skyward, and with the help of
star and finder charts, gaze upon some of the same iconic nebulae and galaxies
Hubble has observed. How many of them can you find?
They go on to explain NASA is working with the Astronomical
League (yes, it’s still around, apparently) who will handle issuing certificates of achievement for those who successfully sketch or
photograph the objects.
I’m not very interested in certificates these days (though I
admit I did my happy dance when I realized I finally had enough countries to
qualify for the ARRL’s DXCC CW). Certificates or no, it looked to me
like it would be mucho fun to get out and observe/image as many of these
nice DSOs as possible. If you are interested in certificates, you can
read all about ‘em on the Hubble’s Night Sky Challenge page.
There’ll be a list of deep sky targets for each month of
2025 with the selected objects, naturally, being those Hubble has imaged over its
long career. The targets thus far have been a nice mix of five or six objects
ranging from the easy to the slightly more difficult. For example, January’s challenge
included M42 on the easy end and NGC 2261, Hubble’s Variable Nebula, on the
more difficult.
My only complaint? Other than the Messiers, the
objects are identified with their “Caldwell” numbers. If you’ve forgotten about
the Caldwell, it was the “best of the NGC” list composed by the late Sir Patrick Moore
and widely published way back in the 1990s. Hey, I’m as big a Moore fan as
anybody—I likely wouldn’t have taken up amateur astronomy without his wonderful
books—but his Caldwell list never caught on with me or most other deep sky
observers. Not that it was bad…it was quite good, but had been done as well
or better before. 
NGC 2419
Few of us know the C numbers. I don’t recall ever
hearing anybody talking about getting out in the back forty and observing “C7,”
for example. So, when perusing the Hubble’s Challenge lists, you'll have refer to
a cross reference to the Caldwells’ NGC numbers, which is slightly annoying. Also,
I recall some of our colleagues were slightly annoyed with the list itself,
which they thought was overreach and self-promotion on the part of Patrick
(though he didn’t call it the “Moore List;” Caldwell was his mum’s maiden
name). I didn’t care about that. Patrick Moore was an icon, and if he’d
called it the “Moore List,” I’d have been fine and dandy with that. In
terms of Hubble’s Challenge, it is not a huge deal, since each month’s list
only includes a handful of C objects.
So…anyhow…I don’t know if I’ll bring Hubble’s Challenge
to you every month, but I will for sure bring some of them to you,
and I believe you’ll have as much fun with it as I have so far. This time of year, it’s nice to have a simple little
project to tone up the deep sky observing muscles many of us (including your cold-averse
old Uncle) allowed to atrophy this stormy winter.
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| M46 |
Hokay, let’s go… ‘Twas a pair of quite acceptable late
winter nights when I set up each smartscope in succession. It was damp, but not
unacceptably so; at the end of the evening Evie and Suzie had fine patinas of dew, just a hint of what we can expect when spring comes.
This was only my second night out with the Unistellar, and I
still felt like I was flying by the seat of my pants when it came to her iPhone
app. Luckily, I had a set of simplified (always a good thing for
your simple, old Uncle) instructions from my Smartscope mentor, Jack Estes.
Mostly it went smoothly, and I think Evie did a good job despite my fumbling.
When I first connected Evie to the phone, I was prompted to
do an update. I’m not quite sure what that accomplished, but it was my
impression the wi-fi connection was more robust. I had the phone in the Sunroom
and Evie out in the backyard, and, unlike first light night, didn’t have a
single disconnect. Main takeaways? I think I dialed in focus fairly well, but
believe I can do a little better. It also appears to me that some collimating may
be required. Verdict, though? No fuss, no muss, though not as much no fuss no
muss as Suzie.
