Natty Bumpo

Thank you, Craig. Yes, this is the FCD100 triplet. It is a tough get on the very first few days of the phase. I wish my seeing conditions had been better for better focus on this one. I know I could do video capture, but I enjoy working to catch a frame. 😊

Fairmount, Illinois 10 OM 4/13 - 3 AM 4/14 Meade 8 inch SCT Docter 12.5 TV 22 Pan Celestron 40mm Swarovski 10X30 binoculars A chilly night, 32°f by the time a called the game. Fortunately there was no breeze. No moon and a high transparency lured me out for some galaxy nabs and a few globs and an OC or two. I mounted my Meade LXD 75 8 on the LXD mount and spent 45 frustrating minutes trying to get an acceptable alignment. I didn't need high precision but I needed enough so as not to require a fiddle with every go-to. Not sure why it took so long. Although seeing was poor, the high transparency, the moonless sky, and the 10 inch glass yielded very satisfactory views of these galaxies, etc. M49 a mag 9.4 elliptical galaxy in Virgo was a small glowing orb appearing more round than oval. M59 a mag 9.8 elliptical galaxy in Virgo. Presented a discernable oval form of dusty glow with no definition in the arms. M61 a mag 10.1 barred spiral galaxy in Virgo presenting a glowing oval and star point core with no other definition. M62 a mag 6.2 globular cluster in Ophiucus presenting a dull glow. M63 a mag 9.3 spiral galaxy in Canes Venatici. This one appeared rather dim. M64 mag 9.4 in Canes Venatici. Not much definition. A slightly Irregular shaped glow. M65 mag 10.3 an intermediate spiral galaxy in Leo. M66 this was in a rich field of galaxies...a thin glow. Part of the Leo Triplets. M67 is a mag 6.1 open cluster in Cancer. Visually poorly populated. I don't think I resolved all the stars here. Mostly separated brighter stars resolved. M81 a mag 6.9so called grand design spiral galaxy in Ursa Major This one was large a bright with a star like core. M82 otherwise "The Cigar Galaxy" at mag 8.4 was a nice view in Ursa Major with a well defined long skinny oval shape with a string of brightness down its center. M86 an elliptical galaxy in Virgo. Mag 9.8. M84 is an elliptical galaxy in Virgo. This one presented as rather dim at mag 9.8. M87 mag 9.6. is an elliptical galaxy Virgo. Bright core. M89 at mag 10 is another elliptical galaxy in Virgo. M4 mag 5.9. A globular cluster in Scorpius.This was a great view of M4 with nice stars and that character a bar of stars striking through the middle of the cluster. I stayed on this for a few minutes longer. M80 is a nag 7.8 globular cluster in the Scorpius. This one is relatively near M4 but is very subdued. It presented as a small glowing object. M107 is loose globular cluster Ophiuchus. M3 a mag 6.2 globular cluster Canes Venatici. I think this was my visual highlight for the night. It was BIG and resolved wonderful stars and a very bright and dense core. M51 M51 was filling 2/3 of my fov. Two sharp core points and with averted vision the galaxies interacted nicely but there was not a great deal of definition in the arms. Viewed nearly at zenith, I was a little surprised I was hoping for more definition. I think the poor seeing may have been the culprit. M104 In 2017 this was the first galaxy I ever observed. Mag 8.9. This galaxy is in Virgo just north and East of Corvus. The best visual I have had of the "Sombrero" galaxy. Resolved some faint bar down the middle. M85 mag 10, An elliptical galaxy in the Coma Berenices. As I entered my long drive I pulled over and got out with my Swaros. I leaned against the van and took another look at M4 in the lesser glass then slid along the scorpion's tail to view M6 and M7. I scanned along and viewed several other lights without bothering to identify them, just relaxing there in the cold, finishing of my outing with pure unencumbered visual pleasure. I arrived home at 3am and I was chilled to the bone...😊 This image is strictly a visual note to myself. 😊

Captured April 26, 2020 ES127 f 7.5 2X Barlow Nikon d810 camera Single frame

I am running a "Note8". I have no external control software. I have pretty good in cam controls. I can shoot up to 10 seconds. I wish I had a bulb setting. The note8 also has some pretty good editing software in the phone.

