Report from Lorenzago di Cadore, Italy

[Piero]

This is the report of one observation I had last Saturday under a dark sky in the Dolomites. Meteo forecast was quite messy, as it often happens in the mountains. The heat wave from Africa did not help either, increasing temperature and humidity at increadibly high levels.
The location is Lorenzago di Cadore in Italy, at 883m above the sea level. This year thee temperature is unusually warm for the season, as it easily reached 30 degrees during the day, and 15-20 in the night.

Apparently last Friday it was supposed to be clear. Eventually, it was foggy due to the humidity. Here is a photo of it.

whereas this is how the landscape is when clear:

 
 
On Saturday, there was a chance of clear sky in the evening, and during the day the weather was really bad (although the landscape was really suggestive to me!)

Luckily, the evening was quite clear despite of the high levels of humidity. There were some clouds passing low on the valley and others on the sky, but these were few and generally passed quickly. The Milky way was visible from side to side, but the intense humidity filtered this one a bit. Just to mention that it was so humid that my equipment was almost soaked despite of the dew shield I built and added to the optics. I did not observe from the local town but from a near site behind a close hill and reachable in 15min by walk. The view from my observing site was this one:

In summary, it was a very enjoyable night. Unfortunately I could not stay some other days because I was constrained to my father's schedule and also had to meet other people I haven't seen since my last visit to Italy ages ago. So, a bit of compromise! Anyway, it was a pleasure to see many targets I could only dream about for the first time, and many other targets much better. Viewing the sky from a dark site IS an experience that people should consider at least one time in their life.

Within 10 minutes by car, there is another site where I would like to observe from in the future. This place, called Passo Mauria, is right on the border with the next region at East and located at 1200mt. That place is also of historical importance for the local people in Lorenzago. In 1944, it happens that English planes dropped munitions, weapons and food for local partisans on that place but due to the wind the coordinates of landing were shifted, making the collection of these weapons very difficult. Eventually it happened a battle between partisans and a coming troop of German soldiers and many people died.

To me, observing from all those mountains is also emotional because they are the land that part of my family fought for and defended in the last century. I like to think that on those stars depicted on that dark sky, trees, clouds and mountains out there, those people still live somehow and feel at home.

Below is the report.

Thanks for reading,

Piero

Date: 08/08/2015
Time: 22:00-02:00
Seeing: 2 - Slight undulations            
Transparency: 5 - Clear            
Telescopes: Tele Vue 60 F6            
Eyepieces: Panoptic 24mm (15x, 4.0mm, 4.30deg), Nagler 13mm (28x, 2.2mm, 2.80deg), Nagler 7mm (51x, 1.2mm, 1.54deg), Nagler 3.5mm (103x, 0.6mm, 0.78deg)
Filters    Astronomik UHC, OIII            


M13, Her, Glob CL, 15x, 51x, 103x.
It was possible to distinguish some star at the cluster edge and shining stars were also visible in the centre.

M92, Her, Glob CL, 15x.
A reduced version of M13. Some stars were detectable on the border.

M51, CVn, Galaxy, 15x, 28x.
Whirlpool galaxy. The Main and secondary spiral galaxies were visible. With averted vision it was possible to see a soft binding between the two galaxies.

M101, UMa, Galaxy, 15x, 28x.
Pinwheel galaxy. A grey faint patch which was much larger than M51. It was visible with direct vision but no structure was detectable.

M81, UMa, Galaxy, 15x, 28x.
Bode's galaxy. The oval shape with a slightly brighter core was visible for this galaxy.

M82, UMa, Galaxy, 15x, 28x.
Cigar galaxy. The elongated shape of M82 was quite obvious and made a wonderful image with M81.

IC4665, Oph, Opn CL, 15x.
Amazing open cluster although no many faint stars were visible.

NGC7000, Cyg, Neb, 15x+UHC.
North America Nebula. The North America continent was well defined, particularly the Mexico and east USA. The area is rich of gas and the UHC filter seems to be perfect to highlight this nebulosity.

NGC6992/ 6960, Cyg, SN Rem, 15x+OIII.
Veil Nebula. The Eastern and Western parts for this nebula were easily visible. Central filaments from North were a bit more difficult to spot but still observable. These appeared as vertical filaments reaching the core of the nebula.

M22, Sgr, Glob CL, 15x.
Lovely globular cluster. It appeared very similar to M13. Outer stars were resolved and shined nicely.

M28, Sgr, Glob CL, 15x.
This cluster was a little grey smudge, much smaller than M22.

M8, Sgr, Neb, 15x+UHC.
Lagoon Nebula. Giant nebula covering the cluster of stars. The nebula extended considerable at North and South of the star cluster.

