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jabeoo1

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  1. jabeoo1
    Finally the skies cleared at an opportunistic time for me 17/05/14.
    Of coarse by dark at this time of year Jupiter was heading downwards already and Mars was climbing for viewing, but the wait was still on for Saturn to peep up above the rooftops.
    In the meanwhile M13 looked stunning as usual. Jupiter's red spot and banding was impressive, the tricky Mars was even playing ball giving some surface detail.
    I managed to hunt the ring nebula down in Lyra pretty quickly at x 50 in the lovely 4.5 inch Astroscan. It looked grey but defined, with a hint of a thinning towards the middle. The 10 inch scope revealed a bright oval with mostly hints of washed out colours. I keep thinking that this object looks like a red blood cell floating in a glittery dark soup, I suppose it is far enough away to pretty much be comparable to microbiology. Averted vision definitely shows the ring structures contrast clearly when compared with direct viewing.
    Saturn time. This is really what I have been waiting for even before I started saving for the scope. I was pleased to report that the viewing offered no disappointment. The seeing was a mixture of still then distorted and back again over 30 second or so cycles so getting the eye in was easy. The ring system was visibly wrapped around the planets disc which showed shades of muted creams and very light browns in lovely horizontal strokes, amidst perfect shadowed areas. The ring system showed graduated contrasts across its width with a clear break of black sky through the Cassini division. The moons were obvious and distributed in what looked like an unorganised way when compared to the perfect Galilean system. The sight was very impressive & I have viewed the planet again with the same results.
    I am beginning to think the planets, moon, brighter nebula & globular clusters may need the bino-viewer treatment to really bring out the full effect, but even so, Saturn is pure eye candy. Everyone came out to look in the eyepiece that night, and not only peeped in but sat down and mumbled lots of things to themselves. Normally these same people are not that interested but Saturn brings out the astronomer in anyone & so it should.
  2. jabeoo1
    Target: Jupiter (20 min before sunset & into darkness). My eye was stuck to the eyepiece with my mouth stuck for words. The planet resolved to a disc that I could naively describe as a very carefully painted marble, it was suspended prominently against the steadily darkening clear blue sky. The surface detail was mesmerizing, and the apparent number of definable colors. Consciously I noted shades of cream, orange, brown, grey and mild looking purples. I forced myself to count the number of defined dark horizontal 'belts'. 'Belts' because I am new to observing in this detail I may have counted some zones. I made a clear count of 6 dark 'belts'. I also thought that the GRS was not on the observable side of the planet at the time of viewing. I also noted one of the bands in one place had formed an outcrop / overspill of darker gas, it looked to have budded out into the creamy colored neighboring zone (I remain undecided if it were red spot junior). As the sky darkened the view only got better.

    Orion nebula: The nebula appeared as a eerily dark green structure. (See other entry on Orion Nebula from Gower as comparison). Once again I could naively describe it to appear as dense folds of dusty cobwebs against the slightly lighter background sky. The trapezium was apparent within a visibly diffuse and more transparent locality. I was impressed with the structural integrity the scope showed of this object and will revisit it again and again.
  3. jabeoo1
    I was really happy to get out the City & do some observing on the Gower at the weekend. Between the thin clouds I got some decent viewing in. However the seeing was not exactly pristine !
    To clarify further on the points made on observing color in the Orion Nebula. I found no detection of color viewing this object under much darker skies (compared to a previous account in a light polluted area). However contrast was markedly improved and therefore the extent of the structure was more pleasing. A very pleasant view that I could have stared at for the whole evening.
    I on turning to Jupiter I was very happy to find Io on the brink of transit ! It was the first time I have witnessed a transit of Jupiter, I mainly noted being fascinated by the clarity of the shadow on the surface of upper gas cloud surfaces. It was very defined and the event seemed to fly by.
    I spent sometime looking at an open cluster (later looking it up and noting it to be M44 / Beehive cluster). The view through the eyepiece was very pleasing, the defined points and variation in spectral types making up the cluster took me by surprise, this was a very memorable view I am going to revisit M44 much more often now I know where it is and a bit more about its age!
    I noted an urge for low power & wider views to open up the sky. I really had an urge for scanning around taking in the views, but my current eyepieces are limited in this way at the moment.
    I waited for the moon to rise (with Saturn in close '2 o clock' position to the moon). The low position made for what many would call 'appalling seeing conditions' but I enjoyed looking at this moon for the very reason the seeing was appalling. As it came up many shades of washed out orange & red were surprising and unusual compared to my past experiences. The turbulence was violently shimmering and contorting the limb into every imaginable shape & anything but oval & circular. The surface details were something that resembled the texture and disorientation of a Dali painting produced by natures artifacts. Before packing up I turned the scope to Saturn to witness what it was doing in all this chaos. With the image of the moon in mind I expected strange for sure and it was that for sure, a visual dance of contortions of an animated infinity sign in turmoil.
    What a strange session :smiley:
  4. jabeoo1

    M13 et al

    By jabeoo1,

    Tested the seeing on Jupiter and noticed a lack of sharp details. Banding and hints of surface detail were there but no moments of stillness allowed me to get my eye in deeper and waiting for the finer details tonight was a no no. Next I turned to Mars, more so that I can mentally note changes as this planet becomes more favourable to view over the coming months. I had only previously glimpsed Mars a few times before with my new setup, and the disk has always presented itself as uniform in colour. Last night I was certain of sensing 2 colours on the disc, if only as a fleeting glimpse I was happy to say it was a noticeable improvement. This could be lots to do with my new 8mm eyepiece giving me my first taste of x200 magnification, which for me is a revelation by the way.