Samsung Galaxy 8 8 sec ISI400

Thank you Scarp and Mark for your encouraging comments. I enjoy binocular astronomy very much. It is my goto for a relaxing pleasure cruise on the river Alph. "In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure-dome decree : Where Alph, the sacred river, ran through caverns measureless to man Down to a sunless sea." –Kubla Khan, Samuel Taylor Coleridge Cheers!

September 27-28, 2019 Rural Dark Site Fithian, Illinois. USA 40.009685,-87.832128 Elevation 670 ft Pentax 8.5X43 Oberwerk 25X100 2100-0100 Transparency was very good all evening. Seeing average at 2100 but improved through the evening. Pickering 3 at outset increased to 4 by 2300. Henry and I had a grand outing at our Fithian dark site. Henry imaged with his Quatro and I lounged with my binoculars. At midnight when NGC7000 was nearly at zenith I made the observation free handing my Oberwerks 25X100 binoculars reclining in my ZG chair. Easy peasy... I attempted to render a sketch as closely as I could to the contrasts which I was actually viewing. Before it was all over I had spent the evening in what amounts to "Birdwatcher Astronomy". I bounced around and followed a meandering trail of "pickups" as I enjoyed the binoculars. Sometimes the 25X100s were mounted on the tripod. Sometimes the 25X100s were free handed in the recliner. And sometimes a wondered with the 8.5X43s. In fact I often use the 8.5X43s as finders for the big guns. When I ran upon an item a went to the 25X100 for a closer view. Once in a while the 25X200 constructed the field too much...Collinder 65 is an example of this situation. This OC revealed most fully in the 8.5X43 Pentax NGC752 OC Open cluster in Auriga M33 Spiral galaxy in Triangulum. Presented is a dusty irregular oval with faint brightness increase at the center. No defined structure revealed. This is a very low contrast view in the 25X100s. LAGOON NEBULA, Messier 8 in Sagittarius. Pleasing nebulisity. WILD DUCK Messier11. Open cluster in Scutum. SATURN Bare minimum of resolve of Saturns rings. JUPITER Visual observation only. M2 Globular cluster in Aquarius. M30 Globular cluster in Capricornus. M29 Ooen Cluster in Cygnus. NGC 7000 Bright Nebula in Cygnus North American Nebula This is revealed to me as a faint cloud somewhat shrouded to the north in a myriad star field standing out by contrast to its background in the south. Hyades, Mel 25 This is a well known 330 arcmin Open Cluster in Taurus. I always enjoy this Cluster. NGC1647 Open cluster in Taurus northeast of Albebaran and the Hyades cluster. NGC1746 Open cluster in Taurus east of NGC1647 CR65 Collinder 65 Ooen cluster in Taurus CR69 12:43 AM Open Cluster in Orion with the star Meissa north and East of Bellatrix. So there it is. We had fun. We ate some sandwiches. We Snapped some pictures. Henry shared his views with me and I shared my views with him. Clear skies.

On my last binocular outing I was able to observe NGC7000. I have attempted to illustrate the contrast as I observed it, but I think the sketch may have more contrast than the actual view. The orientation is correct as viewed. observed with 25X100 Oberwerk binoculars hand held while reclining in zero gravity chair.

