February 18, 2013: Some planetaries but no pup from Austria

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I took all my kit to Austria on a skiing vacation, and had just a single clear night. We always stay in an apartment at the same farm, and both the farmer and his wife were very pleased I brought along the scope. On Monday, I set up the scope, and first had a look at some DSOs. M47 was first, quickly followed by M46. Planetary nebula NGC 2438 was clearly visible in averted vision. Sliding the UHC filter in and out of the optical path using my filter-switch diagonal made it much more obvious. I then moved to NGC 2440, just a bit south in Puppis. At mag 10.5 and with quite a decent extent it was quite easy, even with the 31mm at 65.5x. The UHC filter confirmed it as it kept its brightness while the stars faded.I tried using the 17mm but it did not seem to produce sharp images. I first though the scope had not cooled enough, but a defocused image of a bright star showed no clear tube currents.

NGC 2452 was less cooperative. At one point I thought I got it, but the object was too stellar. A patch of fuzz did show up but was faint and did not seem to blink the way I am used to when sliding the UHC filter into and out of the optical path. This will need a revisit.

Sirius was next up, in an attempt to get Sirius B. I had hoped the increased altitude would help but FORGET IT!! Sirius looked like a disco ball (I have always hated disco ). I checked the out of focus image and whereas I could not see any tube currents, there was ample evidence of heavy turbulence in the air. I was observing over several roofs of houses in the valley, so that was the end of that.

I then pointed the scope at Jupiter, hoping for better views near zenith. At 200x the image was OK, but not much more than that. I did spot a shadow transit in progress, showing up as a little black dot next to the GRS. The farmer's wife came to have a look. After that, we had a look at the moon, which was awesome as ever at 119x with the 17mm Nagler. As it was getting cold, and the seeing was not getting any better, I packed the scope in shortly afterwards.

So, a few failures, and just a single new object, but quite a few old friends spotted.

[Double Kick Drum]

Amazing how far you have to go to find a hole in the clouds these days.

I was unable to see NGC 2438 the only time I tried.

Thanks for sharing.

[KevUU]

Nice to hear of tales from afar

Shame you only had the one night. How was the rest of the holiday?

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Nice to hear of tales from afar

Shame you only had the one night. How was the rest of the holiday?

It was fine, thanks. We did manage to do some skiing, and the I have never seen the kids so enthusiastic about it. The grey weather did prevent us from skiing on some days.

[cotterless45]

neat, good to hear of viewing, love the planetaries. We are set for fug and cloud here for a while, just hoping for clear skies for the new moon,

Nick.

[Matt Scunthorpe]

Very nice report.

Thanks for sharing it