another mission for dark skys

[Daniel-K]

trusting the forecast me mike & barry set off for further afield dark skys at a at a place called Dolgoch. For me & Barry it was one hell of a drive battling the traffic on the Runcorn bridge and on the m53 4.5 hours it took instead of 3. it didn't help don't mike had bought a milk float powered by pony's instead of horse's to transport his scope to dark skys after some wrong turns  very steep hills a chat to and old lady and a bus full of young hippies mike finally got us to where we where suppose to be

At the top the views are very nice, but for the first hour the midge's where very annoying whilst trying to set up the scopes. as darkness fell the conditions where quite good, the MW was very bright stretching from over the tree tops to the horizon.

Me and Mike where keen  to compare my astronomic UHC against his baader OIII and a couple of targets the first being M27. first we tried my 31 axiom in my scope with the astronomik UHC and the view was pleasing with a filed full of stars and a brighter and more defined m27

Mike had his 31mm nagler in his scope with the baader OIII and looking back and forth between the two and even swapping the filters over the only difference between the baader and the astronomic was a darker sky with the astronomik.  at this point I was thinking ive paid a hell of a lot more money for a filter that has  almost zero difference than the mid range one.

As it got progressively darker our next target was the veil. both using the same eyepiece and filters again when I turned my scope to the witch's broom I soon had a smile on my face the filter was doing its job, letting enough stars shine through and darkening the sky but really making the broom pop out, the structure was incredible, twists and turns where easy to pick out inside the intricate nebula. pulling the scope towards me to find the western part of the veil revealed even more nebulosity, this time looking as if it was popping up of the sky in 3D. being able to sweep around and follow twists and curves was super exciting.

we went back and forth between the two scopes and it was clearly evident that the astronomik UHC woooped baaders butt on this object. give credit to the baader OIII it still made the veil clearly more visible but just lacked that popping out feature the astronomik gave.

NAN- we wasn't sure what we where looking for and it took a while to realise that we where looking through it. So we managed to find an edge and trace it round to the "gulf coast" strange as it is it was good seeing a HA nebula. ive never seen one visually before and the filter gave fantastic contrast separating the sky from the nebula.

NGC6888- steve showed me this from the lyn peninsula through his 20" and lumicon OIII.i managed to find this quite easy to see with the 14" and astronomik UHC. I was surprised to see so much of it. a clear crescent shape could be seen

that's about all we done on the filters but is the astronomik worth the extra? cant really say after one night but im looking forward to using it again.

by 2am the conditions where dropping off the MW fading out but we where still hanging in there picking out some faint galaxies by polaris.we saw countless number of meteors and a few bright ones with tails. Barry and Mike think they saw a UFO  I told them to stop smoking that tobacco lol we started packing up around 3am and had brew before setting off home. on the way home we had a fantastic view of the sunrise over mountain tops. it was worth going just to see that all in all a good night with a good haul of objects and some interesting information gathered on the filters.

Dan

[swamp thing]

Very interesting Dan.

Loooking forward to trying some filter swaps when we all meet up at Dobfest II. Never tried the astonomik UHC

Did mike get lost again.......

[estwing]

great location for a chair guys..

[Mike73]

Thought you were going Elan? Thats one helluva wrong turn to end up at Dolgoch! 

Glad your happy with your filter Dan, are you going to bother with a OIII or just stick with the UHC?

[Daniel-K]

Did mike get lost again.......

LOL yeah very lost

[Daniel-K]

Thought you were going Elan? Thats one helluva wrong turn to end up at Dolgoch! 

Glad your happy with your filter Dan, are you going to bother with a OIII or just stick with the UHC?

id like an OIII mike but want to try steves lumicon out under dark skys to see if its worth it. BTW for September make sure you get your brakes checked before going this place!

[faulksy]

the only place we got lost was when we came to that dead end, the rest of the way we wernt sure

[Daniel-K]

the only place we got lost was when we came to that dead end, the rest of the way we wernt sure

good adventure mike but you made me laugh when you swerved to dodge that tiny piece of bark that fell from that truck ! that woman in the Peugeot and the one in the Honda needed running of the road!

[faulksy]

if that made you laugh you would of laughed if you seen me mount a kerb at near 70 mph on the way home when i fell asleep. scary stuff

[Mike73]

One of the things I love about trips to dark sites is the adventure of it. 

I always look forward to both your reports, they are always a kinda cross between Cheech n Chong and the Two Ronnies, when it comes to Dobfest II just gimme the lat/long and I'II see you there....If I find that I'm following a Disco and a Focus at least I'II know I'm going in the wrong direction!! 

[Daniel-K]

Ask welshy to show you his burn mark