Subaru

Astronomy is one of my interests. I own a telescope and subscribe to Sky & Telescope.

The August issue of Sky & Telescope arrived and I was reading it last night. During my read, I came across references to the Subaru Telescope in Hawaii. I never heard of it and since I own a Subaru, I wondered if the folks that built my car had anything to do with the telescope. Did they help fund it or what?

Wrong!

According to Wikipedia, "Subaru Telescope (In Japanese: すばる望遠鏡) is the 8.2 metre flagship telescope of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, located at the Mauna Kea Observatory on Hawaii. It is named after the open star cluster known in English as the Pleiades."

Well, that cleared up the matter.

By the way, I already knew that Subaru was Japanese for the Pleiades, which was the inspiration for the cool Subaru logo. But I wondered why there were only six stars in the logo, whereas the Pleiades was famous for its "Seven Sisters" stars.

Wikipedia solved that mystery, too. The six stars in the logo allude to the six companies that merged to create Fuji Heavy Industries, the transportation conglomerate whose automobile division is Subaru.

lunar eclipse

I was looking forward to viewing the lunar eclipse with my new telescope last night, but K1GF's 5 PM  forecast was not promising (an overcast of clouds), so I did not expect to see much.

I looked out at 9 PM and the sky was not overcast. There were a few thin scattered clouds and the moon was in the clear, so I brought the telescope out and viewed the eclipse until about 10:10 PM. The view was spectacular and I was surprised how well I could still see the features of the moon even though they were in the dark orange shadow of the Earth.

During the eclipse, I momentarily swung the telescope over to Saturn, which was the closest naked eye object northeast of the Moon last night and got a good glimpse of Saturn's rings.

The air was very calm last night and except for the scattered clouds, it was an excellent night for telescoping. It was a great show!

Visual Satellite Observer's Home Page

"If you have ever star-gazed shortly after sunset or before sunrise, you have probably noticed one or two "stars" sailing gracefully across the sky. These are Earth-orbiting satellites, visible due to the reflection of the Sun's light off their surfaces toward the observer. Hundreds of satellites are visible to the unaided eye; thousands are visible using binoculars and telescopes. Observing satellites has many enthusiasts around the world."

And many congregate at the Visual Satellite Observer's Home Page. This is a very interesting Web site and I hope it will solve some of the mysteries I have encountered while stargazing with my new telescope.

new telescope

For Christmas, my family bought me a new telescope, a Celestron NexStar 130 SLT. It is a 130 mm reflector with a "fully computerized altazimuth mount."

It is not something that was on my wish list. My Christmas wish list typically includes some books, DVDs, CDs, and nothing that is very expensive. If my family wants to buy me something expensive, they try to figure what to give me that will be a hit.

In early November, the explosion of Comet Holmes rekindled my interest in astronomy. I followed the progress of the comet using my old refractor telescope. One night, I was lazier than on most nights and instead of hauling my refractor outside, I used my father's old binoculars and was surprised that the binos did a better job than my scope. I must have mentioned that fact to my wife and/or daughter and they decided that I needed a new telescope and chipped in with my sister to buy the aforementioned Celestron reflector.

The weather has not been to kind as far as breaking in the new telescope. Since Christmas, there have been more nights with fog, clouds, and precipitation than there have been clear nights, but this past week, I managed to find some clear skies and put in some good time getting acquainted with the new scope.

Last night, I viewed the Moon until the clouds moved in. I went to bed, but could not sleep, and when I got up to get a drink of water, I noticed that the sky was clear and Saturn was visible. So, I took the scope outside and viewed Saturn in my pajamas until the clouds moved in again. (What Saturn was doing in my pajamas, I'll never know!)

An online review of my scope recommends getting a Barlow lens "to give the magnification necessary to view detail on the planets." I'm all for that, so I started shopping around for such a lens.

Celestron has a Barlow lens for $60. I found the very same lens on eBay new for $24. I bought it and with shipping, cost me half its list price!

The lens is being shipped from Pennsylvania, so I hope to have it in a few days, and weather permitting, be able to try it out (and report my findings here).