NGC6530, Sgr, Opn CL, 15x+UHC.
Cluster inside the Lagoon Nebula. It was nicely covered by the nebula.

M20, Sgr, CL+Neb, 15x+UHC.
Trifid Nebula. The red part appeared as a grey nebula. The blue part was invisible. Much smaller than M8 but was still gorgeous.

M21, Sgr, Opn CL, 15x+UHC.
Cluster located at North of the Trifid nebula and connected by a chain of stars.

IC4685, Sgr, Neb, 15x+UHC.
Soft nebula surrounding the star V3903 Sgr. It is near M8 and M20.

NGC6526, Sgr, Neb, 15x+UHC.
Very soft nebula located in the area between M8 and M20.

NGC6595, Sgr, CL+Neb, 15x+UHC.
A little cluster surrounded by a soft little nebula.

IC1284, Sgr, Neb, 15x+UHC.
Soft nebula just below the Sagittarius Star Cloud.

M24, Sgr, Star Cluster, 15x+UHC.
Sagittarius Star Cluster. Fabulous target. Many faint shining stars were detectable and it was almost impossible to count them all.

M18, Sgr, Opn CL, 15x+UHC.
Small open cluster located between M17 and M24. Quite pretty.

M17, Sgr, CL+Neb, 15x+UHC.
The nebula was a bit smaller than M8, but still very distinct and with clear bounds. A few stars were also visible.

NGC6605, Ser, Opn CL, 15x+UHC.
Quite compact open cluster near M16 and M17. Not too difficult to observe.

M16, Ser, CL+Neb, 15x+UHC.
The nebula reminded me of a mail stamp. Very pretty and the shape was clearly defined.

NGC6604, Ser, CL+Neb, 15x+UHC.
Faint nebula plus cluster just above M16. At 15x this object is just above M16 and it should not be confused with NGC6625. NGC6604 has a nebula, NGC6625 has not.

NGC6625, Sct, Opn CL, 15x+UHC.
Open cluster near NGC6604. The two are quite similar apart from the nebula present in NGC6604.

M27, Vul, Pln Neb, 15x+UHC, 51x.
I preferred the view without a filter for this target and under this sky. No real detail but a very circular shape reminding me of an apple.

M56, Lyr, Opn CL, 15x.
Easy open cluster of small size. This benefits from a dark sky though.

M39, Cyg, Opn CL, 15x.
Fantastic open cluster mainly formed by bright stars but some surrounding dust made this object really beautiful.

IC5146, Cyg, CL+Neb, 15x+UHC.
Cocoon Nebula. I do not think I really saw this object as there was a lot of dust in the area. I moved East from M39. If I spotted it, it appeared like a small patch of grey colour, not much distinguishable from the rest of the nearby dust.

IC1396, Cep, CL+Neb, 15x+UHC.
Elephant's Trunk Nebula. From the Garnet star I could spot some faint nebula, or dust, in the area but no trace of any trunk.

M31, And, Galaxy, 15x, 28x.
Andromeda galaxy. Visible at naked eye. Very beautiful view with Andromeda spanning largely in the eyepiece.

M32, And, Galaxy, 15x, 28x.
Easily seen below M31.

M110, And, Galaxy, 15x, 28x.
A bit more difficult to see than M32, but still detectable.

M33, Tri, Galaxy, 15x.
Triangulum galaxy. Large galaxy visible via direct vision. It has a circular shape without structure.

M34, Per, Opn CL, 15x.
Wonderful open cluster easily visible and reachable from Gamma And (Almaak).

NGC752, And, Opn CL, 15x.
To me this is even prettier than M34 because of the surrounding stars at South possibly. Lovely organisation.

NGC891, And, Galaxy, 15x.
This galaxy is located between Gamma And (Almaak) and M34. It was very faint and appeared as small and slightly elongated to me.

NGC1502, Cam, Opn CL, 15x.
Little open cluster gem at the end of multiple chains of stars. Some of these stars are faint but their alighment is gorgeous to see.

NGC869/ 884, Per, Opn CL, 15x.
Double cluster. Visible at naked eye. Under this dark sky, it was even more beautiful because of the darker background sky and emerging faint stars.

Stock2, Cas, Opn CL, 15x.
I was surprised to see so many stars inside this cluster. It really benefits from a dark sky.

M103, Cas, Opn CL, 15x.
Very distinct in the sky. Dim stars were visible.

NGC281, Cas, CL+Neb, 15x+UHC.
Nice cluster plus nebulosity surrounding the brightest star. This nebulosity was somehow circular.

