Mike JW

Bill, really interesting galaxy. There is a catalogue of Polar Ring Galaxies - Sloan Polar Ring Catalogue but I have no idea how many have NGC numbers. We do of course already have the Ring Galaxy Thread for ring galaxy observations. Polar ring galaxies are so called because the ring of orbiting stars/dust is very inclined to the ecliptic of the galaxy. I shall certainly take a look at this galaxy. Mike

Last night I completed my tour of Pegasus Hickson Groups. Hickson 99 (also known as VV 854) is a collection of 5 galaxies. Galaxy 'a' appears to have a double core - actually a line of sight star. Hickson 'c' looks suspiciously like a ring galaxy and in proper images it clearly has an outer ring and probably a bar. 'a', 'b' and 'c' are around the mag 14/15 but 'd' and 'e' are mag 17. They all have a similar redshift. Hickson 96 (Arp 182, VV343). The lovely spiral 'a' is NGC 7674 and has a ring. It is given the designation as being peculiar - not obvious why until you view high resolution images - two lovely extending star trails from the northern side, like the antennae from an insect. The other bright galaxy is 'b', is NGC 7675 and is 4 million lyrs nearer - a true galaxy pair interacting gravitationally but the tails of 7674 could be caused by the interaction with the small galaxy 'c' just to the north and is about 5 million lyrs away. Hickson 94 (Arp 170, VV 181) appeals to me because of the mess of 'a', 'b' an 'd' as well as the faint PGC galaxies in the fov. Hickson 93 (Arp 99) is made up of 5 galaxies. 'a' (NGC 7550) and 'b' (NGC 7549) are Arp 99. NGC 7750 is being seriously disrupted due to its interaction with 7549 and also nearby 'c' (NGC 7547) - stars are being pulled out/flung out all over the place - not the place for a quiet weekend!! Finally we come to Hickson 92 (Arp 319, VV 288) -Stephan's Quintet. What a fantastic image by the JWST a few weeks back. Mike

M 1-67 lies in Sagitta and is not strictly speaking a PN. The central star is a Wolf Rayet and has shed some material but it has yet to go bang and create the classic PN. It could be classed as a Wolf Rayet Nebula. It would appear to have two shells which are expanding at about 100,000 mph. The big blast of material happened about 10,000 years ago and has created glowing blobs of gas/dust. Mike

Abell 62 in Aquila is a tiny PN, magnitude 14.8. It lies about 1600 lyrs away. Colour images show a definite outer ring but very hard to identify the central star. Mike

I tried again last night for Abell 59 in slightly better conditions - see below. Not really any better, so this looks like as good as I can get it

I am always interested to se what can be done using the night vision technique. So important to enjoy the sky as you obviously did. Have fun Mike

Hi Jim, Sadly so no one camera will do it all, just as no one telescope will do it all. You will have noted as you have looked through the EEVA reports thread that excellent EEVA can be done with a 8" Newtonian. Quite frankly don't go for planetary EEVA - an 8" scope gives decent visual views of the key planets - namely Jupiter and Saturn. Venus only has subtle detail and Mars is really best viewed when it is at its closest to Earth. EEVA offers little if any gain for planetary viewing if wishing to be "live". Best focal ratio is as you realise, the faster the better but don't get hung up about it. (When I was using my C9.25 for EEVA I was using it at F6 ). Colour cameras are less sensitive than mono and why go for colour anyway - the colour is as we know not real, other than perhaps for stars. Colour is excellent for picking out planetary nebulae. I use the ultrastar guide camera by Starlight Express (not cheap but large pixels and a decent size chip). If you go for a pixel camera then they are less sensitive than bigger pixel cameras. The key factor for me buying the ultrastar was that it is eyepiece size and thus I would not have any reaching focus issues as it slides into the focuser on my Newtonian (Dob). Martin and Bill use the lodestar v2 starlight cameras (cheaper, smaller chip and larger pixels) and get excellent results using their 8" Dobs (they are faster Newtonians than yours). Martin has written the software called Jocular which is specifically for EEVA and is very intuitive and easy to use. It gives excellent results with the minimum of fuss. You will see many examples of the results in the thread. I started with a cheap CMOS camera (eyepiece diameter) on a small scope at first to test the waters and then graduated to the current camera once I felt confident about abandoning visual observing. Others will have different views to mine - all part of the pleasure of the hobby/journey. Mike

