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An enjoyable night


Piero

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Yesterday morning (Friday) the meteo forecast a clear night here in Cambridge, after a long week of clouds, rain, thunderstorms, hail. Therefore I was already pretty excited during the day, and in the evening I simply felt hyper about the idea of going out! :)

What can one ask more? Wonderful clear sky, Friday evening, no commitments, almost new moon, early summer..! 


Although I think it is useful, I never bother to write down a list of targets to observe before the session. Rather I just go out and use star charts. Last night the tour started from Cygnus, where I tried my 4-5 attempt to see the Veil nebula and this time the conditions were right! :) :) :) :)

After Cygnus, I turned to Ophiuchus to see a target I have wanted to see for a long time: the Barnard’s star. I got triggered by this after seeing the Garnet’s star (Mu Cephei), a red supergiant star and one of the biggest stars visible with amateur telescopes. So I was intrigued by seeing these completely different targets in the last few weeks and finally yesterday I managed to see the small star.

Then back to the heart of Cygnus. The Milky Way was visible at naked eye and this area was just gorgeous to scan. 

Andromeda was just rising, so why not paying a visit to M31? 

From there I moved North to Perseus and then gradually West to Cassiopeia. Apart from the classic (and stunning!) Double Cluster, I scanned the area spotting a few other small open clusters until I moved North to other two new targets for me: the Heart and the Soul nebulae. 

The Sagittarius was still in a good position, so I decided to move to South and send my greetings to the upper core of our pretty galaxy. 

Finally, I went for a path descending from Delphinus to Pegasus, to Aquarius and finally to Capricornus. Although the area is far poorer than other constellations, there are still easy globulars and stunning doubles to see! 


Okay, so, below is the report. 


Thanks for reading and clear sky to everyone! :)

Piero




Date: 17/07/2015

Time: 23:30-3:00

Temperature: 13C (wind: 5km/h)

Seeing: 1 - Perfect seeing

Transparency: 5 - Clear (Milky way was visible at naked eye on Cygnus)

Eyepieces: Panoptic 24mm (15x, 4.0mm e.p.), Nagler 13mm (28x, 2.2mm e.p.), Nagler 7mm (51x, 1.2mm e.p.)

Filters: Astronomik UHC, OIII



Veil Nebula. C33 / 34 - NGC6992/6960. Cyg SN Rem

15x + OIII. The first time I observe this target and it is gorgeous. The Eastern part nicely emerged from the sky. The shape and some features were visible with direct vision, although other minute details, mainly about the extension, were accessible via averted vision. The Western part above 52 Cyg was also visible via direct vision. The Northern part was more difficult although the presence of nebulosity was detectable. Tonight the sky was very clear and sufficiently dark (nautical twilight). A bit of Milky Way was visible on Cygnus at Naked eyes. Superb.


North America Nebula. C20 - NGC7000. Cyg Neb

15x + OIII. The patch of nebula is visible but the America continent shape is not clearly identifiable. 


The Summer Beehive. IC4665. Oph Opn CL

15x. I used this target for finding the Barnard's Star. It is a lovely target. 


Barnard's Star. HIP87937. Oph Star

15x, 51x. Located near 66 Oph. This faint star of 9 mag is the fourth closest star to the Sun. It is a red dwarf. At 51x it was slightly more visible. Interesting target.


M14. Oph Glob CL

15x. Bright globular cluster and relatively easy to find. As all the globular cluster I have observed with the TV60, no star is resolved.


Cooling Tower. M29. Cyg Opn CL

15x. About 8 stars were visible, 2 were very faint.


NGC6871. Cyg Opn CL

15x. Nice target with doubles inside. 


Crescent Nebula. C27 - NGC6888. Cyg Neb

15x + OIII. No real shape was visible, but the presence of a soft nebulosity was detectable to my eye.


Andromeda Galaxy. M31. And Galaxy

15x. It is still low in this season. The core was very bright but the disc was loosely visible. 


Alpha Persei Cluster. Mel20. Per Opn CL

15x. Lovely large open cluster formed by very bright stars. Always a pleasure to see.


Double Cluster. C14 - NGC869/884. Per Opn CL

15x, 28x. As already found before, 28x and 2.7 degrees of field of view shows this target as a real gem. It is wonderful.


NGC957. Per Opn CL

28x. Faint small open cluster. Few dim stars were visible via direct vision.


NGC744 Per Opn CL

28x As for NGC957.


Heart Nebula. IC1805. Cas CL+Neb.

15x + OIII. The full nebula was not visible but the top part of the heart shape was detectable. It is the area where there are more stars. A faint but visible layer of grey patch was there. 


