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John

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    Barnard 33: The Horsehead Nebula - At last !

    in Observing - Deep Sky

    Posted

    1 hour ago, Tim said:

    Just a thought, have you ever tried it with your Lumicon UHC? In an 18" we thought it gave a comparable view of B33 to the Astronomik Hb filter, enhancing the curtain of brighter nebula and making the notch stand out well....

    It did cross my mind at one point to try my DGM NBP filter (similar to a UHC) but I was so much "in the zone" with the Astronomik HB that I was afraid that I would loose my concentration if I swapped filters. Next time I will give it a try :icon_biggrin:

     

    • Like 1

    Barnard 33: The Horsehead Nebula - At last !

    in Observing - Deep Sky

    Posted

    2 hours ago, Stu said:

    Fabulous report John! Really chuffed you finally saw it, and to know it is possible from your back garden is all the more pleasing. Do you will find it more easily in future now, or was it very much a cause of the 'stars aligning' in terms of conditions?

    Thanks Stu.

    I think my experiences last night will help next time around but the transparency of the sky last night was exceptional for here. Probably the best I've seen in 12 months or more. If we get a cold winter this time around and a few more nights similar, who knows though ? :icon_biggrin:

    One further indicator that I had that the night was particularly good was that late in the session a quick look at M1.  That nebula, which can be rather dull visually, was bright, contrasty and showed structure even with the H-Beta filter in place. Normally I'd observe The Crab filterless or with the DGM NBP filter and David Knisely reckons that M1 is virtually invisible with a 10" using an H Beta so goodness knows what it would have looked like with the NBP !. Apart from this quick foray into Taurus, I spent at least 3 hours exclusively in Orion :rolleyes2:

    • Like 2

    Barnard 33: The Horsehead Nebula - At last !

    in Observing - Deep Sky

    Posted

    6 hours ago, Paul73 said:

    Well done John. The sky is exceptional tonight. 

    I'll not hijack the thread, but a first view for me too. Using that dud filter that you sold me! Very rewarding.

    Cracking writeup too.

    Paul

    Congrats to you Paul - I think the reason that I parted with that filter was frustration with me and my regular skies rather than the filter !

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    Barnard 33: The Horsehead Nebula - At last !

    in Observing - Deep Sky

    Posted

    Well, I didn't think I'd be making this post but here it is - tonight I have managed to see the Horsehead Nebula, Barnard 33 :hello2:

    The sky here tonight is the best and darkest I've experienced for a long, long time. The transparency is excellent although the actual seeing is mediocre in terms of star images, splitting doubles etc.

    M31 is a direct vision naked eye object and notably extended too. The double clusters in Perseus are clear without any sort of optical aid as is M35 in Gemini and the brighter 3 star clusters in Auriga. I don't know what the naked eye limit at the zenith is - probably close to mag 6 ?

    This is as good as it gets from my back yard.

    By 12:30 Orion was well above the rooftops and the streetlights have gone out. Neighbours have gone to bed and there are no lights on in our house or any in the vicinity. It's all "come together" for a change and my 12" dob is definitely the right instrument for these conditions.

    I've been trying to see the Horsehead Nebula for a few years now. I've got to know the star field around the star Alnitak (lowest of the "belt" stars) well and I've read the advice pages on the target plus reports from those who have seen it many times. 

    All lights off. Laptop screen is dimmed, curtains are closed tight. I spend 20 minutes outside just looking around the sky, getting as fully dark adapted as I can.

    First stop on the path to the Horsehead is NGC 2024, the Flame Nebula, which is right next door to Alnitak. Good start tonight - the Flame Nebula was not only visible without a filter, but the dark rifts that run through it, like the branches of a tree, were also visible. Even the dazzling Alnitak in the same field of view could not drown out the illuminated lobes of the Flame.

    Ok, time to add the Astronomik H-Beta filter to the eyepiece of choice for this search, the 24mm Panoptic. Filter in place, I was pleased to see that the Flame Nebula,it's shape and form were still quite visible. Time to push Alnitak and the Flame out of the field of view and to concentrate on the 1 degree of sky that is home to the Horsehead Nebula. 

