Still alive...!

[dark_marc]

It has been a while since I posted my last observation report. Have not really been out over the past month or so because weather conditions just didn't allow it. Pretty much cloudy here in Thatcham for a few weeks. But finally the day has come when clouds were gone, picked up the wife from town and just didnt follow her back into the house when spotting a cloudless night. Went straight into the garage and got my 200/1200 dobson set up.

AND WHAT A BEAUTY...a lovely dark sky and even 3 or 4 falling stars :-)

Having started with stargazing this early summer I was used to the warm nights put in the garden with no bother on what to wear. Now since nights get more chilly I did realise that visibility does get much better, with seeing being reduced. Everone being bored and considers selling the scope again after their first summer of scoping...get it out into the garden now. Things have changed a lot.

Everything has moved since my last star trek with Swan and Cassiopaia much higher in the sky making it now neck-twisting to observe. Objects I did frequently look for during the summer months appear much clearer....did visit Dumbell and Ring Nebula tonight, spectacular view every time I am popping by and because they are almost overhead there is less atmosphere interfering with the FOW. With the sun settling much earlier I now can lean back in my garden from 21:30 to enjoy the milky way.

And I do love the Pleiades, having seen it only once in the past they are now accessible as early as 22:30 whilst I needed to wait until 2am just two months ago.

So, whats new after I did visit all the objects I did go for in the past? Did strive for some new highlights to tick off on my list -

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Did try to find this open cluster in the past but did not have a lot of luck dirung the summer months. It always use to be little faint from my garden whilst Cassiopaia was lower in the sky. Now with it being overhead M52 is very easy to find and very clear to observe.

There is actually a lot going on around M52, will probably spend some more time over the next couple of weeks to explore further.

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Did spend some time around Cassiopaia and did try to find M103. Again very faint and more a grey smudge two months ago its now absolutely clear.

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Well.......still have not found it to be honest. Some lecture suggests that a few people are able to see this planet with the naked eye but I even do struggle with the dobson. I do find Simmah and the stars around but its difficult from my backlot to find Kaht and Linteum as a rough reference of Uranus location.

What does Uranus actually look like through a 200/1200 with 20mm EP? Does it have a distinct size making it easy to separate from the stars around?

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Another example on how the position in the sky does affect its appearance.

Having been high up in the sky over the summer I was always able to see individual stars. Now, with Hercules being very low with loads of atmosphere in the way I was lucky to just be able to spot the grey smudge and no individual stars at all.

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As mentioned before the Pleiades are half way up in the sky from around 22:30 so a real treat if you want to go to bed early. There is a lot to see around the Pleiades, unfortunately Hyades and Aldebaran were still to low to observe tonight :-/

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Again, very high in the sky today. Both M31 and M110 very easy to spot and much clearer than over the summer. Still just smudges w/o distinct form tho but much brighter.

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Was never really interested in Perseus but now with the night being so dark all the stars around Mirfak really did sparkle very bright. Will also spend some more time here in the near future to explore further.

So far so good, has been a great night but did spend more time just leaning back and staring into the sky without my scope. Will take the deckchair out next time to prevent my neck from getting stiff :-) I also may need a new chair for the scope. All my favourites are now pretty much overhead so extremely uncomfortable with a normal garden chair to look through the scope.

Good night!

[Qualia]

Glad you finally got some clear skies and a lovely report to boot. Thank you for posting it up

With regards to Uranus and Neptune (if you fancy), it isn't too difficult to star hop but you need a little more detailed map than the usual one in, say, S&T Star Atlas or the Cambridge Atlas. If you press ctrl and s together the given image-screen you're looking at on Stellarium will be saved on to your computer.

I find the easiest way to get to Uranus is jumping from the double star Delta Piscium and then following either the red line or the blue line:

In the 24mm eyepiece giving about 50x mag, I could see that Uranus was a tad brighter than the other stars about it, not significantly so but enough to give it away. Although I've exaggerated the colour of Uranus for you to see this is the image you should see through a field of view of about 1º. I see pretty much the same thing through the 24mm:

Once you up the magnification you can clearly see that you're not looking at a star. Uranus is a lot bigger and very disc like and it takes magnification extremely well. I shot up to 250x and was only limited by not having an eyepiece to take me higher.

Neptune is pretty much the same story. Once magnification kicks in above 50x, you can clearly see it is not a star and very disc-like. Nevertheless, although a clear hint of blue can be discerned on Uranus, I can't really get much from Neptune. At best, I think I catch glimpse of faint green.

Finally, a chair will be worth you time. I figure comfortable seating will give you an extra 1/2" to 1" aperture. My own is a cheap ironing chair, but I've heard others like drum stools.

[Astro Imp]

Great to hear you're out having again.

Enjoyed reading your report.

BTW there is loads to see around Cassiopeia.

Good luck.