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Horsehead visually?

kerrylewis

By kerrylewis
in Observing - Deep Sky

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  • 4 weeks later...
MarkbPlym

MarkbPlym

Posted
Posted

Hello

I am luck to have a dark sight near me located on Dartmoor. I have a Celestron Nexstar 5se and Canon 1100D AND ha filter.

If the telescope is accurately aligned and pointing in the right direction, and I took around 240 x 30sec exposures then stack them into one frame, would I get anything or would I be wasting my time?

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  • 10 months later...
Luke

Luke

Posted
Posted

Wohoo, I bagged the Horsehead from home on Sunday night! :laugh:  So chuffed. As soon as I stepped out on Sunday night I was thinking about it. as the skies looked the best for a long time. The Milky Way was that bit clearer than normal...

I used the SKywatcher 400P with a Tele Vue Paracorr 2, which barlows by 1.15x, and Astronomik H-Beta filter.

My first eyepiece was a 25mm Tele Vue Plossl. I spent a good ten mins or so trying to tease out the horsey. I find it helpful to pan the view while looking, for me something about a gentle motion helps to catch it.

But it was tight. I dunno, can just about make something out, ish. Hmmmm. Well I knew the eyepiece was a little bit dirty, and the Horsey was on the brink. So I gabbed the Baader wonder fluid and gave the EP a good quick scrub. Bingo! I had noticed when pulling out the eyepiece that it was a a touch dirty, but this really made a difference. Definitely make sure your EP is super clean!!

I also then tried cleaning the Paracorr, didn't change things much :grin:

I was trying to decide whether the view was as good as at the SGL star party, when I had a Panoptic 19mm. That's since gone and I think since then was have added a 17.3mm Delos. Okay, let's try the widest Delos...

Hmmm. I dunno, I am getting that Delos brightness and contrast kick, and there is something around there, but I can't really claim it with this eyepiece. I think we are in too close... What a shame there isn't a wider Delos. There is the 21mm Ethos, but then that is 100 degress and Alnitak can be a problem. The 21mm Ethos I think we tried at SGL with no joy.

Then I thought about how I have started using a 0.5x reducer with Plossl eyepieces for solar observing with the Quark. Nothing to lose.

WOW! There was the horsey better than with the Plossls. Tried the 14mm Delos plus 0.5x reducer as well. Of course, both EP's were given a drop (and only a drop, best not to overdo it) of Baader wonderfluid first. I thuoght the 14mm Delos edged it.

Now I don't get really why they seemed to work. Wouldn't that be messing with high exit pupil? I don't know, but these two EP's worked with the reducer!

Good luck to anyone else stalking the horsey. Take your time and make sure you know exactly where to look, I used Mark's brill piccy, just perfect for locating the area.

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scarp15

scarp15

Posted
Posted

Very good in depth account Luke, cheers for that, I was wondering how the paracorr II, coupled with a 25mm TV plossl would respond, as this will be my primary approach (X74, 4.72 Exit pupil). Interesting concerning the reducer.

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Luke

Luke

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Simon, with the Quark I like the 35mm Plossl best. The reducer is good to have for a wider view though I like the closer up view anyway so tend not to use the reducer. For imaging I almost always use the reducer, no Newton's rings unlike prime focus and a bit less demanding on conditions :)

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John

John

Posted
Posted

Well done Luke :smiley:

I gave the HH a really good go with my 12" dob a couple of nights back and felt I was very close indeed and might have actually picked up something but nothing that made me have any confidence that I'd seen the thing. I tried the 32, 20 and 15mm TV plossls and the 18mm Baader Classic ortho all combined with a Lumicon H-Beta. Thats exit pupils of 6mm, 3.8mm, 3.4mm and 2.8mm. The 32mm plossl was more in hope than optimisim !

If I'd had an additional 4" of aperture at hand that might just have cracked it for me too ! :smiley:

It's such a tricky challenge I feel very small things can tip the balance from a near miss to a hit and having clean optics would certainly be one of them.