Abell 59 - a somewhat faint PN in Sagitta was a challenge I could not resist. I have not been able to find anything about it. Below is my attempt. Look to the left of the label Abell 59 and just below a pair of stars is the beginning of a faint arc of fuzz - this corresponds to the brighter section of this PN. Must do better next time - really need darker and more transparent skies and probably run the camera for longer but I enjoyed the challenge. This PN is probably one for the true imagers. Mike

Hickson 100 lies on the Pegasus/Pisces border. The brightest galaxy is NGC 7803 - a lenticular with a mag of around 13.1. It lies just 4 million lyrs away from Hickson b - a bit like us and M31. The pair are around the 243-247 million lyrs away. Galaxies c and d (mag15/16) are about 10 million lyrs further out and are about 6 million lyrs apart. The group of four galaxies that make up Hickson 100 are presumably gravitationally linked. Mike

Hi Steve, No problem posting this side of the pond. Rather a fine set of captures and I like your idea of showing an object using different filters, although I am not sure of the significance of the different filters in terms of what it reveals about the particular DSO. Martin/myself tried to set up quite a few threads to cover different DSOs, in an attempt to keep observations together. There is a thread for PNs - Planetary Nebulae EEVA style. Also where possible it is good to add observational details, rather than simply post an image (hence my interest in your images with different filters). By adding observational details, facts, maybe links to research papers it then makes EEVA more worthwhile through the encouragement to observe, learn about the DSO - in contrast to posting an image and not making any observational comments. I shall look forward to your next observations. Cheers, Mike

Hi Roel, As always , thank you for adding in your shots. I much prefer the monocrhome - some good detail in that shot. Cheers, Mike

Hi Martin, The online images I have found are zoomed in shots and show stars I have not picked up. Below is my landscape view - same orientation as the previous posted zoomed in views.

Arp 28 (NGC 7678) (VV 359 - a peculiar galaxy) is to be found in Pegasus. Dr Arp put it in his group of Spiral Galaxies with a heavy arm and it lies about 140 million lyrs away. Colour images show it to be quite blue - it is a starburst galaxy and a Seyfert 2 (luminous nucleus), classified as SAB(rs)c. The heavy arm is the straight/wide arm leading down to the star and I just picked up a couple of star forming regions. The arm going left to right/up also tends to be straight and again I picked up some of the star forming regions. The galaxy has an extensive fainter halo - hinted at in my shot. Presumably this galaxy has had a close encounter to cause the straightened arms and starburst. Mike

At last I have had a go at trying to see if I could get a image of Einstein's Cross. Earlier in the thread I suggested it could be doable; now I am less certain. In the early hours, milky way spreading across the sky, mag 5.5 stars easily visible, skies fairly steady - it seemed worthwhile to get up and point the 15" Dob at it. First shot below is the galaxy PGC 69457 which is doing the lensing of the distant galaxy - the core is too washed out to show any potential bright spots of the cross. No matter how I fiddle with the settings in Jocular this is the best I can do. Whilst looking through the individual subs I spotted the one below: with a bit of imagination there is a hint of the cross???!!!! - we see what we wish to see!!! Below is the same sub processed in photoshop - might there be a hint of the cross? Certainly not going to claim there is. Conclusion: the only chance I can think of to pick up Einstein's Cross with my set up would seem to be a very transparent night (mag 5.7 stars easily visible) and rock steady skies. Highly unlikely combination from where I observe. Interesting to have tried. Mike

