Observing Report - Mainly Saturn plus Hercules

[Moonshane]

Date 24/4/2011

Equipment OOUK 12" f5.3 and 6" f11 Dobs.

My brother-in-law and his partner were round last night and he has a scope himself so I decided to set up both mainly so we could have a good look at Saturn as the conditions seemed better than they have for a while. This proved a good decision as the views of Saturn were the best I have ever had tonight.

After the ringed planet rose a little out of the low murk, the image was quite stunning. It held rock steady at 200x and without the usual wavering in and out of focus. I could push to 229x easily and this ultimately provided the best views. For 'a laugh' I tried my 6-3mm Nagler zoom and the image at 267x was good but not as sharp and even at the 3mm end 533x, detail was still discernible; the equatorial platform helped a bit at these magnifications

The Cassini division was very obvious in both scopes as was the brighter part of the inner main ring. I was surprised that I could also see a grey misty area tucked inside each 'elbow' of the rings and thought this may be the Crepe Ring. Further observation and reference to other members has made me 100% happy that I was seeing this feature; a new one for me. The various bands in the northern half of the disk were very pronounced as was the black line which edges the rings top and bottom as they cross the disk. It's not often you get images of a planet that literally take your breath away and force a conversation with yourself ("what the??"........."absolutely stunning mate"..........."my god"....etc) but this happened tonight. I tried to identify any storm areas but could not definitely say I saw them.

The image in the 6" was certainly more defined more of the time than in the 12" but somewhat dimmer. The image in the 12" was a lot brighter (as you'd expect) and less stable but when the detail did kick in the brightness combined with the detail was incredible. Don't ever believe that good planetary images are not possible with decent aperture in a fast newt.

In terms of moons, I almost forgot to look as the main planet was so incredible. I managed to confirm Titan, Dione, Rhea, and Tethys. Probably saw Mimas too but not certain. Iapetus was so far out I did not even check there! The moons were much more obvious with more aperture.

After the Saturn observing I though I would have a go at some old favourites and do a 'tour' of Hercules as it was well positioned.

The transparency was a bit hit and miss but I managed to track down M81 & M82 in Ursa Major and just about M51 and NGC5195 in Canes Venatici. M65 and M66 in Leo were also located but it was clearly not a night for galaxies despite the absence of Luna.

Beehive Cluster M44, in Cancer was nice in my small binoculars before it disappeared West.

It's always nice to see Lyra back in the sky and I looked at Epsilon Lyrae the double double and achieved a good split in both scopes. M57 the Ring Nebula was excellent in the 12" dob and too magnification well to 200x. Another few favourite doubles noted were Epsilon Bootis Izar, Gamma Leonis Algieba and of course Alcor and Mizar in Ursa Major.

Then to my tour of Hercules. I used Illustrated Guide to Astronomical Wonders: From Novice to Master Observer DIY Science: Amazon.co.uk: Robert Bruce Thompson, Barbara Fritchman Thompson: Books which gives great lists of targets by constellation and excellent finding instructions.

First on the list for anyone looking at Hercules would generally be the globular cluster M13, the Great Hercules Cluster. A stunning object in anyone's estimation. I then moved to the other GC in Hercules, M92. I actually prefer this cluster for some reason. It is more compact and tight but both clusters easily revealed hundreds/thousands of stars resolved, especially with averted vision.

I then located the somewhat plain planetary nebula, NGC 6210. This resolved as a pale blue plain disc at 200x, very obviously non-stellar but totally featureless. Nonetheless this was a new object for me so quite happy to find it.

The only other objects of note in the above book are double stars. I agreed with the descriptions in the book on colour etc and found all of them relatively easily. The images were certainly tighter and cleaner in the 6" than the 12". All of these were new to me.

7-kappa Herculis - both stars yellow white and approximately equal in magnitude and size.

64-alpha Herculis Rasalgethi - primary yellow and secondary cool white. This reminded me a little of Epsilon Bootis. A beautiful double.

65-delta Herculis - primary brilliant white and the much smaller (think Polaris) secondary a cool white.

75-rho Herculis - both stars brilliant pure white. The secondary slightly smaller and dimmer.

95 Herculis - slightly more tricky to locate but got there in the end. Both stars about equal in size etc and warm white in colour.

This was a great night all round and it's great to have the two scopes which both truly show different versions of the same objects.

Hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed the evening.

[Andrew*]

Hi Shane,

Sounds like an excellent night with a nice mix of good planetary, deep sky, and double star views. Your comparisons between the different scopes is very interesting.

Out of interest, what scope does your brother in law have?

Andrew

[Moonshane]

Cheers Andrew - it was!

Ken has a 150mm f6 OO UK newt on a Tal pier with a Vixen GP mount. Nice bit of kit for £100 all in!