Littleguy80

Thank you I do try to make my reports about the experience as well as the objects themselves. A good night under the stars is so much more than a list of targets observed

Thank you I had the Equinox 80 out at points but mostly it was the 10” dob.

Thanks Damian. I’ve tried for three Medusa a few times but without anything definitive. Will try again next time I can go to the dark site.

This thread lead me to go in search of Hind’s crimson star this evening. Found quite easily by star hopping from Rigel in the 9x50 finder. This is a variable star and is quite bright at the moment. The brightness leads to a more orange colour like most other carbon stars. A colour that is not dissimilar to Mars. I’ve seen this star in previous years when it’s much dimmer. It’s at these lower brightness levels that it really lives up to it’s name. A deep red, I’ve often described it as “traffic light” red in the past. It can be easy to overlook like this but once it catches your eye there’s no mistaking it. There’s not many stars that can draw your attention in their own right like this star can.

Thanks Gerry. Hopefully the skies will continue to be clear and another report will just be round the corner

Thanks Iain. Was great to have the dob out again for a couple of proper sessions. Hopefully next new moon will allow a dark site trip and an attempt at the Horsehead and Barnard's Loop.

Thank you I've had some nights where I've got fiddling with the camera and ending up feeling like I wasted a night. I did take some images of Mars last night but was determined that observing be the main part of the night!

Clear skies have been hard to come by lately but the past two evenings I've been treated to some lovely clear skies. Wednesday night, I went outside a little before 11pm, with the dob out and cooled ready for action. I saw a great meteor streak through Cassiopeia almost straight away which started the session off perfectly. After some brief observations of Mars, I was keen to make this a night of DSO's. The Great Orion Nebula being an obvious first choice. The nebula glowed green through the eyepiece with the Trapezium showing both the E and F stars through the 10mm Delos. The transparency seemed excellent. I ran my hand over the scope and it still felt dry despite being outside for some time. A very good sign! My next target was the Comet C/2020 M3 (Atlas). I'd not been able to see this on a couple of previous attempts but this time a hazy patch was spotted. Closer inspection revealed a brighter nucleus/core within the haze. The comet had been my main goal for the evening so it was great to get it early on. We have two rabbits which my children gave astronomical names. The first is named Lunar. For the second they went through a list of asteroid names and selected Flora. I noticed on SkySafari that asteroid Flora was quite bright at the moment. Some reading revealed that it's the largest innermost asteroid. It's name was proposed by John Herschel in 1847 from the Latin goddess of flowers and gardens. The rabbit Flora has proved to be an effective gardener. I spent time tracking down asteroid Flora in Cetus. I find hunting down asteroids really fun, requiring careful comparisons to the star field shown in SkySafari. I followed Flora up with another asteroid, Psyche, in Taurus. Close to psyche was a lovely pair of clusters, NGC 1807 and NGC 1817. They sit next to each like a smaller version of the double cluster. Next came the Crab Nebula, M35 and the Monkey Head nebula (NGC 2174). In Gemini, I tracked down the planetary nebula, NGC 2371. Using the TV Bandmate OIII, I worked up the magnification until I arrived at 240x with the Pentax XW 5mm. This is such a great planetary. A bright double lobed nebula which shows some variation in brightness as you look across it. A real highlight of the night. The Eskimo nebula is similarly superb with the Pentax though I prefer this without a filter so the bright central star really pops. A final visit to M42 and then it was time for bed. Thursday evening and skies were clear again. I put the dob out early so I could show my 8 year old son and 5 year old daughter Mars. While observing the red planet, my son said with a wry smile "Did you know there's a planet called Uranaus?". I replied "Yes, sometimes I look at Uranus while you're asleep". I then offered to shown him Uranus, warning him that it's "hard to find Uranus in the dark". This is comedy gold to 8 year olds. They both enjoyed seeing the ice giant too and were filled with questions such as how far away the planet is. Much later on, with the little ones safely tucked up in bed, I returned for some DSO observing. Another observation of the Comet was followed by the planetary nebula NGC 2022 in Orion. The multiple star of Sigma Orionis came next, this was superb. M42 led onto the two reflection nebula of M78 and NGC 2071. It was time for some Winter crowd pleasures. I worked my way through the Christmas Tree cluster (NGC 2264), Hubble's Variable Nebula (NGC 2261) and Hagrid's Dragon (NGC 2301). For a final challenge I hunted down the Intergalactic Wanderer globular cluster (NGC 2419). Whilst faint this showed as a nice faint patch in the 10mm Delos. It was time to pack up. I have a childhood memory of drinking tomato soup on a bonfire night. I don't remember how old I was but I just remember it tasting so good in the cold air. I warmed up some leftover tomato soup from tea in a mug and stood outside just looking up. I didn't last long before feeling the need to get my binoculars. I was pleased to confirm that I'd spotted the Beehive Cluster naked eye. It looked great through the bins. I then observed some more open clusters in the bins, M67, M37, M36, M38 and finally the Pleiades. All this while sipping the warming soup. It was just the perfect way to finish up a second night of really enjoyable observing.

