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Newish 16" , First(ish) Light

Bart

By Bart
in Observing - Reports

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Bart

Bart

Posted
Posted

Well,

Its not my first light with the 16" but what a night.

Got up at 3.30 to get ready for a GRS transit. Webiste said 4.30 but think that was UT and not BST. Struggled to find it but then realised the time difference was the reason. Found it nicely later on. Got my magnification calculations wrong, as I thought the seeing was bad until I realised I was using x330, 'stepped down' to x260 and 220 and got the GRS beautifully.

Got a fright when, as I viewing at high power, a plane went exactly through the planet. Didn't know what was happening as the planet disappeared momentarily and was fleetingly replaced with lights.

Speaking of lights, did anyone notice a number of slow moving lights in the east, very low, slowly coming on and off, mowing southerly towards Venus at about 4.40 ? Intriguing. Kept looking away to see if my eyes were tricking me, but every time I looked back they were moving slowly along, about 3 ir 4 of them. Thought one was red.

The other reason I got up early was to see M42. In the 16" it was simply stunning. I was mesmerised. Amazing detail. Im-pressed! Tried a UHC and OIII but preferred the UHC or no filter. No doubt the UHC brought more of the nebula into view.

Got the C*****mas Tree cluster as well. I like that asterism, but it's far too early to use the C word!

M35, 36, 37,38 all looked fine. I think M37 even beats M35. Even managed to just about get the dusty smudge of NGC2158 into the FOV with the ES 100° 20mm (x90). Nice.

M81/82 was slightly underwhelming but then realised the dredded dew had struck on the secondary.

As I was getting everything back into the garage, the moon had risen and the Earthshine was beautiful. Got the 15x70 binocs out and M42 and M31 were very nice. As I sat down to look at the moon, I was quickly puzzled at what I saw, only to realise another plane was travelling accross the shaded part of the moon. A second plane encounter. The moon looked evil with what looked like two red eyes looking back.

Great night. Pity I have a 3 hour drive to my and my wifes parents early tomorrow (today!) morning in about 2 hours. Told my wife last night she might be driving! No point in going to bed now.

Great night..

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rory

rory

Posted
Posted

yeah, alot of moisture about eh. i tried out my uhc for first ever time last night and found it to be useless ! i put it down to very poor conditions.

id love to see orion nebula with a 16".

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Moonshane

Moonshane

Posted
Posted

Great report. I'd describe the Orion Nebula through my 16" (even at home with bad LP), 13mm Ethos and UHC filter as completely ridiculous. It's the only object that when presenting it to my occasional observing buddy, warranted the use of the word 'behold'.

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Bart

Bart

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Great report. I'd describe the Orion Nebula through my 16" (even at home with bad LP), 13mm Ethos and UHC filter as completely ridiculous. It's the only object that when presenting it to my occasional observing buddy, warranted the use of the word 'behold'.

Thats good, I like that. I agree. Although the 13mm is close up and loses that 'open wing' effect, no?

Thanks foe comments

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