Naked eye, binos and some wide field

[Size9Hex]

A delightful impromptu session from my somewhat light polluted back yard taking advantage of unexpected clear sky. I love the relaxing simplicity of naked eye and binocular viewing. Such a direct connection to the sky that I don't experience with the scope. Facing up to the sky rather than down into an eyepiece ensured I didn't miss an unexpected iridium flare and two shooting stars, one of which was very bright with a subtle yellow colour to the long trail. For the first time I noticed the view in 10x50s was a shade darker compared to the naked eye, so perhaps an indication that a large exit pupil eyepiece for the scopes might be worth a look...

In Ursa Major, Mizar-Alcor became my first naked eye double star split. Can't believe it's taken me so long to get around to it. In fact, it was also my first binocular double last summer.

Pi Pegasi followed in naked eye averted vision with difficulty. Less a double star and more a fuzzy patch with a definite orientation. A very different experience to any of the doubles I've split with a scope/binos. Worth a look.

Failed on the Double Double naked eye, but the binoculars managed it with ease (halves not quarters!). A little awkwardly at zenith, the binos pulled a few more doubles from Lyra: Delta, Zeta and Beta.

A half dozen other bino doubles picked up around Cygnus, Cassiopeia and Draco too. The Astro League list is great. Some real beauties. Take a look and find your favourite :-)

A fuzzy naked eye distraction in the corner of my eye became the Coathanger with binos. A glint of orange from a star in the hook. Averted vision drew out 3 parallel diagonal scratches of fainter stars across the front as if clawed by an animal. The faint cluster NGC 6802 extended the base of the hanger as a fuzzy star.

The Milky Way from Cassiopeia through Cygnus (and then behind the house) was nice but not dark-site nice, although I wondered if the NAN was naked eye. Certainly with an Oiii filter held to the eye, the area was very bright!

At this point it seemed the sky was destined to stay clear. The scope came out, but just the 4", not the big 10". Wide field bliss :-)

The Oiii was more useful on the NAN than the UHC. Viewed in the 24mm ES82 at 20x with 4.9mm exit pupil. Looking away from the eyepiece and suddenly back really helped me to see it. The image in Sky Safari was a great help in making sense of the view and teasing out detail. Panning slowly was also useful. Mexico and the Gulf jump out first. With scrutiny a broad darker swathe across Texas and possibly a glimpse of a thinner dark stripe just around Mississippi. Another diagonal dark swathe around Hudson Bay, but thinner than the its real life counterpart. The whole area had a smooth painted texture, contrasting with some of the surroundings which were also bright, but with a sparkling sandpaper texture of almost-resolved star fields.

The fainter areas of the Veil again benefited from looking away from the eyepiece and then ambushing them. Brief visibility each time before they faded from view! The brighter detail included a neat curved hook in the south of the East Veil and parallel stripes and lanes in the north. A prominent snapped twig in the Western Veil.

I love these two targets. Feels like they drip feed new detail each time I look. Looking forwards to hitting the Veil with the Dob at some point, although the wide field view is pretty special too :-)

Lovely wide views of Bodes, now getting low in the sky, and the Andromeda galaxy triple getting higher. Pacman (UHC filter), the Double Cluster, and also a nice return for Miram and Almach, two of my favourite doubles although the colours were all over the place in the ST102.

Finally before packing up, M33 in Triangulum was back above the rooftops, and picked out on the first attempt this season. Took me a good dozen goes at it last year before I saw it. Different kit or a experienced eye? I suspect mainly the former, with the new-ish ST102 seeming to be in a really nice sweet spot between small binos and big scope. M33 had a much brighter core than I recall seeing previously and the orientation was apparent. Had a good hunt for the NGC 604 nebula in M33. I was on target, but couldn't see it. Another target for the Dob later in the year :-)

Thanks if you got this far. Hope it was interesting/useful. A great session either way :-)

[Mr Spock]

Nice report. Sounds like you had a great night.

Coming from light polluted skies I got a shock the first time I saw the Veil from dark skies. It was such a glorious sight. M33 was impressive too.