I am not sure of a trend, but I do see constant AP activity across the forums. The following sums up for me my point if view on Visual Observation. Visual astronomy is where you stick your eyeball on the opening of that little glass piece on the southern end of your telescope and soak up photons in your retina. You're just sitting there quiet but for the occasional gasp of delight. It is an intimate activity. It is, on its face, a one way conversation wherein we allow a particular part of the universe to physically enter our body through our eye, or eyes, as the case may be. And for the earliest astronomers it was a profound intercourse with a vast mystery. Today as we post ourselves in the dark behind our instrument we have the experience of "listening" with our eyes to the story written large in time and space of beginning, continuance, and ending. It is the grand metaphor of our tiny personal existance. It is a renaissance of the mind were we rediscover our humanity in the inanimate light. These are my peculiar thoughts, as I sit in the dark and listen, unable to willfully respond, passively reflecting the tiniest fraction of this light from the surface of my glistening eye. But there is nothing original in that reflection. It is what has come to me from without. In speaking to you of what I see I find a mere approximation of what has happened to me. If I describe to you the mechanics of the experience, the physicochemical activity of my eye, it would not do. So I speak in a crude translation of what has changed within me as a result. There the motion and velocity of thought, which is another mechanism of organized chemistry and matter, cascades in symbols of sound. And this must again iterate in a further translation through ear and in your mind. And just so we convert light into thought. It is always a pleasure to read here the observing accounts of data. But it is thrilling to read the account of one struggling to express the change that has occurred in ones self as a result of the seeing. Ok. So where is the practical in all of this palaver? With AP we have a product. It is now an image preserved, ready to share. After all a picture is worth a thousand words. And there it is. The seeing is worth a thousand words. The eye must engage. But here is the rub We have not seen the thing. We have seen another kind of estimation of the thing perturbed by the biases of the camara. It is no longer intimate. The product of observational astronomy is intimacy.

Thank you for a fine report. I have enjoyed following along. "Caroline’s Rose: Next, and with the low power still in, I wandered up to Cassiopeia. I could see the dark lanes in this open cluster; I sort of get it as a rose but it doesn’t quite leap out and grab me." Carolina's Rose is one of my favorite jewels. In good skies this is a sparkling delight to me. It seems almost fragile in the fineness of good resolution. Thanks again .

These Oberwerks do allow me the use of filters with the threaded oculars. This does help, although I did not use them on this outing.

You have worked very hard on this. I do not run a Dob, but I imagine keeping up with the field at this magnification takes experience and skill. Thank you for the detailed report.

September 9, 2029 Penfield Dark Site Illinois, USA 1:13 AM CST Latitude 40.4586 Longitude: -87.9 Elevation: 224 feet. RA 23h 04m 56.6s[ Dec +12° 19′ 22″ NGC 7479 is a tough binocular target. This magnitude 11ish spiral galaxy in Pegasus was not a difficult hop, but it was a difficult Get! I went out with Pentax 8.5X43 thinking to gain some aperture over the Swaro 10X30 from my prior bino outing. That dog just would not hunt. 😊 I mounted my 25X100 Oberwerks with a 2.4°field on the tripod and went to work. From a centered Alpha Peg, Markab, I moved 1/2 field of view southwest, about 1.2°. From here I centered HD217427 From Ski Safari 5 it now looked as though I could drive toward my southern horizon another full field, 2.4° and I would be on NGC 7479. This was not immediately obvious. Between HD218430 and 52Peg, more toward HD218430, one faint star, TYC1163-0994-1, resolved. Acording to Ski Safari 5 this is a mag11.25 star so maybe this is NGC7479 and I am mistaking for a star. At any rate, with averted vision a was able to catch a slight uptick of light that seemed to include this starlike object. I was able to catch this bloom several times throughout my examination. It did not reveal every time. The bloom appeared in the 10 o'click position of this starpoint of light. Upon our after action examination of the quick image capture we discovered this area has many galaxies in the field I called it good. I definately need to come back to this with my AR152 and a 7mm Pentax XW on another good night of transparency. It is amazing how deep these Oberwerks can go with a decent ski. My astronomy body snapped this single frame just for the record with Canon 80d and ES127 APO on SWEQ6 mount. Cheers.

Jupiter 7 13 2019. Meade LXD75 8 NIKON D 810 PRIME.

