A couple of sessions in a day

[Piero]

Yesterday, I had a nice session watching the Sun. There weren't many sunspots, but I was happy to try my TV Plossl 20mm on this target for the first time since I have the Lunt Wedge. For observing the Sun, I found that I prefer eyepieces of 50 degrees afov (e.g. TV Plossl, Vixen SLV). The colour tone seems more neutral than the naglers and I do not really need 82 degrees afov for this target because there is no context to observe with the target. In addition, the granulation and faculae seem easier to detect. Possibly this is due to a higher light transmission for these eyepieces. So, very happy to have things a bit more organised about eyepieces: 50deg afov eps for solar, wide fields eps for everything else. Maybe just a personal thing, but I don't like to switch between too much different ep afov's. This eyepiece set will become my standard set for solar observation.

Anyway, in the evening I managed a short session where I could try some of the targets suggested by Nick (cotterless45, Thanks! ) It was nice to go back to the field for a bit after a full cloudy week! Let's hope other clear nights are coming soon! 

Date 06/09/2015a   

Time 13:30-15:10   

Temperature 20C (13 km/h)   

Seeing 2 - Slight undulations   

Transparency 5 - Clear   

Sun 18x, 36x, 72x, 144x +/- Green Filter #58

One medium size sunspot located at West. Two small sunspots at the centre and two at the Western border. At 18x all five sunspots were visible. Faculae were also visible near the large sunspot and on the Eastern and Western sides of the Sun equator. Granulation was easily detectable particularly when the GF58 was used. At 36x all the previous details were still visible and around the larger sunspot the penumbra region was observable. At 72x the image was not as crisp as it was at lower powers, but the larger sunspot showed more details. At 144x the image was stable only for those instants where there was no wind. 

    

    

Date 06/09/2015b   

Time 21:10-22:20  

Temperature 13C (15 km/h)   

Seeing 2 - Slight undulations   

Transparency 5 - Clear   

NGC869/ NGC884 Per Opn CL 15x, 28x 

Double cluster. Observed the red star between the two cluster. There are other two faint blue / grey stars very close to this red star. Very pretty. Thanks Nick! 

61 Cyg Dbl Star 15x, 51x, 103x 

Bessel's star. A pair of two orange / red stars already observable at 15x. Very nice to enlarge the separation for this double at 51x and 103x.

NGC6992/ 6960 Cyg SN Rem 15x+OIII or UHC 

Veil Nebula. Invisible with UHC filter. I could not see it at all. With OIII the Eastern part was easily visible, whereas the Western was just detectable. Gorgeous!

NGC1502 Cam Opn CL 28x 

At 28x this open cluster starts being observable with sufficient detail. I could detect about 10 faint stars and the two bright stars "making eyes" were well separated. Lovely image.

NGC1501 Cam Pln Neb 15x, 28x + OIII 

I tried my best to see whether I could spot this planetary nebulae with averted vision and blinking technique. I could not see it. I believe this is beyond the limit of my telescope.

M31 And Galaxy 28x 

Andromeda Galaxy. Nice view at 28x (2.2mm exit pupil). The core was largely visible.

M32 And Galaxy 28x 

The little dwarf galaxy of Andromeda Galaxy was easily visible at South.

M110 And Galaxy 28x 

I could not see it tonight. There was a little cloud in the North of Andromeda Galaxy, but I was not sure it was exactly M110.

M33 Tri Galaxy 28x 

Triangulum Galaxy. Just spottable with averted vision. Still a tricky target with this sky though.

M81 UMa Galaxy 28x 

Bode's Galaxy. I could recognise the oval shape via direct vision, although this was clearer with averted vision when pointing at M82.

M82 UMa Galaxy 28x 

Cigar Galaxy. I could recognise the cigar elongated shape with averted vision.

M12 Oph Glob CL 28x 

It appeared as a little faint smudge in the sky. Some stars where located on the border. The sky was not very clear on that area due to light pollution though.

M15 Peg Glob CL 28x, 51x 

Another little grey ball much more distinguishable from the context sky than M12. 

M2 Aqr Glob CL 28x, 51x, 103x 

Another lovely globular cluster easy to find. It appeared as a grey ball a bit larger than M15. 

[xtreemchaos]

great report Piero, you had a good day and night,great read,thanks for sharing  charl.

[Scooot]

Nice report Piero, it's good to see what's possible with a small frac

[laudropb]

Very nice report. We finally had a clear night but unfortunately the seeing was pretty poor with stars twinkling badly.

[cotterless45]

M15 and M22 are gorgeous clusters, lovely to resolve them with a bit of magnification,

Nick.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Very nice report. Nice haul of objects

[John]

Great stuff Piero

As said above, your reports show what fun can be had with a small aperture and some carefull observation.

[Astro Imp]

Nice report well presented, thanks for taking the trouble to write it up.

[Special K]

Great list, and I think we do tend to follow each other's targets from reading about these observations and sharing in the excitement. It's a great source of ideas and inspiration!