Oportunistic 2am Messiers

[Tyr]

I had been optimistic of getting the scope out yesterday evening, however as the evening went on it looked like the cloud wasn't going to shift here, indeed it was raining when I went to bed.

I happened to wake at 2am and thought I'd have a quick look out of the window and clear skys over Reading! not only clear by quite good transparency as well, in the past I've seen it good like this after the rain. Since I didn't think I'd be getting another chance soon I decided to pull some warmer clothes on and get myself outside. Well worth it, even if the soaked decking was like an ice rink.

I lost a bit of time fitting my new telrad base plate and re-adjusting the finder 9x50 finder for use on my mak. I'd have loved to have given the newt a shot but it needed collimation and I didn't think that doing that at 2am in the dark before a short session was a good idea. I must be more prepared next time.

There were still a few patches of cloud that came over, but in between the sky was beautifully clear.

No new objects this session, just a good chance to tour around some of my favourites which I can easily find by eye.

Started off in Aquila with the Wild Duck cluster (M11), I just found it before a cloud got in the way, so I headed over to Hercules and had a quick look at M13 before then 5 minutes wait followed while a bank of cloud moved over. I went to retrieve the bins.

A this point I moved back to M11 for a proper look, a couple of dark V shapes seeming to be visible and I decided that I liked this one best with my 25mm XCel. It was looking clear in the region of Lyra so I had a long look at M57 finding it particularly good at 100x magnification with my 15mm BST, I tried with the 7mm but it was a bit too dim.

Then I decided to head back over to Hercules, hoping my eyes would be even better dark adapted, M13 looked great with a clear scattering of individual stars around the edges and I headed "up" to see M92 in which I wasn't able to resolve so many individual stars but was a nicely compact fuzzy blob.

Cygnus was hanging high overhead and I decided I couldn't go back to bed with out checking out Alberio, this time I stepped the magnification up to 214x using my 7mm LX and limits of the seeing and probably level of scope cooling showed for the first time, however the pair was nicely separated and the contrasting blue and orange stars wonderfully clear.

All finished off with a handful of chocolate digestives nom nom as my stomach had decided it must be breakfast time since I'd been awake for more than 10 minutes and back into bed as it started to get light.

I'll be keeping the scope more prepared next time and a further observing list on stand by

All in all well worth a couple of hours lost sleep.

Tyr

editted for typos, spelling and a little for clarity

[andrew63]

Thanks for posting - an interesting read. Some lovely objects and well worth the lost sleep !

andrew

[DirkSteele]

I wish I had woken up at 2am. Same situation in London when heading to bed, only to find at 6am when i got up that there were glorious blue skies with not a cloud in sight. And now at approx 10am, the sky is rapidly filling up with clouds...

[Pingster]

I did the same last night. Seeing afterrain or when clouds wipe the sky clear is just beautiful for obseving. Even with a half moon androm and company galaxy where both really clear an bright fuzzy blobs.

[carlc]

I spent the evening obsessively checking the weather report on the BBC - it had started out as clear by 11pm and the night before I had put together an observing plan around Lyra and Cygnus. Every hour the weather report was updated and the clouds were shown as staying later and later. When the report noted no clear skies until 2am I gave up and read The Back Yard Observers Guide until bed.

Moral of the story: making observing plans is like having new scopes delivered: the cloud Gods laugh at you. Oh and develop insomnia...

Will somebody please go and move the Jet Stream over so the high pressure can move over GB.

ETA: Nice report by the way - I always learn from these reports. I pick up tips about observing tips/habits and objects of desire in the night sky.

[Tyr]

Carl,

Maybe keep that plan on standby so when it is clear you can sneak up on it unawares

I think I'll have a look at whats coming up over the next few months and get myself something ready with the aid of Stellarium, maybe a few quick lunar plans too although so far the terminator has always delivered something interesting.

My biggest problem last night was having not got my scopes prepared in advance, telrad base plate taken off and new one not fitted. I'm also going to re-collimate my newtonian again, not so much because I expect it to hold collimation perfectly after I take it off the mount to store it more that I'll be quicker at doing it the next time.