This us a single frame. I use CS5 to add a 1 pixel blur to smooth the image to taste and increased saturation a tiny bit. I did capture about 20 frames but at this point I am stacking by hand and the stack did not look as good as the single frame. I realize more data and stacking will help. I also need to improve my focus. The sky would not tolerate more magnification than the 12.5 KK would provide. Which was around 160X if my calculation is correct. It may be a tad more with the camera. The sky was mitigated by the moon on this night as well as mediocre seeing conditions. Thank you for looking and commenting

This is my first attempt at planetary imaging. Captured with Nikon D810 behind a 12.5 mm KK Orthoscopic mounted in my Meade LXD75 8 SCT. 1/8 second ISO 800

Captured the Moon the other night with my Nikon D810 mounted on my ES127FCD. Rendered in Photoshop.

Yes I have a flatland, unobstructed view. I have been lacking consistantly clear skies so this outing was a great pleasure.

June 10, 2019 Oakwood, IllinoisNew Dark PadTonight the neighbors were not up to the rigor of late night observing. No problem.Everett and I got our kit together and were on the pad by 9:30. It was not dark yet.The moon was bright, but the sky was clear and we had about 3/4 of a cup of seeing which I suspected would not last passed midnight. I was correct in this prognostication, but by 1:00 AM the moon was gone and even though the seeing was not quite as I would have liked it to be we had a good time and I viewed some nice Gems.We began with the moon when the setting sun was still bleeding a beautiful cerise stain about 15 degrees above the western horizon. The moon was in the blue and I drove the SW100 Evostar into line. The TV 22Pan gave just the right field of view to fill the young mans eyeball and cause him to give an understated grunt followed by, "That's really cool grampa!"Everett enjoyed the sharp definitions along the terminator and eventually he snapped a few shots with my cell phone. After some time burning our retinas on the secondary sunlight reflecting from the moon we called an end to the torture and talked about what we should go for as the darkness fell. Everett picked Jupiter out of the sky very quickly and without any coaching from me. He even took a snap of Jupiter just for the heck of it. It is such a pleasure to impress a nine year old ! At this point I began my rooting routine...you know...like a pig does in the woods looking for truffles, and Everett took a seat in the chair we had brought with us. But he did not stay in the chair long. I must have forgotten how much 9 year olds wiggle, and dance, and tap their feet, get up....walk around humming, sit down again and then ask if it's time to go yet. Well, now I remember. But I have to give him a lot of credit because my rooting and futzing around looking for stuff and then identifying unknowns is completely boring for the one who is sitting waiting for a show.After a bit I decided that Saturn had risen enough to view and ran the SW100 over to the low southeast. Well that was satisfying for a while and then Everett sat down again.Before I knew it the clock on my phone read 12:30 and I had bagged a few of my old friends in Scorpius and Sagittarious, and made a new friend, or at least one I did not remember, IC 4665 which is a nice open cluster in Ophiuchus. Of all that I viewed M22 in Sagittarius was the most alluring. There were The Ptolomy Cluster, The Butterfly Cluster, The Lagoon Nebula, M4, M80, M22, M25, and the Sag Star Cloud. All were a delight, but I spent a lot of time on M22 and even swapped out my SW100 for my ES127 APO to see how much I could squeeze out of this one. M22 presented me with a basket of sharp diamonds overlaying a fluffy pillow of the unresolved. The distribution of the brighter stars was very uniform and broad even with direct vision. But of course averted vision caused the field to bloom even more and almost grow half again in expanse. This really was the catharsis for my Monday. I was very pleased and relaxed.Unfortunately Everett had fallen fast a sleep in that chair and maybe I was too selfish to wake him up in my reverie. But we will have other outings and he will get older and I hope grow to appreciate this activity in some way as I do. If not, none of this is wasted.At 2:30 I quietly packed up and then woke Everett for the short drive back to the house. Cheers and peace to you all.