    There are 3 stars that frame this patch of sky on one side, one of which is bathed in faint nebulosity which this evening was visible with and without the filter. This is NGC 2023, a faint emission and reflection nebula. I had seen this before but not as clearly as it was showing tonight. Another hopeful sign.

    Now the big challenge. I knew that the key to seeing the Horsehead Nebula was to detect the faint glow of the emission nebula IC 434 but in previous attempts this was the fence that I'd fallen at (Horsehead - get it ??!!:rolleyes2: ). Tonight though, as my eye adjusted to the filtered light across the field of view, the elongated but rather amorphous band of slight cloudiness that is IC 434 gradually became apparent, varying in density here and there, almost not there sometimes but re-confirmed subtly over and over as my eye swept around the field of view.

    And there it was. A bay, an intrusion, a dark overlay, a piece of IC 434 was missing !. Quite a large piece as well or so it seemed as my eye moved from one side of the field to the other bringing various degrees of averted vision into play. It's been described as a dark thumbprint and I'd concur with that. Not a chesspiece, no snout or ears, but a soft edged, ill defined shark bite chunked out of the side of the nebulosity, leaving the black sky to spill into that cove and the nebulosity of IC 434 to curve around it. One side of where the dark intrusion started was marked with a very faint pair of stars which I believe I've read Swampthing / Steve describe as his indicator of the Horsehead location.

    I kept observing for 20-30 minutes trying all the tricks I know to keep all stray light from around my eye and the eyepiece. The clarity of what I was seeing ebbed and flowed, possibly after a while because my eye was just trying so hard !. But the more I observed, the more confident I became that I was seeing this long sought target. Ok, it was very indistinct - well I'd thought it would be, especially if I ever managed to see it from my back yard, but I was pretty sure that I was looking at Barnard 33, at last !.

    I rather reluctantly dragged myself away from the eyepiece and tried a couple of other eyepieces with the H-Beta filter attached - a 30mm plossl (Vixen) and the 17.3mm Delos. Each time I came back to the eyepiece I needed 10-15 minutes to get back "into the zone" again. But the same pattern of vague nebulosity was indeed replicated with the darkened bay pushing into the cloudy edge of IC 434 in the same place, to the same extent and at the same angle, each time. The original 24mm eyepiece seemed to provide the most distinct view but I should really say the least indistinct !. Not a spectacular view at all, just suble variations of dark and slightly darker patches of space peppered with stars. Without the filter the stars brightened but only the Flame and NGC 2023 were visible in terms of nebulosity. IC 434 and the large, dark, thumb shaped indentation were nowhere to be seen.

    OK. Back inside to warm up (it's cold out there despite the adrenalin flow that the hunt has prompted). Take stock of what has been observed. I turn to one of my favourite web references on deep sky observing - Jeremy Perez and his wonderful "Belt of Venus" website. Here is what Jeremy says about his observations of this target, albeit with a smaller aperture scope than mine (from a darker sky though, I'll bet !):

    http://www.perezmedia.net/beltofvenus/archives/000379.html

    Re-reading the above has confirmed 100% for me that, tonight, I have seen the Horsehead Nebula :grin:

    So much of what Jeremy describes chimes with my experiences and my impressions tonight :thumbright:

    I got into astronomy 40+ years back with the help of Sir Patrick Moore's "The Observers Book of Astronomy" and in that little volume there is a greyscale long exposure image of the Horsehead Nebula which made a big impression on me then and has stuck with me to this day.

    Quite possibly this is the least impressive target I've seen though a scope in all those years observing but the pleasure that seeing it at last has delivered is very tangible indeed.

    If you have got this far, thanks for bearing with my rambling descriptions :smiley:

     

     

     

     

    • Like 64
    • Thanks 8

    Show us your Frac

    in Discussions - Scopes / Whole setups

    Posted

    1 hour ago, Sunshine said:

    Yes true haha you got me there, but i meant for night, i really daydream about a 120 Tak or something along those lines lol, a single tear rolls down my eye lol.

