Sat 31st Aug 2013 - getting reacquainted

[KevUU]

It's been too long coming - my last decent session was early May with only a quick peek at Saturn since then - but I finally got out there last night

I had no plan - infact I was totally disorganised - so I mostly just caught up with where things are and had a look at some old friends with Jeffrey (my 8" dob) for the first time - I did squeeze a couple of new objects in though.

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2130-0015. Unexpectedly clear. Really dark straight up - cloudiness of Milky Way obvious through Cygnus and across the sky, NELM about 5.1 - but getting noticeably murky from only 30* down from zenith.

M57 The Ring nebula seemed a little disappointing to be honest. Reasonably well defined, and no doubt a better view than through the ST80 last year, but not as good as I'd hoped.

M13, which I have seen with Jeffers before, ooooh so many stars....

M31 Andromeda galaxy, always nice. Much crisper than the ST80 with the extra aperture, although of course still no definition. Found the two satellite galaxies - M32 and M110 - as well, just barely managed to get them in one fov with the 30mm NPL. This is something I miss about the ST80, the widefield views, nearly 4 degrees at x13 or nearly 2 degrees at x27. I do need a wider ep than the 30mm NPL for Jeffrey.

M27 The Dumbbell wasn't very well defined, although a good size at x150. UHC only seemed to help a little but when I took it out I realised it was doing more than I thought!

M71 gave me trouble last year with the ST80, partly because the app I used to use gave it as brighter than M27... My notes from the time: "After a bit I decided I could see something when I wasn't trying so dropped the 8mm in centred on the most likely bit of nothing, and lo-and-behold there it was, an indistinct cloud of indistinct-ness". This time it still took some finding as I've been getting complacent at being able to find everything in the 50mm finder, but found it in the 12mm okay in the end. It seemed an unrewarding glob to start with but I decided to stay with it and it started to come to life a bit: the foreground stars stand out from the background cloudiness nicely when you look at it just right.

PSA shows Harvard 20 right next door, but I could only see a sort of pair of faint sparse open clusters, and a yellow blob in PSA is a nebula right?, so gave up and moved on. I've just noticed that OITH has Har20 marked as a mag 7.7 oc "Little compressed; 2 centres 40 stars", and a check in PSA confirms yellow=cluster. Hurrah, I did see Harvard 20 after all

I was tiring now and eye fatigue was starting a bit, but but but surely there's time for something new? says my inner voice (thinking I'd failed to find Har20) and so off I went, I figured I'd try round delphinium since I like the constellation, even if there's little there for a DSO hunter.

C47 / 6934 is given in OITH as "Bright; compact globular" which is pretty accurate, it's certainly compact and looks basically nebulous, with no resolution whatsoever - although there's a vague taunt of mottling with averted vision.

C42 / 7006 is an even fainter glob, at 10.6 it's just a non-stellar fuzz.

Hazey cloud stopped play at 0015, but I was knackered anyway!

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Nice to get Jeffers out of hibernation, nice to get back out with the universe too 7 old friends and 3 new finds.

I was surprised by how early it's properly astronomically dark - 2100 last night - so I reckon I should be able to get some sessions in on work nights again now - hurrah! The question is will the weather hold?

[TwoPi]

Nice report, and I feel like I know Jeffrey a little now. Does he have moods? If so, maybe he wasn't trying very hard on M57 as it was the start of the session and you'd neglected him for so long?

[TractionMan]

Nice report indeed, Enjoyed reading it, thanks for sharing!

[Double Kick Drum]

Just catching up on some reports. The birth of my first baby (son) has put my astro-sessions on a bit of a hiatus but I will try to get out on some odd occasions this winter.

Nice effort on finding NGC 6934 and NGC 7006 in Delphinus. The former should have been easy but the other is tougher.

[KevUU]

Just catching up on some reports. The birth of my first baby (son) has put my astro-sessions on a bit of a hiatus but I will try to get out on some odd occasions this winter.

Nice effort on finding NGC 6934 and NGC 7006 in Delphinus. The former should have been easy but the other is tougher.

Ah, welcome back DKD I wondered where you'd got to, I've missed your reports. Congrats on the birth of your son, I hope you're enjoying family life?