Getting out last night did give me a good boost of enthusiasm, which has been ebbing a little over the last couple of months due to lack of observing time, mostly down to an abundance of cloud.

Tyr

[carlc]

Carl,

Maybe keep that plan on standby so when it is clear you can sneak up on it unawares

I think I'll have a look at whats coming up over the next few months and get myself something ready with the aid of Stellarium, maybe a few quick lunar plans too although so far the terminator has always delivered something interesting.

My biggest problem last night was having not got my scopes prepared in advance, telrad base plate taken off and new one not fitted. I'm also going to re-collimate my newtonian again, not so much because I expect it to hold collimation perfectly after I take it off the mount to store it more that I'll be quicker at doing it the next time.

Getting out last night did give me a good boost of enthusiasm, which has been ebbing a little over the last couple of months due to lack of observing time, mostly down to an abundance of cloud.

Tyr

I haven't even collimated the Dob yet (it came with a bent spider vane but at the price -£74 on clearance- I wasn't going to send it back and get a refund as I'd never find one at that price again) so the Tal was on standby with some new EPs.

This cloud is playing havoc with my wallet.

[Tyr]

I'm trying to buy less kit and focus more on observing, or rather I'm trying to buy less kit and wishing I was spending more time observing with what I've got. But the combination of clouds and the recent FLO clearance have been making that harder for sure

I've only collimated my newt once so far and that took me at least four attempts, in the end I found a combination of videos / guides was needed before I understood the purpose of each step properly (I hope anyway). Astro babies guide was good, there was another one which I can't remember off the top of my head, I've got it book marked at home I think.

I'm sure there are some more experienced folks than me here who would give you some advice on dealing with the bent spider too, if you provided a picture.

Tyr

[carlc]

I'm trying to buy less kit and focus more on observing, or rather I'm trying to buy less kit and wishing I was spending more time observing with what I've got. But the combination of clouds and the recent FLO clearance have been making that harder for sure

I've only collimated my newt once so far and that took me at least four attempts, in the end I found a combination of videos / guides was needed before I understood the purpose of each step properly (I hope anyway). Astro babies guide was good, there was another one which I can't remember off the top of my head, I've got it book marked at home I think.

I'm sure there are some more experienced folks than me here who would give you some advice on dealing with the bent spider too, if you provided a picture.

Tyr

I think I am avoiding collimation as an anxiety reduction strategy - I know everyone says it's easy but that's easy to say when you're an old hand at it (and not a spatially incompetent clutz like me). I have read many guides but it still hasn't gone in yet - I think some hands on practice is required.

The spider vane shouldn't be a problem - I read around before deciding the scope could stay - just straighten it out and accept the less than perfect appearance seems to be the answer.

[swamp thing]

Nice report, just shows you what you can achieve if you get up in the middle of the night.

Unfortunately I was asleep as it was raining when I turned in last night. Woke up to blue sky. It so feels like a conspiracy when that happens.

[rory]

hooraay ! great to see some reports coming through again. been a ghost town round these parts !

nice little report. ive not seen clear nights for donkeys. i think m11 is the wild ducks though not m12 , or have i got that wrong as ive not been out for sooooo long ?

more reports please.....

[Tyr]

hooraay ! great to see some reports coming through again. been a ghost town round these parts !

nice little report. ive not seen clear nights for donkeys. i think m11 is the wild ducks though not m12 , or have i got that wrong as ive not been out for sooooo long ?

more reports please.....

You are correct it is M11, and indeed was M11 I learned it by the name rather than the number I think. Thanks for the correction.

Tyr

ps it's sunny here this morning, but I have no idea what it was like during the night I slept like a log after the reduced hours last night

pps seems like I can only make one edit per post? so hopefully no one will be confused by the M11 / M12 mix up

[swamp thing]

1342165645[/url'>' post='1574015']

You are correct it is M11, and indeed was M11 I learned it by the name rather than the number I think. Thanks for the correction.

pps seems like I can only make one edit per post? so hopefully no one will be confused by the M11 / M12 mix up

Ive done a correction for you Tyr so it reads the way you wanted it too.

HTH

[Tyr]

Ah great thank you.

Tyr