    Your Skywatcher Mak Cass 150 will be doing a pretty good impression of a 120mm apochromat so you are probably not missing much to be honest :dontknow:

    • Like 1

    Show me your eyepiece/accessories case, please.

    in DIY Astronomer

    Posted

    2 hours ago, Moonshane said:

    I did of course mean Nagler zoom LOL.

    I really hated Delos  (and Ethos) on the moon as they had to my eyes at least too much lateral chromatic aberration.  Not so with Delites (or Plossls / Panoptics).

    Funny how different eyes see things. I've had Ethos in 21, 13, 8 and 6 and Delos in 17.3 (your old one) for some time plus now the Delos 14 and really like them on a wide range of targets. I just don't see any edge (or centre !) issues with them in any of my scopes :icon_scratch:

     

    Pentax 10mm XW (Second light)

    in Discussions - Eyepieces

    Posted

    I agree very much that eyepiece preferences are a very personal thing. Once you get to a certain level of optical quality ergonomic issues tend to play a bigger part in whether or not you decide that it's a "keeper" or not.

    I found this with the Nagler 13mm Type 6 recently. This eyepiece used to be one of my all time favourites when I owned it a few years back. I recently acquired another one to fill a gap in my 1.25" set but I just didn't take to it this time around. I'm sure the quality is just as good as the earlier one I owned. I guess my preferences have changed subtly over the past 3 years or so :icon_scratch:

    Conversely I've owned Nagler 3-6 zooms at least twice before (maybe 3 times ?) and not held onto them for long but the Nagler 2-4 zoom that I have now, which is pretty much exactly the same to use, is now a highly used and an important part of my toolbox. I'm very comfortable with it.

    "Go figure :dontknow:", as our US friends say :smiley:

     

    • Like 2

    New EP delivered today!

    in Discussions - Eyepieces

    Posted

    38 minutes ago, 25585 said:

    I am surprised that TV has not made LER 20 - 30mm De/los/lite eps as Pentax XW 20 reputation has a less steady reputation, Vixen were rarer, so there is a mid-price gap for those focal lengths. (Panoptic 27 & 24 are not LER, neither are TV plossls until 32).

    I guess they could retire the Panoptic line and release a "Delos II" range starting at, say, 22mm which would be the largest possible in the 1.25" barrel I think, then have a couple of longer FL's in the 2" format. I'll mention it to Al Nagler when we next have lunch together ...... :wink:

     

     

    • Haha 2

    New EP delivered today!

    in Discussions - Eyepieces

    Posted

    13 minutes ago, 25585 said:

    Not in my photos is "Taiwan" in small white letters on the red band. So not a Japanese ep. It will be the first I try out next starry night.

     

    Many Tele Vue eyepieces are made in Taiwan, including the Ethos and Delos ranges.

    Hope 1st light with the eyepieces goes well.

    • Like 1

    New EP delivered today!

    in Discussions - Eyepieces

    Posted

    1 hour ago, Louis D said:

    Every time I read posts like this, I get infuriated.  As long as I stay under $800/day, I pay no import duties.  Sales tax is never applied to imports.  So much for free trade and reciprocity with the US.  Y'all need to start a Tea Party type of revolution over there to get government off your backs.  Brexit was a good start.

    We need to stay off politics Louis, as I'm sure you know :smiley:

     

    • Thanks 2

    New EP delivered today!

    in Discussions - Eyepieces

    Posted · Edited by John

    I've bought a few items, including eyepieces, from the USA. The prices were good but once import duty and handling charges were added on the price was pretty much the same as it would have been within the EU. For hard to get items sometimes the only way to find them is to import from across the pond though because the US market is a lot larget than here.

    With the LVW's now out of production it will be interesting to see if they develop a "mystique" which presses their used prices upwards in the way it did (temporarily) when the Baader Genuine Orthos went out of production and as it has (permanently it seems :rolleyes2:) for the 30mm and 40mm Pentax XW's.

    It's worth keeping a level head about these things - the LVW's are very nice eyepieces but there are equally nice alternatives around today, IMHO, and some a little better even. I reckon LVW's are good used buys for around the same price as a Tele Vue Radian but I'd not pay more than that for one.

     

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