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Dark sky outing snowdonia


Daniel-K

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Here we go again, another dark sky outing with the 14". This time just me and Barry, sadly Mike had work and Graham is in Scotland. With the car packed we set off on the 1.45 hour drive to our new favourite spot in Snowdonia park   ;)

On arrival we where surprised to see a van parked in our spot. with a small bit of cloud lingering it was time to set up and enjoy the sunset. The half moon looked lovely just above the tops of the hills. After around 30mins the owner of the van arrived, and asked us what we where up to. He could see that the midges where bugging us and gave us this repellent and don't I wish I had got the name cause it worked a treat. as soon as we put it on they stopped bugging us :p  He had a quick view of the moon and was so impressed he asked to com back up later when it was dark.

We waited rather patiently while the moon sunk down below the hills having a look at the brighter object. The van man returned for a look, so it was a case of showing him the brighter more regular objects like M13 M81&M82 the double cluster M31 etc. he only stayed around 15 mins but nice to show a someone local what they have in their "backyard"

with the moon out of the way it became evident that the conditions where outstanding, the MW was the best ive seen since m trip to the lynn peninsula last year. the split of the back of Cygnus was incredible. we could see fuzzy DSO everywhere.

M57, always got to try this one just encase that central star pops out, but sadly not tonight x228 was not enough to show it. It did how start to bring out the outer edges and it no long looked like a ring but very much like on oval with a deep blue centre. i wish i had a 6mm just to have pushed the mag.

NGC 6891 has evaded me again. sweeping around with the 23mm and astronomic UHC both me and Barry failed to find this one.

NGC 4449- after first finding this one at delamere when the moon was up, it was nice to go back to this strange galaxy. it was abit to low to the hill tops but it showed its strange elongated core with a slight fuzzy square shape.

NGC4041 & 4036 these two make a nice pair and are quite bright

we targeted a few of the higher  galaxies above the bowl and into draco bagging a fair few to add to the log.

By this time Cygnus was way up high in the dob hole perfect for the veil :evil1:  equipped with the 31mm and 2" astronomic UHC. we located 52 cygni and wow. i thought it was good when we went to the Brecon beacons but this time it was a whole new league. way more nebula and intricate details could be seen. the whole EP was filled with twists and turns of nebula.. even when panning over to the eastern nebula was pooping out everywhere, so much so that it was kinda hard to keep track where you was going.  6974 & 79 where easy to see and the small knot of the tip of the eastern was easy to pick out in these extremely rare conditions. By far the best view of the veil both me and Barry have seen.

close by was NGC 6888, with this one ive found even with the UHC its still easily scanned over so its best to take your time and boy when i found it i was happy. this is the 3rd time ive seen this 1st time was in steves 20" with the lumicon OIII from the lynn peninsula where it was still light on the horizon, 2ndly from Brecon beacons and 3rd time was last night. out of the 3times last night was the only time i was able to see the whole "brain" shape. by no means was i doing a comparison but in steves 20" the crescent shape was evident but the top edge was deep red. mine had no colour just the full shape of the nebula.

we managed to view the bubble nebula by M52 this was tricky as just a tiny edge of it was visible slightly popping in and out. nice to finally tick this one of after trying a few time when i had the 16"LB

I really enjoying the Astronomik UCH filter ATM :D

NGC 6803

M11

M16

M17

M18

M24

M20

M21

we had a brief look at the above while the horizon was clear, scutum  looked like it was just a rouge cloud but it was filled with fuzzy blobs :D

M31 was the best we've seen with the dark dust lanes clearly evident. ngc 206 the star cloud in M31 was incredible me nor Barry had seen it visual only in images we have taken. 

To top it off we seen 2 ISS pass's around 20mertor's 4 of which left smoking trails and bagged the comet. Barry took a image of the moon trough the 14" scope which turned out very nice indeed. excellent night with the best conditions of the year :D im having a super year for astronomy  long may it continue

Dan :cool:

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Great report Dan. :)

Putting that new UHC to good use there mate!

Loads of great objects there.

The Bubble is on my to do list and I've read its a tricky object and that central star in the Ring just needs a near perfect night for transparency and lots of magnification (over x400), not seen it yet this year but got it once last year after dozens of times of trying!!

The problem with reading reports is that it leaves you itching to get out and observe yourself!

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A great report. I'm off to Snowdonia with my 4" frac in a fortnight and I cant wait! hopefully will share a report in due course. I remember last time i went I found it really difficult to get my astro-bearings due to the vast number of stars on show. I'll be there a week so hopefully some nice clear skies.

Ben

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Great report Dan. :)

Putting that new UHC to good use there mate!

Loads of great objects there.

The Bubble is on my to do list and I've read its a tricky object and that central star in the Ring just needs a near perfect night for transparency and lots of magnification (over x400), not seen it yet this year but got it once last year after dozens of times of trying!!

The problem with reading reports is that it leaves you itching to get out and observe yourself!

yeah mike its very hard to see just getting a glimpse of it then it pops out again. i new it was there as there was lots of nebula in the area. that may have been my last chance to get out before i go away to spain in September so im glad it was a good night :) not long now till DFII

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Nice report indeed.