Mel20, Per, Opn CL, 15x.
Alpha Per Moving Cluster. The most beautiful object I saw in this session. Absolutely stunning.

[xtreemchaos]

great report mate,very interesting read, amazing set of images, what a great place to have your roots. thanks for sharing.  charl.

[laudropb]

Very nice report and some lovely photos.

[Tzitzis]

WOW! Stunning place as it seems... Mountains are great. 

Well this is a fine report. So many great targets, beautiful list. I am sure the dark skies and the altitude helped a lot in bringing many targets into visibility as well as bringing out details in the brighter ones. Sounds you enjoyed it a lot (how couldn't you). I hope you get to be in Italy more often with your TV60 of course. Inspiring story and report.

Cheers Piero!

Tzitzis

[scarp15]

Enjoyed the read and the pictures, inspiring stuff.

[Special K]

Just picking this report up now, Piero.......brilliante!!!  I've never been to the Italian lakes or mountains and looks lovely by day and night.  Nice idea for a future trip and as you say, there is a lot of history here.

That's a cracking travel combo you've got and notice the higher mags didn't get used much.  Your Panoptic at 4mm exit pupil is fantastic for harvesting most of the light coming from these dim sources, while the Nagler 13mm bumps up the mag where needed at little sacrifice to the FOV.  I really love widefield viewing!  I'm curious what mount head you've got on the Manfrotto tripod.  I'm not sure if my ED80 with 31mm Nagler would be a bit too much weight on something like that.

Mel20 is fantastic, and I look forward to seeing much more of this in the coming season.   Great list of other treats from your dark locale.  So much to look at;  so little time!   Clear skies

[Stu]

Fantastic report Piero, I managed to miss it until now. Glad you had some great views

[Piero]

Just picking this report up now, Piero.......brilliante!!!  I've never been to the Italian lakes or mountains and looks lovely by day and night.  Nice idea for a future trip and as you say, there is a lot of history here.

That's a cracking travel combo you've got and notice the higher mags didn't get used much.  Your Panoptic at 4mm exit pupil is fantastic for harvesting most of the light coming from these dim sources, while the Nagler 13mm bumps up the mag where needed at little sacrifice to the FOV.  I really love widefield viewing!  I'm curious what mount head you've got on the Manfrotto tripod.  I'm not sure if my ED80 with 31mm Nagler would be a bit too much weight on something like that.

Mel20 is fantastic, and I look forward to seeing much more of this in the coming season.   Great list of other treats from your dark locale.  So much to look at;  so little time!   Clear skies

Thanks Kevin. There are other two close places where I want go to observe one day. One is called "Pian de Buoi" (literally, top mountains of the cows), and this is visible in the last photo. If you look at above the ravine located at centre left, that is. There is a road to get there and is about 1h distant from my grandparents' house. That is almost 2000mt above the sea and you can see a large section of sky. 

To continue with a bit of history, the partisan lady Giovanna Zangrandi (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanna_Zangrandi) and others, used to climb all those mountains (and Pian de Buoi) in the day and night (and even sleep on the top of those mountains in the winter!) to carry news between groups of partisans located in the different valleys. A very nice book she wrote is  I Giorni Veri, 1943-45 (The Real Days, 1943–45) (1963). I don't know if you can find it in English, though. 

Another place I would like to go to observe is at Misurina Lake (about 1h distant, 1900mt above sea level). This should be even darker than Pian de Buoi, and the road is easier and kept free from snow in the winter. 

For that occasion, I did not use higher magnifications because I decided to focus on DSO, which are more difficult to see from my current location (which is not bad, but not as good! ) 

My Manfrotto head for general observation is the video head MVH500AH. The link in my signature shows a photo of it with my TV60 on top. I also have a lighter manfrotto tripod (Compact Advanced 3-way Head) for travelling. This is far less sturdy than the other one, but very light (~1.4kg) and if you don't extend the legs completely it is fine with the tv60. I didn't take any of them to Italy though, because there I have the tripod I used to observe with my old revelation 15x70. The mount head is not very good, but the tripod is generally sturdy enough.

I think your ED80 + Terminagler (another great wide field combo BTW!) are just at the limit or a bit too much for the MVH500AH. Possibly a giro mount would fit better for you? 

@all: Thanks all for your nice comments. I was actually worried not to have a chance to have a clear sky, whereas eventually I got one there in the mountains and one near Venice. I did not check 'scientifically', but stars in the place reported in the photos are generally visible up to about 6-6.5mag at naked eye over there.

I was also very glad to spot M101 and M33. Two big mail stamps, but visible without much effort.