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An early summer session

Piero

By Piero
in Observing - Reports

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Piero

Piero

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I thought about sharing the notes of the observation I had last night. Although some clouds appeared from North-West at about 23:00, so many other targets were accessible at South. Curiously, I did not even plan to see so many targets, but I though about limiting to view planets and some double star last night. After seeing Antares, I decided to give a 'quick' view (which lasted a while eventually) to North Sagittarius. So glad I did it! Once returned home, I was so excited that I struggle sleeping!

Date: 15/06/2015, 21:45-0:30

Location: Cambridge

Temperature ©: 10 (wind: 5km/h)

Seeing (Antoniadi scale): Slight undulations

Transparency (AAAA scale) Clear (if clouds were not present).

Telescopes: Tele Vue 60 F6

Eyepieces: TV Nagler 13mm, Vixen 5mm SLV, Bresser SA 2x. These eyepieces give power, exit pupil, and FOV of (28x, 2.2mm, 2.80deg), (72x, 0.8mm, 0.69deg), respectively. The Vixen combined with the Barlow gives (144x, 0.4mm, 0.35deg).

Filters: Single Polarising Filter (SPF).

TARGETS:

Venus Com Planet 72x, 144x +/- SPF

Gorgeous with the Vixen SLV 5mm. The best view of Venus I have ever had so far. Phase was about 55%, and Venus appeared cristal clear without any glare and perfectly focused. The borders were very crisp. At 144x the planet was bigger, but no additional detail was detectable. At both 72x and 144x, I felt that at the center of the visible part of the planet, the colour was just slightly dimmer as if a soft darker cloud was there. Really beautiful. SPF did not help much with the Vixen, so I removed.

Jupiter Leo Planet 72x, 144x +/- SPF

Jupiter was visible with North and South Equatorial Belts and four moons. No other detail was detectable. SPF did not help with the Vixen. The planet did not appear much crisp in contrast to Venus. Also here, I preferred the view of Jupiter at 72x (without Barlow). It is as if the barlow lens introduces some imperfections which remove the additional benefit of using a Vixen vs a Nagler. The same can be said for the SPF with the Vixen. Vixen alone gave the best views (without Barlow or SPF).

Saturn Lib Planet 28x, 72x +/- SPF, 144x

Saturn was wonderful with the Vixen at 72x. The North Equatorial Belt was detectable particularly when in contrast with the Equatorial zone. The Cassini division was visible on the left and right parts of the rings when the planet was at the centre of the eyepiece. It appeared as a soft grey line which separated more dense rings (B rings) from lighter rings (A rings). The shadow of the planet on the ring or details on the polar region were not visible. Titan was also visible. A SPF did not help and actually degraded the image for Saturn with the Vixen. At 144x, the image degraded and was not as nice as at 72x. At 28x, the planet was very small, but the rings and the empty part between the planets and the rings were visible. Titan at South-West of the planet in the eyepiece was much brighter at this magnification (due to the larger exit pupil) and I felt a small faint dot was detectable at South-East of the planet in the eyepiece. This was closer to the planet than Titan. After checking Saturn's moons positions with Sky and Telescope software application, the only moon at that distance and position was Rhea. I am not sure I saw this moon of magnitude 10. It would be at the limit of my TV60. This dot was more visible with averted vision although it was also detectable via direct vision.

Epsilon Lyr Dbl star 72x

The Double Double. It was possible to see the two pairs at 72x, although to me this was not appreciable. The two pairs appeared a little bit more than elongated or just separated, but I much prefer when a double star is clearly and nicely separated. The two pairs were similarly separated. Possibly Epsilon1 (the North pair) was slightly more, but, if so, a tiny bit.

Beta Lyr Dbl star 28x

Sheliak. Wonderful colour double star. One orange and one blue. Really beautiful.

Delta Lyr Dbl star 28x

Superb multi star system. At 28x it is really bright and proportional to the field of view. I love the triangles and the overall geometry in this system of stars.

