Stargazing Site Report: Exit 45

I've never been really scared driving at night until I decided to venture out of my area to check out exit 45, east from Seattle on I-90. I learned that this was a stargazing site far from the skyglow of any city and wanted to see what it was all about.

25mins after we (my wife and I) left our house, we got to exit 45 which is quite far from Seattle. The road pretty much leads to nowhere so there is nothing - no lights, dead ends and dirt roads. Driving off of the safe highway, we turned onto the exit, then went another 3 miles on a one-lane dirt road to the site which was supposed to be a clearing. Because of the darkness and bumpy nature of the road, it was a bit scary driving it, knowing that if anything happened to you help would be very far away. The trees didn't help either as they were leaning over the road so much you couldn't see the sky so it was very much like out of a scary movie. After a tense moment of hearing a very strange sound suddenly emanating from the left front tire (a rock had got into the break) we finally got to the clearing, which there was one other car present.

My wife was too scared to get out of the car so I got out to assess the car and location. After looking at the car and seeing that it was fine, I broke out the binoculars and looked at Andromeda. I could already tell that the viewing was better than from my house, but the full moon pretty much ruined any proper location evaluation.

I'm not sure if I'll ever go back there again as it was so remote that you really feel like you could be in danger from something, but then again I'm sure it would have been a great site to view the skies on a dark night. My suggestion is to bring a group of people along, and go earlier when there is some daylight to make the trip less scary.

I'm always looking for a good stargazing area, so if you have any suggestions, please let me know.

My Telescope of Choice...

...which will be on order any day now:

Soon I'll have photos of the universe that I can call my very own...I can't wait!

My first batch of targets that I will be cataloging will be in the Eastern part of the sky as this is where my back yard faces. Right now it looks like Orion is coming up earlier and earlier each day so I should have some great views of the Orion Nebula as well as other well known galaxies.

Green Lake Star Party, Cheap Scopes & Shuttle Update

The weather was pretty much perfect for the monthly Green Lake Star Party near the north shore parking lot on the 6th. It was my first time going to a star party and though there were only a few scopes set up due to other star parties going on in the area, I had my Orion 20x80 binoculars set up looking at Jupiter and had a lot of fun talking with observers about my limited knowledge of space. This was also the first time looking through some bigger scopes such as one 6" Dobsonian and a Orion 5" Cassegrain (I believe it was a Cassegrain) which we saw great views of Jupiter (easily seeing cloud detail), the Ring Nebula (M57), Dumbbell Nebula (M27), the Double Cluster of Perseus (NGC 869 & NGC 884), Andromeda Galaxy (M31) and of course the Moon and even a few satellites. It was really cool to see kids and many adults get excited about seeing deep space objects and learn a little bit more about the universe we live in.

Inspired by the star party, I picked up a cheap scope at Fry's to see what I could see before my big 8" scope purchase in the next month or so. I picked up the Galileo FS-80S (about a 3" reflector) and messed around with it that evening. I tried my hardest to get a good shot with the DSI II camera but the scope was so cheap that I couldn't achieve good focus even with the eyepiece.

I've decided to promptly return the scope as it's not worth owning - it's slightly better than my Orion 20x80, but useless for any kind of photo taking....sorry will have to wait a bit longer to see some good shots!

Lastly, STS-125 (last Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission) has been pushed a few days to Oct. 10. This launch will be pretty interesting because STS-126 will be on the pad as well for backup just in case something goes wrong with STS-125. I don't remember if this has ever been done before (at least I don't remember the last time we had two shuttles on the pad at the same time).

Space shuttle Atlantis stands poised on the launch pad after its trek from the Vehicle Assembly Building. Image credit: NASA

Update to September 2nd Stargazing

Here is an image of how the Andromeda Galaxy, M15, NGC 457, M45 and Jupiter looked like with the 20x80 Orion GiantView Binoculars. These are not images that I took myself, but made to look like what I saw that night from by backyard. Click on the image for the full size resolution.

One way to image Deep Space Objects (DSO)

Imaging DSO is fine if you have a SLR camera, but what if you want longer exposures and convenient computer control? This is where something like the Meade Deep Sky Imager II Color CCD Camera comes in. The Meade DSI II allows you to attach the camera directly to a telescope eyepiece, then with the included software you can see a real-time preview of what you are looking at and have the computer do the work of capturing the images and stacking them for the best image possible. The DSI II also comes with an instructional DVD to help you get up and running right away as the software can be pretty daunting for the first-time user.

The downsides to something like the Meade DSI II is that it is not very high resolution for the price (the camera is less than 0.5 megapixel in resolution) and the Meade DSI III with its 1.5 megapixel resolution costs just about twice as much as the Canon XTi (10MP) that I talked about in a earlier post...so know that astrophotography cameras are something that are not cheap when compared to regular SLR or point-and-shoot cameras on the market.


The DSI II Color CCD Camera.


The DSI II Color CCD Camera out of the box.


Close-up of the CCD. Be careful as the CCD is exposed with the lens cap off.

Tonight's Stargazing

FINALLY it was a 90% clear night tonight and was able to take the new Orion binoculars for a spin. What I love about the Orion 20x80's is that you see SO many more stars than you can see with the naked eye it's really like looking at an entirely different night sky.

I really wanted to see if I could locate a nebula tonight but was unsuccessful...what I did see was as follows:

Andromeda Galaxy (M31, 4.8mag)
Easy to find once you know where to look, Andromeda is viewable with a 15x50, and of course even that much brighter with the 20x80. I still couldn't make out any detail however and looked like a dim blur.

M15 (Globular Cluster, 6.2mag)
I thought this was a galaxy, but turned out it was a globular cluster. I was never able to find this with the 15x50 binoculars, but was easily resolved using the 20x80 (but still looked like a faint blur).

NGC457 (Galactic Cluster, 6.4mag)
An interesting formation of stars which is easily seen with 20x80 binoculars.

M45 (Galactic Cluster, 1.5mag)
Always a cool formation of stars which is easily seen with 20x80 binoculars.

Jupiter & Moons
All 4 moons were very easily visible and I think I saw a hint of cloud detail on Jupiter. Very sharp using the 20x80 binoculars.

Well that's about it...going to he sack now...

What's In The Package?

It's the Orion GiantView 20x80 Binoculars! Sometimes when viewing the night sky and you don't want to set up a large telescope, whipping out some ultra-portable binoculars can do the trick nicely. I had previously owned some 10x50 Humvee binoculars which had allowed me to view the Andromeda galaxy for the first time, however it really was just a very faint blur in a sea of stars. The Orion GiantView 20x80 Binoculars fills that gap between low-power binoculars and a telescope where it has enough light-gathering power to view Deep Space Objects (DSO) and not have the setup time involved. The only downside to the GiantView 20x80 is that it is a little heavy to hold, so using a tripod is recommended (and the binoculars come with a built-in mount for photo/video tripods).

The Orion GiantView Binoculars come with a nice padded case for protection.




The glass in this binocular are fully multi-coated to minimize light loss.




The Orion GiantView 20x80 next to my 10x50 Humvee binoculars.