Barnards Loop

[jetstream]

One of the things that I respect about SGL is members giving honest opinions and Acey is a member who I hold in very high esteem. There is no other place I know of that we can talk to all sorts of people, from layman to Doctors and Physicists and with all us in between, about our shared interest of looking up.

Object recognition is a huge part of observing anything and using aids such as maps and sketches can help finding and identifying astro objects. Images tend to show the object ( nebulae) too good, too bright and not as we see it in the eyepiece and of course there are exceptions to this. Images can be misleading if used for helping find very faint nebula...

For this object I printed off a map with an overlayed grey section of the loop on it back when the season started - then lost it ( grand kids and their drawing :)) After taking a break in the search for the Loop- I find breaks of huge importance- I went back out to try again. This time using a mirror diagonal, with the hope it might help, and it did...

Using M78 as a reference I catch the edge of the liquid grey shadow over sideways a bit from it, pan through the shadow and catch the fainter other side. I can follow the neb up a bit and down a little bit, but I believe that you end up "seeing through" the neb as it gets bigger... Barnards Loop does not show like most nebulae people see- no brightness, no bright patches, no tendrils or swirls- it is a huge, slightly curved, "liquid grey" shade difference to the background, almost California neb like or the nebs up around the Scorpion- parts of the Lobster Claw show similar.

My current location is very dark and at times very transparent, easily proven looking at a light map or a population density map. What is unfortunate is that people are so accustomed to not having truly dark skies available that they have little or no point of reference to how all our skies used to be- and what can be seen from them.

I can see Barnards Loop, a portion of it.

I'm thinking that once my cabin is done, a few friends from over there should come, stay and take a peek at the skies above

[scarp15]

This is a very informative and engaging thread and I think a SGL star party at your cabin Gerry, would be excellent who knows one day. 

[Stu]

Excellent post from Acey and fab reply from Gerry. That's what it's all about, learning and sharing info so we all improve our knowledge and skills

Hats off to you both gents ??

[estwing]

Aceys and Gerrys last posts have been what SGL is all about. Observations and opinions by enthusiast astronomers...and not turning into a slanging match....also the two most interesting posts on here this year!...Gerry, Airtransat have a flight in the morning!

[PeterW]

It's good to have a range of scopes in different locations to sanity check out observations. I use pictures to help drop me in the right area and to confirm if I feel I have seen something repeatable. (Also valuable to help me ID things when I turn things up that I wasn't expecting) I am usually cautious, it's as fun to keep an object on the todo list than tick it off sometimes. The elephants trunk last year I got a friend to have a look and tell me what orientation he  saw and then we compared notes.... Still not 110% even then. Mel bartels  and Rainer vogels eridanus loop observations show that some objects should be visible, but sky conditions and luck are likely to key. It would be boring if things were easy!

 

cheers

 

peter

[acey]

Gerry - I congratulate you enviously on your skies and your eyes

[YKSE]

When someone bought a house by SQM metering, I call it dedication

[Astroboy239]

I almost got the full molecular complex after a long exposure of 60x60 + 30x120 and 30x2min at iso 1200 30darks 30flats and 30bias processed in dss and ps and nebulosity unmodified canon 700d neq5 mount

[Helix]

Gerry, I saw a part of Barnards loop 2 years back ( do not remember though what filter I used if used any) but I did not report it because you have kind of to prove it all the time. I find it is very tiring! Now a few members of my astronomical society want to test my eyes because they think that I may cheat just because I saw Sirius B and some proplyds in Trapizium with 10" dob. I cannot even imagine what they will do with me after reading this claim  

 

I think you are very brave reporting dim stuff you have seen. Also your reports give me more strength not to be afraid report my observations. Well done and thanks for your bravery and inspiring reports.

 

Tatyana

[jetstream]

Well tell them I see Sirius B in my 10" VX10 too..... and now my 15" shows it so easy its not a challenge. And guess what?! I too have seen the proplyds "G" and "H1" in the Trap with my 10", this is under very dark, steady and transparent skies.

When I first started to report the faint stuff I figured OK just another report of what I see... I think what happens Tatyana is that so many don't see this stuff that it seems incredible, if not impossible. The sad part is that the light pollution that society creates is mostly responsible, but knowing how to control thermals, use exit pupils and generally maximize the scope is the other part of the equation.

Oh, and my real trouble is orientation through a newt compared to a map it takes me so long to figure out some objects I see, I sketch little star maps to use against the my huge pile of maps and images.

Your reports help us DSO hunters out in many ways Helix and I thank you for them.

Keep reporting Helix, they are inspiring and a pleasure to read!

Gerry

 

[Helix]

Thanks Gerry. I tell them  

I think that is why we are all here. There is not many places where we can learn from others, share our knowledge and be inspired.

 

 

 

[clarkpm4242]

On 05/03/2016 at 15:17, jetstream said:

What is unfortunate is that people are so accustomed to not having truly dark skies available that they have little or no point of reference to how all our skies used to be- and what can be seen from them.

Too true!!!!!!

I failed to observe the Loop many times from the UK.  A visit up on Mt Teide, Tenerife, sorted that out with views of nearly 180 degrees arc using wide field refractors plus/minus H beta filters.  Also the nebula around the 'head' of Orion.  Subsequently, I observed the brightest portion from Llyn Brenig in North Wales. 

There are significantly darker skies than high on Tenerife, just needing time and money!  

Good hunting, Paul.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Regarding the proplyds in the Trapezium: there are suggestions these are brightening. The latest estimates put them well within the range of a 10" under dark sky conditions. The main difficulty is the bright background of the nebula.