A lot of stars in a reasonably priced scope!

[assasincz]

Hello everybody,

I thought I'd briefly share the "wow"s and "aaah"s of today's observing session when I took the scope out to the airfield.

Before I start, please, allow me:

My 4.5" scope amazed me yet again!

First, I had a look at Garradd, which appeared not as bright as last time when observing it. To my surprise, its movement over the course of nearly 3 hours was not very substancial. However, its tail was nicely distinct, no averted vision required.

Then I was searching for some globulars, namely NGC 6229 and NGC 6934. Both fairly similar in angular size and brightness. To my joy, according to stellarium, I had no trouble seeing stars as dim as 11.35 mag. The session seemed promising at this point.

NGC 6543 was my next attempt. I did not know what it will look like and was not expecting much. To my surprise, I was able to make out its shape and differentiate dimmer and brighter structure. Cought myself using 300x magnification which, despite the aperture, seemed good. I made a sketch of what I thought I saw and afterI got home (was actually like an hour or two ago) I found out that the nebula in question was indeed the Cat's Eye Nebula - found its picture and compared it to my sketch and guess what - it matched!

After checking Gamma Delphinus binary, I moved to M31 and its companions - ideal time, as it was very near the zenith. I will skip this overplayed part.

I than had a try on M33, a galaxy so dim and yet so large it posed a challenge to me and my scope. Fuzzy blob, averted vision in berserk mode, I made a sketch of what I though might have been its two brightest spiral arms. Again, to my surprise, it matched a picture, although I sketched one of the arms sligtly off. No wonder, it was ghost busting!

In hunting M1 Crab Nebula last session, I was hopeless. This time, o joy! Found it rather quickly. Nice and quite bright. Shape was apparent, so I sketched it. Yet again, it turned out later that I saw it right.

After a quick star test, I noticed my collimation was a bit off, so I did a brief star collimationand got the scope back into shape.

I had my first ever look at M42 in Orion - under very dark skies with my scope - tonight and I have to say, it took my breath away. What a beautiful sight! After staring at it for half an hour, I thought I could sketch it, but that was no challenge. So bright, it was easy. Staggering!

Today's seeing conditions even allowed me to have a decent look at Jupiter. I mostly used 180x magnification and swaped a few filters. GRS, NEB, SEB and various other turbulent spots were pin sharp. I even managed to spot the filaments of atmospheric whirling on the edges of main belts for a few moments - never had a chance before. Overall, impressive sight. Even Mars surprised me, given its current size, with some suttle and yet distinctive dark surface "blobs".

Finally, I can not fotget to mention our star, the Sun. I waited to see the sunrise and in the misty haze of morning, when it peeked out from behind the horizon, there it was - sunspot 1302 visible with the naked eye for a brief moment!

I nearly froze my **** to death but it was well worth it - what is there more to say? Good night. Or morning? Oh, damn!

[Astro Imp]

Great report, really good to hear of others enjoying their time under the stars.

[iamjulian]

"Berserk mode"? The mind boggles

Sun spots with the naked eye when it first rises. I had never thought that would be possible. Wow. Thanks for the tip (not that I am every awake at that time).

[assasincz]

Well the sunspot 1302 is now getting out of visible solar disc and it was the only one I managed to see, due to its size. And I knew where to look.

Anyway, seeing sunspots with the naked eye when the sun sets or rises is a tip I stumbled across when reading about the history of solar observation. I have tried it many times before but never succeeded. Until now.

I can only attribute it to the hazy mist that was lurking around the unobstructed horizon at the airfield on a very chilly morning. Be aware though - as the solar disc went higher, the brightness of it shot up and it became impossible to see anything after that. It is even risky. Only when the solar disc was just above the horizon, touching it with its bottom edge, did I manage to see the spot. It looked something like this (http://www.twanight.org/newTWAN/photos/3001868.jpg)

It looks and feels nice though.

Averted vision in berserk mode - observing it directly was impossible, it was just a ghost, so averted vision only.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Great report. Those 4.5" scopes can show plenty of stuff, and you are clearly getting very good at finding things! Congratulations!