PM Sun. May 29 - AM Mon. May 30 Summary

  I was able to get out with the telescope from about 12:30 AM to 3:00 AM Monday morning, May 30th. At sunset Sunday evening skies were clear but the transparency was pretty bad, and there was enough improvement after midnight to prompt some observing time. The limiting naked eye zenith magnitude was about 4.3 but worse toward the horizons. The north and west horizons were very lit-up; probably due to the murky sky and city lights (though I also kept a look-out for Northern Lights after being alerted to increased solar activity via email from my friend Allen Burt). It was a muggy and very summer-like night. The temperature during that time dropped only from 76 to 74 degrees F, the dew point stayed at 66 degrees F, and the humidity rose from 71% to 76%. There was a noticeable south breeze at midnight but this had calmed by 3 AM. I had some problems with dew forming on the optics, especially the eyepieces, and I had to slap on a ton of mosquito spray! Besides this it was a very quiet night. No aircraft seen, a few neighborhood dogs barking now and then, a few Mallards sounding off from Feather Run, and one big June Bug hit to the face when I was trying to make a star estimate at the eyepiece.

  There were a few hits and misses tonight, so here are the highlights and low-lights:

  At 1:04 AM (5:04 UT May 30) I estimated T Bootis as <12.5 magnitude. I didn't see T Bootis, as expected, in spite of a lot of careful looks. Unfortunately there was enough haze in the sky so that the 12.5 magnitude comparison star was the faintest one I could see tonight, so I reported this negative estimate to the AAVSO. Still no sign of Nova Bootis 1860!

  At 1:20 AM (5:20 UT May 30) I estimated UZ Bootis as <13.2 magnitude. I just added this star to my personal program a few weeks ago and this was my first attempt at looking for it. It's a UGWZ star, which means a cataclysmic variable that flares up from way too faint for me to see to fairly obvious through the 10" scope, but only once in a long while. The last recorded outburst of this star was in December 2003. I didn't see it tonight as expected, but I hope to catch it on its next flare-up in brightness. The faintest star in the field I could see here was the 13.2 magnitude comparison star.

  I made an estimate for T Coronae Borealis at 1:35 AM, but realized the next day that I'd mis-recorded the comparison stars I used, to I had to throw it out and not report it. The best I can say is that it's nowhere near going through any historic flare-up.

  Murky skies prevented me from making an estimate of R Coronae Borealis right after this. I got it and the comparison stars into the eyepiece but they were all so faint, with the sky conditions, that I couldn't make an accurate brightness estimate. I had to abandon this and move on to the next target.

  At 1:54 AM (5:54 UT May 30) I estimated RU Herculis as 9.8 magnitude. I haven't looked at this one for a couple of years. This is a long-period Mira type star that takes about 16 months to wax and wane in brightness. At peak it can be bright enough to be seen in most binoculars, and at it's faintest, it's usually too faint for me to see through the 10" telescope. The last peak brightness was predicted for last April 13th, so it looks like it's starting to get slowly dimmer now. The next peak should be mid-August 2012.

  It was clear enough by this time so that I finally had a chance to look at a couple of YSO stars I've been meaning to estimate in the Serpens / Scutum area of the sky! I've been meaning to start systematically observing these for over two months but they haven't been rising until way after 2:00 AM and sky conditions haven't been very cooperative. This turned out to be one "hit" and one "miss."

  At 2:31 AM (6:31 UT May 30) I estimated "Skiff's 2009 Star" as 11.2 magnitude. (This is my own name for it since the real designation for this star is VSX J182726.0-043447 and I get tired of typing that out.) This star is a YSO (Young Stellar Object) that undergoes periodic dimming, according to what I researched online. It was discovered during a search of automatic sky survey data in June, 2009 by Brian Skiff, so this is why I shorten the name to the year and discoverer. Interestingly, even though this isn't a really faint star, no one in the AAVSO seems to have done any follow-up observations. This is why I want to start doing just that for the rest of the summer until this area of the sky is out of reach at sunset.

  The other YSO star in this area was VV Serpentis. I was able to get this star into the eyepiece, but I had to abandon making an estimate for it, since it was obviously brighter than the brightest comparison star on the chart, 11.8 magnitude. Unfortunately, before I try to observe this one again, I'd better look around to see if there are any stars I can use for comparison that are brighter.

  At 3:00 AM (7:00 UT May 30) I estimated WW Vulpeculae as 10.8 magnitude. This is another YSO star that stays at a fairly steady brightness, for years at times, and then has unpredictable dimming events. I have watched it for the last couple of summers on every clear night I could, but I haven't caught it doing a "disappearing act" yet. Maybe this is the year.

  I was a little disappointed at getting only five good data-points for five variable stars, and not being able to get to the other three for one reason or another. But at the same time, I was able to start hunting down and observing some new targets tonight. The forecast for clear nights is pretty positive for the rest of the week.

