First night of "serious" observing with the 6SE - WOW!

[thomasr]

After quite a few backyard sessions (and one failed attempt at a dark site session), I finally got the scope out to some dark(er) countryside for a solid 2+ hours of observing last night. I got some pretty incredible views despite the fact the moon (waxing crescent) was still up in the west the entire time, and I therefore had to content with some blue sky glow horizon-to-horizon. I actually left pretty much at the exact time the moon was setting - I had my family along and I was told in no uncertain terms that it was time to go.

The site (which has been dubbed the Chocolate Donut Farm by a certain younger member of the observing crew) is well north of the city, but there is still a discernable orange glow from the south-southwest up to about 20* from the horizon. There were also clumps of trees here and there which impaired the view low to the northeast, and low to the southeast-southwest ... so I missed out on some targets I would have liked to go after.

The sky was totally clear and very transparent, but with a strong jet stream overhead there was quite a bit of unsteadiness in the images. For the entire session, I switched back and forth between my Luminos 15mm (100x mag) and my X-cel LX 9mm (167x mag). While waiting for the scope to cool and for my eyes to adapt, I started out with the Moon, Venus, and Jupiter. Even 5 minutes out of the car with a warm scope, the Moon showed lots of interesting detail, especially at 167x, and especially around the southern terminator. Jupiter showed four moons dutifully lined up on the left side, as well as two clearly visible darker cloud bands (at both 15mm and 9mm). Venus was Venus. I'll have to give this object another try when it's in a thin crescent phase perhaps, because I'm just not feeling the love. A little later in the night when Saturn rose above the treetops I clearly saw a bright, well-defined ring structure and at 9mm I even saw faint cloud bands. Overall though, I struggled to get consistent focus and contrast on the planets due to all the moving air up there.

The deep sky stuff was magical. I can only imagine what treats are available in this scope when there is no moon to contend with. I swapped back and forth between the 15mm and 9mm EPs at whim, sometimes using both on the same object. I noticed that the globular clusters took magnification extremely well - I almost wish I had a 7mm on hand to try. I also think that a big factor in my success was time at the EP, and time to let my eyes adapt. When I'm in the backyard I never have the luxury of 30 minutes solid adaptation time, but last night I was very careful (e.g. by pulling my hoodie over face and doing everything possible to avoid glare from the setting moon).

So what was I able to see through the moon glow? Plenty!

• M3, M5, M10, M12, M53, M56:  all these clusters, even the smaller and dimmer ones, showed individual star detail. The bigger ones showed as hundreds of pinpoints amidst the general fuzz
• M13: singling this one out because it's just so awesome. With the 9mm X-cel, Hercules just about fills the eyepiece with diamond dust. I came back to this object multiple times over the night
• M44 - Beehive Cluster: This is one case where a wider EP than 15mm might have been a good idea. All the same, I enjoyed flying around between the stars even at higher magnifications
• M49 - Eliptical Galaxy: Was difficult to pick out as more than a smudge, but I now have a great answer if anyone asks me the question "what's the oldest thing you've even seen with your own eyes?"
• M51 - Whirlpool and companion: I thought I was looking at a double-cluster at first (all you star-hopping purists may now scoff "see? people who use GoTo don't even know what they're looking at!"), because all I was really seeing were the two galactic cores, none of the whirlpool structure
• M57 - Ring Nebula: No colour, but a clearly visible hollow ring of glowing gas
• M81 - Bode's Galaxy: Bright enough and easy to pick out, but no structure visible
• M97 - Owl Nebula: This one was right at the limits of visibility for me, even though I tried for it toward the end of my session when the moon was really low. All I saw was a patchy grey ghost.
• M104 - Sombrero Galaxy: One of my favourites from the published images I've seen, but 6" aperature on a moonlit night sure isn't going to show any dust lanes. All I saw was a faint core with even fainter streaks extending southeast - northwest
• NGC6543 - Cat's Eye Nebula: I'd already glimpsed this one (I think) from my backyard once, and was hoping for better views from a darker site. Some luck but not a lot. All I saw was a very small, faint glowing ball.

So all that was more than enough to stimulate my imagination and get me thinking about future observing sessions. For the record, I will say that I think GoTo is amazing. I will learn the sky in time, but in the meantime I'm doing it with my own eyes (and a sense of awe) rather than from a chart. I also think I like the X-cel LX better of the two EPs. WIth the Luminos, I sometimes feel like I'm "looking around the corner" at things, though I'm sure as I get more experienced I'll learn to make the most of that 82* FOV.

Finally, I have to say that I am astounded by the amount of scope a hobbyist can purchase these days. The 6SE is highly portable, user-friendly, and last night it gave me knock-out views of objects all the way down to magnitude 8 ... and hints of things all the way down to 10.

Happy observing everyone.

[Stu]

Great report Thomas. Dark skies are really worth seeking out. Glad you are pleased with the scope

[Tzitzis]

Great report!

I'm saving up for a Skywatcher Skyliner 6". I'm also interested in DSO's. Hope you can have a full night observing with it, taking your time, adapting your eyes and finding lots of stuff!

[cotterless45]

Great report, if you have the skies any aperture will do,

Nick.

[Pondus]

Good report and very interesting read indeed.

Rune

[Saganite]

Very nice report Thomas. Under a moonless and very dark sky all these objects can be savoured and studied and you will be amazed how much detail can teased from a smudge.

Have fun and enjoy that fine scope.