July 29/30, 2012: Another night in Perigord

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

This night was nice and clear, with a gibbous moon limiting the visibility of DSOs somewhat. I first had a short session for kids of all ages from the campsite. The whole moon at 119x magnification in the 17mm T4 Nagler caused many gasps, even though the seeing was not great. Saturn was nice in the 17mm, and a bit better in the 10mm Radian. Two moons made flitting appearances. Everyone was impressed. Finally, I moved over to Mars. Even though it is very small, with the occasional hint of icecap showing, it was a first for most present, so the kids went of to their various tents and caravans in a very excited mood.

I then tried to do some DSO hunting. Globular cluster NGC 5897 in Libra showed up with some difficulty, but the globulars in Ophiuchus were overwhelmed by moonlight. I had a brief look at M13 instead, and it was great, despite the moonlght. I decided to have a go at planetaries in Aquila instead, as the UHC filter suppresses the effect of moonlight quite well. After a prolonged hunt I found NGC 6803, or at least a star which appeared to be ever so slightly fuzzier than its neighbours (using the 8.5mm ep), and did not appear to dim as much in the UHC filter compared to the surrounding stars. Because the effect was not as pronounced as I have seen in others, I checked the position in Cartes-du-Ciel, and this confirmed the sighting neatly. I was very pleased indeed, as this object had eluded me many times before. Nearby NGC 6804 was very easy by comparison, despite a lower surface brightness, because it is quite clearly a resolved planetary nebula.

My last planetary was my old friend M27. This was nearly overhead and stunning detail showed in the 17mm with UHC filter. Given the moonlight I packed the scope up, and has a little spin with the 15x70 bins, picking up M27, M51, and M81 and M82 easily.

Late at night, I awoke to see a brilliant sky with no moon, but Venus and Jupiter brilliant in the east. I got out the 15x70s (I think I might have got into trouble if I had woken the missus by getting the scope out of the car ), and was treated to the phase of Venus shown quite clearly, and Jupiter towing its string of moons. M81 and M82 were much clearer than before (despite being lower in the sky), and even M101 was quite easy.

I then turned my attention to Sculptor, and found NGC 253 (the Silver Coin Galaxy, Caldwell 65) very easily. This is a stunning edge-on galaxy. I would love to see this through the C8. Nearby Caldwell 62, or NGC 247 was visible in averted vision in Cetus. This is also a side-on galaxy I would like to see in the big scope. I tried NGC 55 (Caldwell 72), even further south in Sculptor, but though I got to the right spot, with a pattern of stars in the form of a square-root sign nearby, I could not see it (bit of LP from Cahors in that direction).

I finished the session off with NGC 7000, M27, and M3, and went back to the tent grinning like a Cheshire cat.

[swamp thing]

Great stuff. NGC 253 is a little gem ain't it?

[Ludd]

Thanks for these reports. I was just west of Cahors for a week (near Touzac from 4 to 11 August) and we had superb skies. I only had a little 70mm scope with me, as I reluctantly conceded that there wasn't really room for a C8 along with five people's usual holiday clobber. Maybe I'll get over there again one day with a decent-sized scope - it's a real joy seeing Sagittarius and Scorpius well above the horizon.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Great stuff. NGC 253 is a little gem ain't it?

Not such a little gem either. I really must get to see that through a big scope (maybe from Olly's place)

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Thanks for these reports. I was just west of Cahors for a week (near Touzac from 4 to 11 August) and we had superb skies. I only had a little 70mm scope with me, as I reluctantly conceded that there wasn't really room for a C8 along with five people's usual holiday clobber. Maybe I'll get over there again one day with a decent-sized scope - it's a real joy seeing Sagittarius and Scorpius well above the horizon.

Last year I only took the 80mm, but this year we had a Renault Espace. Brilliant to take along everything including the kitchen sink.