Observing Report for 26/06/2016

[BhaskarK]

Once again yesterday, the clouds had decided to clear out and most of the cover was only near the zenith. Lyra's beacon was visible clearly and I decided again to hunt for M57. As is clear from my last post, I failed miserably last time. Instead of mentioning every up and down, I am going to make a list of consecutive stars I hopped upon (with a list of the other stars that were visible in the FOV in round brackets). Here it Goes:

Vega →

ζ1 and ζ2 Lyra →

δ1 and δ2 Lyra (HIP 92764, HIP 92751, HIP 92769, HIP 92847) →

HIP 92551 →

Sheliak (HIP 92359, ν1 Lyra, HIP 92616) →

Sulafat (HIP 93017, HIP 93073, HIP 93201) →

place where M57 must be.

No really, I still couldn't see anything. Tried moving the scope a little to pick up movement in the field and I did see something very very faint and spread over a small area but couldn't verify whether it was M57. It must be !  (I also tried adapting a little more to dark by trying to read my star atlas without any light but that didn't change much)

The sky was exceptionally clear yesterday because there had been some light rain in the afternoon and most of the clouds have cleared. Also, I was able to see some new stars with naked eyes too. What is this phenomenon called?

Last time this hop took about 15 mins, this time I was able to get there in 5 minutes tops.

 

This was only a small part of last night's observations. I decided to try M13 next which was suggested to me in the last post by rockystar.

Turns out, most of the stars in Hercules were at the end of my naked eye visibility (and the clouds didn't make things easier). Still, I picked up ζ Hercules in finder and verified the star field with my atlas. I had to wait sometime to allow the clouds to clear out as the visiblity in my scope slowly degraded. In about 10 mins, the star was shining bright again. Time to hop:

Now, the star I decided to hop to next was BSC 6222 (as my phone told me). Positioning ζ Her at the top of my field, I started moving the azimuth aim slowly leftwards. So many stars ! 

Still, I couldn't verify where I was, M13 is quite large but I had to get to the 6222 first and there were lot of stars in the way in all weird formations. There was a zig zag with a bright star at the vertex and my mobile planetarium proved useless because it showed too many stars where I had too few (The FOV of my scope with the eyepiece I used is about 1.12°). Centred my scope on ζ Hercules again and tried moving leftward from there only, again a lot of stars filled the field of view, but they where quite spread out and I got lost within the intricacies of my mobile atlas trying to decrease the number. I don't think it was the cluster. 

Nevertheless, a lesson was learned. Never try to find something that is near the zenith, the dreaded straight through finder won't forgive the neck (M13). Accessory check, buy a right angled finder. 

That's how last night's session ended. The clouds had slowly taken over whole of the sky by this time and I packed my scope with last glance at the three planets gracing the southern part of the sky.

In other news, I have started working on an eyepiece case. Found an old briefcase lying in the house and decided to use some polystyrene foam to fill the bottom and top, now just have to get a thicker sheet for the actual holding material.

Clear Skies !

 

 

 

 

[Linda]

Hi.

Please don't give up. It will get easier when you get more used to it. At least you found M57 this time. Last time I looked at it, it looked a bit like a ring of cigarette smoke, like you see in cartoons.

M13 is quite big, but it can be quite vague. If the sky is not very dark, it will just be a very light grey blob. I just find the 2 stars on the right side of Hercules's body and move the scope from the highest of those two towards the lowest. Then I see it somewhere halfway. You might not see it in the finder. In that case, using your finder, try to put your scope in more or less the right place, based on the distance between the two stars in the Hercules body, and then search in detail with the telescope.

An angled finder is indeed very nice to have. Especially an 50mm one.

Good luck next time.

[laudropb]

Another nice report. Don't despair, you are learning more with each session. Patience and perseverance will lead to success.

[BGazing]

do not despair. a couple of days ago i was barely able to find m57 despite having a goto...