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| NGC 2403 |
All pictures here are the simple .jpgs that came out
of the scopes with only the most minimal processing…
NGC 2419
Ah, yes, the famous Intergalactic Tramp in Lynx. Or
famous when your Uncle was a young man, anyhow. This 9th magnitude,
4’36” diameter fuzzball discovered by Sir William Herschel is a distant globular
cluster now known to lie a staggering (for a glob) 275,000 light years
from our little rock. It has long been known to be a far-far-away cluster, and in
the 1920s legendary astronomer Harlow Shapley speculated it was not bound to
the Milky Way and sailing through the night on its own. Which led to the “Intergalactic
Tramp/Wanderer” appellation. In the 1990s, however, it was determined it does indeed orbit
the Milky way despite its distance. Which killed some, but not all, the romance
of this distant ball of suns.
What was it like for the smartscopes? Suze had no trouble
at all finding and centering the fuzzball, but, alas, given her wide-field
nature, was unable to resolve more than a few of the cluster’s halo stars. Would
it have been different from a dark site? Maybe, but a dark site isn’t often
on your old uncle’s agenda in these latter days. Evie? She made this
globular look like a globular, her image showing off plenty of resolution.
Messier 46
Puppis’ bright, magnitude 6.0, 20'00" across cluster
is known and loved by even novice observers. It’s not so much that it’s an
outstanding open cluster in a telescope…it’s kind of large, is set in a rich
field, and doesn’t pop out from the background as much as the best-of-the-best open clusters do. Its
popularity with observers is because it holds a hidden gem, a small planetary nebula, the tiny ring of
magnitude 10.8, 1’10” diameter NGC 2438. Even small scopes will show this
ghostly little thing, which, incidentally, is thought to be a foreground object
not associated with the star cluster.
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| Caroline's Cluster |
NGC 2403
There is no doubt this big (21’00”) bright (magnitude
8.9) spiral galaxy in Camelopardalis is one of the wonders of the northern sky.
The true wonder of the thing, though? How Charles Messier missed putting this
one on his list. Be that as it may, it was finally observed and cataloged by William
and Caroline Herschel in the 18th Century. Yes, it lies in a subdued
and often bypassed constellation, the camel-leopard, but you owe it to yourself
to give it a visit.
How did the girls do on this one? It was pretty much
a tossup. Suzie’s image is maybe a little smoother…but I prefer the color in
Evie’s portrait of the galaxy. Also, it was verging on the hazy on Suzie’s
night, giving Evie further advantage.
NGC 2360
William Herschel’s sister and fellow observer, Caroline,
doesn’t have many objects attributed to her alone, but there are a few,
including this outstanding open cluster. Lina found this one—maybe during one
of her comet “sweeps”—on the evening of February 26th 1783, and it
became the second object in her personal list. As y’all know, Unk goes ga-ga
over most anything having to do with Willie and Lina, but Caroline’s Cluster is
a purty outstanding galactic cluster (in Canis Major) on its own. This magnitude 6.2, 14’00”
across clump of stars is just about perfect for small-medium size scopes.
Well, finally…a win for Miss Suzie. While Caroline’s Cluster
isn’t too large, it’s set in the richness of the Milky Way, and the SeeStar S50’s
extra field made it just look better. But it was good in Evie as well,
no doubt about that.
NGC 2392
And, yet another Willie Herschel discovery, the famous
Eskimo or Clown Face magnitude 9.6 planetary nebula in Gemini. It is another
object well-known and beloved of deep sky observers old and new. Small scopes
show a greenish puffball with a brighter center/central star, while medium-large
instruments begin to unlock details, like the ruff of the Eskimo’s parka.
 |
| The Eskimo |
And that was that. Easy-peasy. Both smartscopes knocked
off every challenge object. In fact, they laughed at the idea these were
“challenges.” That said, I believe as I gain more experience with both
telescopes, I will improve on what they can deliver.
As for NASA’s Hubble’s Night Sky Challenge? I had fun. I was
afraid the rather well-known nature of the objects would make for a ho-hummer
of an experience…but no. In fact, I had a terrific time. So
terrific that maybe I’ll continue next month after all…
