Tiny Things at Prime Focus: Albireo and Crescent Venus

I got some more experience at prime focus this past week, mounting my DSLR directly to the Meade 285 using the telescope as a huge lens. I was able to improve upon my best Albireo photo - previously I shot it using just the 300mm lens on the DSLR, which is able to resolve separation distances of about 28 arcseconds. At prime focus, the separation is much more apparent, and there is some black space in between which helps the color difference show up a little better.

I also turned my scope to Venus, and was able to identify its current crescent phase - however the chromatic aberration is quite apparent on this old refractor. Notice how the red and blue ends of the light spectrum don't quite line up - which means the lens is effectively acting like a prism when it is not supposed to.

Double Star Bonanza!

Checking more off my list for the Indiana Astronomical Society Novice/Urban Observing List for August 2013. I'm tagging all my posts with those objects: #novice8/13 and I need to get a total of 6 in order to get a certificate!

The only double stars I've seen before these were Mizar and Alcor in the Big Dipper. I was surprised that I could see any division between the stars at all! The stars are a little out of focus, and obviously wouldn't be that close together or that spherical-looking under higher magnification.

Canon Rebel XT: ISO 1600, f/5.6, 300mm, 1.3 sec

Canon Rebel XT: ISO 1600, f/5.6, 300mm, 1.3 sec

The "Coathanger" and Northern Cross Asterisms

I saw a post from Astro Bob about The "Coathanger" asterism, and I immediately went back to check my Northern Cross photos to see if they included this fun little group of stars. Indeed they did! Here is a Northern Cross photo I made last night at about 5:30am ET.

Update: Take a closer look at the Coathanger Asterism

34 subs, 12 darks, 25 bias frames each at 28mm, ISO 1600, f/4.5, 13 sec

Cygnus constellation with Deneb and Albireo labeled

Cygnus the swan contains the Northern Cross, an asterism (not a constellation on its own). An asterism is a pattern of stars that is recognizable in the sky, and may be part of a larger constellation or comprised of stars from several different constellations.

Deneb, the brightest star in the constellation Cygnus, is also one of three stars that form the Summer Triangle. The Summer Triangle is a good example of an asterism that uses stars from three different constellations: Deneb from Cygnus, Vega from Lyra, and Altair from Aquila.

Albireo is actually a binary star, which reveals a sharp contrast between Beta Cygni A (yellow) and Beta Cygni B (blueish) with even small telescopes. My point-and-shoot camera wasn't able to distinguish between the two stars, but this will be a neat object to come back to when I finally get a scope.