New Faint Fuzzies seen!

[Cjg]

So Friday was superb at Seething, and was first time with my repaired 5SE mount (thanks FLO), co-incided with a visit from Andrew Robertson a very experienced visual observer (in his talks he refers to "moderately sized scopes" meaning 8") and was on hand to suggest a visit to the Little Dumbbell Nebula - (76) very faint, but was able to use my  8X eyepiece so 156x magnification. We spent perhaps 10 minutes at the eyepiece, could see an irregular shape, but very faint. Moved on to the  Cat's Eye Nebula, (NGC 6543) too small in my scope to see any detail, nevertheless an interesting sight and one that I'd want to revisit with a bigger scope. Helps being rural and having an expert at the scope who knows what it is you're looking at, but worth a look.

Chris

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Congrats on your finds. I think M76 might be better at a bit lower magnification. Fuzzies generally do not take magnification very well due to the low surface brightness. With my 8" scope, I tend to use 65.5x, 93x and 119x most on faint fuzzies (31, 22, and 17mm EPs respectively).

Happy hunting!

[Cjg]

Thanks, we did view through with the 25mm eyepiece, but that's 50 x magnification - they were very small - guess the limitations of a 5" scope, will have to point the clubs 14" Meade at them; delighted that have two more interesting objects to view - the disappointment was the blinking planetary nebula (ngc 6826) I just couldn't see the "blink" no matter how I looked / squinted. Do you find that easy in your 8"?

Chris

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Thanks, we did view through with the 25mm eyepiece, but that's 50 x magnification - they were very small - guess the limitations of a 5" scope, will have to point the clubs 14" Meade at them; delighted that have two more interesting objects to view - the disappointment was the blinking planetary nebula (ngc 6826) I just couldn't see the "blink" no matter how I looked / squinted. Do you find that easy in your 8"?

Chris

I have seen various planetary nebulae blink, but the blinking planetary does show the effect a bit more. The blinking effect is caused by the planetary all but vanishing when you look straight at it, and reappearing in averted vision. The fovea of your eye is not very sensitive to faint light, because it contains few rods. The area around the fovea is much more sensitive, hence the need for averted vision for really faint fuzzies. If you concentrate fiercely on staring at the object, it does not blink, but is hard to see. If you concentrate on averted vision, you actually see the nebula continuously, no blinking. If you look at it more casually, you tend to get the best blinking effect, as the eye is almost automatically drawn to the object when it flashes into view, only to disappear when you actually look at it. The eye then starts wandering again, causing the object to flash into view, etc.

Hope that helps

[Cjg]

Thanks, I'll give that a go. Think I'll take a chair so that I can sit and relax at the eyepiece next time.

Cheers,

Chris

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Thanks, I'll give that a go. Think I'll take a chair so that I can sit and relax at the eyepiece next time.

Cheers,

Chris

Always a good idea. I find observing from a chair means I see much more, and I don't do my back in. Ironing chairs are handy as the height is adjustable.