Well done. Do you realise in the second image you have just picked up the central star. I rarely was able to see that even with my 20" Dob. Mike

With the various Dobs that I have owned I always reckon to choose a low power eyepiece that will give around the 1 degree fov. That covers most star clusters and does well on many large nebulae but there will always be a compromise between increasing aperture and consequent reduction in fov. I started with an 8" which was blown out of the water by the 12", which in turn easily out done by a quality 15", then my 20" made the 15 look pathetic. Finally a mates 24" made the 20" look a bit pedestrian. Scopes up to 18" are reasonably portable. Beyond that it gets problematic. The ultralight versions of the Dob design are very prone to condensation in this climate so I stayed away from them. If you can fit a 12" into your car then that is what I would suggest. Quality will always win out both for scope and eyepieces. Mike

Hi CKP, 1. Check out what weight the AZGTI can carry - I think it can only carry up to 5kg, thus weight of scope/rings/mounting plate/camera does not want to exceed this weight. 2. I only have experience of lodestar/ultrastar camera but be aware that colour cameras are much less sensitive than a mono camera. I have never got into colour - personally I prefer mono unless viewing planetary nebulae and star clusters. 3. Do not assume the camera will be able to reach focus with your scope. I currently use a Dob and that limits me to which camera I can choose. Refractors and SCTs can accommodate all cameras as they have a large focus range. Mike

I very much agree with Geoff's advice. There is definitely not a single best set up, so to start with what you have keeps costs down and in the process much experience is gained. (This is what I did - even borrowed a camera at first to try on my 5" scope) Mike

Hi, I was fascinated by the video. Do you already have a telescope? The set up shown in the video is wonderfully portable but with such a small scope you might quickly find it is somewhat limiting. Mike

I am using the NEXUS handset/software with my scope. I have no knowledge of Stellarium. After doing the two star alignment objects are likely to be in the fov for a wide field eyepiece. My set up allows me to then refine the accuracy of the pointing by syncing on further stars. Often I will choose the second alignment star in a constellation of interest for the session and the objects will be in the fov in that area. However if go off to a very different part of the sky the object may be on the edge of the fov or even outside it so by choosing a third star in the area my set up becomes more accurate for that area - essential with the narrow fov of the camera. This sounds like your Pointing Accuracy Enhancement. Mike

Hi Peter, and so your journey begins and no doubt a few more frustrations lie ahead (I remember oh too well.....), Aligning for me using the camera view - tried it but so much quicker using visual. I always do two star visual alignment, then GOTO a star in the region of interest (where I hope to observe various DSOs) and sync to this star visually, sometimes do a fourth star. Then using the synced star, I pop in the camera and sort out focus and that is me set up for the session. For DSOs I would suggest go for Messiers and bright NGC objects at first as you sort out technique/software. Good luck, Mike

Well done Rob, you are on a roll now. Mike

Rob, check you have the binning info correct - go into configure menu. See below for my set up. I mostly use no binning but if I use 2x2 binning then I must change things in the binning section Mike

Hi Rob, To illustrate Steve's platesolve comment. Just loaded up the subs for my 7331 Next I hit plate solve and note how the image has been automatically rotated and check out bottom right where plate solver confirms it has solved the image Next I have moved the slider that says 'off' on the outside of the ring and you get more and more objects being highlighted with circles and also the label NGC 7331 added. This is very useful because it is indicating a variety of objects for further investigating. I then clicked on the objects that interested me and up comes the label. When I had done that I moved the slider back to where it says PIN and hey presto they are now pinned. (any object that I click on to bring up the label can have its label removed by clicking on it before returning to PIN). and finally your shot shows that lovely wide field view and mine gives the close up view and more detail - always great when people add in their shots using different gear - it adds to the interest of the observation. Mike

Hi Ian, The camera chip will most likely need to be at around the 100mm mark from the reducer. Mike