Hail Storm Photos

 A couple of photos I snapped around 7:20 PM on Wednesday, May 25, 2011 looking out my front door. Though some of the large white dots are just moisture drops on the camera lens, illuminated by the flash, all of the smaller white dots are hail stones falling or in on the ground. The second photo was snapped just as the storm was starting to wind down.

Severe Storms May 25

  This is a weather entry instead of an observing entry, but weather is all I have to document since early this month since May has featured a lot of cloudy and stormy nights! Some of the worst storms I've seen in years passed through Central Indiana on Wednesday, May 25th. Southeast Indianapolis experienced three different hail-producing thunderstorm cells from 2:30 - 8:30 PM. Two of them dropped quarter-sized hail. The worst was the second one just after 7:00 PM. Tons of quarter-sized hailstones dropped on us for about five or ten minutes. The sound was deafening. Weather warning sirens sounded all afternoon and evening. We had the hail, downpours of rain, some vivid lightning and loud thunder, and some high winds before midnight when the cold front finally moved through. The worst storms hit 40-50 miles south of us in Bloomington, Bedford, Columbus, and Greensburg where at least 5 tornado touchdowns had been confirmed as of Thursday evening.

The T Bootis Mystery

  I wrote about looking for T Bootis the night before last, and thought I should jot down some background information about it. T Bootis is the name of a star that was observed over 150 years ago by only one astronomer, and it hasn't been seen since! This makes it a mystery object in a lot of ways. 

  Joseph Baxendell, a British astronomer famous for (among other things) discovering that several stars were variable in brightness, spotted this star on April 9, 1860. He estimated it at 9.75 magnitude at the time (which makes it a very easy object to see through most telescopes, or even large binoculars). The new star was very close to the star Arcturus in the constellation Bootes; which is why it's designated as "T Bootis." Baxendell observed it again the following two nights and noted no change in brightness. He didn't observe the star again until April 22 following what was probably cloudy weather, and on that date he estimated it had dimmed to 12.8 magnitude. (This would have made it fairly dim through small telescopes, or even for my 10" scope with the light-polluted sky I deal with.) On the following night, April 23, 1860, Baxendell could not find it at all. Mass communications in 1860 being what they were, most other astronomers of the time weren't alerted to this discovery for days or weeks. However, several professionals checked the sky for this new object soon after it disappeared and found nothing.

  Since Baxendell was a seasoned professional astronomer, there's little doubt that he saw something! The question that remains is what T Bootis actually was. Though it's referred to as "Nova Bootis 1860" it had characteristics that set it apart from novae that have been observed before and after that time. Most novae occur within or close to the Milky Way, and this part of the sky is almost as far from the Milky Way as possible! Also. most classical novae show a sudden increase in light but a much slower decline in brightness after they peak, and this object apparently dimmed out of sight within days. It probably wasn't an asteroid since Baxendell would have seen movement with respect to the other stars during his observations. It's possible that it was something more exotic like a very distant comet that flared up and looked stellar through the telescope, but Baxendell probably would have seen and noted some "fuzziness" to T Bootis if it had been one. It's even been suggested that T Bootis was something unknown in 1860 like a gravitational lensing event or a distant galaxy eruption. 

  For the past several years. I've tried to make a systematic search for T Bootis. If it was a nova, it may be a recurrent one, and it's possible that it will flare up again. There seems to be less than a dozen amateur astronomers around the world who are doing the same thing. So far in 2011 the AAVSO website shows no other observers reporting it, so I might be the only person on the planet this year looking for it! I try to search the area every clear night I can when this area of the sky is visible. All of my estimates are negative; most nights I try to see if I can spot the nearby star ASAS141307+1901.0 which is about 13.2 magnitude in brightness. If I can see it, but see nothing where the position of T Bootis should be, I report less than 13.2 or < 13.2 to the AAVSO. Sometimes the faintest star I can see is 12.5 magnitude ASAS141327+1907.2, and I report it as < 12.5 on the website. 

  The reason for this search is simple. I probably won't be able to see this star in my lifetime, but on every clear night there's the possibility that I might be the first person since 1860 to catch T Bootis in the sky and make what could be a very important contribution to astronomy! That's all the motivation I need.

PM Sat. May 7 - AM Sun. May 8, 2011 - No Observing

  After my observing session Saturday morning skies stayed cloudy and a wave of light showers was passing through the area at dawn. Skies cleared out midway through Saturday and things had a chance to dry out, but then they increased again late in the afternoon. Some storm cells popped up before sunset in the state but the worst ones, with Tornado Warnings, stayed 60 - 70 miles west and south of us. We were clipped by some thundershowers after dark and had some brief heavy rain after dusk, but then skies started to clear out by midnight. If there was any chance to do some observing overnight it would have been around 1AM - 3AM when skies became mostly clear, but the ground was wet and the air was too misty to really consider hauling the 'scope and its power cord outside. Skies were very foggy before and through dawn on Sunday. It looks like the first look for the year at the Serpens / Scutum YSO area will have to wait for better conditions.

