250px first light 5/3/16

[pipnina]

@jetstream You seemed eager to see my report, so I'll tag you here.

 

Upon arriving at Wembury beach, I got out the car and had a nice look around the sky as is the normal by this point. Enjoying the view in the south, primarily.

After my dad and I had gotten the new 10" dob out of the car, I pointed it at Sirius using the Telrad; it landed there instantly, but it and the 9x50 RACI were slightly misaligned due to the car journey, so I put that right. I then observed Sirius through the the 24mm 82 degree MaxVision I was recommended, I have to admit I am impressed at the difference a nice, wide EP and a good sized scope can do for views! Too many stars to count surrounding the star and it displayed no observable issues that the stock EPs suffered from like internal reflections and scattering, making Sirius quite pleasing to look at.

The second target, located quickly, was M42 which displayed so much more detail & with the northern section visible, where it was not in the 5". It was also easy to split the trapezium, in fact, it jumped out at me that it was four stars, in the 5" it was only just noticeable that it was not a single star. I may have also noticed some nebulosity around Hatsya, but I am unsure.

 

Next up was revisiting the flame: Brighter than in the 5", and with much more detail visible (the dark veins running to the left and right of the central dark rift). It was possible for my dad to see it this time, so I guess that confirms my observations. I may have noticed NGC 2023 as well, but much like Hatsya, I am uncertain. I tried to spot IC-434, but I couldn't make anything out, better studying of its location may be needed. (Half the battle!)

 

M1 was an easy spot, still no detail to be seen but it stood out more from the background than in the 5" as well as being brighter. In the 24mm MaxVision it was engulfed by stars, a sight to see!

 

I then went to see something new, one that I'd wanted to see since I got my 5" last February, well, for many years now in fact: The Whirlpool galaxy. It was fairly easy to find, some had talked different star-hop methods to it but I merely went from Alkaid and then left until I reached a trio of stars that I pictured in my head like a setsquare. M51 being in amongst them. It was easily visible that it was two galaxies joined together, and that one was bigger than the other, but no detail was seen, I feel it may have been too low down but It's nice to have finally seen my favourite galaxy (The galaxy you're in in the game called "Homeworld").

 

I next headed upwards to Merak in the Telrad, and then down and to the left to get me in about the right spot for the Owl nebula and M108. In the finder I felt like I may have been in the right place so I went to the EP and there they were! One round and... well not much else to say about it, there was no sight of the eyes unfortunately, but nice to see it none the less. M108 nicely visible to be an edge-on galaxy.

 

I revisited M81 & M82, in M81 I could swear there was some hints of spiral structure this time, but still wouldn't count on it. M82, I could have sworn had some sort of mottling but my memory fades a little at this point. 

 

I tried for the Rosette, I found the cluster and saw a few things that I could suspect to be nebulosity, even if it wasn't it was a nice cluster to look at.

 

Unfortunately, I failed to find the eskimo nebula, not sure how I missed it since I had thought it was an easy target... Perhaps, being small, I missed it.

 

Jupiter in the 24mm MaxVision was surprisingly sharp! With the moons blazing out of the eyepiece, the bands looking contrasty & sharp and the planet showing diffraction spikes it definitely proved the scope/EP combination at low-power planetary observing! I shall need to save for a good Planetary EP for magnifications higher than 50, the supplied 10mm just didn't cut it.

I am now sitting at home, drinking hot chocolate and typing this report.

A nice session, and a great first for the 10"... Now to start saving for a 20"!!!

    ~pip

[Lorne]

Good report, enjoyed reading it. If there's one thing about the hobby that makes up for being clouded out, its' reading the reports of those lucky enough to get out under a clear sky!

[John]

Great report and very successful 1st light !

I get confused over the Flame Nebula though - I've assumed that it's NGC 2024 a large object near the lowest "belt" star Alnitak - is that the object that you saw ?

I've not really been able to get a decent view of this even with my 12" dob - maybe I'm looking in the wrong place ?

Anyway, great report and it sounds like your appetite is whetted for more !

 

[jetstream]

Now this is a great first light report! Congrats Pip!

The Flame neb will keep opening up secrets to you, and will be a good test for sky conditions. There will be more to come on this one NGC 2023 shows as a glow and you most likely saw it... IC 434 will take a UHC or Hb, and had you had the filter I'm confident you would have seen it this session.

The Owls eyes takes some mag, and more mag will make those hard spirals of M51's easier. Yes you saw mottling in M82! in the centre it shows nicely.

You know Pip there are some nice eyepieces that work great with barlows and will also show the galaxies really well...

Congratulations once again!

PS I get lost in Gemini too...lol!

[pipnina]

23 minutes ago, John said:

Great report and very successful 1st light !

