Things seen and not seen through 12" Skyliner dob

[MartinB]

Managed to get out last night between 10.30 and 11.30 with Skyliner dob.

Moderate transparency with a dew slowly starting to form.

Seeing quite good.

Moderate light pollution, more to east than to west - Mag 4.5 sky at zenith

Scope well collimated. EPs used - Moonlight 30mm UWA, Panoptic 21mm, Nagler T4 17mm, Pentax XW10mm and XL 7mm. 9 and 5mm Baader orthoscopics

Saturn - Cassini - just visible and then only intermittently at x150+ using Pentax 10mm and Baader 9mm ortho. Moving up from x166 with 7mm pentax and 5mm ortho didn't improve the resolution.

The ring and it's shadow could be seen clearly in fron to the disc.

Not visible - the bands. The disc was a very pale yellow with no surface detail. I guess the ring is obscurring the largest band.

Mars Again, maginfication of 150 to 180 was about the limit. Peach coloured disc with quite distinct darker dust areas, in fact as prominent as I've seen them. Still subtle though and become much easier to make out with more prolonged observing. Nothing to choose between the 10mm Pentax and the 9mm ortho in terms of what was visible.

Orion area - Unfiltered and using a UHC - S filter I couldn't make out the horse head or the flame using either the Moonfish or the Nagler. Need a darker sky.

M42, 43 and running man - The UHC - S gave a dramatically improved view with no significant loss of nebular detail. The central nebula showed plenty of wispy detail with the central "square" of the trapezium then the ghostly bird like area of nebulosity. The outer areas were perceptible as a definite haziness but didn't contain any detail. M43 was also clearly seen with hints of the darker areas within it.

The running man was clearly seen within the reflection nebula.

Using the Pentax 10mm the E star was split from A and F was causing an irregularity in the appearance of C

M81 and 82 More LP in this part of the sky and the background was quite milky. Both galaxies nicely framed at around x90 with the 17mm Nagler. No real detail. Stepping up to the 10mm Pentax and it was possible to see a division in the core of M82 (just)

Then clouds and bed time!

[Helen]

Sounds like fun Martin (I've forgotton what sky looks like )

Helen

[themos]

Using the Pentax 10mm the E star was split from A and F was causing an irregularity in the appearance of C

That was precisely my impression through my 300P. Unfortunately, I forget the eyepiece combination but I think it was the 12mm T2 Nagler with the TV 2.5x Barlow (giving 312x power). Problem is, my astigmatism makes me doubt what I see.

[FLO]

Thanks for sharing Martin

Given the right conditions, banding on Saturn's surface is visible through a 4" aperture. A few days ago James, Greg and I were observing with Jame's 10" Newt and they were clearly visible then, though we had to wait at the eyepiece for those moments of clarity. It might sound odd but with large-aperture scopes it sometimes helps to use a moon filter to reduce the glare enough for subtle details to show.

[MartinB]

Could you see Cassini clearly Steve? I could see it intermittently but it was hard. I've seen very clear banding with my ED120 and NS8 but this is the first time I've looked at Saturn this time around.

The dob isn't ideal for this sort of thing cos you are for ever having to move it and at this sort of magnification it isn't all that smooth. That stops you getting your eye properly in tune. I don't think the larger aperture of this scope is of any great help for planetary stuff and may make the seeing worse. If the seeing was fantastic it still wouldn't be great cos it would be harder still to keep the target in the field of view. Great fun for a quick peek though.

M42, which was in a good area of my sky was pretty awesome though, esp with the UHC-S

[FLO]

The Cassini division has become progressively more difficult to see now that the rings are closing. I convince myself that I can still see it but it could be my minds-eye playing tricks. It is easier to spot at the tips of the rings where it appears as dark areas rather than something sharply defined. Probably should mention that what with Xmas/New Year at FLO and these flippin clouds I haven't been observing anywhere near as much as I'd like!