PM Fri. May 6 - AM Sat. May 7, 2011 - Observing Notes

On Friday the 6th we were between two weather systems. One brought light showers to us at sunrise, but then skies cleared out for most of the day. The other one was forecast to bring showers and isolated thunderstorms on Saturday. Even though rain was showing up on radar as close as Illinois, skies were mostly clear after sunset tonight. At dusk and then well after dark the Waxing Crescent Moon could be seen high in the WNW sky. It was almost 4 days past New Moon tonight and it showed bright Earthshine even without optical aid. It was a pretty sight!

  Skies were still clear after 11:00 PM, so I put the 10” f/4 outside. This was my first time using it since the morning of March 29th; over 5weeks ago! Skies had been cloudy for so many nights that I forgot how late in the spring it was getting and how many summer constellations were already visible in the east. Vega was shining high over the roof of my house and Alpha Ophiuchi was also easy to see already. Saturn was already near the south meridian, sparkling not far away from Spica. The Big Dipper was high overhead. The only winter stars I could see to the west were Castor and Pollux standing side by side just over the Scotch Pines and Procyon further south.

  I got started just before midnight. Skies were clear but there was some “murkiness” so I think some patchy thin high clouds were already overhead. At midnight the temperature was 52°F, the Humidity was 71%, and there was a light breeze from the Southwest. It was a little chilly but not uncomfortable. I was standing at the eyepiece outside on the patio in the back yard with Maple seeds crunching under my feet whenever I moved.

  Here were tonight’s targets and results. I ended up making only 3 variable star estimates before the sky clouded up.

  T Bootis = <13.2 magnitude at 12:01 AM (4:01 UT May 7). 135X used. Error plus or minus 0.1 mag. The 12.5 comparison star on the AAVSO chart was easy to see tonight and I didn’t have a tough time seeing the unmarked 13.2 magnitude star on this chart (ASAS 141307+1901.0). I had a lot of long looks at the area where T Bootis was supposed to be, but as usual I saw no trace of this star. As far as I know, I’m still one of just a few people in the world who regularly look for this object every year since Baxendell observed it in April 1860.

  T Coronae Borealis = 10.3 magnitude at 12:12 AM (4:12 UT May 7). 78X used. Error plus or minus 0.1 mag. Tonight this star seemed to be between the 9.9 and 10.5 stars on the AAVSO chart, but closer to the 10.5 star. This star had a bright outburst in 1866 and then eighty years later in 1946. Both times it became an easy naked-eye object. I’m waiting to catch the next one, but tonight it was near its usual brightness.

  R Coronae Borealis = 13.1 magnitude at 12:31 AM (4:31 UT May 7). 135X used. Error plus or minus 0.2 mag. This was a really difficult estimate to make because the star and the comparison stars were so dim. I finally decided that it seemed to be right in between the 12.8 and 13.4 comparison stars, but was a lot more uncertain about this one. This is actually the first time I’ve been able to see R CrB since its long fade-out started in the summer of 2007. Watching the recovery of this star should be something to watch all summer.

  I went inside after 12:30 AM and hoped the clouds from the incoming storm system would hold off for another couple of hours so I could check the Serpens / Scutum YSO star field. I wanted to get in my first estimates for the year of “Skiff’s 2009 Star” (VSX J182726.0-043447) and VV Serpentis. However, these objects wouldn’t rise high enough to observe until 2:00 AM. By 1:00 there were a lot more clouds around and it was overcast an hour later, so I had to call it a night. I hope to get another shot at these tomorrow night if the rain and clouds move out in time, but the forecast isn’t looking too good.

New Moon

New Moon takes place at 6:51 U.T. May 3, or 2:51 AM Tuesday, May 3, E.D.T. Another long-lasting batch of rainy weather is moving through our area. If skies clear out Thursday evening an extremely thin Crescent Moon should be visible in the west at dusk. It will be much easier to see by Friday or Saturday. I'm working on making sure my charts are up to date to try to get some observing in soon.

Lousy Weather = No April Observing

  I wasn't able to get any observing in during the month of April, mainly due to the endless cloudy and rainy weather. The average precipitation in April for Indianapolis is 3.61", the official recording station at the Airport on the Southwest side measured 7.98" for the month, and here on the Southeast side my rain gauge total was 13.12"! Here's the breakdown for the last 30 nights:

  Great Chance for Observing Nights = 0

  (Nights where we have Moonless skies and no clouds or haze from start to finish.)

   Good Chance for Observing Nights = 2

  (Nights where we only have a few clouds now and then, or clouds for part of the night, or no clouds but haze, or clear but very moonlit.)

  Fair Chance for Observing Nights = 6

  (Nights where maybe skies are halfway clear, where some observing is possible.)

  Poor Chance for Observing Nights = 12

 (These are nights where observing probably wasn't possible but some stars or the Moon may have been visible from time to time. Usually these are mostly cloudy nights.)

  No Chance for Observing Nights = 10

  (This is self-explanatory. Nights where we were socked in with cloud cover from start to finish.)

  Hopefully May will turn out to have better conditions.