Jim Mullaney is coauthor with Wallace McCall of “The Finest Deep-Sky Objects” (Sky Publishing) and “The Cambridge Double Star Atlas” and also the “Cambridge Atlas of Herschel Objects” which were both coauthored with celestial cartographer Wil Tirion.  Jim’s last two books are “Celestial Harvest” (Dover) and “Celebrating The Universe” (Hay House).

Articles by James Mullaney as following:

Don’t Forget The Finder! Date: June 21st 2024

The most embarrassing moment in my more than 60 years as an amateur and professional astronomer came one morning in the early 70s.  As the tour guide at Pittsburgh’s Allegheny Observatory, I was speaking to a group of 60 schoolchildren in the dome of the famed 13-inch Fitz-Clark refractor. 

My topic solar safety: how dangerous the Sun is to look at without a proper filter, whether it be with the naked-eye and especially with binoculars or a telescope.  I was near the top of the observing ladder projecting the Sun’s image onto a screen across the room.  As I was speaking, a little boy kept calling out my name:  “Mr. Mullaney, Mr. Mullaney, Mr. Mullaney.”  He was definitely running my spiel and finally in frustration I shouted down the ladder at him WHAT!  He said “Mr. Mullaney, your jacket is on fire!”  Sure enough, I hadn’t capped the 4-inch finder and it focused the Sun right onto my jacket – which was now smoldering. 

The Finest Deep-Sky Objects DSO at Mount Palomar:

Thirty-three years ago, my wife and  I were privileged while on our honeymoon to be given a behind-the-scenes private tour of the Palomar Observatory facility.  In the control room for the 200-inch Hale reflector was a dogged-eared copy of the Sky & Telescope reprint of  “The Finest Deep-Sky Objects” by Wally McCall and myself.  The story-line is that no one ever looks through the 200-inch except for research purposes since time is very valuable on the scope.  But apparently someone – maybe several someones –  had been using our showpiece list to look at between “takes.” 

Can you imagine seeing the Orion Nebula, the Hercules Cluster, or the Sombrero Galaxy at the prime focus of this huge Big Eye?  (BTW – while on the floor of this mammoth instrument I actually hugged part of the mounting!)

Sir William Herschel used a magnification of 6,000x !

Sir William Herschel, the greatest observer and telescope-maker in history. He made and used the largest telescopes in existence up to his famed “40 foot” (48-inch aperture) but his favorite was his “7-foot” (6.2-inch aperture) speculum-metal mirror with which he discovered Uranus. 

While he used relatively wide fields (for that time period) and low powers (generally 400X or less) for his legendary sweeps of the heavens. However, for the Moon, planets and double stars…the unheard of magnifications of over 6,000 times were sometimes employed ! 

Despite his fame, many “or most” doubted his claims regarding the magnifications he sometimes used.  W.H. Stevenson actually measured 48…yes 48 of Herschel’s eyepieces and found that indeed his claims were valid. 

Focal lengths as short as 0.2-inches to just over 0.01-inch were found!  How Herschel ever managed to make them is somewhat of a mystery.  (He actually used 6,450x once on Vega and also again on Gamma Leonis.)

No Star Diagonal?  Ouch!

With the exception of reflectors, most of the classic observers of the past used refracting telescopes. I really don’t know when star diagonals first appeared, but all of the early observers were viewing “straight through” their scopes. 

For low declinations this wasn’t so much an issue but for objects high in the sky, or overhead, it was a neck and back breaker.  And this didn’t just apply to amateur observers, but professionals alike.

E.E. Barnard (Yerkes 40-inch), Aiken (Lick 36-inch) and Lowell (24-inch) all worked without diagonals.  In the more than 40 years I used the superb 13-inch Fitz-Clark refractor (see my the great lensnapping piece below) at Allegheny Observatory I never used one.

One of the problems is the mirror image views, of standard star diagonals, which plays havoc for measuring double star position angles among other issues. There are now, of course, correct image, known as “Amici Prism Diagonals” but early observers didn’t have them.

