Winter is Coming!

Becky Pontier, NBAS

At our October meeting, we discussed the possibility of having a group observing session at a convenient place, possibly at Windsor Lake in North Adams. Here’s where the β€œLet’s Go Observing” chat on our Facebook group is handy: join the group, and you can keep up to date on developments.

This month, we have several meteor showers back-to-back: the Orionids, which peaked in late October still have stragglers into the beginning of November, followed by the Taurids peaking on the 12th, then the Leonids on the 17th. All three are somewhat broad in time, so you’ll see meteors coming from all three in the eastern sky throughout the month.

All the outer planets are visible, with Jupiter clearly the brightest object in the sky.

Binocular Delights

If you have a pair of binoculars (and a tripod!) there are many objects in the Fall sky that are particularly nice in binoculars:

Andromeda

Even in 7x50 binoculars, the Great Galaxy of Andromeda can be seen as a fuzzy patch. Under darks skies, it might be possible to see the two satellite galaxies: M 110 and M 32.

Triangulum

More challenging, but still visible, is the large open spiral galaxy, M 33. You might be able to see the faint spiral arms under darker skies.

The Pleiades

This bright and young (only about 70 million years old) star cluster in Taurus is easily seen with the naked eye with the β€œSeven Sisters” of its brightest stars. In binoculars, many more stars become visible. If the arrangement of stars seems oddly familiar, remember that this cluster is called β€œSubaru” in Japanese!

But these are only a small sample: if you scan the skies from Deneb (now setting in the West) through the Milky Way into Cassiopeia, over to Perseus and the Pleiades, you’ll encounter several small star clusters.

This Month’s Image

Bob Donahue, NBAS

The Unistellar eQuinox imaging telescopes are not designed for planets since the telescope’s view of the sky is fixed (about 47’x34’) and planets are somewhat small in angular size.

At the end of an observing session, I figured I’d make the attempt, and I was glad I did! Fortuitously, I happened to take the image right when the Great Red Spot was front and center! While the image itself isn’t close to the quality you can get from more-customized camera systems, I’m still very pleased with this. - Bob D.