Mercury, nebulae and spirals

[Size9Hex]

The main reason for heading out into the countryside was to get an open horizon and a chance to see Mercury for the first time. With clear skies and no moon, I also took the Dob, just in case :-)

As always, I hope this is an enjoyable or useful post! Any observing tips are always welcome, especially on those pesky nebulae.

Mercury

Not difficult exactly, but I've felt that Mercury has needed more guile, cunning, planning and luck than all the other planets combined. It was a joy to finally see it just after the sun set from a hilltop near home.

From the magnitude, it ought to have seemed as bright as Sirius shining brightly up in the twilight not far away. In fact, it was very much fainter close to the horizon in the embers of the sunset. 10x50 binoculars helped locate it and it became naked eye visible as the sky darkened, but I don't know if I'd have seen it without knowing exactly where to look. Even after finding, it was easy to lose again. Separation from the sun was 13 degrees, so it should get a bit easier in the coming couple of weeks.

The experience of the sun and Mercury setting at an angle to the horizon was wonderful. Tilting my head to match brought an awareness of the plane of the solar system, and my location standing on a big round lump of rock just over halfway up from the equator to the pole.

Later, the sunset glow had fully gone and the 10 inch Dob came out.

Nebulae (generally 50x and Oiii)

I continue to feel like a complete day 1 beginner on these targets. I simply don't think my brain knows what it's looking for.

IC410, Auriga
Quite bright nebulous region seen through a chain of stars but also bright in a starless lobe to one side, with a dark cove between. Swapping the filter out/in added confidence in the lobe/cove, and confidence that the observation was not simply ghosting around bright stars (which I seem to see all over Auriga with the Oiii at a 5mm exit pupil for some reason).

Flaming Star, Auriga
Hard. I tried a few techniques. The key was to look away from the eyepiece, then ambush it suddenly. This revealed a large flat brighter region. However, I later realised  (from a photo the next day) that the area I saw, which I thought was the long southern tail, was in fact only the upper part of the tail. The nebula is so much larger than I expected. I repeatedly saw this glowing region, but it seems I'm only registering small sections of this nebula at a time!

Spider, Auriga
Not seen? With the Oiii, the view looked very lumpy with brighter knotted ropes following the chains of stars, but I'm just not sure this is valid though. I've had a similar feeling with the Rosette before that it's staring me in the face, and I'm just not seeing it because I don't know what I'm looking for.

Rosette, Monoceros 
Hurrah! Finally got it with confidence! A fairly obvious bright and beautiful region with a defined shape and some structure. This gives some nice context to when I've seen it marginally on previous occasions. The dark sky, big exit pupil, big field of view and Oiii absolutely smashed it!

M78, Orion
The Damp Squib Nebula. Bright but unexciting. Maybe this is unfair, and if it wasn't so close to M42 it would be be more of a draw. 80x, no filter.

NGC 2071, Orion
Near M78 and even less exciting. A ghosted star. Might have missed it if not for the easy comparison against the convenient adjacent star of the same brightness. 80x, no filter.

Owl Nebula, Ursa Major
Bit dubious to group it with the above I know. 250x intermittently revealed a central star. 80x with Oiii gave the best view of the dark eye circles. With advance knowledge that these eye holes existed (but not their location), 80x was enough to correctly judge their location/orientation in the disk. Not sure I'd have confidently noted this if I didn't know in advance of their existence. It certainly didn't look like an owl!

Galaxies (generally 180x)

Whale Galaxy, Canes Venatici
Brighter than from home, with companion NGC 4627 and nearby 4656 which have both eluded me at home.

Caldwell 3, Draco
Faint! I can see why I missed this at home. Looking away then ambushing it helped, as did defocusing/refocusing. A more modest 80x was better here.

M106, Canes Venatici
Bright central bar seen, twisted clockwise from main body. North side brighter with a difficult clockwise spiral arm.

