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Best night out in ages...

JamesF

By JamesF
in Observing - Reports

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JamesF

JamesF

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The forecast has been all over the place for this weekend, changing every few hours, and most of Saturday didn't disappoint, to be honest. We had sun, rain, wind and whilst it looked like we might get a few patches of clear sky overnight it was still going to be a case of dodging the clouds.

I was somewhat surprised therefore when I stepped outside after dinner to find the sky clear and bright, some of the best conditions I've seen for ages. I did the alignment on the EQ3-2 and put the Mak out on it to cool and then, as getting focus with my new (to me) 27mm Panoptic (which I'd not yet had a "proper" first light with) was proving awkward with the low-profile focuser I had on the dob I switched over to the original focuser, only to find that it won't take 2" eyepieces. In the process of fiddling around however I discovered that the low-profile focuser has a telescopic 2" extension that was more than sufficient to give the additional back focus I required, so I swapped them back again, quickly re-collimated and put the dob out to cool as well.

First target for the evening was the comet in Pegasus (168P/Hergenrother). I popped in the Pan and was stunned by the view. Compared with my other eyepieces the field of view was huge and it was so easy to navigate. The stars were sharp right to the edge of the field and I could just see the field stop comfortably. It made finding the comet so easy because as long as I got somewhere close with the Telrad it would probably be in the field of view or very close. The comet itself looks brighter to me than when I last saw it a week ago, with a more clearly defined tail. Conditions were far better, so I can't be sure if it has brightened or not.

Next on my list of targets for the night was M77 in Cetus. My 108th Messier object. I found it very faint and indistinct and higher magnifications didn't really seem to help even having spend some time on it. I should probably have given it another go later in the night.

Because it was the first time I'd had a decent time to spend with the Pan I then just spend a while touring the sky finding old friends. M31/M32/M110 just about fitted into the field of view and the main galaxy itself just looked astonishing. I almost fell off my chair. I have never had such a stunning view. The visible part of M31 pretty much crossed the entire field of view and I thought on occasions I might be able to see hints of the dust lanes though I really couldn't be sure.

Staying with the local group I moved over to M33 which suffers by comparison with its neighbour unfortunately, though it still looked better than I've ever seen it. M45 was another stunning eyepiece-filler and the double cluster in Perseus looked wonderful.

By this time Jupiter had crept over to my side of the house. I was amazed how clear and bright the image was right from the 27mm Pan down to my 5mm BGO. Three of the moons were closely grouped to one side of the planet and I could easily make out three bands of colour across the face of the planet with the red spot just about visible though that was very hard to keep in the field of the smallest BGO.

I had a bit of a break to do some imaging of Jupiter for the first time this year, then as a little cloud started to drift through to the south I revisited three of the first few Messier objects I ever found with a telescope -- M36, M37 and M38, all of which were visible unaided, but in the dob enormous numbers of stars were easily resolved.

Finally I switched back to M42, but whilst I could easily resolve the Trapezium, a rapidly dewing secondary had really scuppered any decent view I might get of that and I finally called it a night at about 3am.

James

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JamesF

JamesF

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Not wishing to rub it in, but the conditions really were unusually good. Based on my view of Ursa Minor I'd say that NELM was close to 6 and when I was imaging Jupiter it was so steady on the camera sensor. Focus was shifting back and forth a little certainly, but there was so little of the shifting of shape that almost always seems to be visible at high focal ratios. I only hope I've done it justice. I'm a bit out of practice at planetary imaging.

James

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andrew63

andrew63

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Sounds like you had a good night James! I quite like the 70 deg view also - it's easier on the eye than UWA. Great time of the year to put the panoptic to use.

On thursday i found Hergenrother quite a bright object in my 4" - however last night it was getting to be a struggle to see - it's nearly on the limit...

andrew

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Beulah

Beulah

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We had a frost this morning, too. Unheard of this early in recent years. It was definitely cold out there last night.

James

-3 on my car temperature gauge and ice everywhere...

Good session there James, the clear night was a surprise. Unfortunately I had social oligations to fulfil...:(

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Black Knight

Black Knight

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Sounds like a great evening James. We're in north Devon at the moment, and given the outlook yesterday, were expecting it to be completely clouded over. However, although there was some cloud around, for the most part the sky was clear and conditions were terrific until just after midnight. Bit of an unexpected treat really! :)

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Dunkster

Dunkster

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Not wishing to rub it in, but the conditions really were unusually good. Based on my view of Ursa Minor I'd say that NELM was close to 6 and when I was imaging Jupiter it was so steady on the camera sensor. Focus was shifting back and forth a little certainly, but there was so little of the shifting of shape that almost always seems to be visible at high focal ratios. I only hope I've done it justice. I'm a bit out of practice at planetary imaging.

James

Sounds like a great night James!

A bit OT... how do you determine if the conditions were good? Is there an easy eyeball way or is it necessary to setup the scope and add a bit of magnification? I usually skip nights where I can easily see the twinkle and if there is a stiff breeze, but it's not giving me many nights out :eek:

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JamesF

JamesF

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A bit OT... how do you determine if the conditions were good? Is there an easy eyeball way or is it necessary to setup the scope and add a bit of magnification? I usually skip nights where I can easily see the twinkle and if there is a stiff breeze, but it's not giving me many nights out :eek:

If stars near the zenith are twinkling madly then I might resort to having a session with bins or something like that instead of getting a scope out, but if they're only poor near the horizon I don't let it worry me too much. For me it really helps to have a plan of targets (though last night I spend a fair bit of time just motoring about enjoying the new eyepiece) because it means I know I can always try something else.

My main visual guide to the quality of the seeing other than twinkling stars is to look at Ursa Minor and work out which stars I can see either directly or with averted vision. I wrote up a little piece here which actually points to someone else's guide for naked eye limiting magnitude. On a good night I'll usually be able to see enough stars that I can place NELM at a decent amount over 5.5. Last night was probably pretty close to 6 based on the stars I could see. It's entirely possible the seeing was better than my eyes, in fact.

The other indicator for me which only works (for me) when the Moon isn't about is the clarity and brightness of the Milky Way. Last night it was clearly visible even walking straight out of the door with all the house lights on and no time for dark adaption.

If I'm just interested in visual then that's pretty much all I bother with. When I'm imaging the quality of the image gives a very good indication of the steadiness of the atmosphere, which I find harder to judge without getting a scope out. I'm often imaging at a focal length of 4.5m or thereabouts and if the atmosphere isn't that steady the target will ripple and wobble quite significantly on the camera sensor. Last night Jupiter was exceptionally steady. It still drifted in and out of focus, but I've never known that not to happen. I've not stacked the images yet, so it'll be interesting to see how they turn out. I've hardly done any planetary imaging since Mars started to drift away from us earlier this year so I'm a bit out of practice :)

James

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