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Dorset Sagittarius adventures

Stu

By Stu
in Observing - Reports

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Stu

Stu

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Wow, what a night!

I'm back now, having avoided the Bank Holiday rain fortunately. Had a bit of a nightmare last few days, my daughter started feeling unwell and by Saturday I had to get her home. Typically, a lovely rain shower came over drenching everything as I was about to start packing, so I decided to get her home ASAP and come back for the tent later.

2.5 hours back to my parents, a round or two of cheese and pickle sandwiches, cup of tea and some cake later, I was on my way back. Traffic was nice and light on the way back down.

Now, every cloud has a silver lining as they say, and the forecast was clear for Saturday night so after I got back I decided to head down towards the coast to complete my second objective for the trip which was having a good crack at Sagittarius.

I checked on the map and found a place called St Aldhelm's chapel near Worth Matravers which was very close and looked suitable. In the end I didn't quite get there, but was close enough to have fantastic views. The track got pretty bumpy and my 12 year old 330 sport wasn't liking it!

I arrived at around 8.45pm I guess, and the skies didn't look that promising with some hazy cloud on the horizon. They never actually looked that great, but judging by the fact that M13 was visible naked eye, they can't have been too bad.

Kit wise I had the Genesis on EQ6 tripod and Ercole mount, Zeiss 2" prism, Lumicon UHC and OIII filters plus all my eyepieces. The wind picked up later on so I'm glad I had the Ercole with me, still got a bit jiggly even then. I mainly stuck to the 13, 17 and 21 Ethos', with the 31 Nag when an ultra wide field was needed. I then just switched to my 12.5mm BGO when I wanted a little more power (still only x40) but this was basically a widefield session.

In general I went unfiltered when panning around the star fields, UHC when looking at most nebulae, and OIII for the Veil and NAN.

I started low as those objects were heading down towards the horizon. I then headed up the Milky Way, star hopping upwards and identifying objects as I went, before repeating a number of times. I didn't have, or need a finder at any point, 5 degrees with the big Nag is plenty! I'm sure I missed plenty of potential targets, and some I couldn't/didn't identify but here is a list to give you an idea!

M7 - Ptolemy's Cluster

Only a couple of degrees above the horizon but still relatively easy to identify vs star charts

M6 - Butterfly Cluster

NGC6416 - lovely little cluster near M6

M8 Lagoon Nebula - very bright nebula with lovely open cluster NGC6530 embedded within it

Cr367 - open cluster near the Lagoon

M20 Trifid Nebula - dimmer nebula than the lagoon but nebulosity still clearly visible

NGC6514 - open cluster surrounding the Trifid

M21 - followed a little trail of stars up from the Trifid to find this nice open cluster

NGC6595

M18 - small open cluster

M24 - magnificent, huge star cloud, looked absolutely wonderful, not seen this one before and has been something I've always wanted to see. It didn't disappoint. I'm slightly confused though on designations here, I've seen reference to IC4715 and NGC6603, but anyway, definitely saw it all!!

M17 Omega Nebula - quite bright, somewhere between the Trifid and Lagoon, very nice.

NGC6618 - open cluster surrounding the Omega Nebula

M25 - very nice, large open cluster

M23

NGC6605

M16 Eagle Nebula - a little dimmer than the Omega but nebulosity still more distinct than the Trifid

NGC6611 - embedded in the Eagle

NGC6604

Globs

M54 - quite tricky, didn't chuck a lot of mag at it but clearly there, and clearly globular!

M69 - as above

M70 - as above

NGC6624 - as above

M22 - absolutely magnificent! Looked huge and resolved into a peppering of stars in the 12.5mm. Better than M13!

M28 - reasonably bright

M55 - genuinely can't remember if I got this or not!! Next time will make sure

NGC6520 - nice open cluster

M11 - looked lovely as always but much better than I've seen before due to the dark sky

Once I had followed the trail of the Milky Way up to M11, I went for a wander around other more familiar objects...

M31, 32 & 110 - M31 looked huge, not much detail but you could really see the extent of the spiral arms

M101 - barely detectable round glow

M97 - small round patch of nebulosity, could not detect any 'eyes' this time

Double Cluster - wonderful as always, probably best in the 13mm Ethos, beautifully framed and hundreds of lovely coloured stars, but you know that anyway :-)

Stock 2 - a nice little train of stars leads up from the DC to this large open cluster

Heart & Soul nebulae - these were trickier, possibly due to the more northerly, and lower position in the sky, but still detectable

Veil - again, looked wonderful in a variety of eyepieces, beautifully framed in the big Nag, whilst the 13mm Ethos gave nicely detailed views of each component. In the binos, the Eastern Veil was quite clear, but the Witches broom was only faintly visible with averted vision. It is much easier with UHC/OIII filters fitted though.

NAN - more lovely views, very easily seen. I've seen this plus the Veil more times in the last week than in the last few years probably!

M29, plus a general trawl around Cygnus, so much to see up there!

I could have spent hours more observing, but was pretty spent after 5 hours in the car, and had a big tent pack-down ahead of me the following day.

Once I got back to the campsite, I had a further pan around with the binos and picked up M33 as a dim round glow, nice to see. Also picked up Comet Jacques looking quite bright.