Whirlpool Galaxy, Canes Venatici
A fly backwards off the chair job. Utterly fabulous and without doubt among the most incredible things I've ever seen (while stargazing and otherwise). My notes made at the time read more or less as follows: "HOLY MOLY! Clockwise spiral, two MASSIVE spiral arms, apostrophe shaped companion, and a faint bridge of light connecting the two."

Sunflower Galaxy, Canes Venatici
Bright core. Speckled appearance.

M81, Ursa Major
Two super-faint clockwise spiral arms noted, significantly larger and further from the core than I expected. Later verified the location matched a photo. What a thrill to see this!

Surprisingly, I wasn't too far out from the edge of town, and yet naked eye was slightly better than mag 6, and galaxies were popping out of the finder scope. Two miles from home gains me about half a magnitude it seems.

[Stu]

I love your reports Size9, not only enjoyable and useful, but very entertaining too ?

I am highly jealous of your skies though, I'm lucky if I get to mag 5, more often mag 4.5 NELM round here. Dark skies certainly help those galaxies pop out clearly. M51 is a cracker under good skies isn't it?

[cotterless45]

Brilliant report ! Nothing beats dark skies,

Nick.

[YKSE]

Great session you had Paul, and very enjoyable read too.

I usually write down the size and mag of my targets, it'll be a bit easier to choose right EPs for observing.

[Piero]

This is a very fine report. It shows a lot of dedication and enthusiasm.  

Have a look at Virgo with your Dob 10" from that dark location. You will enjoy it!

Looking forward to your next report!

Piero

[Knighty2112]

Great report. Glad you got some great snags in your dark skies. Need to find a good dark location near me to see deeper than my LP back garden, which limits the areas of sky that I can observe. Hopefully going to check a site out in May time.  

[laudropb]

Very nice report. A most enjoyable read. Dark skies really do make all the difference.

[Astro Imp]

Lovely report, I really enjoyed the read. 

Good luck and keep posting.

[alan potts]

Great report and very enjoyable. I had a look for Mercury the other night but found I had to remove a good deal of a nearby hill to see it. The good thing for me is it is always easy to find from the observatory with the goto I have seen it a good few times but it rarely is in good air. The only time I ever saw it in in anything like a dark sky was from Bali and that is almost on the equator and I was looking to sea.

Alan

[estwing]

Nice bag there..isn't it worth getting into darker skies?...YES!

[baggywrinkle]

Good report

[Special K]

Excellent report Paul. You certainly are getting in some good viewing hours at the scope!  

Mercury is a big draw for sure......sometimes an anticlimax but feels like an acheivement. Too many trees around my place but next chance I get I'll use the UHC filter as it is so effective on Venus to sharper things up.

Tremendous results on those galaxies!  Judging from your success in viewing these, you'll have no trouble with the nebula game as your visual acuity sounds very good.  Aside from the planetary nebula, you're right about the exit pupil.

Surface brightness = exit pupil squared, times 2.   An unaided eye at 7mm exit (like my daughters!) pulls about 100%.  Of course 7mm is not feasible in an eyepiece or in light polluted environs so we have to settle for less.  I strove to get a maximum exit pupil to bring in the biggest % surface brightness I could get and then filter that light down with an O-III.  The Nag31mm gave me 34% surface brightness in the small scope and combined with the filter, I was soon scoring big with the North American and Veil nebulae, which had always eluded me.  For what it's worth I also find those Auriga nebulae very difficult!  Happy hunting

Edited April 7, 2016 by Special K

[Davesellars]

What a wonderful report!  A great collection of DSOs observed from that dark site.

[Size9Hex]

Thanks for the kind responses everyone, and sorry for my slow reply!

 

On 06/04/2016 at 18:31, Stu said:

I love your reports Size9, not only enjoyable and useful, but very entertaining too ?

I am highly jealous of your skies though, I'm lucky if I get to mag 5, more often mag 4.5 NELM round here. Dark skies certainly help those galaxies pop out clearly. M51 is a cracker under good skies isn't it?

