oldfruit

Forecast for tonight was clear so set up the large dob in anticipation.

Wandering around the garden giving myself time to get some dark adaptation I noticed a large amount of satelites. An imagers nightmare. 

Fortunately for me tonight I am not imaging.

First up, check collimation, Castor in Gemini was really nicely split at 100x. Good image in and out of focus on bright star Capella.

On to the first object of the evening, M51 The Whirlpool Galaxy. Found the area of sky with the Telrad, looked through the eyepiece and was not there, moved a little to the left, there it is, large and well placed in the field of view, both cores very visible with the outer halo also very apparent, after a moment or two to give the view time to settle, gradually detail became more apparent, and faintly the spiral became visible with direct vision, whilst it was not jumping out at me it was there, but I had only been outside for about 15 mins and there are lights on in the house so not fully dark adapted. Will pop back to this later when the family are in bed and the street lights go off.

Next up over to Coma Berenices, the Needle Galaxy, NGC 4565. Again found the area with the Telrad, pleasantly this time the galaxy was there in the eyepiece. Bright and obvious. Long and slender in the eyepiece with the central dust lane obvious. Again had not been out for long and conditions were not yet ideal but will go back to this object also later.

So tonight I set up the EEVA rig to test and figure out settings etc.

Attached is 1 minutes worth of M3, taken with ED 80 and Altair GPCAM.  Rough I know but was very satisfying seeing M3 appear on screen after 1 exposure. A lot of work to do to iron out the niggles but nice to have captured something.

More subs or not, still a decent result and easy to identify the Ellipticals from the Spirals.

Nice image and some structure starting to show in the main galaxy. I am starting on the EEVA route myself and am amazed by what can be picked up in such short exposure times. As you say, better than can be seen visually.

Lovely report, enjoyable read and a wealth of objects observed. I have the Hidden Treasures book so will be checking these out. 

Nothing to add except wow! What a lovely detailed mage. The detail in the spiral arms is excellent with all the knots and dark lanes. This really is a superb image.

Lovely report and Images. Is your dob a goto or on an eq platform?

The reason I ask is I have a 20 inch f4 that I am cosidering buying a tracking platform for. This could potentially be used to great effect for EEVA

I have a Vixen GP mount with EQ5 goto upgrade and handset. Would this work with my set up does anyone know?

Thanks,

Mark

Excellent capture. there is some really nice detail showing in the central dust lane and you have also captured several much fainter fuzzies. Nice star colours too.

On 22/03/2021 at 15:56, John said:

A few years ago, at an SGL star party, I had the chance to observe Messier 13 with a superb 20 inch David Lukehurst dobsonian. The view was, to put it mildly, jaw dropping

The cluster completely filled the field of view and was resolved into 100's of thousands of stars right into it's core. I'll never forget that view !

 

 

 

I have to agree, the view through a 20 inch scope will blow your socks off!

3 minutes ago, John said:

Another clear night 😀

I'll see how many galaxies I can catch with my Vixen 4 inch F/6.5 tonight:

Good luck, thin cloud cover here tonight. Lovely set up.

Lovely detail in all 3 galaxies, good to hear something positive, glad you are enjoying retirement. Hoping you will have more images to share.

1 minute ago, Sunshine said:

Looks like you've kept that gold tube SW in great condition!

Bought it recently from a lovely chap that had made a special varnished wooden box for it. I must say he has really looked after it.

Trying out the new EEVA rig tonight

Really interested in this,

I have recently aquired (today) an Altair Astro GPCAM2 327C and am keen to get out with it and start imaging.

Online events or any event for that matter requires planning and with this hobby the weather is an occupational hazard. Opening the event up to an international participation group increases the chances of success. 

One of the positive outcomes from this pandemic is our ability to reach our via zoom, teams etc and contact others that we would not have previously considered.

2 hours ago, neil phillips said:

Cheers Mike.  Though this is the achromatic 120. Would love a ED

And that makes this lovely image more special

Another blowout but nice detail and colour none the less, Love the contrast in different colours. I hope you dont mind but it looks like the focus might need a slight tweak, just slight, having done this myself I know how challenging it can be to get it bang on.

Plus one for Baader fluid and microfiber cloth.

3 hours ago, Mike JW said:

NGC 6503 is in Draco. The reason for posting this galaxy is because of its lonely position in space. It is a dwarf at just 30,000 lyrs across and is a near neighbour at 17 million lyrs away. It lies right at the edge of the Local Void ( a region about 150 million lyrs of no stars or galaxies). Its classification is SAcd - H11, LINER. Its black hole is being starved of material and so emits relatively little energy, hence the LINER designation. I read that our galaxy is slowly being pulled away from the Local Void, I do not know if 6503 is being pulled away as well - how sad to think of it all alone!!! There are some wonderful Hubble images of this galaxy. I was pleased to pick up some of the lumpiness of its appearance which coincides with H11 star forming regions.

Mike

Lovely image Mike, and as you say, a lot of he "lumpiness" is showing. More data may mean more detail?

One of the great things about planetary nebula is that a number of them do display vivid colour. 

Lovely, this is a really obscure object visually. Love the dark patches of nubulosity and globs. As you say considering LP a great image.

Lovely detail. A great Image, 

Nice colours, 

Really nice image as it represents an idea of what can be seen visually under good conditions, showing the dark lanes/notches nicely, obviously without the colour when observing visually.

20 minutes ago, mdstuart said:

Planetman

18mm. It all works fine and is strong enough etc but if they were wider it would make it easier to embed rollers rather than just using the normal Teflon pads.

At some point I might make a new rocker box and bearings with thicker walls.

Mark

 

 

Just out of interest, is there a weight thresh hold where rollers would be required rather than teflon?