Dorset camping - observing

[Stu]

Hi all

Am on my now annual camping trip with the children for 9 nights on the Purbeck peninsula. I'll use this thread to post any success I have observing.

The car was ridiculously over loaded with roofbox and three bikes on the back but I've managed to cram in the following:

Astrotech 106mm EDT

Giro II mount and tripod

31t5 nagler

22t4 nagler

13mm ethos

7mm BGO

3 to 6 mm nagler zoom

Neodymium, UHC-S and OIII 2" filters

Canon 15x50is binos

Yesterday was looking rubbish, very misty on the camp site but it cleared around 10pm and the skies were fabulous for about 3 hours until the fog rolled in. The dew was very heavy, but the dew strips kept the worst of it off.

We saw the ISS go over around 9.30 pm, must have been very bright (-3.2) because it was still so misty only Vega was really visible at that time. After it cleared, we spent quite a while lying on a rug watching for meteors and satellites. Plenty of the latter, only a few meteors seen though. The milky way was incredibly bright, amazing to see. Very lovely through Cygnus especially.

Didn't look at anything particularly exotic last night as I didn't have my maps out so stuck to old favourites I could find easily.

M57 - amazingly bright, best views through the nag zoom at around 5 mm. Very clear smoke ring, with the inner area brighter than the background sky.

Double double - beautifully resolved with 7mm BGO, around x97. Could have driven a bus through the separations in both pairs at higher powers

M13 - again, very bright and the best I have seen it in this scope. At high power it was resolving in to stars very close to the centre and with averted vision was wonderful.

Veil - I used both OIII and UHC-S on this with the 31t5. I think the UHC-S gave the better views. I only saw the Eastern section last night ie not the witches broom. Will try again on another night when I have better dark adaptation. The eastern part was nice and clear, with some detail to be had.

M51 - easily seen in binoculars, and nicely resolved in the scope. I could see the two cores and also the outer regions, one clearly larger than the other. My imagination was telling me I could see faint spirals but I'm sure I could not actually see them.

M81/M82 - again, easily found, not least because the star hop to them was easily visible naked eye when it normally needs binos. Both nicely resolved, although they were in a brighter part of the sky so not so much detail visible. I always find M82 more rewarding to look at, some mottled detail visible.

M31 - easily visible naked eye, was lovely in the 31t5. No real detail on show, but could see far more of the outer regions than normal. Again, better dark adaptation on another night will help.

Alberio looked lovely as normal, as did Mizar/Alcor.

I can't see too low on the southern horizon from this site but will get my charts out next time and go for some more varied targets next time.

I should be able to get down to M10/12/14 etc but no lower. I want to spend plenty of time looking around Cygnus while it is well positioned.

Will report on progress as the week goes on, looking good for tonight so far. Any suggested targets welcomed.

Cheers

Stu

[JohnC]

Nice report Stu.

It is a beautiful area both in the day and at night for the astro.

Which site are you using?

Use to camp near Dancing ledge and the skies were amazing.

have a great time

john

[nightfisher]

Good report Stu, i spotted the ISS last night, very bright near vega, hope you get a few more decent nights

[andrew63]

That's an excellent portable setup Stu - hope you get some good skies.

andrew

[Viv]

Stu - that sounds lovely.

Have a great time & looking forward to the updates

[Stu]

Thanks all. It really is a lovely spot, and given that it is only about 2.5 hours from London, the skies are amazing, best I've seen in the UK apart from Exmoor probably.

Andrew, I find myself using either the 106mm or the 66mm apos on the giro most of the time these days. I've been pretty busy and can't remember the last time I used the mak/goto setup which is a shame because the views are amazing. However, the Astrotech is a wonderful scope, albeit with a dodgy focuser which needs sorting. It gives such wonderful, crisp beautifully resolved stars with fantastic contrast, and being able to get it to a dark site allows even the limited aperture to show some wonderful stuff. With the 31t5 it gives a 3.6° fov, whilst it still performs very well on planets up to x230 with the nagler zoom, more on rare nights.

