Littleguy80

Excellent report! Thanks for sharing. The 41 Pan sounds like a good match for short refractors.

I think you’re right. It took me a really long time to get the F star in trapezium too. I haven’t thought about an EQ platform. Part of the reason for starting with the Lunt was the larger FOV, giving me more time to try and spot Triton on each pass. Something else to investigate 👍

Thanks Bob. It’s proved really challenging but that’s part of the fun. NGC891 is a great target. It was always fainter than I thought it would be.

Thanks Stu. I haven’t done a huge amount of double star observing. I found myself wondering whether more practise with doubles would have made Triton an easier spot. Maybe observing point sources is a different skill to observing galaxies a as nd nebula?

Thank you, Chris. I think you’re right about conditions. John made a similar comment on another thread.

Thank you, Stephan. I came indoors and wrote the report straight away while it was fresh in my memory to capture the detail. You did very well with NGC891. I’ve seen it from my dark site which is well over 21 SQM on a good night. It’s really faint there. I’m always trying to get a good view of it’s famous dark lane.

Thank you. Something about Triton captured my imagination and I was determined to see it All it takes is a good mount and a lot of practise. A tracking mount would make it a lot easier but where’s the fun in that

I've just come inside from an hour and forty five minutes of observing and have but three observations to show it. The small number of observations does not tell the whole story though. I started observing around 22:20. I'd been wearing an eyepatch over my observing eye for around 15 minutes before going out to give me a jump start on dark adaption. The first observation of the evening was Comet C/2018 W2 (Africano). I'd observed this a couple of times from my local dark site when it had been very faint, just showing with averted vision. This evening it was placed next to a pair of stars that were close to Delta Andromeda. My 9mm Lunt XWA showed a fairly diffuse comet but visible even in direct vision. An excellent start. Starting from Gamma Psc, I star hopped my way down to Neptune. My goal was to observe Neptune's moon Triton. I have tried and failed to see Triton more times than I care to remember. Earlier, this very week, I'd spent over an hour trying all kinds of eyepiece and barlow combination in the hope of getting just a glimpse of the faint moon. I'd regrouped for this evening's attempt with a fresh plan. I'd use my 9mm Lunt XWA and the Baader VIP Barlow in 2" mode with three T2 15mm spacers. If my calculations were correct that gave me a multiplier of 2.64. The Lunt would be giving 352x magnification and TFOV of 0.28 degrees. I had decided to try and keep to this combination rather changing eyepieces a lot. Well after 20 mins or so of watching the pale blue disc slide through the eyepiece with no luck, I decided to change the plan. My 9mm BGO has always given better contrast and sharpness than the Lunt so I screwed in a 2-1.25" adapter and started to use the ortho. The TFOV was now halved to only 0.11 degrees. My 10" dob is only manual so this did make tracking a bit more challenging. Time moved on and still no sign of Triton. I decided to throw some more magnification at it. The 9mm BGO was replaced with a 6mm. Things were getting serious now, 528x mag and down to 0.08 degrees TFOV. A few more passes and nothing. I decided to target a specific point above the planet rather than moving my eye around in search of the correct position. On the next pass a dim glow above and to the left of Neptune. My heart quickened. Two more passes and nothing. Then on the third came the same dim glow. It was farther away from Neptune that I'd expected. I set SkySafari up to show the FOV based on my eyepiece/barlow combination. The position of the glow looked good for Triton's position. Once again a few more passes with nothing and then the glow was found again in the same spot. I popped the 5mm BGO, 634x magnification. Tracking was tricky and I couldn't see the glow. I dropped back down to the 7mm Meade RGO, a mere 453x, on adjusting focus a clearer view came through and then more passes with nothing again. My eyes felt tired now so I stopped and just looked up for a couple of minutes. On returning to Neptune, the pattern of seeing nothing and then every few passes catching a dim glow above the ice giant continued. After awhile the glow was lost completely. Looking up showed that hazy cloud was now passing over and the rising Moon was starting to make its presence felt too. I returned to Comet Africano but it was now hidden by the thin cloud and Moon glow. Time to call it a night. Did I see Trition? Not in any satisfactory way but it's the first time that I really felt like it was there. This observation felt like a range finder. I've found the right combination of equipment and know what to expect. With darker skies, I'm sure my views of Triton can be greatly improve upon.

I actually find that quite reassuring. I spent over an hour trying to see it one night this week. Tried lots of different eyepieces plus some with the Baader VIP and no joy. Titan is becoming a nemesis for me. I’ll keep trying though!

