Albireo in Cygnus and Coathanger

-Scope: Edu-Sci 50mm refractor (FL 360mm)
-Condition : Partly cloudy



This is a very easy double star target for most telescopes. With a wide separation of 35 arc seconds, you can virtually drive a truck in between. The pair of Alberio A & Alberio B is amber and blue green respectively. Alberio is in the constellation Cygnus.

The colours are readily apparent in a 50mm scope and is beautiful with very contrasting colours, it may appear to be gold and topaz. The space between the two stars can fit 50 of our solar systems end to end! If you have trouble splitting this double star, take up fishing instead :) 

Alberio is in fact a triple star system which is beyond the grasp of my scope, Alberio has a very close companion itself!

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Since we are in the vicinity, lets hop over to a curious and bonus object, the Coathanger Cluster.

This is a very easy object for binoculars and small telescopes. I am able to get the whole view of the coathanger within my 25mm eyepiece in my 360mm focal length scope. Use only very low power eyepieces when viewing this object with a scope. In fact this is a naked eye object under dark sites.

Once you get the orientation correct, its easy as pie to recognise the straight & hook stars pattern forming what resembles a coathanger (may be upside down depending on your location/facing). When I first saw this object, I find it really cool, it did took me a while though to see the hanger. 

This is not a true star cluster..

Coathanger Cluster

Jupiter

-Scope: Edu-Sci 50mm refractor (FL 360mm)
-Condition : Partly cloudy

After a long break, I continue my quest for the '50 objects' target with my humble 50mm scope. Jupiter is the target today as it appears near the zenith at this time.

The 4 galilean's moons should be easy targets with any 50mm scope (if no occultation or transit occurs). To view the cloud belts I need a 12mm or shorter fl eyepiece, (today my viewing location is my apt's rooftop and brightly lit even at 1.20am!) Very slight hint of reddish brown hue is discernible with a 12mm. Both the latitudinal belt becomes apparent with a 4 or 6mm (huygens) eyepiece although no details or irregularities are detected.


(Simulated view, but belts appears more distint through scope)

Tonight the satellites Ganymede & Europa are quite close to each other. With Io appearing alone on one side. (13 Aug 09 17:13 UT)

*The challenge here for those who already owns the Galileoscope, see if you can detect any belt irregularities or belt's hue with your scope. I think the galileoscope should fair better with its longer focal length.

Hello from Earth!

Now you can send a message to Gliese 581d, a (exoplanet) planet outside our Solar System which may support life. Please do so before Sunday 23 August 2009 where all messages will be compiled , collected and exported as text files and encoded to binary code by NASA before transmission.

Travelling at speed of light, the messages will reach the target destination in approximately Dec 2029.

For more information and to be part of this project, please visit this site.

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Once you have composed your interstellar message, in english only, not binary code =) , you will receive this email as a confirmation..

Hi Jeffrey Lim,

Your interstellar message has been logged. It will be transmitted on 24 August 2009 to Gliese 581d, the nearest Earth-like planet to us, by the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex in Australia.
Your message should appear on the HELLO FROM EARTH site within 10 minutes.

However, please be patient! All submissions are moderated by real human beings right here on Earth. If the number of submissions is very high, it may take longer than usual for your message to appear.

Please spread the word, email your friends/family & fellow workers about the site and get them to send their messages!

Upon approval of your message (within a minute or two ), another email follows..

Hi Jeffrey Lim,

Your interstellar message has been approved.

Remember you can change your message up to 4 times by simply going to the "Edit Message" menu item on the site and using the below logon details

Hopefully my message and the rest of the 6583 messages as at 14 Aug 2009 12.22am (Singapore Time) will reach planet Gliese 581 in 2029 which is 193 trillion km away in the constellation of Libra.

Dear habitants of Gliese 581, I may not be able to see your reply unless I lived to a ripe old age, even if you transmit at the speed of light. Do come in peace should you decide to visit us mankind.