another outing to the dark site in snowdonia

[Daniel-K]

me Mike and Baz turned up to a dark site and was greeted with a stunning view.this was the first time we had gotten there before dark.it was looking like a great night and a chance to test out all my new kit.we also had a surprise visit from a wildlife trust who was doing dark site meter readings.(21.6)

surprisingly I only bagged 2 new galaxy's which where NGC 2268 and 5448. I was just going trough stuff I know off the top of me head testing the 17.3mm & 14mm Delos both are extremely nice to use.

M51 was one of the first objects. I was so nice to see the spiral structure in the 17.3mm Delos.

M97 The OWL nebula was huge the best ive seen it.

M53 was very nice in the 14mm Delos wish I had that 10mm now

the leo trio- all 3 were very easy to spot

Mars was showing a lot of detail , probably the best ive seen

there where a few more things but I didn't make a list this time round as I was testing all my new dew heaters and EP's ready for another trip soon.

Mikes got to use his 31 Nagler and I made the mistake of looking through it, everything just seems to melt away at the edges and its like your looking out of a window in deep space.

it was a good few hours but it clouded over about half 12 so we held off an hour but it wasn't budging so we pack up and soon as we got down the mountain it was clear! 

on the way home we stopped off at the meeting point and me & Mike saw a massive fireball got under the moon. the best to describe it was like magnesium burning

super bright!

cant wait to get out again.

Dan

[cotterless45]

Neat, it was wall to wall cloud here and I had a whole list waiting,

Nick.

[faulksy]

yes another brilliant night dan, very surprised at the sqm reading well impressed. lots of detail in every object we viewed and the cone nebula was beautiful and the ring. another great night dan

[Mike73]

Good going Dan / Mike, 21.6 isnt too shabby.

Dan I reckon you do need some high power for globs, they dont really 'blow up' until you start going over x200. The sketch was done at x218 but I observed it at x340 for a while, the 3/4 of the FoV was just a ball of stars and it wasnt even properly dark yet!

[swamp thing]

I agree mike 300x and globs start to strut their stuff.

What you want is the eyepiece full of globular cluster in something with a wide field like a Nagler. It's a mind blowing view.

[faulksy]

me Mike and Baz turned up to a dark site and was greeted with a stunning view.this was the first time we had gotten there before dark.it was looking like a great night and a chance to test out all my new kit.we also had a surprise visit from a wildlife trust who was doing dark site meter readings.(21.6)

surprisingly I only bagged 2 new galaxy's which where NGC 2268 and 5448. I was just going trough stuff I know off the top of me head testing the 17.3mm & 14mm Delos both are extremely nice to use.

M51 was one of the first objects. I was so nice to see the spiral structure in the 17.3mm Delos.

M97 The OWL nebula was huge the best ive seen it.

M53 was very nice in the 14mm Delos wish I had that 10mm now

the leo trio- all 3 were very easy to spot

Mars was showing a lot of detail , probably the best ive seen

there where a few more things but I didn't make a list this time round as I was testing all my new dew heaters and EP's ready for another trip soon.

Mikes got to use his 31 Nagler and I made the mistake of looking through it, everything just seems to melt away at the edges and its like your looking out of a window in deep space.

it was a good few hours but it clouded over about half 12 so we held off an hour but it wasn't budging so we pack up and soon as we got down the mountain it was clear! 

on the way home we stopped off at the meeting point and me & Mike saw a massive fireball got under the moon. the best to describe it was like magnesium burning

super bright!

cant wait to get out again.

Dan

cant believe of all the views we took pretty much the same photo

[scarp15]

Nice session and great location, a good precursor for Dob Fest I would expect. Mike's Nagler 31mm would do well at framing the Markarian's Chain. I captured this profile in my 26mm nagler on Friday, but had to jiggle a little to fit in frame.