Deep-Sky Observer - DSO 195

In this issue

T Aurigae – a visual observation by Tim B Hunter and James E McGaha

Markarian Galaxies by Mark Stuart

Rambling Through September’s Herschel Skies by Mark Hardaker

Object of the Season: Emission Nebula NGC 1499 in Perseus by Wolfgang Steinicke

At last, a whisper of SN 1987A! by Magda Streicher

The Bright Barnard Objects by Tim B Hunter, James E McGaha, Gerald O Dobek and William Sheehan

Observing Supernova Remnants by Owen Brazell

Editorial

It has been great to see the membership of the society to continue to grow over the last year. The only downside has been the lack of material generated for DSO and I apologise for lack of DSO’s over the last year. We have managed to get out the second volume of the Galaxy of the Month books and we have hopes that this year the first volume of Mike Swan’s Galactic Atlas will appear. Mike has also done a second edition of his combined Open Cluster Atlas.

I know the poor weather this year has restricted the amount of observing being done which has not helped material for DSO and I also see the rise of Smart Telescopes as the overriding change in the way people are observing, witness the article by Mark Hardaker in this DSO. We also have a talk on EAA observing at this year’s Annual Meeting at the IOA in Cambridge on the 28th June just to acquaint members with what is happening in this field. I must admit to owning both a ZWO Seestar S50 and S30, although they have spent most of their time imaging comets.

At the last star party in the UK we had a breakthrough in the number of clear nights and as well as the Seestar imaging I managed to complete the Herschel Sprint in one night. It was tough even with the 22” and I have the utmost admiration for William Herschel finding all these objects in one night with a much poorer telescope, although undoubtedly better skies. The other thing I would ask members to think about is joining the committee. The average age of the committee is now in its 60’s and 70’s and we could do with some new blood to look at going forward.

The costs of going to shows versus the payback means we have cut down on the number of shows we plan to visit this year. Although our takings may look good the profits rarely cover the cost of the stand and we see more and more imagers at these shows which means the sales of books is getting harder, although we do appreciate those who support us by buying all our new publications.

The AGM date has been confirmed for the 28th June at the IOA again. See the advert in DSO for the program or on the website.

For those with deep pockets TeleVue have introduced their Nagler Type 7 eyepieces. These are already expensive at £645 and if tariffs come into play then they are going to be out of the range of almost everybody. These should become available in late Q2 There is also a rumour of a 24mm Delos in the 2” bracket at some point later in the year. ZWO are also talking about a S30 Pro with a quad lens and an improved sensor, although again there is no delivery date and the trade war between Donald Trump and China may have an impact on those plans and world pricing of all equipment as the US is undoubtedly the largest single market for equipment. There have also been rumours of an S70. Otherwise as perhaps expected most of the focus on new equipment is for imaging.

On the book front Larry Mitchell has released three volumes of challenges. At the time of writing the all three volumes are already available from Sky Publishing by searching for Visual Mysteries of the Universe. The Society is looking into whether we can get these and sell them in the UK but until we see some copies it is not known if they will sell here. I am hoping that Ronald Stoyan and Oculum will come up with the second and third volumes of the Atlas of Planetary Nebulae and he has been testing the waters for an English edition. These are normally crowd funded and I will get James to put a note up on the website when I hear about that. I understand from Ronald that it could be May when this happens as they are still sorting out the enlarged lunar atlas.

On the software front there is nothing new out yet. SkyTools 4.1 Visual appears to be as far away as ever. AstroPlanner appears to go down rabbit holes and its author has been ill and we wish him a speedy recovery. The 2025 double star catalogues have been updated in AtroPlanner so that maybe of some interest. Deep-Sky Planner appears to be moving to be the first PC software to be able to control a Seestar. I am not sure of when the release date of that might be. I believe they are awaiting the ASCOM/ Alpaca drivers from ZWO. Of course with the release of those drivers any PC software that uses ASCOM will also be able to control them.

Owen Brazell - Editor of The Deep-Sky Observer