Backyard Astronomy And Other

Last month I gave a presentation to my local astronomy club concerning Leslie Peltier and “Starlight Nights.” I also included information on Carolyn Hurless.  Most amateurs are well aware of Peltier and his contributions to the AAVSO, but “maybe not so much” about Hurless.  I found this out from those attending my presentation.

Carolyn Hurless photo as following from her online obituary:

I found a copy of her variable star report, Variable Views, online. She published it for roughly 20 years, and her address is listed at the top. Carolyn self-published the report and funded it entirely on her own until it eventually became more than she cared to…or was able to…take on.

1745 Rice Avenue Lima, Ohio 45805 

The following photos are from Google maps using her “Variable Views” address: (2024 photo below)

July 2014 photo: Carolyn’s husband,  Don passed away in (2015) and might have still been living in the house at the time of the following photo. Google Maps

Excerpts from the AAVSO online page:

Carolyn J. Hurless was the most active and prolific female observer in the history of the AAVSO, with a total of 78,876 observations in the International Database. But that only scratches the surface of this remarkable woman’s life and career as an AAVSO observer, councilor, officer, mentor and ambassador.

Born in Lima, Ohio, November 24, 1934, Carolyn became interested in astronomy at the age of 13 through her love of science fiction. As a young woman, she was invited to join the Lima Astronomy Club, when President Herbert Speer found her name on the borrowers cards of people who had checked out astronomy books from the public library. 

Shortly after that, she decided to make her own 8-inch reflector with the guidance of fellow astronomy club members. When the initial grinding was done, Carolyn found that in her excitement she had hogged out a short focus mirror of f/4, instead of the typical f/8 or f/9 scope most were making at the time. In the end it turned out to be a fine instrument. In fact, the short tube length gave her, as she described it, a “feminine” telescope, easily transported and set up for observing. Most of her observations were made with this telescope and she never felt the need to upgrade to something else.

Carolyn learned variable star observing from legendary AAVSO observer and fellow Ohioan, Leslie Peltier. During a visit to her home in 2011, Don Hurless, Carolyn’s husband, showed me how Carolyn learned the sky and location of the variables in her program. She had marked an X and circled the area around each one in her copy of Norton’s Star Atlas. She memorized the star fields and eventually all the comparison star magnitudes, so that after a few years she didn’t need to use variable star charts any more. In this way, she could whip the telescope around from one field to another quickly, and her annual totals climbed.

Carolyn would make the trip to Delphos, Ohio, a few miles away, to observe faint “inner sanctum” stars with Peltier’s 12-inch refractor nearly every week during their lifelong friendship. She knew she was fortunate to have Leslie as a mentor and was more than happy to pay it forward by mentoring other newcomers and sharing her enthusiasm with other variable star observers around the world.

Her life ended tragically in 1987, when, after years of excruciating pain from an undiagnosed disease, she died of a self-inflicted gunshot to the head. Her husband, Don, never remarried and continued to live in their home in Lima, Ohio, where he taught piano students. Don Hurless died June 15, 2015, at the age of 87.

Discovered in 1981 by Brian Skiff, the asteroid 3434 Hurless was named after Carolyn. Carolyn’s name was suggested by Paul Sventek who provided the citation.

In 2011, the AAVSO successfully ran four pilot programs as a first step towards creating an online education center. We chose to honor Carolyn Hurless by naming this program after her, The Carolyn Hurless Online Institute for Continuing Education (CHOICE). CHOICE was officially launched in 2012, and the AAVSO is proud to carry on in the tradition of this remarkable woman. 

I have been using the new Antlia light pollution filter: This blocks the part of the blue that LEDs produce. All other LP filters work on mercury vapor lights, but virtually useless with LED’s.

The following image of M33 was made last week using a 6-inch refractor and one shot color camera ASI 071, using an Antlia RGB ultra II filter.

Note the extremely bright and glowing H-II region in the spiral arm, known as NGC 604.

I wanted to add what can be seen “visually” from a ~6.5 suburban sky using a 10-inch f/4.5 Newtonian. (November 16th 1995) Roger Ivester

Constellation binoculars are specialized optical devices designed for stargazing, particularly for viewing entire star constellations and celestial objects. They offer lower magnification and a wider field of view, making it easier to observe larger swatches of the night sky as compared to standard binoculars and telescopes.

For more than a year, I had been reading about constellation binoculars and considering whether they might be useful to me. In August 2026, I finally decided to purchase a pair of SVBONY constellation binoculars. The price from Amazon was only $107.99. How could I possibly go wrong?