Thanks Stu, I think I recall you raving about M51 when I first saw at as a smudge before dawn back in the Autumn from my garden. You're absolutely right; It is completely and utterly gobsmacking! I think I get about 5.5 NELM at the zenith at home, but it's highly variable on the direction (and particularly bad towards the south and south east which are largely blocked from view anyway). The New Forest is very good though, but the site for this report was only a few miles from home, and my 5.5 became a 6 with an open horizon. I guess it depends on your situation, but this made me realise you don't necessarily need to travel far (and in fact just getting streetlights out of my line of sight might have been responsible for some of the improvement). I think I've only had 3 sessions away from home with the scope in 6 months though!

 

On 06/04/2016 at 19:14, Piero said:

This is a very fine report. It shows a lot of dedication and enthusiasm.  

Have a look at Virgo with your Dob 10" from that dark location. You will enjoy it!

Looking forward to your next report!

Piero

Thanks! Virgo scares me a little. I made the mistake of highlighting galaxies in Sky Safari... It's not going to be work of one session, or even season (or even lifetime) I think! I've not ventured into yet, as it's too obstructed at home in the evening. Looking forwards to it as it swings round the sky though :-)

 

On 06/04/2016 at 19:18, Knighty2112 said:

Great report. Glad you got some great snags in your dark skies. Need to find a good dark location near me to see deeper than my LP back garden, which limits the areas of sky that I can observe. Hopefully going to check a site out in May time.  

Thanks! Well worth getting to somewhere dark. I'd trade a good few sessions in mediocre skies for one in dark skies. At the risk of sounding like a worried parent, take careful choosing a site, and it's worth checking it out in the daytime, and maybe at nighttime too just with binos (for zero packing away time). It can be a bit intimidaing if anyone else turns up. I've had people out for nighttime strolls, photographers, forest rangers and even the police turn up.

 

On 07/04/2016 at 09:10, Special K said:

Excellent report Paul. You certainly are getting in some good viewing hours at the scope!  

Mercury is a big draw for sure......sometimes an anticlimax but feels like an acheivement. Too many trees around my place but next chance I get I'll use the UHC filter as it is so effective on Venus to sharper things up.

Tremendous results on those galaxies!  Judging from your success in viewing these, you'll have no trouble with the nebula game as your visual acuity sounds very good.  Aside from the planetary nebula, you're right about the exit pupil.

Surface brightness = exit pupil squared, times 2.   An unaided eye at 7mm exit (like my daughters!) pulls about 100%.  Of course 7mm is not feasible in an eyepiece or in light polluted environs so we have to settle for less.  I strove to get a maximum exit pupil to bring in the biggest % surface brightness I could get and then filter that light down with an O-III.  The Nag31mm gave me 34% surface brightness in the small scope and combined with the filter, I was soon scoring big with the North American and Veil nebulae, which had always eluded me.  For what it's worth I also find those Auriga nebulae very difficult!  Happy hunting

Thanks Kevin. The viewing hours are down to beginners enthusiasm I guess :-) Appreciate you passing on your tips. I'm looking forwards to having a go at the Veil and North America Nebs! I optimistically tried them in binos last year before I got my scope. No sign of the Veil, and only one very marginal view of the NA out of about 20 tries (heading out to get mag 6 sky was the key).

[Stu]

1 hour ago, Size9Hex said:

I'm looking forwards to having a go at the Veil and North America Nebs! I optimistically tried them in binos last year before I got my scope. No sign of the Veil, and only one very marginal view of the NA out of about 20 tries (heading out to get mag 6 sky was the key).

Transparency is the key to these guys. I've had nights which look dark but no sign of the NAN, then similar ones where it looks lovely. The only difference is transparency.

NAN is quite do-able under the right conditions with binoculars, I would say the Veil is a bit harder. The Eastern Veil is relatively easy (?!) in binos but the Witches Broom and Pickering's Triangle/wisp are ones I've not managed except with a scope. 