The most shocking example came to me when I realized that my dear friend and one of the greatest observers of all time, Leslie Peltier, never used a diagonal to make his more than 120,000 variable star estimates for the AAVSO. He used his 2-inch spyglass, 4-inch Mogey refractor, 6-inch comet seeker or his 12-inch Clark refractor. However, Peltier used only the 4-inch and 6-inch scopes for comet seeking, as well as variables.

A Mystery Surrounding NGC 6826 Better Known as: “THE BLINKING PLANETARY“

Wally McCall and I first called attention to the strange behavior of the planetary nebula NGC 6826 in Cygnus in a letter to “Sky & Telescope Magazine” and was featured in the August 1963 issue. 

As seen in the 13-inch Fitz-Clark refractor at Pittsburgh’s Allegheny Observatory, it has a bright central star surrounded by an obvious nebula.  Staring directly at the star itself, the nebula disappears – but changing to averted vision the nebula reappears nearly drowning out the central star itself!  Alternating between direct and averted vision results in a striking blinking effect, so we named this object the “Blinking Planetary.”  We’ve seen this effect in scopes as small as a 2.4-inch refractor and as large as a 30-inch refractor.  A few other planetaries exhibit this behavior, but none anywhere to the degree as this one.

Now here’s the mystery: 

My idol Sir William Herschel (who discovered this object), nor his son Sir John nor any of the early classic observers like Smyth or Webb apparently ever noticed the blinking.  Has something changed in the nebula itself to shift its emission lines into a part of the spectrum where the eye is most sensitive since its discovery? Jim Mullaney

MAKING THE PHOTON CONNECTION

Roger, I feel sure that most of your readers are aware that the photons which we see by have a strange dualistic nature…they are both waves and particles.  This means that when you observe a celestial wonder such as those Roger writes about on this site with your telescope, you are getting photons within your eye.  

Think about it…particles that were once inside of the galaxy you are viewing have traveled across the vastness of space and time and ended their immense journey on the retina of your eye.  You are in direct physical contact with what you are looking at! 

As the poet Sarah Teasdale said:  “I know that I am privileged to be witness of such majesty.”

Stargazing Simplified: What to See in the Night Sky

The “Great Lensnapping”

Roger, I don’t know how many of your readers have heard of the “Great Lensnapping” that happened at the original Allegheny Observatory in Pittsburgh in the late 1800s.  

My beloved 13-inch Fitz-Clark had it’s objective lens stolen and held for ransom.  At the time, it was the third largest in the world!  (Now it’s the third largest in the current Observatory.)   

Samuel Pierpont Langley was director at the time and refused to pay anything, as no telescope in the country would then be safe from theft.  He finally met the thief at a hotel in a Pittsburgh suburb – the thief agreed to return it if Langley didn’t prosecute.  He subsequently found it in a waste basket at that very hotel.  

The lens was pretty well scratched up and Langley sent it to Alvin Clark for refinishing.  Thus the dual name Fitz-Clark.  As I’ve stated before, it is without question the finest visual telescope I’ve ever seen or used bar none!

To read more and see a photo of the famous 13-inch Fitz-Clark refractor, see the following link:

https://sites.pitt.edu/~aobsvtry/fitzclark.html

This is the telescope that Wally McCall and I used for our visual sky survey in the mid-60’s that resulted in the Sky & Telescope series The Finest Deep-Sky Objects and its eventual Sky Publishing reprint that went through three printings.  My personal total eyepiece time logged using this amazing instrument over many years was some 10,000 hours!   It clearly showed markings on several of the Galilean satellites and spiral structure within Jupiter’s Great Red Spot.  One of the “discoveries” we made using the 13-inch was the “Blinking Planetary” in Cygnus (NGC 6826) which has become a favorite showpiece at star parties and public viewing sessions. 

“The Finest Deep-Sky Objects by James Mullaney and Wallace McCall”

“On Public Nights at Allegheny Observatory, when the dome of the 13-inch refractor is crowded with visitors, all anxious to look at everything in the sky, a handy finding list of impressive objects is invaluable.”

These words prefaced our short list of celestial showpieces published in the December, 1962, issue of “Sky and Telescope”.  We now present an expanded version, intended as a roster of the finest star clusters, nebulae, and other deep-sky objects, for the convenience of amateur astronomers with telescopes of all sizes.  It is the result of our five-year visual survey of the heavens north of –40º declination.