April fools - first light with Jeffrey

[KevUU]

For some reason I've decided my 8" dob is called Jeffrey. I have no idea why.

After all the false alarms over Easter weekend I was really itching to get out last night and see some DSOs in the dob for the first time, so without further ado:

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2100 - 0000. Approx NELM 4.8. Beehive just visible naked eye! First light for my 8” dob

Tried a star test first. Defocusses to a circular patterm, but no concentric circles, mottled patch instead. Need to look again with the cheshire...

Jupiter is very clear, smallish at 30mm (x40) but larger than I ever saw it in my ST80. Still very clear and clean at 8mm (x150), lovely. The two main bands are clearly defined, another smaller band is there to the N too, and a darker appearance towards the S pole - never saw any of that before! Tried the barlow, mushy and useless, but that was x300 which may have been pushing it. 8mm is better with the moon filter, bands are easier to observe.

Rosette cluster C50 is nice and clear, no nebulosity visible. I notice the 30mm gives a very light background, guess it's just my skies.

NGC 2252 oc isn't very distinct or thrilling. OITH says "attractive curves", I don't really agree.

Collinder 107 oc is a sparse, bright, uninteresting collection of uneven groupings.

Between the latter two sits Collinder 104. It's not in PSA so I was a little confused finding it - initially I thought it was 2252 - it seems more distinct than 2252 ended up being. Looks like a snake, with a tight trio of bright-ish stars at the S end making a head, and a chain of fainter stars running double-width down to the N. Nice

Collinder 111, PSA is conclusive on the star pattern, there's nothing of real note here though, just a few odd stars in a vague collection at 8mm (x150). OITH just says "several doubles, 7 brighter stars".

NGC 2264 Christmas Tree cluster, clearer and better defined than my first viewing with the ST80, quite nice actually.

Nearby, in Canes Minor OITH gives me PK215+11.1, a mag 5.4 glob of 4.3’. It's not in PSA, which complicates things since OITH just has a sketch map. All I can find here is stars...

[Google tells me that this is Abell 22, a planetary of magnitude 15.4. I have no idea what is going on in OITH here...]

Over to Cancer. M44 is too big! It doesn't fit in my 30mm eyepiece. Well defined, and clearer and larger than I'm used to, but I'm afraid this never seems to excite. Maybe because it seems a little uniform in brightnesses, it's too dense for the interesting shapes of a good oc, and doesn't have the depth of a good tight oc or glob?

I had some suspect claims of M67 when I started last year, but today I have seen it for sure, at last! It fits nicely in the 8mm, has a nice feeling of layered depth with fainter stuff peeking through from behind the brighter stars.

M81/M82 - give about the same view from my garden today, with the dob and the 30mm, as in the ST80 with the 8mm at SGL8. This is despite looking over the Bristol glow (and I think the moon is starting to lighten the sky), vs how black it was at Lucksall for those fabled 2 hours. So I'm pretty happy that this scope in my garden is at least as good as the ST80 in ideal conditions As before, nice to see the pair in one field of view.

M51 is again less well defined since it's against a far lighter background than when I saw it at SGL8. But last time I just saw the vaguest of fuzzes, this time I see two distinct cores! Using x150 doesn't help, just shows the cores bigger but no better defined. But, that's NGC 5195 spotted despite non-ideal (and worsening) conditions so I'm happy

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Woohoo! Really great to get a 3 hour stint in Happy that I could see more of M51 despite much worse conditions, can't wait for better skies!

I found the dob easy enough to set up and use, the finder is a bit of a scrunch to get to but doable - Telrad or Rigel needed I think.

My 8mm Vixen NPL has a front lens of only 6mm or so in diameter, which I found more annoying with this scope, may have to look around. BSTs seem to come highly recommended and look like they're better in this respect, what are people's thoughts?

Oh look it's looking clear again, better get ready to do it all again

Thanks for reading, hope you all had fun too

[Double Kick Drum]

Nice report.

I guess some of the Collinders can be a bit under-whelming (and I have only seen a handful of the more obvious ones) but still something worth recording. M67 is one of the prettier open clusters IMO and another Messier ticked off.

Also congrats on seeing The Whirlpool galaxy companion NGC 5195. Although smaller, I find it equally as bright.

Looks like another clear night here. Fingers crossed you also get some more opportunities in the not too distant future.

ps. I might have to call my refractor Zippy.

[RTFM]

Kev, thanks for sharing you observations. Sounds like a good session.

I just purchased a Celestron 127 SLT Mak and checked out Jupiter. I have to say I was disappointed as I could only just make out the two main belts and they were not very distinct. Maybe the seeing conditions were not too clever. I'll give it another go and see if there's any improvement. I'm tempted too go for better eyepieces but I guess I should be patient and try the ones provided for a bit longer.

[KevUU]

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Also congrats on seeing The Whirlpool galaxy companion NGC 5195. Although smaller, I find it equally as bright.

Looks like another clear night here. Fingers crossed you also get some more opportunities in the not too distant future.

ps. I might have to call my refractor Zippy.

Cheers DKD.

5195 did look about as bright, but fuzzy cores really was all I could see. Would love to get some more structure out of these - nothing major just some structure to the fuzz

(Structured Fuzz, what sort of band/album would that be then?...)

Hopefully I can get out for First Light part 2 - need to try a nebula (M42) and a glob, if M3 is around. Quite tired though so may have to be brief...

I hadn't thought of that jeffrey, I guess that leaves my ST80 as Bungle, say no more

[KevUU]

I just purchased a Celestron 127 SLT Mak and checked out Jupiter. I have to say I was disappointed as I could only just make out the two main belts and they were not very distinct. Maybe the seeing conditions were not too clever. I'll give it another go and see if there's any improvement. I'm tempted too go for better eyepieces but I guess I should be patient and try the ones provided for a bit longer.

Thanks

The general advice is to get a little practice with what you have before splashing the cash, which I think is fair. Other people will have specific recommendations, when/if you get to that point, but it is oft said that the stock 10mm isn't great, if that's what you used? I spent a year with my 3" refractor though, and saw loads of good stuff, so the scope should do you well

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Very nice report of a great session

[cotterless45]

Lovely report, like the naming, really is super scope and not tough on eps.

I think you'll be in for a shock when you can get to a really dark site !

Nick.