Urban observing....

[Stu]

The lovely Mrs Stu has taken Granny and Lorna away for some sunshine so I'm home alone, with a little more freedom to observe when the skies decide to be kind. This is a bit of a something and nothing report, but I felt like typing it up, so here it is ?.

I've mainly been using my Tak recently, and very much enjoying it, but am keen to spend more time with the Portaball to see what it can do. I had not felt like I had got the best out of it on previous sessions, and wanted to find out why. It was nicely cooled this evening, and I collimated it using the laser.

After a little while observing, I still wasn't happy with the views and the stars were a bit messy. I collimated it carefully on a star at high power and after that things tightened up very nicely. I'm not sure why it was so far off despite using the laser, perhaps I didn't have it seated properly?

The seeing wasn't very good last night, Jupiter showed some detail but was generally not much to write home about. The GRS looked it's usual colourful self, glad I caught that but I just missed the shadow transit which was a shame.

My second fail of the night was wondering why the EQ platform did not seem to be tracking very well (for that read 'at all!') even at full chat. A quick check of the instructions showed that, sure enough, I had it the wrong way round!! Observing was much better after that; a collimated scope which tracked objects nicely made life much easier. This is the first time I've used the PB on it and I shall use it frequently in future. It's very easy to setup, but I do need to find a solid, flat surface for it; putting it on grass inevitably reduces the accuracy.

I tried a few doubles. Polaris (which I used for collimation) was my favourite of the night. Lovely tight primary and tiny, beautifully resolved secondary. I tried out my new to me Meade RG Ortho and found it very sharp for doubles. Algieba, Mizar and Castor were the others I visited. Nothing exotic, just some old friends to test the scope out. With the collimation sorted, the annoying diffraction effects I had been getting off the curved vane spider supports had basically gone, great news.

My skies are not great, and certainly tonight they looked pretty bright, I guess somewhere around mag 4.5 NELM. That said, I thought I would try my luck at some DSOs. M81 & 82 were easily found (that's a novelty for me with a Newtonian, I often struggle to find them but find them easily with a frac). The Portaball, with its Zambutto mirror gave surprisingly good contrast on these two for the conditions. I found and viewed them initially using an ES 30mm 82 degree, which framed both galaxies beautifully. Switching to the Docter 12.5mm gave a lovely high powered view which showed some signs of structure in M82, unusual for these skies.

M97 took a little finding, and was pretty hard to detect. Once sure I had it, I popped in an ES OIII filter and that made it jump out very nicely. Again, some signs of variations in brightness within it but I couldn't claim to see eyes. Darker sky needed for that. With the filter in, I headed to the Eskimo which I wasn't expecting much from as it was quite low down. I found it very easily and was surprised how much it stood out. Ringing the changes, I popped the RG with a x2 Barlow plus OIII in and was treated to a really nice view, lovely contrast and a clear brighter inner section plus the 'halo' surrounding it.

M51 also looked pretty good considering. The two cores very clear, and a nice haloes surrounding them, extending with averted vision. That's one target I rarely see from home, but will try again on a better night. Lastly, I gave the Leo Triplet a go. Popping the Rigel finder in the right place, I rather smugly noted that there they were, slap bang in the middle of the eyepiece. Who needs Goto? ??. When I say they, I of course mean the brighter pair, which basically showed as elongated oval glows parallel to each other on an angle. No detail visible, and the third galaxy nowhere to be seen. Again though, very nice to see from my garden 5 miles or so from Heathrow!!

So, as said, something and nothing really. Success with the PB, performing very nicely now it has been collimated properly. Success number two with my EQ platform which I hadn't used with the PB before. Some nice, fainter targets seen from my garden which normally escape me.

An everyday tale of mediocre urban observing ?

[laudropb]

Hi Stu. A very nice report. It's nice to read that I am not the only one that makes mistakes when setting up. You are much better than me in solving them. A nice collection of objects viewed in a very productive session.

[chiltonstar]

It's amazing what you can see under LP with the right scope, isn't it? Which aperture Portaball do you have?? 