The binoculars arrived well packaged in a sturdy box with custom-fitted foam for added protection. After removing the foam, I found that the it fit perfectly in a small Pelican case. This makes for excellent storage and transport of the binoculars. (See the photo at the bottom of this article)

Shortly after sunset the sky was completely clear: I began looking for Polaris with my naked eyes, but couldn’t see it. I then looked through the constellation binoculars, and Polaris was immediately visible. I started scanning the sky, and gradually, random stars began to appear through the binoculars….stars that were completely invisible to my naked eyes.

It was interesting to see just how many more stars the binoculars revealed, maybe a bit like going back in time (without optical aid) with younger eyes and a dark sky.

I find the binoculars are very comfortable to use, easy to hold, and with excellent eye relief. There is a slight amount of distortion around the edges of the field of view, but I don’t find it particularly objectionable.

My observing notes as following from my Bortle 6.0-6.5 suburban backyard, over several nights, with some early morning sessions.

• Shortly after sunset: Polaris appearing first through the binoculars is a great demonstration of their light-gathering ability. Other stars that were invisible to my naked eyes suddenly became obvious.
• Little Dipper:  I could only see three stars naked-eye, but “essentially” the whole constellation through the binoculars.
• Mizar being visibly double, but not cleanly separated.
• The long eye relief is a major advantage. Being able to observe while wearing glasses, and actually getting cleaner star images “maybe” because my mild astigmatism is corrected.
• Corona Borealis observation is another nice example of what these instruments can do. I could see seven stars with the binoculars “before complete darkness” versus one without.
• Pleiades star cluster appears very small due to the lack of magnification, so conventional binoculars work best.
• Double Cluster can be seen as two clusters, with resolution of a few brighter outer stars.
• The Andromeda Galaxy is easily seen with the constellation binoculars.
• The entire constellation of Orion fits nicely within the FoV.

Terrestrial observations are a bonus. They brighten the nighttime woods just enough for me to see deer walking and wandering about. This is something that’s otherwise invisible without the binoculars.

Walter Scott Houston often discussed holding a nebula filter directly in front of his eye when observing large nebulae. That got me wondering about using the constellation binoculars in a similar way. Their very wide field of view and low magnification, combined with an O-III or UHC filter, might produce some interesting results. However, given the binoculars’ small apertures, I wonder if the filters might make the view too dim.

Observing aurora could prove to be interesting. I’ve previously observed aurora that was photographically obvious, but visually subtle or invisible naked eyes. The constellation binoculars may assist and brighten the colors, but this will only be known with actual observations.

My only other binoculars at the moment are a pair of Pentax 7×21 minis, which I’ve had for nearly 40 years. For many of those years, when the mornings were still dark, I would keep them tucked in my coat pocket. And before getting into the car for work, I’d always spend a few minutes scanning the sky. During the winter months, open cluster M41 was one of my favorite targets. I could easily pick it out with the little Pentax mini’s despite a close streetlight. They provided excellent resolution, but could never see the red color of the famous Espin star. The Andromeda galaxy and so many other deep-sky objects over the years became treats in those early morning very casual observing sessions.

Those few minutes meant more to me than just observing the sky…

….they gave me a little relaxation and enjoyment before starting a day at work that was almost guaranteed to present plenty of problems and stress. Looking up at the stars, even briefly, gave me a chance to clear my mind before the day began.

I feel the constellation binoculars will add to my small and lightweight astronomy devices for those quick and sometimes spontaneous observing sessions. Also remembering what Leslie Peltier said: “Were I to write one prescription designed to alleviate at least some of the self-made miseries of mankind, it would read like this: “One gentle dose of starlight to be taken each clear night just before retiring.”

Observing the night sky without optical aid, or with a pair of small binoculars, seems to be an excellent way to follow Peltier’s prescription before bedtime. It has worked remarkably well for me on many occasions. Roger Ivester

August 27-28 2026 Lunar eclipse:

I made the following photo for a framing/test shot for the August 2026 lunar eclipse: Attached T6 with a 3D printed adaptor, connected to the telescope, and 30 second video. I extracted the best frames with Autostakkert 4 software to get the sharpest image. Brad S.

Brad is the new owner of this fine telescope.

After 34 years and ~1,500 hours under a night sky, it was time for another amateur astronomer to have this fabulous 10-inch f/4.5 Newtonian. Brad S. was the perfect person.

I always took incredible care of the telescope and mount…storing both inside with the OTA in a padded zip-up bag in a closet. I ordered the telescope on February 5th 1992 at 9:00 PM from “Pauli’s Wholesale Optics” in Danbury, Connecticut: The owner Fred Pauli took my order over the phone. Fred was well known throughout the amateur astronomy community. Cloudy nights and other platforms still have articles written about Fred. I always enjoyed talking with him. A nice guy…

https://www.cloudynights.com/forums/topic/694092-a-chat-with-fred-pauli-of-paulis-wholesale-optics

The telescope was delivered on February 10th in several large heavy-duty corrugated boxes and left in front of my garage door, by UPS. I was really excited! On that day, and for “almost” 34 years, I never thought I’d sell this telescope, but all good things come to an end.

