davhei

Thermos of heavily sweetened rooibos tea for me as well. Very enjoyable to pour a cuppa and walk around a bit when the cold starts to get to me after observing for a while.

Swearing aside, it does sound like you had an enjoyable evening after all. Remembering the cloudy less than perfect nights make the really good ones that much sweeter!

Welcome Matt! I spent a lot of time with binoculars and star charts as well. Great fun.

It certainly was one of my most memorable sessions, and I agree with the feeling of being transported out in the universe!

Evening skies are getting brighter and brighter but we recently had a lucky break in the weather that gave several nights of clear skies and a moon below the horizon. I wanted to make the most of what would likely be the last dark sky session before summer and so packed my 15” dob for a trip to a neighbouring astronomy club’s scheduled observation night at their dark site. A bit of a drive so I had arranged to spend the night on a fold out sofa in one of the buildings if necessary. Set up shortly after sunset and it promised to be a fine, cloudless night with good transparency and decent humidity. When the sun was at -13 degrees or so I turned to the Coma star cluster and from there to NGC 4565 The Needle Galaxy. Shape and dust lane was visible, especially in higher magnification, but not as easily as I had recently seen it at my usual dark site. Attributed this to the object being in a brighter area of the sky for light pollution and the sun still affecting the sky somewhat. Still nice. With dark adaption improving and the sun approaching -18 degrees I turned to one of the objects I had been particularly looking forward to since getting my hands on a 15” scope last autumn. M51 high in a dark transparent sky. M51 & NGC 5195, the two cores very bright and indirect vision showed the arm/gap contrast differences, spiral structure blinking in and out. The bridge between cores faintly visible. Best view I’ve had of this object up until then. M101 core region easily visible, with contrast differences shaping out the brighter arms. The galaxy filled most of the field of view with the 14 Delos at x107. Made a quick sketch in my journal that allowed me to later identify HII-regions NGC 5450/5447, NGC 5461 and NGC 5471. M108 and M97 the Owl Nebula. Using an OIII-filter, the eyes could be subtly seen within the nebula, something I hadn’t been able to do in my 10” dob. Re-visited my favourite quasar in Draco, PG 1634+706 that at close to mag 14.6 I had just barely made out with a 10” dob from my regular dark site and quite readily with the same scope from a very good dark site. In the 15” dob from this site, that I would say was a bit better than my usual site, the quasar was easy to see and I noted a mag 15.4 field star nearby. I could have gone a few tenths deeper probably given the conditions. At this point I went over to the others making observations with the club’s big 30” scope and joined them at the eyepiece where I had a go at the following: Hickson 61, The Box. A tight galaxy cluster in Coma Berenices. All four components easily visible, the edge on galaxies shaping out the namesake box. NGC 4449, a nearby irregular galaxy similar to the LMC. Amazing view, spectacular. OB associations and HII-regions all over. Hickson 79 Seyfert’s Sextet. Tight grouping of galaxies with a clear v-shape. M51. Spiral structure almost visible with direct vision. With indirect vision you could trace the full length of each arm, with mottling and structure, all the way to the secondary core. Glorious, truly glorious. M101 Spiral arms filling the entire eyepiece, several HII-regions. Looked gigantic at the eyepiece. Amazing. M57 Made an attempt at the central star but no luck for me. Another observer said he could see it blink in and out a couple of times but it was difficult within the bright glow of the nebula. M64 The Black Eye galaxy in high magnification, filling the eyepiece. The dust lane obvious and the lane showing hints of structure. M3 fantastic in high magnification with many many resolved and surprisingly sharp stars. Time went by fast and when we saw Antares low in the south it was already well after three o’clock and people were packing up. Crawled into my sleeping bag in the sofa and got a couple of hours sleep before coffee and the drive home. Couldn’t have had a better end to the season!

Yes! I got it from a member of my astro club who built it himself twenty odd years ago. Works well and is comfortable to use seated at f4. But honestly since getting it in Sep last year I have only used it in anger from a proper dark site twice, and those within the last few weeks. Weather has been awful! I really need to explore the potential more, but so far I noted that the Flame Nebula, that has eluded me with the 10", showed up with dark lane detail without too much effort. I look forward to galaxy season proper, when Virgo is higher. I think I can make some comparisons of the CVn galaxies and the spiral structure in M51 having been through the faint fuzzies there a number of times with the 10". I had on and off entertained the idea of a larger scope (who hasn't!), but in all honesty I didn't feel like I had exhausted the 10" by any means. But when the 15" came up for sale I just couldn't pass up on the opportunity! Edit: The 10" is a keeper by the way, I think it occupies a sweet spot for a scope. Ability, ease of setup etc.

Enjoyed reading the report, thank you! Went after the same SN on Sunday evening with my 15" dob from a nearby dark site. The SN was fairly bright but only hints of the host galaxy could be seen, Hydra being quite low in the sky as you said. It was the grand final to my evening as well!