Make sure you have enough field of view and are not looking through them at too high power!

[Piero]

I agree with what said above. Transparency is really important for those targets. 

An OIII filter reveals significant detail on the Veil. For the NA, either OIII or UHC do help.  

[jetstream]

Great report Paul! Every seemingly tiny increase in NELM makes a huge difference, with the last little possible increase being a huge one incredibly ( to 7 NELM)- which might be in the realm of high elevation.

Seeing M51's companion as a comma is a very good sign of not only good skies but a properly chosen eyepiece and VG eyes. What eyepiece did you use for the galaxies and also the nebula? I have a short list for both of these object types.

Try M101- this thing is big in the EP and shows some unique off center arms and bright chunks of H2 regions in there- what a site.

You are right about the "nebula eyes", it takes a while to get them going but once they are there.... When I switch from nebula to galaxies it takes a while to get the eyes back for this too- for me anyway

Keep the reports coming Paul! The strange spiral "spike"  of M81 is just begging for a report!

Edited April 8, 2016 by jetstream

[Size9Hex]

Thanks Gerry!

I'll have to have a proper crack at M101 from a dark site. I've recently caught it for the first time from home with 50x needed to even find it (lower than the 80x I normally use for finding galaxies), and 80 / 180x revealing a tiny bit more detail once the 50x had done its job. I really managed nothing more than noting a non-specific lumpy sort of background, but it was tremendous to see even that.

I've been slowly starting a collection of ES82 eyepieces. I'm loving the big field of view - less time getting lost star hopping, less time nudging the scope and more time enjoying the view. In the report, 50x is the 24mm, 80x is the 14mm and the 180x is 6.7mm. The 24mm was used for the big nebulae, the 14mm for finding galaxies and DSOs (I find it great for this - wide enough for star hopping, and a really nice sweet spot brightness in the 250px scope for making the galaxies pop out). The 180x can be a bit dim when used on some galaxies, but for those with a higher surface brightness or regions of high brightness I find it astonishingly good. For the most part, I find the big dim view of the 6.7mm beats the small bright view of the 14mm on galaxies.

I'm intrigued by you mentioning the M81 spiral spike. Not something I've heard of before, but I'll keep my eyes peeled!

[Piero]

2 hours ago, Size9Hex said:

I've been slowly starting a collection of ES82 eyepieces. I'm loving the big field of view - less time getting lost star hopping, less time nudging the scope and more time enjoying the view.

 

mm.. the Ethos bug might knock at your door soon (hopefully not followed by your bank manager)!!  

Be careful about having a look through an E21.. it seems to be a killer!  

p.s. mm reading Steve's thread again has now made me quite curious how the view through one is.. 

Edited April 8, 2016 by Piero

[Size9Hex]

24 minutes ago, Piero said:

mm.. the Ethos bug might knock at your door soon (hopefully not followed by your bank manager)!!  

Be careful about having a look through an E21.. it seems to be a killer!  

p.s. mm reading Steve's thread again has now made me quite curious how the view through one is.. 

Yikes! At that price, I can't afford to be tempted! The ES82s feel already feel pretty decadent at a quarter of the cost, and I'm hoping they'll bring years of enjoyment to come!

For price of a few of Ethosusesis, you could have a stargazing tour of the world taking in the top of Hawaii, the Andes, and the outback.

[jetstream]

The ES are very good for contrast- the Ethos improve on this and it is immediately noticeable in the EP, IMHO. To me this is the test- if it takes persuading myself there is a difference it is not a justifiable one. We should be able to take a look and have that "whoa this looks better" feeling at first glance- the Ethos does this for me. The sky must be good enough to support the improvement however (and obviously).

Strong rumor has it that the Nikon HW at least equal the Ethos....from numerous, reliable sources. I'm talking about DSO here BTW...

Edited April 8, 2016 by jetstream

[bish]

Nice report - sounds like a great night. It's good to get to a dark site, but when transparency is good enough for the Rosette and spiral arms then you are on to a real winner.