A mixed bag last night

[Scooot]

Ever the hopeful I put my scope out at 10 and was surprised to see it was quite good outside 45 mins later. I had the intention of looking at three things: the veil, to see if I could see it again, Izar, because I'd read on here it was quite nice, and the whirlpool because I'd read someone was having trouble finding it the other day, and wondered how murky it had become in the lower sky.

I quickly aligned the dob on sky safari with Polaris and Altair. I had tonights best highlighted on the sky chart so looking at the iPad screen I could see the Dumbbell was quite close to Altair, so to have a quick look and check I was aligned accurately, I lifted the scope up and slightly to the left to find it. I was using the 17.3mm and it was a nice view, very prominent.

Turned west on my way around to Izar and couldn't resist looking at M13. Really good, nice contrast , stars well resolved (as well as they could be with my aperture), so switched to the 10mm and the sky around became very dark. Enjoyed looking at some golden/yellow specs coming and going in the eyepiece. It was whilst looking at this i realised how limited i was with just the 2 eyepieces. i would have liked to try an 8mm to get a bit more mag and also a 12mm to get a bit more light. Never mind, went almost straight up to M92 and that was just as good but a tighter ball of stars.

Unfortunately I failed at Izar because a cluster of birch trees was obscuring my view.

Onto the whirlpool with the 17.3mm but a quick look at Alcor and mizar on the way. It was whilst looking at the 2 Mizars I realised what a doughnut I'd been, not sure I should admit this. Up to last night I had thought that one of the Mizars was Alcor, and it was only whilst looking at the pair last night, and I wondered what the other star in the same field of view was, that I suddenly realised it was Alcor, and that Mizar is a pair!

Just after 11 my neighbour's Narnia light went off so I switched Sky Safari to night mode and moved the scope to position the curser over the whirlpool on the screen. I had to centre it after I looked through the eyepiece but it was clearly there. Not a very good view though, it didn't stand out much against a murky background, obviously because its too low in the sky. So time to move onto the veil.

I found 52 cyg fairly quickly but with no sign of nebulosity. Then put the UHC on and there it was. I had the same view I had the other week. I could see the veil below the star in the eyepiece view but nothing above, ie not the broom. I panned up and down the eastern veil easily and it was good to see that the whitish wispy nebula matched the map of the veil on the screen.

I was feeling pretty pleased I could see it again and that the first time wasn't a fluke. So buoyed by my enthusiasm I had a look on the screen for other nebulae that might be good with the UHC. I headed up to the North American, the Pelican and then the crescent, but couldn't see a thing. Id be interested to know what conditions if any these might be achievable.

The cat nebula was really good. It looked like a small bluey/green disc in a very dark wide field of view. Seeing it stand out against the surrounding stars was quite a sight.

Still on my hunt for other stuff with the UHC I moved south and settled on the Eagle Nebula. I could see the star cluster but no nebulosity. So had a go at the Omega as it was right next door, this stood out really well. I now know its also known as the Swan but I must admit I couldn't recognise that shape, maybe because it wasn't up the right way. I'll look more carefully when I have another chance.

I noticed Pluto was nearby so foolishly had a go at this. I put the star HD172236 in the FOV and knew that if visible I should be able to see it. I zoomed in so I had a true field of view of about 1 deg filling the iPad and then tried to remember the star patterns. Most of the other stars were a mag of 9.5 to 10 so they were tiny specs in the eyepiece. At one point I thought I might have had it, but I don't think it's really possible with my scope in my garden. It was good fun trying though

After being completely absorbed I suddenly looked at the time, just after midnight so time to pack up. I came in feeling really pleased and looking forward to the next clear night.

[Astro Imp]

Nice report, enjoyed reading that.

Pleased to read that you managed the Veil, I'm still waiting for my first view of this wonder.

It is very hard to resist M13 when it's up.

Good luck and clear skies.