NGC1027 Cas Opn CL 

15x. Cluster just below Heart Nebula.


Soul Nebula. IC1848 Cas CL+Neb

15x + OIII. Again, the whole nebula was not visible, but some nebulosity and the chain of stars was there.


Stock2. Cas Opn CL

28x. Large open cluster right above the Double Cluster. 


C10 - NGC663. Cas Opn CL

28x. Very pretty medium size open cluster. About 10-15 stars were visible. It contains some bright stars and the background is dusty.


NGC654. Cas Opn CL

28x. As for NGC957.


NGC659. Cas Opn CL

28x. As for NGC957.


M103. Cas Opn CL

28x. This cluster has less impact than C10, but is still pretty. It is more compact than C10.


NGC637. Cas Opn CL

28x. As for NGC957.


C8 - NGC559. Cas Opn CL

28x. This cluster is relatively small compared to C10, but shows a little bit more content than the nearby NGC open clusters.


C13 - NGC457. Cas Opn CL

28x. Dragonfly Cluster. Very beautiful open cluster. Not sure why it is called Dragonfly. It reminds me of a bell where the two bright stars are at the bottom.


NGC436. Cas Opn CL

28x. As for NGC957.


NGC381. Cas Opn CL

28x. As for NGC957.


Eagle Nebula. M16. Ser CL+Neb 15x +/- UHC or OIII. As previously found, the UHC seems to work better on these targets. I believe it is due to the lower position and to the sky which is not fully dark. The OIII largely shrank the nebulosity. Beautiful target as always.


Omega Nebula. M17. Sgr CL+Neb

15x +/- UHC or OIII. As for the Eagle nebula.


Sagittarius Star Cloud. M24. Sgr Opn CL

15x. Always superb to see this dense cloud of stars. 


M25. Sgr Opn CL

15x. Much more compact than M24, but this target shows stars of different magnitude really nicely.


C47 - NGC6934. Del Glob CL

28x. Easy to find. As usual a nice grey ball.


M15. Peg Glob CL

28x. One of the brightest globular cluster. 


M2. Aqr Glob CL

28x. As for M15.


M72. Aqr Glob CL

28x. Very difficult to detect. Even with averted vision, this target was very faint. It appeared like a grey faint patch.


M73. Aqr Opn CL

28x. Slightly easier than M72, but still very difficult.


Algedi. Alpha Cap. Mlt Star

28x. Two lovely bright stars, one of which has a grey dim companion. Stunning.


Dabih. Beta Cap. Dbl Star

28x. Another nice double star. Yellow-Blue.


Omicron Cap. Dbl Star

28x. Much tighter than Rho, but already split at 28x. One blue, the other is yellow.


Rho Cap Dbl Star. 

28x. Well separated double star.
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Brilliant report again Piero :smiley:

Barnards Star has been on my list for a while but you beat me to it !

You are seeing objects with your 60mm scope that many are failing to spot with much larger instruments.

Your reports should be inspiring all those with smaller instruments.

Marvellous stuff :smiley:

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I did not know that M73 is an asterism and not an open cluster.. I really struggled finding and seeing M72 and M73.

For M73 the few stars were quite packed and to be honest I had the impression that there was a faint star cloud in the background. 

Apparently, Messier also saw some nebulosity ( see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messier_73), which was not confirmed by Hershel and other people in the later years.

Really intriguing.. I could explain my mistake as potentially due to the low power that I used (only 28x). If I remember correctly though, Messier used long focal length telescopes for limiting aberrations, which means that he was observing this target at much higher power. Could it be that he got twisted by the bad optics of the time? 

How does M73 appear in your observations? 

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Brilliant report again Piero :smiley:

Barnards Star has been on my list for a while but you beat me to it !

You are seeing objects with your 60mm scope that many are failing to spot with much larger instruments.

Your reports should be inspiring all those with smaller instruments.

Marvellous stuff :smiley:

Indeed he inspires me at least. 

The only thing I'm missing here is some dark and clear skies (except LP we also have photochemical pollution, a cloud of freaking Nitrogen dioxide brownish cloud over Athens) cause I'm ambitious and entusiastic as Pierro!

Keep 'em coming Pierro! I'll be watching carefully dude!

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Indeed he inspires me at least. 

The only thing I'm missing here is some dark and clear skies (except LP we also have photochemical pollution, a cloud of freaking Nitrogen dioxide brownish cloud over Athens) cause I'm ambitious and entusiastic as Pierro!

Keep 'em coming Pierro! I'll be watching carefully dude!

Thanks for the kind words Tzitzis. 

