Lightbucket's Lightbucket

[Sam]

I took the 16" Lightbridge out tonight as it was nice and clear to give it a good run. I went out before it got properly dark to get things cooled down. First stop was Saturn (not a DSO I know but it was there so I had a look anyway) I could see four moons, cassini division, ring shadow and bands on the planet - excellent stuff.

Off to the left of Saturn in the East Arcturus was shining brightly so I thought it might be worth having a look for M3 - and there it was.... as bright as a bright thing. I viewed it through the 25mm eyepiece first - loads of stars visible and plenty visible right into the core. I then put the 10mm in and WOW!!! even more stars! To push things a bit further I put in the 2 X Barlow and just admired the view, M3 is a stunner!

It was now getting quite dark so I thought it be worth having a look at M51 - found it easily and right away the spiral arms were clearly visible with brighter patches in the arms also showing up. During the viewing I came back to M51 a few more times as my eyes got properly dark adapted and the sky got darker, the arms started to stand out really well - in fact not too far off some of the images that get posted - though without colour.

The Sunflower Galaxy (M63) was next, very bright and covering quite a large area. M94 was next and the tight spirals were quite clear - with a very bright core.

Then I moved the scope over to the Leo Triplet to see what is visible. All three galaxies stood out with spiral arms visible and NGC 3628 was also quite clear with the central dust lane standing out - again a lot like some of the pictures posted on SGL.

M53 was next and again the globular looked great - so many stars clearly visible, through this scope the globs are brilliant. Next was M64 (Black Eye Galaxy) and the dust lanes that gives the galaxy it's distinctive shape was very clear - a great sight indeed!

I wanted then to look for something a bit different and push the scope a bit. In Bootes and a little north of Seginus is NGC 5557 - a quite bright fuzzy blob and looked very clear through the scope. Next it was M13, another awesome glob to look at then quite close is NGC 6207 which also looked great - and not too faint.

Then I headed for the Virgo cluster and started with M98 which was very distinctive and the dust lane was very clear - quite a different view than through the 8" where it was only just visible. M99 was next and again the spiral arms were visible. Then I just moved the scope around in the cluster randomly finding fuzzy and stopping to look at them for a while - not sure of what I looked- just went browsing.

This scope is just brilliant - the detail it brings out of galaxies is just great! and it does a marvelous job of globs. It's huge step up from the 8" where most galaxies are fuzzy with very little detail visible. The 16" brings out the spiral arms in the Messiers - great stuff!

cheers

Sam

[Talitha]

:hello1: Go get em, Sam! :hello1:

Wow, M51 sounds fantastic! On the best nights here, I can 'just' detect the spiral arms with my 8" SCT. Could you see the bridge connecting M51 to NGC 5195?

[FLO]

Nice report Sam

I hope to meet you 'both' at a Star Party sometime.

[Casus belli]

Nice report Sam

I hope to meet you 'both' at a Star Party sometime.

Me too. I'm wondering if I could get away with "accidently" taking the wrong lightbridge home with me.

Excellent report Sam. Theres a huge difference between the 16" and the 10". On a good night I can make out dust lanes on a few of the brighter messier galaxies. M101 and M51 on an excellent night I can see hints of spiral arms, but the rest seem to be fuzzy blobs.

I cant resolve individual stars in M53 and I finally found NGC 6207 for the first time tonight. Mind you M13 was particularly stunning tonight.

I could go on making comparisons but I'm just getting depressed