HD175634 Lyr Dbl star 28x

This double star is relatively close to M57 and inside the parallelogram of Lyra. One star is orange, the other is blue. Similar to Sheliak but a bit dimmer.

Beta Sco Mlt star 28x, 72x

Acrab or Graffias. Although tight, I prefer this double star at 28x rather than 72x because of the smaller Airy disks. Very nice though. A bigger and bright orange star associated with a smaller blue star.

Omega Sco Dbl star 28x, 72x

Not sure If I searched this correctly. The two stars were largely more separated than Acrab double stars. A no substantial difference in colour or size was noticeable though. I did not find this target particularly interesting. Nicer at 28x.

Nu Sco Dbl star 28x, 72x

I am not sure I saw this. If so, it appeared as a tight double star with the same colour and quite dim. 28x was better due to the higher image brightness.

Epsilon Boo Dbl star 28x, 72x

Izar. I could not split this double star at 28x or 72x. I thought it was easier. Still a very nice yellow bright star. The sky was becoming less transparent on this region of the sky. Therefore I moved North.

M39 Cyg Opn CL 28x

Quite large open cluster position at North North-East of Deneb. Some stars are faint but still visible without much difficulty with direct vision. The clouds were slowly coming from West. I decided to move to South for the last observations.

M4 Sco Glob CL 28x

I was not able to detect this cluster. I suspect the reason was that it is too low in the sky for my TV-60 and Antares brightness did not help either. Therefore I decided to focus on the beautiful open cluster of this region of Sky, which was the only area not affected by clouds and actually transparent.

M8 Sgr CL+Neb 28x

Lagoon Nebula. About 1-1.5 degree large, this is a very nice cluster with nebulosity. I did not have a OIII filter with me, but the nebula was detectable without filter. It appeared a soft gray patch surrounding the cluster. This cluster is quite elongated. Superb.

M20 Sgr CL+Neb 28x

Trifid Nebula. Positioned at North of M8, M20 is a bit smaller, but still impressive. Also here, the nebulosity was detectable and the shape of the cluster was elongated connecting M20 with M21.

M21 Sgr Opn CL 28x

M21 was a condensed group of stars on one extremity of M20. M8, M20 and M21 are really spectacular targets.

M23 Sgr Opn CL 28x

This cluster was a little bit at North-West from M21. It was a bit dim, but if the sky were more transparent and darker it would be a lovely target, I think.

M25 Sgr Opn CL 28x

This cluster showed a mix of bright and dim stars. The size is sufficient for the Nag13 and the details are quite rich.

M16 Ser CL+Neb 28x

Eagle Nebula. After seeing M25, I moved North-West towards M16. This appeared quite bright with some stars at the centre.

M17 Sgr CL+Neb 28x

Omega Nebula. From the Eagle Nebula, I simply moved South and saw this target. It is a bit smaller than the Eagle, but still bright.

M18 Sgr Opn CL 28x

A small open cluster at South of Omega Nebula.

M24 Sgr Opn CL 28x

Sagittarius Star Cloud. Impressive and large group of stars. Really spectacular. It covered a field of almost 2 degrees populated by stars. The surrounding stars were quite bright. Globally this appeared as a bright area with a few faint stars.

:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

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Piero

Piero

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They are very low indeed! I had to select a specific point in the field where I usually go to observe, to avoid trees. I was lucky because in the last hour the sky was quite miserable overall except for that area which was steady and transparent! :)

I also have to say that I am really impressed by the combination of a Nagler 13mm and a Vixen 5mm. This is possibly the best combination I have and found. I thought for a long time about having a Nagler 5mm, but I think the Vixen SLV is just better than all the Naglers I own. The colours appear so natural and I believe the views are a noticeable bit more clear.