Thank you. I have similar plans to use narrowband filters to hunt for nebulae. Look forward to hearing your impressions for the Panoptic

I’m thinking about getting an eyepiece in the region of 40mm to give maximum exit pupil in my 80mm refractor. The Vixen LVW 42mm is a contender. The 41mm Panoptic is a pricier and heavier option. Based on the specs I found the Panoptic is lighter than the ES82 30mm which I can use comfortably with the 80mm refractor. What experience do others have with these or any other eyepieces when used with a small frac? Particularly interested in contrast and transmission. I haven’t got anything in mind around AFOV at the moment.

Thank you both! Apologies Iain for filling your thread with questions. Hopefully it will prove useful to others too.

Isn’t funny how your preconceptions can be turned around. They say aperture is king and yet it’s the 80mm frac rather than the 10” dob that is coming out as the tool of choice for this faint target.

The frac is F6.2. The ES82 30mm is the longest FL eyepiece I have. Works great on the Veil with the Lumicon OIII in the frac. I used the same eyepiece with the dob for the Horsehead. FOV is a bit big bit got the job done. I now have a 25mm TV Plossl which should be better suited for the HH. I’m certainly happy to spend some pennies on a LV 42mm or similar to get at the loop. When I did looked at the numbers on an eyepiece around 40mm I was put off by the low mag but I guess that’s probably what you want for something as big as the loop?

I haven’t tried anything at that focal length. Big exit pupil makes sense though. It’s worked well for me with the dob. The Equinox 80 is a little faster than F7 though. Would that be an issue?

Would the widefield frac be the better choice for this over the dob?

Looking forward to trying for this over the winter. I managed a maybe last winter but have another years experience behind me now.

Thanks Stephan. I've not heard it described in terms of signal to noise ratio before. Really good explanation!

I've often thought of it like meditation too. The total focus just makes everything else disappear including time. Hours seems to pass like minutes at the eyepiece. That's an interesting one. I have tended to have a bit more movement to try and catch sight of objects. The advantage seems to be finding the right spot for my eye to catch sight. I'm happier to stare at higher power when the target has a bit more movement as it drifts through the eyepiece. Perhaps something I need to work on @Rob Sellent Great response. I love the comparison to writing. I can definitely relate to that feeling of rushing. I've gotten much better with that as I've gained experience. I'm often surprised at the apparently low number of targets I've observed at the end of the session. Always feels like I've seen more which I think is a goo sign. Completely agree with this. I normally spend quite a bit of time comparing star fields to SkySafari to make sure I'm in the right spot

It’s always fascinated me that experience and skill can affect what can be seen through the eyepiece. After all, if it’s there you should see it, right? The answer would appear to be no. Setting aside sky conditions and equipment, how do you train your eye to see more detail? I started astronomy using a 130mm scope and built myself from brighter targets and started to push for fainter and fainter objects. I remember struggling to see the intergalactic wanderer NGC2419 with that scope. After many attempts I finally found it. I have often wondered whether challenging myself to go deeper with smaller aperture has improved my eye for faint DSO observing now I use a larger 10” dob. There’s certainly an element of technique. Mastering adverted vision is tricky in the early days. The eye wants to snap to direct vision when the object appears in averted vision. Fighting that instinct is tricky. Gently nudging the scope to pick out faint targets has also become second nature now. The movement drawing out the change in contrast. Experience comes in through knowing what to expect when looking through the eyepiece. Deviations from the expected hint at the fainter object waiting to be discovered. Repeat observations can start to bring more detail. A mental image is built. I do have some aides. I use an eyepatch and an observing hood and like to observe whilst seated. All stray light is blocked out and I can sit still and comfortable. These undoubtedly help when searching for the fainter DSOs. I don’t really understand how the eye and mind are working together to make this happen. There are many great deep sky observers on this forum who can see much deeper than I. The secret, as far as I can tell, is practise and experimentation. I’d love to hear from anyone who can explain the how and why of training your eye to deeper when observing DSOs.

My Astro society has a public open night on Friday. An older lady had a look at M31 and was moved to tears. Seeing the Andromeda Galaxy was apparently something on her bucket list. Made me realise how much I take seeing some of these things for granted now.

Great post, Iain. Jupiter and Saturn have been popular with friends and family this summer. I find that the Owl cluster NGC457 is always popular with kids. The parents normally prefer it with it’s American designation of the ET cluster. My Dad was particularly taken with M57 when he joined me at my local dark site one evening. M81 and M82 also made an impact that evening. My eldest daughter, like your parents, enjoyed the double cluster.

Wonderful report. You’ve inspired me to give this a go in my 10” dob. Excellent observing skills

Excellent report, Stephan. Like you, I love the freedom of the manual dob plus the challenge of finding objects manually. However, there are certainly times where a tracking mount would be nice. It was the comment on changing eyepieces at high power that I really related to! Although I do have the Nagler Zoom now which has solved that problem for the most part.

Looks like it’s been designated AR2748. Couldn’t find it in WL this morning. Will be interesting to see how it’s showing in HA