Watching the skies

Last week, Monkey Girl's Brownie troop had it's annual astronomy/stargazing night during its regularly-scheduled meeting. Which means I get to set up the telescope and try to point out interesting things in the sky to see. Since my old 6" Meade reflector remains in a state of disrepair, we settled on using Monkey Girl's little refractor (which isn't a bad scope considering how budget conscious it is). Unfortunately, the absolute best viewing target--the moon--happened to be in new moon phase that night. Bad timing. The only stellar object in the sky was Mars, which was particularly bright and very red on this clear, cool night. Another father showed up with a somewhat more upscale refractors, although he admitted it'd been packed away for years (just like my reflector). So there were two scopes for the kids to look through.

As I was getting it targeted and in focus, I glanced up and spotted a satellite whipping by overhead. The Wife pointed this out to the gathered kids to much oohing and aahing. Then they looked as the little pink disc of Mars in the telescope. I don't think they were all that impressed--the scope was too small to make out the polar caps through. Then the Wife began pointing out various constellations to the troop--Cassiopea, Orion, the Pledias...

After 30 minutes or so, everyone migrated back inside. I was starting to pack up all the telescope stuff when I glanced up at Orion and started thinking. Even though we were in a very light-polluted area (lots of street lamps around, plus buildings, homes, etc.) Orion's sword was easily visible. It was a clear night. Why not try to spot the famed Orion nebula? I spotted it instantly, a gauzy, gossamer cloud around the stars. Those brilliant colors seen in published photos wasn't there, of course, but the shape was clearly recognizable.

I've got a confession to make: This was my very first ever deep-space observation. At least, one that I spotted up myself. I've observed Saturn's rings and Mar's polar caps and the phases of Venus. I've looked at comets and spotted the black impact scars on Jupiter for comet Shoemaker-Levy 9. But I'd never found a deep-sky object myself. That's probably because when I was really into astronomy (before I realized I had to be good at math to make a career of it) I was too young to really understand a fraction of what I was doing. I had a tough time with basic star charts and identifying constellations, and nobody in my family had any interest in it. Now that I'm pushing 40, things that were a brick wall for me 25-30 years ago aren't all that challenging anymore.

It's a very small accomplishment, but one that makes me happy. And now I know I really need to get the old 6" working again.

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