Having said all that, I am sitting under a blanket of cloud, despite enjoying a day of hot sunshine on the beach at Swanage, even had a swim! Hoping for at least one or two more clear nights whilst we're here.

Cheers,

Stu

[Stu]

Some stars around last night, but transparency was not very good and, although I set my scope up, I didn't have much luck. Cloud got gradually more frustrating so packed in.

Caught the ISS with it's bright pass which was good, plus a couple of bright meteors, perseids possibly.

Managed to just about detect M101 in the binos, should be much easier from here in good conditions.

Yesterday during the day was lovely, on the beach all afternoon so still having a lovely time.

Stu

[m_j_lyons]

Very jealous - I couldn't fit my scope in the car for our vacation to Sedona, AZ, USA (at least not without leaving one of the kids at home). Looks like a nice haul of targets. I wish you the best for clear dark skies for the rest of your trip.

Happy hunting.

[Stu]

Thanks very much m_j. At one point it did look like one of the children would need to go in the roofbox, but fortunately they are little and I managed to squeeze them in!

Weather looking a but ropey this evening unfortunately

Stu

[Stu]

There's my first spelling mistake after the removal of editing

Bit, not but, of course

Stu

[Stu]

Well after looking unpromising earlier, it turned out to be a spectacular night here. Amazing the difference in transparency from last night.

I've just crawled into bed after spending the last half an hour or so with a lovely cup of tea, sitting/lying in my Vango Moonchair DLX , staring up at the Milky Way, watching the occasional Perseid streak across the sky.

So pleased I put the scope out and was patient. I started with just the binos but the sky kept getting better.

Too tired now, but will update list of targets seen. Very rewarding session. :D

Stu

[knobby]

Glad I wasn't the only nutcase out tonight then! Sounds like you have good skies there, it was pretty blue in Essex, even at 3 am, had a great look at Jupiter though. Hope you enjoy the rest of your holiday

[Stu]

You certainly weren't Knobby . I was creeping round last night, every noise I made seemed like it was so loud it would wake everyone up!

Feeling it this morning, very tired. Will have a look at my charts and write up what I saw while I remember. I know I also missed lots because I've only got messier charts printed out at the last minute as I couldn't find my Pocket Sky Atlas before I came away . Had plenty to keep me busy but will check my phone and mark a few more targets on incase I get another clear night.

Stu

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Sounds like you are having a great time. Looking forward to more reports!

[Stu]

Thanks Michael, very good night last night.

Right, tea drunk, bacon sandwiches cooked and eaten, children off playing. Peace!

I started off last night just with the binos because there was patchy cloud coming through, but it cleared later on and the sky was fabulous.

I put the binoculars on the giro mount to try them out without the stabilisation and I found that they are noticeably sharper without it running. Had a look at a few things, found M51 and M101 and also look ed at Mizar/Alcor.

With the scope, I used the 31T5 as low power and for finding, the 13mm Ethos as a medium power, and 7mm BGO as high power. I only used an OIII filter where appropriate and it worked very well.

So, I started in Lyra with the double double, lovely clear splits at high power, wouldn't quite resolve at medium. M57 was lovely both filtered and unfiltered, very bright.

I popped over to M13 and then found M92 which I missed the other night. Smaller, but still nice detail visible.

Then moved round to Ursa Major and checked out M52 before finding M101. This was harder to find, very diffuse and spread out but definitely identifiable. Also checked out M81/M82 again whilst there.

Next, I moved on to Cygnus and spent a long time on the Veil. The low power, filtered view was best, OIII definitely better than UHC-S this time. I got the whole lot this time, East and West, plus Pickerings triangle. Amazing to see, very subtle but definitely there again. Delighted with this. Checked out M29 whilst I was there, very nice, and just did a general sweep over the whole area which was lovely.

Picked up the Coathanger, and whilst I remember, also the ET cluster in Casseopia.

I then dropped down to M71, the open cluster and M27 which looked great at medium and high power.

