BLOG: Mitch Wilson, Austin TX Web & Multimedia Developer – Austin, TX

Searching for the Pinwheel and Whirlpool galaxies

Last night at 3am I spent a good hour, at least, outside in the cold looking up in the sky. My back hurt. I had on two jackets but was still cold. I was hungry. Oh yeh, and I was very, very tired. And I never found my target, the Hercules globular cluster. Isn't astronomy great!

Tonight I am hoping for better luck, and dare I say, skill. I learned a lot last night, my first real night star watching. I had found Saturn on several occasions but I had not yet tried to find any deep space objects, until now. I'm not just an amateur astronomer; I'm a beginning amateur astronomer.

Tonight, most of all, I hope to find the following:

• Whirlpool Galaxy (M51)
• Pinwheel Galaxy (M101)

These two galaxies are both close to the star, Alkaid, the end star in the handle of the Big Dipper. So they should be easy to find, right?

I planned it all out. Tonight, at 1am, the two galaxies should be at a good vertical position in the sky, high enough to get a angle through the atmosphere but not so high that I strain my neck looking straight up for minutes on end. How do I know where they will be at 1am? Starry Night is an extremely helpful and cool software application that maps stars etc. by date and time. I can set the date and time to display to see the positions of stars and other objects in the sky at that time.

I am excited about tonight. Last night was a good learning experience but disappointing. I never found the Hercules globular cluster. I am hoping the Whirlpool and Pinwheel galaxies will be easier targets.

Update

It was too cloudy that night. Bummer.