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7/8th May Report - 15x70 first light

Andrew*

By Andrew*
in Observing - Reports

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Andrew*

Andrew*

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Posted

Absolutely clear. Again. 4th time in a week. Absolutely shattered, but I had to test the new huge binos that arrived yesterday from Telescope house.

9pm saw me searching out Mercury again in the northwest sky. One hour of scanning exactly the area it was said to be hiding in. No cigar. No Bodes. Oh, hang on - no Mercury. That's the one. I changed position away from the overhanging branches to see if it was higher in the sky and what do I see, but a beautiful crescent moon. In the new 15x70s this was just stunning, and as the sky slowly darkened, craters became more pronounced. A very elegant sight against a beautifully gradiated twilight sky.

I went back inside to bed. It was still 2 hours until darkness. It turns out I was still awake at 11pm anyway, so what's the harm in going out for an hour, give the big binos their first dark and get some sleep after that?

I'm glad I did. The moon was still not set, and looked even more stunning than before, but very different. The crescent "brighter", with lots of craters to admire, but the "dark side" had that beautiful illumination of Earthshine.

I then scanned the Milkyway around the light pollution obscuring Cygnus and Casseiopeia. Naturally, this was not a wondrous sight as the sky was both misty and orange. However, M29 revealed itself for the first time, which was nice. New-Messier-of-the-Night #1. I had a quick look for the Owl cluster but this was not to be.

Up to Lyra to see if the Ring would be revealed. I thought I saw a non-stellar dot in the middle of a Y shape, but this must have been something else.

I continued my journey up to Hercules and M13 shone from the keystone and M92 was also visible. Then down to a locale I've never yet visited - Ophiuchus. A Beehive-esque cluster revealed itself. No idea what this was as it wasn't confirmed in SN4. Must have simply been a portion of the milky way.

Total change of direction brought me to Ursa Major. M81/2 were there. I was very impressed that these 70mm objectives showed these galaxies. I noted an obvious elongation of the Cigar, and the oval shape of Bodes. M51 wasn't possible due to it being directly overhead. This makes for very awkward viewing in binos/tripod.

This was all well and good, but this time of year is really for the high-mag views of globs and galaxies, so it was time to wake up the scope for a very quick run before bed. This was particularly driven by the appeal of the ring nebula. Once in the eyepiece, I couldn't just stop there. Out came the batteries, and the OIII filter and I was getting great views of this steller jewel. At 166x, a clear ring shape was revealed, with a dimming on one part of the circumference. With the OIII filter, a more defined shape was visible in the ring, but the surrounding stars almost vanished.

What else is here? Time for TLAO. M56 was very close, so this was next. A fairly long search revealed a small blurry patch. At 166x no stars were resolved and it was extremely faint. Unfortunately I didn't have a mid-power eyepiece to hand. My Hyperion zoom left me yesterday, and its successor has not arrived yet :angry: . New-Messier-of-the-Night #2.

TLAO also showed M10 and M12 in a very good part of the sky, so these were to be New-Messier-of-the-Night #3 and #4, but as they are fairly difficult to star-hop to, I was unsuccessful in this venture. One of these days I might get M10, 12, 5, 14, and 107, which are all nearby.

Somewhere in between I also viewed M13 and M92 again. Whatever anyone says, M13 takes the crown for me. Don't get me wrong - 92 is also great. I had the best resolution of stars in M13 that I'd seen in my scope. Averted vision was not required to pick stars out right to the core at 166x. M92 was a different story. While viewing M13 a very fast light shot through the FOV. This must have been a meteor as it was far too fast for a satellite.

The "very quick run with the scope" turned out to be over an hour, and it was getting far too late. For the first time ever - I wish it's not clear tonight. a) because Eli's going to kill me, and :( because I'm going to die. Also, I was starting to get very freaked out by some shrieking birds/owls/bats/vampires whose calls appeared to come from in front of me one second, and behind me the next :shock: :? What petrifying and unearthly noises they were.

A very satisflying session, despite the poor transparency, that I wished could have continued till daybreak. What was most refreshing was the new constellations that i have yet to explore in detail. This gave me energy, despite my tiredness.

Thanks for reading,

Andrew

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