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....and then some!

estwing

By estwing
in Observing - Reports

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estwing

estwing

Posted
Posted

 After rising at 8am having not got much sleep due to the wind... steve and I had bacon butties but steve let on that he hadn't had any sleep at all! so a lazy day in the strong sunshine was the order of the day. As darkness fell so did the wind which had been blustery all day long "I can feel it in my water, tonights gonna be a good night" said Steve and boy was he right!!. With his 20" swampdob aimed the sky he was determined to bag copelands...me I was on M51 to compare with last nights view and how much better would it be?...jawdropping! it was like a photo,but better there was no stacking or processing here just HELLO I'm here arms detail everywhere,purpleish haze I couldn't tear away from for ages but the icing on the cake was M101. Steve uses this as a gauge to see how transparent the sky is problem was once into view I didn't want to go hunting anymore.It was without doubt it was the best view of 101 I'd seen,in fact on calling steve over he agreed the same thing. A once in a lifetime view? he has many more photons under his belt than me so it must of been.The arms were so thick the HA regions yes,and then there was an inner spiral from the center,so much going on I was dizzy!. Quick brew and now what?...we thought about looking towards the rear of Leo...NGC's 3686,3684 and 3681 a nice group stacked on top of each other. 3 ngc's...er 4?...5.....6! shouts Steve..6? but there's only 3 on the chart?..we were deep, so deep we are in PGC 16.1 mag territory here and I was jumping around like the first time I saw Saturn. This truly was a special night...so over to 3608 and 3607 good grief they're everywhere! we were hovering up those galaxies. M82 was so bright but things started to go strange from now on because it has dust lanes but detail was fading?both of us couldn't work it out and by now as laserjock said the wind picked up and the sky went ...flat? dull even?so we brewed up to give it chance to clear and that's when it hit us. Stars on the horizon were moving about like a plane or a helicopter?...it was over we were fatigued, exhausted...finished the lack of sleep had won. We turned in about 3:30 tired but very happy that we'd been lucky to be in such a great location at the right time. Steve often says when we've been sitting under canvas "if you don't go you'll never know"...glad we did and I finally got to use this wonderfully made scope where it should be in dark skies......Calvin the Galaxy hunter!!

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cotterless45

cotterless45

Posted
Posted

What a great exciting read , I feel almost and if I was leaning over and observing !

Home of all great observing is pristine skies. I remember my first views and being rocked to the core. Targets certainly do look photographic. No need for searching or star hopping, just focus and they pop out .

Something everyone should attempt is a trip to reeet dark sky !

Old Nick.

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