The real reason for my decision that someone else should own this fabulous telescope: it had just become too large and heavy for me.

I used the telescope with two mounts: The original and Celestron CGE-Pro GoTo pictured below.

Open clusters in Ophiuchus:

From “Deep-Sky Wonders” Walter Scott Houston: selections and commentary by Stephen James O’Meara: 

“Many years ago Glen Chaple, Jr., of Townsend, Massachusetts, “discovered” a deep-sky object in Ophiuchus; he found about two dozen stars forming a group which could be glimpsed with the naked eye.  He likened the cluster to the Praesepe in Cancer, but was not plotted on his copy of “Norton’s Star Atlas.” The object does, however, have a name.  It is IC 4665 and is listed in the “Index Catalogue” to the NGC. In those days of stargazing, serious deep-sky observers soon learned that no single atlas can suit all their needs. Today, of course, IC 4665 is plotted on most modern star charts.” WSH

“Deep-Sky Wonders” A Tour of the Universe With Sky & Telescope’s Sue French

“The splashy open cluster IC 4665 is barely within the boundary of the Milky Way on the atlas. It’s easy to spot 1.3º north-northest of Beta Ophiuchi, which shares the field of view through binoculars or a finderscope. In my 15×45 image-stabilized binoculars, the cluster’s prominent core spans more sky than the full Moon, and loosely scattered outliers to 70′. Half its 40 stars outline a rough circlet with one star at its center and a stem that leads westward to a slightly wavy line tipped north-northwest. To me, it looks like a simplistic drawing of a flower springing up from a gently undulating patch of the ground. Finish amateur Jaakko Saloranta comes away with a different impression. Through his 80mm refractor, he sees the group as the Fish Spear of Poseidon. Sue French

A reply via Cloudy Nights as following from expert visual observer Tony Flanders:

Yes, it’s certainly a remarkable cluster. It’s one of the easiest clusters to see without optical aid, and one of the few clusters that can be fully resolved by hand-held binoculars. And obviously super-easy to locate, even if you can’t see it directly.However, what you see is what you get — about a dozen 7th- and 8th-magnitude stars. As far as I can judge by appearance, it has no faint stars at all. (Likely it really does have some, but they’re camouflaged by the Milky Way background.) So it’s much less interested than (say) the Pleiades, which has a wide range of star brightnesses.

I think of it as the least interesting of the three great open star clusters in the area, together with splendid NGC 6633 and super-rich IC 4756. Tony Flanders

IC 4665: Excellent in my 80mm refractor: Roger Ivester

RA: 17h 46m  Dec:  +05º 45m 

Photos as following from wikisky.org

NGC 6633: Rich and most interesting of the three in my 80mm refractor:

RA: 18h 27m  Dec: +06º 34m 

IC 4756: A four or six-inch telescope is needed to fully appreciate this cluster, however nice in my small refractor: Roger

RA: 18h 40m  Dec. +05º 29m 

I’m adding one of my favorite asterisms for the evening:

Sue French using a 105mm refractor with the employ of a mirror diagonal

My interest in amateur astronomy began in the mid-70s’ with the purchase of an Edmund 4.25-inch f/10 EQ reflector. From that time on, I’ve never known anything other than visual observing. I became a very serious student of amateur astronomy with the purchase of 10-inch f/4.5 Newtonian in 1992. At that time, I began making detailed pencil sketches, but only drawing what I see in the eyepiece. I don’t embellish my drawings or use any computer enhancements.

Finding deep-sky objects manually from my suburban backyard, with a 6.5 Bortle sky can be difficult. So, how do I find objects that are not readily seen in the eyepiece?

My favorite finder has a 6 degree field-of-view. So, using a ring with a diameter that matches 6 degrees on the atlas, I center the deep-sky object. I then move my telescope to the location. This can be fairly easy when looking for brighter objects, but when looking for very faint objects it may require careful observing.

A nice description of averted vision from AI as following:I

Averted vision is an observational technique used in visual astronomy that involves looking slightly away from a faint object. By shifting your gaze off-center, you allow the light to fall onto the highly light-sensitive rod cells in the periphery of your retina rather than the less sensitive, color-detecting cones in the center.

