Open Clusters in Cygnus

Grab n' Go night with the TV85. Started with the TV 8-24 Zoom, quick peeks at the Ring and Dumbell Nebulae and Albireo, then dropped in the 42mm LVW (14x) and began sweeping around in Cygnus. Came across NGC 6819 which looked like a faint fuzzy southeast of Delta Cygni. Bumped up magnification with the 13mm LVW (46x) and resolved it into faint stars. NGC 6811 was located easily by hopping from Delta Cygni. Much larger and brighter than NGC 6819. M29 did not show as many stars as I remember seeing with the C8. NGC 6910 was tricky, I found it very close to Delta Cygni and at first was unsure if this was really it, but checking against SNP5 chart confirmed it. Very tight grouping of mag 9 and 10 starts with a couple of mag 7 components.

Cygnus Open Clusters

Ol' Sol

1600 UTC: High noon, beautiful (though hot) Saturday afternoon, some fluffy clouds but skies otherwise bright blue, temp 76°F @ 1725 UTC, humidity 48%. Linda's off with the Ya Ya Sisterhood, just me, the scopes and the kitties...

C8 + TV85 set up on NE corner of deck. After north & level Quick Align I set out to align the TV rail once and for all. None of the hex wrenches in my possession are the correct size for the rear radius block bolts, but I suspect further tightening will help little. Finally got the sun centered in both scopes by extending front adjustment screws almost to their limit and using the washer under the front of the clamshell. I have no way of measuring the total of the gap + washer, but it is certainly more than could possibly be reached by tightening down the rear block - there just ain't that much space between the block and the C8 casting. But we're aligned, and I'm happy for now. I'm thinking a spacer to go between the front of the rail and the front block will be the most practical solution.

Several sunspot regions visible on the SOHO MDI @ 1600 UTC:



1930 UTC: Broke out the Neximage and took some shots of the sun with both scopes. Most of the TV85 shots were out of focus, C8 shots were even worse. The best shot shown here:

Sunspot region 0783 (left of center) + others
03 July 2005, 1930 UTC
TV85 + ScopeTronix Solar Filter + Celestron NexImage