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Globs, open clusters and PN's on a light saturday night

dogfish

By dogfish
in Observing - Reports

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dogfish

dogfish

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I note that the forum has gone very quiet with these light summer nights, so I thought I'd add a report from Saturday night/Sunday morning.

I had arranged to go to one of the Central Scotland Observers Group dark sky sites at Drymen. The site is in the Queen Elizabeth Forest, north of Glasgow, close to Loch Lomond. Paul (G1zmo) and Kenny (Kenny_ten_bellys) had indicated that they might join me. However, Paul and Kenny called off (apparently it was cloudier in the East, Paul was knackered and Kenny had started on the rum - lightweights!) so I went on my own. I nearly changed my mind about going myself as a few clouds were moving through, coming from the East, and I thought the weather was going to let me down. I decided to take a gamble and headed off on the half hour journey. I arrived at the Drymen site at 11:40pm and set up my gear.

First impressions were how light it was. The sky looked nowhere near as good as I'd seen it previously. I decided then to not bother with faint galaxies and stick to star clusters and planetary nebulae. Despite my first alignment being way out (2 star alignment and only added one calib star) I got success on the second (2 star alignment but this time I added 3 calib stars).

My first target was M13; I was using the C8-S with my Astronomica 38mm super wide angle 2" EP (X53). It was clearly the great globular cluster, but not as impressive as I'd seen it previously. Nevertheless, a pretty sight, with long lines of star emanating from the core. I upped the magnification by using the 30mm SWA Revelation EP (X67) and could see a little more of the core. I even barlowed this (X134) but really noticed that the image was fainter. I was feeling a bit let down and thought tonight was not going to be good. I thought I'd give M92 a go next. This was a lot better. Probably the best view I've had of this globular cluster. It seemed a lot brighter than M13 and despite being smaller, I could discern more detail towards the core.

I then went to M57. Not a bad view of the smoke ring and this took magnification well. I thought I'd try M27 having previously had fantastic views of this in the past with my old 6SE at Drymen. However this was disappointing. Just a blurry rectangular shape, whereas previously I'd seen mottling in the lobes, this time there was nothing. My impression of the sky was now a bit mixed.

I then remembered that the summer constellations were available. Last year, because of a combination of poor weather and the limited southern view I have from my backgarden, I'd had little opportunity to explore these constellations. The southerly view of Drymen is a bit compromised by the light pollution from Glasgow adding to the already light skies. I used the constellation menu on the CG5-GT to pick Sagittarius and then going through the Messier objects. Sagittarius was still very low and a couple of times the scope was pointing into the horizon. I did manage a couple of open clusters (M23 and M25). These weren't great sights, but at least I can say I've seen them. Ophiucus was next but there was the same problem with half the constellation being below the horizon. But there are lots of globs here and I like globs. M5 was a failure, but M10 was visible. An obvious mottled struture with a core nowhere near as bright as M13 and M92. Another first for me. M12 was next. This was very diffuse but an obvious small core.

Getting fed up with the telescope pointing at the ground, I thought I'd have a look in Draco, which was right at the zenith. The only Messier object here is the disputed M102. The galaxy was obviously there, but very faint. I notice that my EP case was soaking wet and realised that the corrector plate was dewing up. I had one last try and sent the scope to NGC 6543 (the cats eye nebula, also in Draco) and whilst it was bright it lacked any of the defined shape that I'd seen previously.

I decided to call it a night and after packing up it was 2am by the time I left. Although the sky had let me down, I wasn't expecting that much beforehand. All night I'd been able to see a band of light blue sky all along the Northern horizon, as the sun skirted below it from West back to East. I had enjoyed myself though. This site is very peaceful apart from the odd animal noise. Last night it was foxes, owls and at one point a horse, who were the ones adding to the rural scene. I'd had some great nights there previously with the guys but occasionally I love being there on my own. Cheers, Martin

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Sam

Sam

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Nice report Martin!

Sounds like a very nice spot to observe from - shame the sun doesn't completely go to sleep at night that far north! Sounds like you had a good session though.

Sam

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dogfish

dogfish

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Interesting report. Particularly that M92 was much more impressive than M13...

Yeah Andrew, I thought that was wierd too, having observed the opposite on a number of occasions previously. I can only put it down to M13 being a bit lower and closer to the light pollution and murk of Glasgow, on an already light night.

I'm getting conflicting reports about this Saturday night (Metcheck and Metoffice completely disagree with each other) as I'd be keen to get out again.

Cheers, Martin

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