I get confused over the Flame Nebula though - I've assumed that it's NGC 2024 a large object near the lowest "belt" star Alnitak - is that the object that you saw ?

I've not really been able to get a decent view of this even with my 12" dob - maybe I'm looking in the wrong place ?

Anyway, great report and it sounds like your appetite is whetted for more !

 

NGC 2024, next to Alnitak is indeed the object I was observing. I cannot explain why you are having difficulties with it... But it is in the best part of my sky, right over the sea and in the opposite direction from the city lights. I'm also well shielded from all lights (aside from the odd car, it is a car park I observe from, after all...) The nebula was not bright, by any means, but there was some structure visible, and more than there was in my 5" (very dim, could only tell it was there because it had a cut in the middle and Alnitak wasn't in the field). Perhaps observing it over the sea gives me a clearer view?

I can only guess that my skies are mag 5.3, possibly higher, you have said when I evaluated my skies to be about mag 5/5.2 that your skies were similar... But it might have been a better NELM than I can evaluate as The winter milky way was faintly visible (which I hear requires good skies???) and a lot of stars that I knew were there were not resolvable in position or pattern... I could tell only that there were stars there... It's strange to write into words what it looked like...

10 minutes ago, jetstream said:

Now this is a great first light report! Congrats Pip!

The Flame neb will keep opening up secrets to you, and will be a good test for sky conditions. There will be more to come on this one NGC 2023 shows as a glow and you most likely saw it... IC 434 will take a UHC or Hb, and had you had the filter I'm confident you would have seen it this session.

The Owls eyes takes some mag, and more mag will make those hard spirals of M51's easier. Yes you saw mottling in M82! in the centre it shows nicely.

You know Pip there are some nice eyepieces that work great with barlows and will also show the galaxies really well...

Congratulations once again!

PS I get lost in Gemini too...lol!

My first session I was so lost around gemini that I didn't even see what part the eskimo was meant to be in, even after looking at my charts and back... At least I got into the rough area this time . it may not have helped that I need to wear glasses at the eyepiece to see sharply, which cuts out about 50% of the FOV and makes it uncomfortable to observe. I observed most of the objects without my glasses on as it made the views so much more expansive! This may have made it more difficult to find the eskimo since it's allegedly only a bit bigger than Jupiter.

There will likely be a mid-high power EP hunt at some point, but for now I feel like getting myself an OIII or UHC filter will get me the most benefit first. It depends on whether my old scope sells or not (or for how much). 

 

 

 

[John]

It sounds like your observing location is much better than mine for DSO's

No wonder I've been having a tough time spotting the Horse Head - being able to see the Flame well is a pre-requisite !

I'm glad you are having some great viewing

[Paul73]

Cracking first light Pipnina! Glad that you have finally got you big scope.

Your discription of the Flame sounds about right. Your younger eyes seem to be giving you a good head start on the really faint stuff. I need to be looking for ages on a great night to get anywhere near that level of detail.

Just wait until you get into the Vergo Galaxy cluster over the next couple of months!

Paul

[jetstream]

Right Paul, great idea about Virgo, it will be great from his dark site.... Any wagers Pip will see Markarians Chain first time out? 

I'm on the for sure "yes" team!

[Paul73]

No problems. The 24mm 82° and 10" is made for the chain. I reckon that he'll get at least 8 Galaxies in the same FOV.

Paul

[alan potts]

Congratulations on the first light, really nice report. I don't report on everything I do these days but clear sky is needed for me to write something, it's in short measures of late. In fact it is that bad that I am beginning to wonder if I will get another crack at the horses head, as once the moon puts in a show, I guess the horse is out grazing elsewhere.

Alan

[laudropb]

Congratulations on your first light with your new scope. A very nice report and a joy to read. The more you use your scope the better you will get to know it and the more detail you will see. Good luck and clear skies as you start the next stage of your observing career.

[Size9Hex]

That's an absolutely superb report! Sounds a great session. You're going have some cracking sights to come with the new scope.

Coincidentally we were looking at a few of the same targets last night. Great to hear that someone else was enjoying them too, and great to read your take on them.

:-)

[jetstream]

 

13 hours ago, Paul73 said:

No problems. The 24mm 82° and 10" is made for the chain. I reckon that he'll get at least 8 Galaxies in the same FOV.

Paul

I have to bet on 11 galaxies.....

If Pip waits until the transparency is really good and views the object as high up as can be, keeping Virgo in the direction of the darkest skies, his threshold will be very deep...

[niallk]

Great report + congrats on a fantastic scope

[FenlandPaul]

Congrats Pipnina and Pipnina's dad!  Sounds like a great evening from a wonderful site; you'll have so much to see in that scope.

Paul