Thanks John. Quite windy here but I think that helped with the transparency. Everything has come in dry so not a lot of moisture around. Really enjoyed having a night out with the telescope again.

Managed to pick this up tonight. I’d tried and failed a couple of other times under poorer conditions. Good transparency tonight. Nice hazy patch, as others described, but with a small bright core/nucleus. Quite easy to see in the 10” dob with 20mm APM HDC and then 10mm Delos. It’s been a bad run of weather lately so particularly sweet to get this.

Thanks Phil. Really helpful

My wife got me a Canon 250D as birthday present back in May. This is my first attempt at imaging Mars. Used a Star Adventurer mount, Equinox 80 refractor, Baader VIP Barlow and Neodymium filter. Processed a 15 min video using Lynkeos on my MacBook. Used around 300 images from that. Fiddled around a bit with it in Affinity Photo. Considering I don’t really know what I’m doing, I’m pleased with the end result. All feedback welcomed

Great observing, Phil. How do you find the comet filter? I’ve often wondered about getting one of those.

With my F4.7 10" dob, I mainly use a 20mm APM HDC and 10mm Delos. I have a 13mm APM HDC which sees less use. For wider views I have a 30mm ES82 which is very nice. It's good with filters for observing large diffuse nebula such as the North American Nebula. The increased exit pupil is very good here. Spend your money on the focal length that gives you a 2mm exit pupil. That eyepiece will see a lot of use. I'd suggest starting with the 21mm and 8mm. After a few sessions you should have a feel of what you're missing. It's easy to spend money on buying eyepieces to cover all possibilities but you'll inevitably end up with some eyepieces that don't see much use.

Excellent report, John. With the report in mind, I spent a long time hunting moons around Uranus. I’m confident I got Oberon. There was a mag 12 star very close to the planet that I initially thought was a moon too but SkySafari helped me to identify it a star. Another far off moon added to the list. Thanks for the inspiration

First clear skies in weeks here. I’m pleased to report I was able to spot the SN. All the images proved very helpful. A fairly easy spot using the Pentax XW 5mm at 240x. I meant to try again with the 10mm Delos but forgot. Was lovely to be out again.

Haha I’m gonna put that down to autocorrect or perhaps I hadn’t quite woken up when I wrote that 😴

Etendue is interesting but I think we have to be careful when including the eyepiece. When comparing a Lunt XWA 9mm (100 degree) vs 9mm BGO (42 degree), the BGO goes deeper. The Lunt will have the higher HET value but the BGO is higher transmission/contrast.

Agree with Gerry, superb image, Goran. Very well done. Beyond my observing and imaging skills!

Thanks Andrew. Would that make a difference with the change in aperture? Wouldn't the eye's sensitivity be a constant, taking out things like dark adaption of course.

Thanks Doug. Let me see if I#'m understanding it correctly. The surface brightness of each LED is the same but the cumulative effect leads to a bright torch. I guess this is where we get light acting as wave. The 10 LEDs add up to increase the amplitude of the light wave? The translation to the scope idea is that increasing aperture is like adding extra LEDs to the image because.....the resolution is increased? I think I get the idea with stars being point sources as you and Vlav both explained.

Does increasing aperture, increase the image brightness for a fixed exit pupil? My feeling is that the image brightness remains constant through the fixed exit pupil and the change comes in image scale, which increases. If image scale is fixed then exit pupil increases with increased aperture and a brighter image is observed. Would be interested to hear people’s thoughts on whether my understanding is correct or not. This comes from a discussion on how aperture masks work and whether they lead to a reduction in the amount of light entering the telescope. Intuitively, it seems like the answer must be yes though I’ve been told this may not be correct.

Thank you. Yes, there’s a section in IC1308 which looks very much like a butterfly. I have to admit I didn’t check if that was it’s official designation or not.

Great report, Gerry. The Instellerum Deep Sky Guide has a number of sketches of planetary nebula seen at high powers in very large scopes. The details that can be seen are truly draw dropping. I do love planetary nebula

Thanks Iain. Yep, there was a definite turning point where the dew became an issue. The dew heaters kept me going for awhile longer. I’ll have to look the dolphin up, I wonder whether that was the section of nebulosity that I haven’t identified. I forgot to mention in the report there I tried an H-Beta on the butterfly. I felt it lost a bit compared to the UHC. However, it’s a new target to me so there may have been some extra detail revealed that I missed. I’ll add the propellor to the list for next time.