    With Mars continuing its journey and Jupiter slipping behind a neighbours chimney pot, I turned to the mighty keystone in Hercules. Its an area of sky I am comfortable with, M13 was shown to me at a star party where I took a 60 second glimpse, I left the eyepiece hankering to see the object again in more detail. I held the memory of the view, and was insistent on researching where the object was & during the long summer nights with a feeling of accomplishment found it with binoculars, I stared at that smudge for hours and last night after 18 months had a real chance to resolve the cluster myself for the first time. Back to binoculars I took a 2 min refresher on getting M13. Then set on getting it in the finder. I knew I had it centred in the eyepiece before I looked down into it and instantly on looking in the hole mumbled the words 'no' in a tone of disbelief. It was beautiful, the distant dandelion clock was now a complex speckled cold metallic mass of pin points backed onto a soft fuzzy glow. The striking difference was it showed as less definably spheroidal as the outer portion of the cluster showed up the 'lonely' stars on the perimeter. Further in certain areas showed very bright almost pixilated flecks that stood out from the warmer glowing more spherical core. This object looked spectacular at x64 x105 & x200. The Hercules Globular can do no wrong.

    With a rusty memory on how to find M92 I looked back at a star atlas and then found it in the binoculars. I managed it in the finder and was once again shown a beautiful view that was complemented across all magnifications . M92 seemed smoother & warmer than M13. That may have been wishful thinking as by now it was time to come in and climb under the duvet as it was 4am. I will return back to M92 and give it the attention it deserves, living in the limelight of M13 is almost unfair.
  5. jabeoo1
    Yesterday afternoon reading the thread 'To get better views of Mars with a 250px.. New Barlow or Eyepiece?' highlighted the need to concentrate an observation session on one object in order to really see those moments of exceptional seeing. I took advantage of an unexpected clear sky last night where transparency seemed very good for the city. So with NO sky surfing on the agenda I set up and got comfortable for a few hours.
    The seeing varied in extremes, sometimes swinging suddenly back and forth in brief time frames, this was managed by juggling between eyepieces as conditions changed. Currently I have no 10mm or 11mm eyepiece to fill the gap between x106 - x200 & this mid point would have been very useful last night. But the main detailed seeing was very possible and in at times very rewarding at x200.
    Brief Observation report from 18/03/14 19:30 - 22:00
    I noticed the 4 moons looked to be evenly spaced on one side of the planet, in order from innermost first, Io, Europa, Callisto & Ganymede. I thought this gave me a good opportunity to see how they drift relative to each other over the next few hours. I noted by the end of the session that Io & Europa had drifted to look 'close' whilst the outer 2 moons looked only slightly shifted.
    The planets disk showed in times of the worse seeing as a slightly distorted disc with the obvious but blurred equatorial belts with an appearance of lost detail bleached out to an over-exposure. In times of middle ground seeing the 2 equatorial belts showed up more clarity with blurry straight edged boundaries of various shades of muted color. Other bands and belts also showed up creating the feeling of seeing a 3D object rather than a flat 2D disk. The rewards were reaped in the times of steady seeing where deeper detail was glimpsed for around 10 seconds at a time. I noted the main equatorial belts had taken on contrast and clarity to the edge where undefined fuzzy straight lines gave way to curves and angular changes over the cream gases. The suspended motion of the darker gases on lighter cream during each brief window of glimpsing was apparent and changes in shape and positions of many features showed to have moved between these short 'tuned' in views. The Great Red Spot appeared in times of good seeing completely budded off from the nearest belt with a nice curved channel of lighter gas space between the spots darker edge and curved belt edge. I noted that this was the most defined view I have had to date of these surface features. Over the space of a few hours the details on the planets active surface had noticeably moved and changes of the shapes and positions of the features were without doubt. I noticed another feature that may have been the smaller red spot or a belt prominence that was oval in appearance.
    All in all a very rewarding session that makes me wish for that evening of long period exceptional steady seeing. The detail this scope shows when the UK weather allows is at times beautiful, and the patience in the waiting well worth while.
    Clear Skies all.
  6. jabeoo1

    Welcome All

    By jabeoo1,

    By starting this blog at least my previous written observations can be pulled together with my future ones. This makes good sense as I am quite forgetful at using my notepad at the telescope (despite having one packed in with my astro gear). This may be down to not wanting to leave the eyepiece for long or concentrate on more than a few things at once, for whatever reason it seems sensible for a digital record here, where paper pages don't get warped and discoloured by dew and dust in the dark.
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