I am terribly sorry to hear that and very grateful for the knowledge he shared.

Using ephemerids from minorplanetcenter.net I managed to visually observe the near earth asteroid 2023 BU with a 15” f4 dob from my Swedish horizon. A little bit later than I expected which made me start to think I missed it but then it appeared close to the expected position . Easy to see and track, which I did for a minute or so. Very happy to have caught it! About five meters across and within the orbits of geosynchronous satellites. 3600 km above south america. https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-system-predicts-small-asteroid-to-pass-close-by-earth-this-week

Looks great! Please post a first light report and a review when you are up and running, I’d love to read those.

I observed this object as starlike at the end of August with a 10-inch dob. Found it very difficult and at the limit of my ability. Visible as an occasionally flickering point of light with averted vision, but I did manage to repeat the observation a handful of times. I would say it was visible for less than 10% of the time. I asked an experienced deep sky observer to have a look to confirm and looking through my 10 inch he confirmed he saw it as well. That made me more confident I actually saw it and that it wasn’t just a trick of the mind. This was really one of the most demanding observations I have made and I was excited to have managed it. Would like to revisit at some point with a bit more aperture.

Two plössls that came with the scope (not in use). In use and permanently residing in EP-case: One Panoptic Four Delos x2 Barlow Initially had a minimalist approach to eyepieces, and even though that’s not really the case anymore I still try to limit myself. Not just because of cost but I think if I had a wide array of EP’s I would constantly be changing eyepieces to find an optimal view instead of just relaxing and enjoying what is there. With the barlow there is a lot of choice actually but the threshold of adding it limits the number of times I use it.

Made one for my 10 inch dob from a rolled up camping mat and duct tape. Length about twice the aperture. Never had problems with secondary dew since, and I observere in quite high humidity. Great DIY mod.

I have had an interest in astronomy since I was little but apart from seeing the big comets of the 90’s, timing a few Iridium flares and casually looking up I hadn’t done any proper observing well into my thirties. Every now and then I was trying to learn more about telescope types but never really landed in which one would be best for me. You know how daunting that selection process can be. After reading somewhere about binocular astronomy and realising I had 10x50 binos at home I got a copy of the Cambridge Star Atlas and a reclining chair and started planning sessions at a dark golf course near my house. Very low threshold to get started and I found it really fun to do the planning and research to determine what objects could be seen. Learning how to use the charts, identifying brighter stars and constellations, reading up on objects beforehand. Not having done any of that before, it was really quite a challenge. I remember the feeling of how awesome it was to actually be able to pick out deep sky objects, things I had only read about before, such as the Auriga clusters, the brightest globulars and even galaxies such as M81 & M82, M33 and a few in Canes Venatici. Having read up on the objects beforehand, just seeing them, although faintly, was fantastic. They were actually there and visible if you just knew where to look! Seeing carbon star red giants stand out visually as different from other stars was fascinating and finding larger asterisms such as the Coathanger, Kemble’s Cascade and the Cheshire cat-face in Auriga was also fun, not to mention the large open clusters that actually benefit from wide field, the Hyades, Coma star cluster and the Alpha Persei cluster. Going over my log I see that I spotted Ceres and Uranus as well. I think I bagged forty Messier objects and a number of NGC’s in addition to various other objects (such as asterisms and interesting stars) over the course of a year. Today, owning a handful of scopes, it is very often not what I actually see at the EP that fascinates me but the nature of the object. I certainly believe that same feeling was stirred when bino-observing. Also, I personally find great satisfaction navigating with star charts and trying to find objects by identifying constellations and patterns. Doing so with larger scale charts and binoculars was very rewarding and I felt I learned a lot about finding my way on the night sky. Never having observed though a telescope I was not really expecting anything. I mean it was after all only ordinary binoculars. To actually be able to pick out lots and lots of astronomical objects was very effective in throwing me deeper into the astronomy rabbit hole. My expectations were a lot higher when I eventually got around to viewing through larger scopes actually. Saw quite a few at astronomy club star parties and my thoughts as a beginner was that given the difference in size compared to my binos, the difference at the eyepiece must be dramatic right? Well, if you are just starting out and depending on the object, the difference might not be that dramatic. I got a bit underwhelmed to be honest and that took a while to work through. Eventually I felt comfortable making a choice for a first scope though, a 10-inch dob and that really set me off! For me, starting out, binos were great. I still use them every now and then but since I have access to bigger scopes, those are what I reach for. Quite glad for having spent time with them before moving up. I realise it might not be for everyone though!

I recently got the Berlebach Charon chair and it is really good. Feels well built and I’m sure I will use it for a long time. I should have gotten one earlier. Had been using a foldable chair and cushions to adjust the height before.