Wide-field night at x16-x50.

[cotterless45]

Astounding night ! As soon as it darkened , the Milky Way appeared right through the back of Cygnus breaking only for the dark rifts , into The base of Cepheus, Cassiopeia and a glowing Perseus. Not bad from the edge of town. I set up the 80mm Opticstar f5 with a 2" diagonal and Baader semi apo filter.Just a Meade 4000 8-24mm zoom and we were off !

First target was a high C/2014 E2 (Jacques) , a good start as I spotted it through the huge 9x50 viewfinder. Very bright. With a slight tale and completing another downstroke to Cassiopeia.kept returning to the comet for another look.

Then up to some clusters nearby. NGC 457 looked owlish hanging there at x50. The fineness of NGC 7789 , almost crystal like , was easily resolved.

M39 was just packed with stars and NGC 663 sparkled. We had a look at some Cepheus clusters including "the ancient one " NGC 188 and some larger sparkly ones. NGC 7142,NGC 6939 and NGC 7510.

M27 just hanging around with a UHC filter and a tiny M57. M57 was caught between the two finder stars of Lyra. It was lovely to see the whole view at x16.

We caught the blank area where M33 goes and some double stars in Aries and Cygnus.

Epsilon Lyrae looked like two dots at x16, but we could resolve it at x50. We caught several galaxies including NGC 1023, Bode's and NGC 7331. The planetary "blue Snowball" was easily spotted , blinking in the field.we were up to a heady x50 by now.

A 15mm SW Panorama worked like a dream and we caught the curve of the Eatern Veil with a UHC , just a glow at x26.

We caught a bright Neptune in Aquarius and a superb view of the Pleiades.

It was a thrilling session from the edge of town. We honestly didn't expect such results. LeeB left happy, intending to buy a little Opticstar.

We're used to hyper views, squeezing out vast magnification and details. Try taking a back seat, you'll see more under,

Clear skies !

Nick.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Lovely report again, Nick with some great objects. I haven't spotted the coment yet, but hope to do so this evening. I should get out the little 80mm on an Alt-az mount with the 31T5 and the three T4s more often (or I could start using the WO Zoom 7.5-22.5 in that role). Just scanning wide-field object can be great. I had one or two sessions like that in Tuscany last summer, and they are very relaxing. I do find that using a 2", 90 deg Amici prism makes lfe easier, because it gives an upright correct orientation image. Managed to get one secondhand and it was worth every penny.

[FenlandPaul]

Sounds like it was a great evening, Nick. And fantastic write-up - thanks.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Phillyo]

I sat outside last night with a cup of coffee and my binoculars and started up at the milky way whilst I was imaging Heart and Soul nebula. It was a very clear evening in Lincoln too until around 1am when some clouds rolled in. The milky way was visible to the naked eye, although quite faint, from just 2 miles outside Lincoln.

 

If I hadn't been up at 6am to go to work I probably would have headed to my dark site on the wolds to get a better view. Bring on the darker evenings!

[LeeB]

Excellent night Nick many thanks, that little scope works a treat, nice to see the comet and alot brighter than I expected, the rift in the milky way was also a treat, particularly from our urban skies, cygnus was amazing and difficult to see with so many stars visable. To split the lyra DD at 50x shows how good the scope is and to see Uranus was also a plus. Its amazing what an 80mm F5 can do, the semi apo filter is definately a superb tool.

[Helen]

Sounds great Nick.  It was pretty good here too.  Hint of Milky Way, but I live in a populated area.  I got the 6 inch wide field reflector out on the alt az and surfed too, while the imaging rig was (theoretically as it turned out!) getting Comet Jacques.  Bagged the comet with the scope and just enjoyed scrolling around that patch of sky.  Clouded out around 1am.  Very enjoyable though, and given the problems with the imaging run meant I didn't feel I'd wasted a nice night!

Helen