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Faint Objects and How to Observe Them PDF

256 Pages·2013·7.951 MB·English
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Astronomers’ Observing Guides Series Editor Dr. Michael D. Inglis, BSc, MSc, Ph.D. Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society Suffolk County Community College New York, USA inglism@sunysuffolk.edu For further volumes: http://www.springer.com/series/5338 wwwwwwwwww Brian Cudnik Faint Objects and How to Observe Them with 69 Illustrations Brian Cudnik Leaf Oak Drive 11851 Houston, Texas, USA ISSN 1611-7360 ISBN 978-1-4419-6756-5 ISBN 978-1-4419-6757-2 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-4419-6757-2 Springer New York Heidelberg Dordrecht London Library of Congress Control Number: 2012942846 © Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifi c ally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on micro fi lms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or d issimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. Exempted from this legal reservation are brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis or material supplied speci fi cally for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the Copyright Law of the Publisher’s location, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer. Permissions for use may be obtained through RightsLink at the Copyright Clearance Center. Violations are liable to prosecution under the respective Copyright Law. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specifi c statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. While the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication, neither the authors nor the editors nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility for any errors or omissions that may be made. The publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com) I would like to dedicate this to my astronomy friends who have passed on from this life: Don “Captain Comet” Pearce, Rick Hillier, George Stradley, Richard Bunkley and others. May your legacies shine on like stars in the universe. wwwwwwwwww wwwwwwwwww r About the Author o h t u A e h t t u o b A Brian Cudnik has been an amateur astronomer for over 30 years and manages the Physics laboratories at Prairie View A & M University (a part of the A & M University of Texas). He has been the coordinator of the Lunar Meteoritic Impact Search section of the Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers (ALPO) since January 2000. Cudnik began at ALPO 2 months after it made the fi rst con fi rmed visual observation of a meteoroid impact on the Moon during the Leonid storm of November 1999. Cudnik has an M.Sc. and has published papers and posters on various astronomical subjects, both peer-reviewed and amateur. He has served as a board member of the Houston Astronomical Society, is presently an Associate member of the American Astronomical Society, a member of the American Meteorological Society, a member of the American Association of Physics Teachers, and a regular contributor of observations to the American Association of Variable Star Observers and the International Occultation Timing Association. He teaches astronomy at the University of St. Thomas two evenings per week each semester. vii wwwwwwwwww wwwwwwwwww Preface Pushing the Envelope in Visual Astronomical Observations A stronomy encompasses an unimaginably vast and complex universe of objects, from the planets, moons, comets, and asteroids of the local Solar System to the most distant galaxies— and everything in between. Most of what we can see easily or are prone to look at through the eyepiece in the nighttime sky are the nearest and/or the brightest representations of the various astronomical objects. Most e amateur astronomers who actively observe have seen the likes of M42, the Great c Orion Nebula, or M57, and the Ring Nebula. But how many people have seen PK a f 013.3 + 32.7? PK 013.3 + 32.7 is also known as Shane 1 and I had not even heard of e r this object until the summer of 2010, when it was mentioned in the June 2010 issue P of Sky & Telescope (p. 65 of that issue). Bright, nearby objects are always fun or rewarding to look at, but one can truly expand one’s cosmic horizons by hunting down obscure deep sky objects and seeing things that few others have seen. I have included my own drawings of the Great Orion Nebula, along with the planetary nebulae NGC 6772 and NGC 6872 (which people may or may not have seen, but both appear as very different shapes through the eyepiece) below in Fig. i .1 This book, Faint Objects and How to Observe Them , primarily deals with tech- niques in visual astronomy to enable one to observe these “elusive faint fuzzies.” The visual side of astronomy is an art form as well as a science in that a full appreciation of the subtle beauty of astronomical objects takes time to develop. For amateur astronomers who have not done deep astronomy very long, I recommend starting with the brightest, most spectacular objects (and revisit them regularly) like the Moon, Saturn, Jupiter, the Orion Nebula, the Andromeda Galaxy and many others, and continue your pursuits with the brighter deep sky objects. The vast majority of deep sky objects (at least the ones that we can see from Earth) are quite faint, which is the primary focus of this book. T he target audience is the intermediate to advanced visual observer. If you are a beginner who wants to “go deep,” you can also bene fi t from this book; however, it is recommended that you master the ability to locate the brighter Messier and NGC objects before attempting the fainter objects in this book. We will skip over the most basic elements of observing techniques (although there are some refresher tidbits on the basics from time to time) and focus mainly on the skills needed to locate, observe, and appreciate faint objects. Figure i.2 show just how deep the ix

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