I was up on the sea front at Cleveleys just before sunset hoping to spot the Isle of Man on the horizon but failed.

Snowdonia was visible as was much of the N.Wales coast. 

I was thinking to my self that there would be some good viewing up their after dark.

Sadly it's a long way round for me even though I can see it on a clear day.

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yeah mike its very hard to see just getting a glimpse of it then it pops out again. i new it was there as there was lots of nebula in the area. that may have been my last chance to get out before i go away to spain in September so im glad it was a good night :) not long now till DFII

I remember seeing one of Carol Lamokiak (sp?)sketches on CN last year when she was using a 16" LB, it looked more like a half shell than a bubble TBH but she also said how tricky it was even under good skies.

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What a cracking site. The Bubble does require some effort to observe and when the conditions are right, I glimpsed it for the first time last year. 

yes its lovely and its easy to go get to. its quite high up at half the height of Snowdonia its self.there was a slight breeze last night and I just was not geared up for up as the temp fell I could feel myself getting colder.lucky barry let me his hat as he had a hooded jacket but  ive been out today and bought a decent coat :)

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Here we go again, another dark sky outing with the 14". This time just me and Barry, sadly Mike had work and Graham is in Scotland. With the car packed we set off on the 1.45 hour drive to our new favourite spot in Snowdonia park   ;)

On arrival we where surprised to see a van parked in our spot. with a small bit of cloud lingering it was time to set up and enjoy the sunset. The half moon looked lovely just above the tops of the hills. After around 30mins the owner of the van arrived, and asked us what we where up to. He could see that the midges where bugging us and gave us this repellent and don't I wish I had got the name cause it worked a treat. as soon as we put it on they stopped bugging us :p  He had a quick view of the moon and was so impressed he asked to com back up later when it was dark.

We waited rather patiently while the moon sunk down below the hills having a look at the brighter object. The van man returned for a look, so it was a case of showing him the brighter more regular objects like M13 M81&M82 the double cluster M31 etc. he only stayed around 15 mins but nice to show a someone local what they have in their "backyard"

with the moon out of the way it became evident that the conditions where outstanding, the MW was the best ive seen since m trip to the lynn peninsula last year. the split of the back of Cygnus was incredible. we could see fuzzy DSO everywhere.

M57, always got to try this one just encase that central star pops out, but sadly not tonight x228 was not enough to show it. It did how start to bring out the outer edges and it no long looked like a ring but very much like on oval with a deep blue centre. i wish i had a 6mm just to have pushed the mag.

NGC 6891 has evaded me again. sweeping around with the 23mm and astronomic UHC both me and Barry failed to find this one.

NGC 4449- after first finding this one at delamere when the moon was up, it was nice to go back to this strange galaxy. it was abit to low to the hill tops but it showed its strange elongated core with a slight fuzzy square shape.

NGC4041 & 4036 these two make a nice pair and are quite bright

we targeted a few of the higher  galaxies above the bowl and into draco bagging a fair few to add to the log.

By this time Cygnus was way up high in the dob hole perfect for the veil :evil1:  equipped with the 31mm and 2" astronomic UHC. we located 52 cygni and wow. i thought it was good when we went to the Brecon beacons but this time it was a whole new league. way more nebula and intricate details could be seen. the whole EP was filled with twists and turns of nebula.. even when panning over to the eastern nebula was pooping out everywhere, so much so that it was kinda hard to keep track where you was going.  6974 & 79 where easy to see and the small knot of the tip of the eastern was easy to pick out in these extremely rare conditions. By far the best view of the veil both me and Barry have seen.

close by was NGC 6888, with this one ive found even with the UHC its still easily scanned over so its best to take your time and boy when i found it i was happy. this is the 3rd time ive seen this 1st time was in steves 20" with the lumicon OIII from the lynn peninsula where it was still light on the horizon, 2ndly from Brecon beacons and 3rd time was last night. out of the 3times last night was the only time i was able to see the whole "brain" shape. by no means was i doing a comparison but in steves 20" the crescent shape was evident but the top edge was deep red. mine had no colour just the full shape of the nebula.

we managed to view the bubble nebula by M52 this was tricky as just a tiny edge of it was visible slightly popping in and out. nice to finally tick this one of after trying a few time when i had the 16"LB

I really enjoying the Astronomik UCH filter ATM :D

NGC 6803

M11

M16

M17

M18

M24

M20

M21

we had a brief look at the above while the horizon was clear, scutum  looked like it was just a rouge cloud but it was filled with fuzzy blobs :D

M31 was the best we've seen with the dark dust lanes clearly evident. ngc 206 the star cloud in M31 was incredible me nor Barry had seen it visual only in images we have taken. 

To top it off we seen 2 ISS pass's around 20mertor's 4 of which left smoking trails and bagged the comet. Barry took a image of the moon trough the 14" scope which turned out very nice indeed. excellent night with the best conditions of the year :D im having a super year for astronomy  long may it continue

Dan :cool:

wish i was there dan, just noticed you knicked my spot :grin:. off to the llyn tuesday or wednesday for 2 nights. are you coming

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