Congratulations again :smiley:

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Mark at Beaufort

Mark at Beaufort

Posted
Posted

Excellent report Luke and some interesting info on the different EPs. Since our success at the star party I have tried many times with my 10" Dob and H.Beta filter but no success. As John stated the extra light grasp of the 16" can make all the difference.

I am glad that my piccy is still useful. I attach it in case others want it.

post-1628-0-88017500-1417084306_thumb.jp

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  • 4 weeks later...
PeterW

PeterW

Posted
Posted

Grrrr. Flame and ic434 ok last night, but not quite sure of the HH, bashed the tube to see if I could get it to show itself.... I guess i need a perfect night and once seen I will know what to look for when the conditions are a notch worse!!

Cheers

Peter

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swamp thing

swamp thing

Posted
Posted

Got it myself last night. About time.......

It's bigger than I imagined it would be. I had been looking fir a tiny notch.......it isn't that tiny :)

There was a little moisture about last night so conditions weren't perfect. Look forward to getting it in the scope at a better location.

Eyepiece 20mm Nagler (who needs plossls ;) ) . Using a borrowed H-Beta filter (thanks Alan :) )

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michael.h.f.wilkinson

michael.h.f.wilkinson

Posted
Posted

Got it myself last night. About time.......

It's bigger than I imagined it would be. I had been looking fir a tiny notch.......it isn't that tiny :)

There was a little moisture about last night so conditions weren't perfect. Look forward to getting it in the scope at a better location.

Eyepiece 20mm Nagler (who needs plossls ;) ) . Using a borrowed H-Beta filter (thanks Alan :) )

I didn't think it was that small either. I got it with the LVW 42 and even better with the 31T5 "Panzerfaust". No Plössl needed. H-beta filter was certainly necessary

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nicoscy

nicoscy

Posted
Posted

Had a great session last night with my 12" Dob and with my observing buddy who brought his 6" F5.9 refractor. We invested the first 30 minutes viewing the Horsehead, alternating between scopes and Ethos 21 and Panoptic 19 eyepieces. He preferred the 19 Panoptic and I preferred the 21 Ethos. He preferred Altinak in the field and I kept nudging the scopes to keep it out!

To each his own I say and the Horsehead is a relatively easy target if you have a Hb filter, sufficient aperture, a decent eyepiece which provides a suffficiently large exit pupil and definitely a properly oriented chart, preferably scaled to what your scope + eyepiece should show.

My take on the Horsehead is that it becomes 10 times easier to see if you know the field of view well to first gaze IC343 and then center the Horsehead at an orientation which you expect based on your findercharts and then image scale is important as I have found it always larger than I would expect to see it. Every time I view it, it takes me a few minutes to adjust to its scale and then the viewing becomes so much better.

Here's a link to the chart I use to view it. I use Skytools 3 which I find a great tool to use. I have stopped using my finderscope as of late and just rely on ST3 charts, my telrad and my Nagler 31 or Ethos 21 as finder eyepieces.

On another note, the evening progressed greatly with fantastic views of M42 and M43 and a very enjoyable view of Trapezium A through F (E&F bagged with a Takahashi 7.5mm LE - a great eyepiece), Thor's helmet, Rosette Nebula and since Christmas is only a few days away, I couldn't resist not viewing NGC2264 - The Christmas tree Cluster (home of the Cone Nebula) and as luck would have it, the Cluster was perfectly oriented upright and lit up like a Christmas Tree!  I wrapped up the evening with some viewing of Jupiter at 167.5x and headed back home.

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nicoscy

nicoscy

Posted
Posted

Mert, it appears I am lucky enough to be easily able to discern it.

I find it an easy object in my 12" but I must admit it was a bit of a challenge in the 6" refractor last night.

With good sky conditions and appropriate equipment it relatively easy from my observing location.

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