Chris

 

[John]

Great report Stu

I have similar mixed conditions here to observe under. The darkest parts of my sky can be as good as NELM 5.5 I reckon but those are only limited sections - the rest being somewhat worse.

Planetary nebulae are good options for such skies. Many are rather small but they do stand out pretty well and filtration gives most a little "kick" as well.

Unless we are able to travel to observe (which I don't really do) I think working out the strengths and weaknesses of our own patches and playing to them is well worth the effort as well as being satisfying when you pick up more challenging (for our location) targets, despite the less-than-optimum conditions.

[Stu]

14 minutes ago, chiltonstar said:

It's amazing what you can see under LP with the right scope, isn't it? Which aperture Portaball do you have?? 

Chris

 

It's the 8" Chris. I think the bigger ones must be huge as the mirror in this one looks tiny within the ball. The mirror is certainly very contrasty, nice. The one doubt I have with the scope is the curved vane spider. I'm thinking of amending it to a more curved variation so that it cancels out the diffraction more completely. I get some strange diffraction effects if the collimation is not quite bang on.

[Size9Hex]

That's a nice report. Nothing mediocre about it. How many folks ever see such things during their lives I wonder.

[jetstream]

Great report Stu! Teasing out detail in Bodes, the Owl and the Eskimo is a VG achievement- congrats for a fine evening!

[rockystar]

Nice report, sounds similar to my own session - a near disaster at the start where I unscrewed one of the collimation screws too much and it came out of the mirror (oops), and the revisit of some old friends: M13 and M51. I only wrote down six objects in my notes (one of which I couldn't see\find and one was a double I couldn't split) and it still somehow took me two hours.

 

[iPeace]

Well done Stu, thanks for sharing!

[alan potts]

Stu, Something or nothing report, I think not, a superb piece of work. It must be difficult where you are which I believe is in the London area. I used to have reasonable skies back in the 70's in Hull but even I could see a difference some 30 years later which was about when I left the area for good. I have very dark skies but the recent new lamps in the nearby town (5 miles) have not helped my SE area of the sky, I have to wait for the likes of Virgo to clear 30 degrees before I attempt any DSO's. Oddly most call it progress, I guess we don't.

[Piero]

Very nice report and glad that you sorted out the collimation with your PB.  

Sometimes it's just a little bit of practice that one needs with a new toy to become more acquainted and learn how to get the best out of it. Looking at the specs, to me, that telescope will give you a lot of satisfactions from home and from a dark place whenever you have time to take it out. I agree with you in trying DSO even under a light polluted sky. Eventually, if one never tries with a bit of persistence, s/he will never know! If I had to get stuck with all the sayings about the limits of a 60mm, I would be an expert in birding and not know really anything about the sky by now!  So, from my point of view, a report from an urban location even considering the difficulties due to light pollution is anyway much better than no report at all just because things are not evaluated good enough for an observation. 

I look forward to reading a comparison between your Tak and the PM on planets, when you have some time.  

Piero

[Special K]

That's a nice tale of observing and much more productive than one of my lengthy ones!  The PB looks like a groovy piece of equipment and that's good shooting from the human go-to!  

Hope you didn't have to dodge clouds as much as I had last night, and the seeing was tricky for sure. But between all that there were hints of some fine transparency.  

[Perseus_m45]

Nice report Stu . I'm a true diehard believer in those Meade Research Grade eyepieces . Top Shelf .

mike h

[cotterless45]

Nice report Stu , the old favourites are superb sights. My 8" OO has given some remarkable views. Home alone near Heathrow ? I'd have thrown everything in the car and spent the night at Turf Hill !

old Nick.

 

 

[Stu]

2 hours ago, cotterless45 said:

Nice report Stu , the old favourites are superb sights. My 8" OO has given some remarkable views. Home alone near Heathrow ? I'd have thrown everything in the car and spent the night at Turf Hill !

old Nick.

 

 

Good point Nick, perhaps I should take myself off some where dark for a night!!