I think this must count as one of my better sessions in a long time. I will definitely be back, possibly with the Vixen. Certainly some more aperture would be spectacular, but the widefield views of the Genesis seemed very well suited to this part of the sky.

24 Messiers plus a variety of other NGCs makes for a pretty good tally.

Dark skies, a sea horizon and the summer Milky Way, quite a combination.

Stu

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Pig

Pig

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Excellent report Stu :smiley: What a silver lining that turned out to be, more like silver tongued cunning plan getting back to the campsite like that :grin:

I hope your daughter gets better soon.

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Wyvern

Wyvern

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Stu,

I remember that "road" you mention to get to St Aldhelm's chapel fondly!!, though I seem to recall it as more of a rutted track! 

While a member of the Wessex Astro Society based around Dorset, we'd often have field meetings at a members farm in Worth Matravers. Superlative views there. As a keen walker I'd also explore the Purbeck coastline around there at any opportunity. Your report brought back great memories, thanks.

Les

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Stu

Stu

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Nice one Stu. What a cracking list. M24 is a stunning sight. Where were you staying?

I stay at a campsite called Downshay Farm in Harmans Cross.

It is just the sort of place I prefer, good showers and loos, plenty of hot water but no bar or shop, very peaceful during the week. Tends to get busier at the weekend.

The skies are great there. It's not North Wales, but it's about the best within a couple of hours travel. The views north are affected by Poole and Bournemouth, but overhead and South are great. The main 'problem' with the site is that it is on the north facing slope of the hill so the more southerly objects are out of reach, hence the need for the trip to the coast.

Stu

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Stu

Stu

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Stu,

I remember that "road" you mention to get to St Aldhelm's chapel fondly!!, though I seem to recall it as more of a rutted track!

While a member of the Wessex Astro Society based around Dorset, we'd often have field meetings at a members farm in Worth Matravers. Superlative views there. As a keen walker I'd also explore the Purbeck coastline around there at any opportunity. Your report brought back great memories, thanks.

Les

:-) Rutted track is exactly right Les!!

I love Purbeck, and have been coming here for around 8 years now. As you say, the coastline is spectacular. We have had some lovely walks along the coastal paths aswell as just sitting and watching the waves crashing against the rocks by Tilly caves.

St Aldhelm's is definitely somewhere I would go back to. Perhaps we can have a summer star party down there?

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AndyWB

AndyWB

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Re: NGC 6603 - yes, there is a lot of confusion about this. Some places take NGC 6603 to mean M24, but more seem to regard it as the open cluster within M24. That OC is pretty rich looking, so it's pretty obvious, even in something as busy as M24. Wikipedia describes this, and the photograph is pretty much as I see it in the 10"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_6603 

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Stu

Stu

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Re: NGC 6603 - yes, there is a lot of confusion about this. Some places take NGC 6603 to mean M24, but more seem to regard it as the open cluster within M24. That OC is pretty rich looking, so it's pretty obvious, even in something as busy as M24. Wikipedia describes this, and the photograph is pretty much as I see it in the 10"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_6603

Thanks Andy. That explanation makes most sense I reckon, 6603 as the OC and M24 as the overall star 'cloud'

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Stu

Stu

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sounds like you had a great time stu and lucky with the weather, hope your daughters ok

Yes, very lucky with the weather for the whole week really.

My daughter is getting better thank you. It seems like it was some form of virus, no idea what, but it certainly made her feel pretty ropey. Camping is great, but not when you feel rough :-(

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philj

philj

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Excellent list there Stu. I have been aiming to do those objects in that area for years as I cant get them from my obs for trees but weather and circumstances frequentky get in the way. Although 3 years ago down cornwall i bagged a few with binos one night

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Stu

Stu

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What a night you had Stu, Sagittarius is something special indeed.I had an excellent night myself just down the coast at Kimmeridge a month or so ago. M24 was particularly beautiful I recall.

I nearly went to Kimmeridge instead, but assumed the toll road would be closed at night. Is it open, or did you get there some other way?

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Stu

Stu

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Excellent list there Stu. I have been aiming to do those objects in that area for years as I cant get them from my obs for trees but weather and circumstances frequentky get in the way. Although 3 years ago down cornwall i bagged a few with binos one night

I know that feeling Phil. This year's unfortunate problem with my daughter turned into a positive, which just happened to coincide with clear skies. Lady Luck shining on me for once!!

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Tiki

Tiki

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I nearly went to Kimmeridge instead, but assumed the toll road would be closed at night. Is it open, or did you get there some other way?

I drive on the A351 and head off westwards at Stoborough passing over Grange Hill. I'm afraid I don't know of any toll road.

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Stu

Stu

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I drive on the A351 and head off westwards at Stoborough passing over Grange Hill. I'm afraid I don't know of any toll road.

Thanks Tiki, will have a look into that

Cheers,

Stu

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Special K

Special K

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Great report on these fantastic Summer treasures....Sagittarius is so rich, its untrue! You didn't have to slew much to haul all that in.

The M24 Star Cloud is great isn't it? I've seen it from the balcony through the scope but bins at a dark sky has been my best view yet.

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