Swinging round to Andromeda, I checked out M31, M110 was very clear but I couldn't quite identify M32. Whilst there, I picked up M33, like M101 it was very diffuse and large but clearly seen. M34 followed, with a peek at Almach on the way, very nice. I then swung through M76 which was very distinct and nice to see, M103, M52 and M39. I tried for Kendall's Cascade but couldn't identify it, hard towards the zenith.

I also picked up M74, the spiral galaxy. Very feint but again, nice to see.

Later on, M45 appeared and was lovely in binoculars and at low power in the scope. Quite low still so no nebulosity seen. I also saw M36, M37 and M38 in Auriga later on, against a bright sky background so have seem then better, but nicely resolved still.

Very late on, I just got M1 in the binoculars. Quite low still but clear enough.

Throughout the night, I probably saw 10 Perseids plus other sporadics, and numerous satellites and flares.

Once packed away, I sat and looked up at the Milky Way for a long time. Amazingly bright, with dark bands running through it. I think I may have picked up the North America nebula in Cygnus with the binos. Certainly a brightening, nebulous area in the right area, very large.

A wonderful night. Worth being tired for.

Anyway, my daughter is calling me to play tennis so off I go

Cheers

Stu

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Lovey report. Quite an achievement to get M1 in bins. not an easy object at all.

[Stu]

It's an object I only recently managed to see after years of looking! With your experience you are making me doubt myself now Michael, but the sky was very dark and there was definitely a smudge in the right place which I kept coming back to. Have you seen it in binos Michael?

Cheers

Stu

[knobby]

Great report Stu ( love your nickname) its nice to know that whenever you feel lonely and stupid standing in a field on your own looking up at the stars ... there's always some other Nutter doing exactly the same thing somewhere!

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

It's an object I only recently managed to see after years of looking! With your experience you are making me doubt myself now Michael, but the sky was very dark and there was definitely a smudge in the right place which I kept coming back to. Have you seen it in binos Michael?

Cheers

Stu

I have done it too with 10x50s (and not in the Canon class), so it is certainly possible. Just not very easy. Well done!

[m_j_lyons]

Awesome!

[Stu]

Thanks knobby, I do sometimes feel a little strange wandering round in the dark all alone so yes, reassuring that us nutters can stick together

Thanks Michael, am happy that I saw it, and feel certain now you confirm it is possible. The Canons are wonderful binos, even without the stabilisation. I must say, I've never been a fan of binoculars on tripods but I tried it last night with the giro II and the right angle bar I normally use for my PST and it was very good, I might just be converted! The optics are very good, and they are just that bit sharper when not using the stabilisation. Mizar was a relatively easy split like this.

Somehow I need to get the mak to a site like this. Need a bigger car, or to sell a child

Thanks all

Stu

[Stu]

Forgot to add also that, of course, I had a quick peek at Jupiter and Venus as they rose. Jupiter looking quite nice, not seen it for a while.

I also tried the Veil through the ethos, with OIII with very nice results. Very subtle as I said, but definitely visible, and some detail, particularly in the Eastern Veil which I find much easier.

Stu

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

The Eastern Veil is a lot easier I think. I have spotted that with 15x70 bins a couple of times, but never the Western Veil. Best views to date of the whole Veil with the APM 80mm and UHC filter.

[Stu]

Yes, I would agree.

The first night I thought the UHC-S was better but I had been using lights and my phone a bit that night so my night vision wasn't as good as it was last night. I got very well dark adapted over several hours and could definitely pick up more detail, and the OIII gave better views. The fov with the 31t5 is 3.6°, enough to fit the whole lot it which is amazing.

Stu

[Stu]

Skies haven't been great since last report, no bad thing as I am catching up on sleep!

One thing I forgot to mention from the other night was the Double Cluster. This was, again, naked eye visible and just looked spectacular in the scope, using the ethos if I remember right. Star images in the Astrotech are incredibly sharp, and it was amazing looking at all the very small, feint stars which showed as perfect little pin pricks of light.

Cheers

Stu