First light on XW10: SN2012ei bagged!!

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

After some frustrating attempts, I have just bagged SN2012ei

In the beginning of the evening, there was a depressing load of haze, but at around 10:25, the sky looked a great deal better, and I could make out many stars in Cygnus and Lyra despite moonlight. I set up the scope quickly, and with the aid of some finder charts I had made with stellarium got to the right location quickly. I upped the magnification from 65.5x with the Nagler 31T5 to 119x with the 17T4, and then on to the 169x with the 12T4. I could just make out a few foreground stars of mag 13.55 and 13.75 according to Stellarium (they flickered fitfully in averted vision). Now and then I also caught a glimpse of something in a location roughly halfway between a mag 9.65 and 11.05 field of view, slightly above the line between these two stars (and a bit more towards the mag 9.65 star on the right-hand side of the FOV. It was faint, so I tried the new Pentax XW10, to darken the background. Whether that was the reason,or because of better transparency of the optics, I do not know, but I could see it flickering in and out of averted vision with the XW10. Very occasionally I though I spotted some fuzzyness nearby, but it was too faint to be sure. I will need better skies to bag the host galaxy, but I am positive I must have seen my seventh supernova, and again in the first light of a new EP. This happened with SN2011dh with my 22T4, with SN2011fe with my 17T4, and now with SN2012ei with the XW10.

As the moon was rising over the trees, I turned away from the SN, and had a quick look at the Ring nebula, and M13. The former was very nice, but the latter looked a bit washed out.

Finally, I had a go at some lunar observing, just coasting along the terminator. I compared the views through the XW10, XF8.5, and XW7. All EPs showed very nice views, showing huge amounts of detail with magnificent clarity. The air was so steady that even the XW7 showed a crisp image at 290x. The XF8.5 has a noticeably smaller FOV than the XWs, but still very acceptable. All three are very near parfocal, which is nice. I found the XF marginally easier to use, but the XWs are very comfortable too.

All in all, I am very happy with the results of this short session.

[Damo636]

Congratulations on SN No7 Michael, I'm hoping to have a go at that one myself this evening, weather permitting! The XW's are superb aren't they?

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

The XWs are outstanding! I hope to have a few more shots at this SN. Maybe this evening or tomorrow will be better, with less moonlight. I think it was 13.7 when I looked, but it was difficult to estimate, really at the edge of visibility.

[David Smith]

Nice one Michael. Great write up. I'm hoping to have a look for the sn when I get home next week. Contrast on your 7th!

[David Smith]

Should have read congrats. Using my phone whilst away from home.

[Mark at Beaufort]

Congratulations on bagging another SN. Because I thought that the Moon would wash out the view I never attempted to find the SN last night. The next few nights show clear spells so I will have a go.

Great report my the way Michael.

Mark

[m_j_lyons]

Congrats - I need to check the SN announcements more often - I've been hearing of them first from you!