5h hours with the stars, plenty of time to sketch and wonder...

[Scosmico]

The night of 23-24/08 was amazing in Sussex.

I put my 12"DOB to cool around 20h and collimate it straight away ready for the evening.

On the table my eyepiece case, few star atlases and my 8x42mm binocular.

After putting the children to bed and kissing wife I put my clothes, two layers and checked the collimation to start observing.

The primary was cool enough, not many air currents inside, but still noticeable. All down to the cooling difference between my glass and the air.

It normally settles well when the temperature stops dropping fast after midnight.

Milkway -  with all ready to go, I spent 15min enjoying the sky with my own naked eyes. The atmosphere was quite stable, no twinkly stars and very transparent. Some light Pollution was noticeable towards north below 30º. Lovely view of the Milkway's splendour from horizon to horizon crossing the skies above me. Normally I just take in the view, the colours and the sounds and silence of the night before I start to dessicate the sky in constellations. I have learned to use Ursa Minor's square to estimate my visual Magnitude limit each night. I estimated 5.7 based on 18 Ursae Minoris (no averted vision).

Comet Jaques was the first target of the night. Invisible to the naked eye, despite for a few seconds I took 32 Cassiopea for the comet. In my binoculars the comet was fuzzy as a elliptical galaxy. In the telescope, the pseudo nucleus was not prominent as I saw it one week ago, but evident with the averted vision. No perception of colour or tail. Its apparent velocity still amazed me.

I decided to train my sketching skills with comet Jaques. And, as expected, I did learn a lot. How the paper behave differently with dew, that comets are fast, sketching with dobsonians require quick hands etc. Overall a good first try with all frustration and rewards.

My new 12v hair dryer worked really well. Fortunately I bought it with Astronomy in mind, because it is rubbish to dry any hair at all.

Scanning Cassiopeia was a good break after the sketching. It was a very loose observation. I just want to scan through the constellation. It is a lovely part of the sky. I could stay one whole night just checking all those clusters and double stars. A beautiful pair, 35 Cas nice contrast between the red and white. The scan through Cassiopeia continued with the binoculars, the triple cluster was the highlight as the amazing view of the star clouds in the Milkway.

Kimble's cascade was at its best, vertical as it suppose to be. It is beautiful. Remembering the views of a cascade at night reflecting the moon light.

The double Cluster in Perseus and Melotte 20 required some minutes in the binoculars to take in so much star light. Beautiful colour contrasts. It is interesting to see that Melotte 20 was much nicer to see in my 8x42mm binos than the double cluster. But the double cluster in my Dob with my wide field eyepiece is a work of celestial art.

Almach is a beautiful contrasting double star similar to Albireo.

Now, time to go back inside for a cup of tea and warm up a bit.

The second part of the night I spent on three object that are fascinating and conditions were allowing good observation with various eps.

NGC 891 - The edge on galaxy was noticeable in at 65x, 85x but only at 122x I manage to glimpse the dark lane in the middle. Lovely object. John Dobson's favourite if I remember well in his 27" scope. I spent few minutes checking the visible length of the galaxy on visual against the star charts.

Andromeda Galaxy - WOW. yes again. Almost overhead Andromeda showed me clearly the two main dust lanes in its curvy shapes. The vision was so full of detail that I decided that I will bring a map of Andromeda to my next session. NGC 206 was so clear. It was not this time that I saw M32 engulfed in the main galaxy as most of astropictures show. I suppose it requires more aperture and/or darker skies.

1h57m 24/08 BST - A -4 mag. meteor crossed the sky for approximately 40 degrees and its tracing tail of 20 degrees. It appeared close to the the circlet in Pisces crossing all the way to the north of Delphinus. Definitely a memorable meteor. By the way, I saw around 6 meteors, one very likely to be a late Perseids and a -1 mag. iridum flare.

Triangulum Galaxy - WOW. New wow this time for me. It was the first time looking at M33 with a 12" Dob. What a sight. A proper space walk with my wide field eyepiece. This time I also made a note that I will bring a M33 map in future sessions. I was able to see so many fuzzy objects inside the galaxy. NGC 604 was easy to spot at 64x and more detail came up until 170x from where the image faded quickly with the increase in magnification.

Blue snowball was as described in the first half of the name, blue. I didn't pick up any detail until I increased the magnification to 170x where some structures were visible. I want to come back and spend more time on this one.

I failed to locate the Helix nebula. I only saw it once in Spain in a very dark site. Hope to see it here in the UK this summer yet.

The Saturn nebula was visible for a short while before hiding behind a tree. I didn't manage to see any detail as I didn't have time. I will come back on this one for sure.

Uranus - I spent some time trying to locate it, as in my binoculars it seemed like "just another star". When I was more confident about the location I scanned that area with my Dob in Pisces. I found the bluish blob! At 222x I managed to spot, what I think is Oberon in a good distance from the planet. In the same line towards the planet's glare I spotted something, but it was in the limit of visibility coming and going. Difficult to say but  it could have been Titania. Titania is brighter than Oberon, but normally closer to the planet's glare.

To close the night I spent another 15min looking the skies with naked eyes and enjoying the sounds of the night. Good night Pleaides.

What a beautiful place in the universe we are.

Thanks for reading.

[cotterless45]

Yo ! Very enjoyable read. I take a 10" Lightbridge to dark sites. Nothing beats dark skies. Last time NGC 891 looked stunning with foreground stars pressed on it. M33 looked spiral.

These are just fuzz from here. It's lovely to see stars right down to the horizon. You can really appreciate our little globe touching the Universe.

I always wonder what our ancient ancestors made of it,

Nick.

[Glaiden]

Nice report!  

[TacMedic0709]

Wonderful report , sounds like an amazing time spent exploring those ancient and beautiful places. Makes you wonder who might be looking back thinking the same...

[mariosi]

Excellent report!

Thanks

         Marios