I have been lucky with the weather and because I am alone here in Cambridge (not generally a fortune!) I have more time to dedicate to this hobby :)

As Rob (Qualia) said a few times in other posts, one thing is seeing targets, another is observing them. These two things are well different and I agree with his comment. In a session like the one described above, many targets are just seen, not observed. Of course, a 60mm is a bit limited when observing targets at the magnitude limit and spanning for ~5' or less. Here is the 'easy fun' part of this hobby I would say, when you try to see new objects, learn the limits of your telescope and push your curiosity. Beside this, there is the 'deep fun' part of this hobby which is when you revise targets you previously saw and study them with your eye. This second part can be amazing and session after session you will train your eye to see more and more from an object (seeing and transparency permitting of course). I would say that for appreciating a detailed observation, the 'easy fun' part can be useful for screaming and selecting those targets which can reveal more details when observed in depth. When there is a fair balance between these two observation types and a fair recognition of the limits of your telescope, I believe one can really enjoy his / her own gear. For instance, I do not generally spend time seeing / observing galaxies (apart from M31, M32, M110, M81, and M82) and globular clusters (apart from the bright ones). Unless you observe under really dark skies, either they won't appear at all or they will be so faint that you would unlikely appreciate them. The point is that each telescope has its pros and cons, and it is important to understand these to enjoy it properly. 

Following your comment, I am not really an ambitious person. I don't observe or report for a prize or to establish a record of seen targets. Actually very few people in my life know that I observe the sky. This hobby is not about ambitiousness to me. It is about patience and curiosity about the universe. The enthusiasm is a consequence of this curiosity and triggers many of us to go out and see or observe what is out there. Reporting observations is a good way for exchanging notes, opinions, new targets, help and learn, from both sides. This is what to me this forum is about. The lesson comes straight from the universe. I like to think about an intriguing proportion, which is atoms:us=us:universe. Considering this, we are just incredibly small, like atoms for us, compared to the beauty surrounding us, and this should teach us to be modest and to listen. These two concepts, that really few people try to follow in this world, are part of this hobby to my mind, and can teach us the way to learn and discover new things. When I go out, alone in the field, there are only the shadows on the ground, the noise of animals sometimes, and this vast world above. That connection with nature, that intriguing regular and chaotic behaviour orchestrating the universe as we see, and our lives too, is what makes us feel rich inside and part of a wonderful machinery.

If you have a chance to go out from Athens and observe from the countryside, maybe try to focus on the beauty out there and listen to it. Then you could grab your 60mm and gradually observe without hurry or pressure, but just for the pleasure to see a bit of the Universe.

To me, this is a wonderful and deep feeling.  :rolleyes:

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 This hobby is not about ambitiousness to me. It is about patience and curiosity about the universe. The enthusiasm is a consequence of this curiosity and triggers many of us to go out and see or observe what is out there. Reporting observations is a good way for exchanging notes, opinions, new targets, help and learn, from both sides. This is what to me this forum is about. The lesson comes straight from the universe. I like to think about an intriguing proportion, which is atoms:us=us:universe. Considering this, we are just incredibly small, like atoms for us, compared to the beauty surrounding us, and this should teach us to be modest and to listen. These two concepts, that really few people try to follow in this world, are part of this hobby to my mind, and can teach us the way to learn and discover new things. When I go out, alone in the field, there are only the shadows on the ground, the noise of animals sometimes, and this vast world above. That connection with nature, that intriguing regular and chaotic behaviour orchestrating the universe as we see, and our lives too, is what makes us feel rich inside and part of a wonderful machinery.

Holy badgers! You should write a book Piero, I mean this part above is like one of the most beautiful things I have ever read. 

And I can understand it can only come from your heart. Enthusiasm as you said. We do share that.

When I wrote ambitious I wanted to say that you don't have any problems with your scope, from my point of view you are the guy (enthusiasm) that keeps going, sees and observes through his telescope and is grateful for every faint grey fudge he gets in his field of view just like you said. 

I'm no "gonna catch 'em all" kind of type. I just want to be awed once again with the beuaties of the universe. Just like when I first saw Jupiter or Saturn. So, seeing M13 is a big deal to me in the way I described, in the way you described with much more delicacy.

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Great report, Piero, thanks for that! I was reading the beginning and wondered what your findings were until I scrolled down......and kept scrolling and scrolling ;) Inspiring!

Interesting you found the Eagle and Omega responding better with UHC over the O-III. I'll give that a try next time, and must get back to that Star Cloud in Sag!

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Thanks to all of you, people. It is very nice to be part of such a nice community.

The continuous opening of new posts and following replies by members are a great source of inspiration!

Wish you all clear skies,

Piero

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