The Nagler 13mm is superb as mid power eyepiece used for deep sky. One could never believe that such small eyepiece is so powerful. In this period of the year where daylight is really long, I much prefer using a Nagler 13mm rather than a Pan 24mm because of the decrease in sky brightness. Objects invisible on the Pan 24mm just pop with the Nagler 13mm.

For my short focal length F6 telescope, this trio is my favourite eyepiece combination.  :smiley:

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Qualia

Qualia

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Some great objects in your report. The combination of refractor, wide-field and Sagittarius is one of the sights of the summer  !

Couldn't put it better. I've been out a lot the last fortnight and just can't keep my eyes from Sagittarius. Whatever scope is honed on that area, the views are majestic. Lovely report, Piero and look forward to more reports on your adventures this summer.

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Piero

Piero

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Couldn't put it better. I've been out a lot the last fortnight and just can't keep my eyes from Sagittarius. Whatever scope is honed on that area, the views are majestic. Lovely report, Piero and look forward to more reports on your adventures this summer.

Thanks Rob!

Sagittarius is favourite constellation! You can just get lost and wherever you look at, there is almost always a lovely target to see!

Next time, hopefully before the moon at first quarter, I will take the OIII filter for those nebulae!

It should be nice over there in Spain as all those targets (and many others) are higher in the sky. I remember last year in June I went back home for one week. Luckily one night was really transparent. A simple Newton 114 pointed on Sagittarius, Ophiucus and Scorpius made me happy for a very very long time and I still have lovely memories from that night! 

Looking forward to reading some of your summer reports too! 

Best,

Piero

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Stu

Stu

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Lovely one Piero, really well put together report and some fabulous objects. Amazing what you can see with a high quality 60mm scope and a trained eye!

Have you considered and eyepiece giving around the x100 mark for planetary? It may give you a little more before the image starts to break down, x144 is a bit to much under most conditions I think?

I'm hoping for a similar experience with my 60 this summer when I head south a bit on holiday.

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Piero

Piero

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Thanks Stu.

I don't know whether my eye is trained! I still miss many globulars. But that is the nice process of learning and persisting! :)

Around 100x I have the nagler 3.5mm which is very very good and I use it regularly. For the moon, it is fantastic, and I also pushed it up to 206x (with the barlow). 

Last time I took out the vixen 5mm which I hadn't used for a while apart from watching the sun. To my eyes it is a touch better. Really really clean images, both for Venus, Saturn, but also double stars. I would not sell the 3.5mm though! At that time I bought a second hand nagler 3.5mm, just because there was not a Vixen SLV 3.5mm. There was the Radian 3mm, but for some reason, I felt it was too big and 3mm a bit too much, particularly if barlowed. If one day I get a refractor 100mm of aroud F6, 3.5mm could still be usable, 3mm might not. The other alternative was the Nagler 3-6 zoom, but I did not select it because I felt the eye relief was too tight.

I also found that the nagler 3.5 works quite well with the single polarising filter. I will test this again in the future of course, but so far, the SPF help reduce the glare and increase contrast to my eye at least, particularly on Jupiter and Venus (although for Venus I cannot see features on the clouds). Maybe it was just that night, but the SPF did not work so well with the Vixen SLV. That tiny but noticeable improvement that the vixen has over the nagler is lost, to my eyes, when using the SPF with the vixen. Will test this again.

Best, Piero

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Piero

Piero

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Small correction: the constellation abbreviation "Sgt" was meant to be "Sgr" (Sagittarius).

(Now fixed for you - Stu)

I'm hoping for a similar experience with my 60 this summer when I head south a bit on holiday.

Thanks Stu for correcting the constellation name. I just realised it! :)

I will cross my fingers for you for a great weather this Summer on holiday! I bet you can see these objects in another scale of beauty from there! 

I am going to the Alps instead. If it does not rain, you can see the milky way side by side! Still have an image of that sky in my brain. I can imagine 

the sky in the place where you are going is even darker!

Well, we will have plenty of nice reports to read this Summer then!

Best, Piero

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