To locate my selected deep-sky objects, I just match up my finder view with an atlas and attempt to point the scope at the exact spot. Note: The difficult galaxy NGC 6118 is in the center of the field. The stars Yed Prior and Yed Posterior, and would seem easy enough to find the galaxy, but not. I had to find “or see” the two faint stars to the north of the galaxy, and with difficulty, the galaxy was seen. Many or most amateurs say that NGC 6118 is the most difficult object in the Herschel-400 list.

I use different sizes of brass and steel rings to match my finder(s) field of view. My choice for the last 15 years plus have been the “S&T Pocket Sky Atlas” which are compact and easy to use in the field. The black stars are so much easier to use as compared to atlas’ with white stars on black backgrounds. Plus, I like the larger format pages of the Pocket Sky Atlas’.

If you will notice, I draw circles (on the atlas pages) are for my “selected” objects. I don’t mind all of the drawn circles, soaked pages from dew, which shows the atlas’ have been well used.

A few examples of my pencil sketches. I have more than 200 sketches using this format (5 x 8) and about 1,500 using much smaller 3 x 5 cards.

I’ve had an interest in amateur astronomy since I was 12 years old in 1965. My older brother Jim, had purchased a 60mm f/15 equatorially mounted refractor. I began using this telescope to observe the moon. I really wanted to see some of those beautiful spiral galaxies, star clusters, and nebulae I’d seen in my 6th grade science book. However, this was just not my time for going beyond the solar system, as I needed to learn my way around the sky.

In March 1977 I would purchase my first “very own” telescope: A 4.25-inch EQ mounted reflector. A humble telescope by todays standards, but this would begin my quest to become a serious amateur astronomer, which continues even to this day. This telescope was only a beginning, as I would later own at least twelve or more. However, as of today I have only four telescopes, with each having a specific purpose. Earlier this year (2026) I sold my 10-inch f/4.5 EQ Newtonian, and Vixen 102 mm refractor. It was just time to downsize.

In 1986, the year of Halley’s Comet, Brad and I became a founding members of the newly formed “Cleveland County Astronomical Society” meeting at various locations for a few years.

The club for the past 35 years meets once a month at the Williams Observatory on the campus of Gardner-Webb University in Boiling Springs, North Carolina.

It was actually my youngest son, Brad who read an advertisement in the local newspaper. The ad was asking for anyone interested in being a part of establishing an astronomy club in Cleveland County. We were all in !!

Photo below: That same year, we would begin meeting for deep-sky telescope observations at the Polkville airport which was our designated dark-site for a few years.

That’s me, behind the telescope, and Brad is the youngest person in the photo. It was a hot summer afternoon and I rode my bicycle to Polkville, and actually changed out of my cycling clothes for the photo.

Photo as following: 1994″Regional Gathering of Amateur Astronomers” Cleveland County Astronomical Society current and former officers.

Also Tom Lorenzin (to my left) Astronomy writer and author of “1000+ The Amateur Astronomer’s Field Guide…”

Below: John Dobson the inventor of the Dobsonian telescope would visit the CCAS during the 90’s

My family photo (2025)

In 1993, I had just completed observing “visually” all of the objects in the classic book “The Finest Deep-Sky Objects” by James Mullaney and Wallace McCall. I really enjoyed this book and upon completion wrote James (Jim) a handwritten letter. This was in the days before emails, at least for me. A few weeks later I received a letter back from Jim, which began a friendship that continues to this day.

Jim asked me if I’d post the following.

Enjoy…Roger Ivester

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

I had the honor and privilege of reviewing the original hardcover edition of Leslie Peltier’s classic Starlight Nights: The Adventures of a Stargazer in the February 1966, issue of Sky & Telescope. 

The magazine had just published Wally McCall and my three-part series “The Finest Deep-Sky Objects” and the editors thought I would be a good fit to review Leslie’s book.  This was followed by extensive correspondence with him, which in turn resulted in two visits to Delphos, Ohio, to meet him in person. 

I was there by myself the first time in October, 1968, and among other things he autographed my review copy with the words “Good friend and most kind “reviewer.” With very warmest regards, Leslie Peltier“

He let me hold the famed “starberry spyglass” and we inspected his huge observatory with the 12-inch Clark refractor.  But the most thrilling thing for me was that this famed observer let me sit in his seat in the amazing “Merry-Go-Round” observatory with it’s historic 6-inch richfield refractor. Leslie used this telescope for most of his dozen comet discoveries. 

This wonderful afternoon was topped-off by an incredible Sunday dinner made by his wife, Dottie before I started the drive back to Pittsburgh. 

The second memorable visit followed a year later accompanied by Wally McCall.  We both came away from the visits feeling that we were in the presence of a divine being. James Mullaney

Note: James was most recently (2026) honored with the naming of an asteroid: