At last, a steady sky!!

[F15Rules]

I'm sure we are all familiar with "working man's (or woman's!) curse...you get no clear skies at weekends or bank holidays, and when you do get one it's on a weekday night when you have to be up early for work the next morning..

Well, last night was one such night, but I put "Foxy", the Vixen ED103s apo, out on the drive anyway and came out at 11.30pm for a quick 5 minutes peek... the scope was well cooled, but I'd brought the eyepieces straight out of the warm garage and for the first 10 minutes ( the "5 minute peek" is never just 5 minutes, is it??), the images were fine at low power, but very mushy at anything over 100x. But, I persevered and over the following half hour was rewarded with the best seeing I have had from my site for many weeks.

Just 4 objects were viewed as follows:

Vega - truly just a beautiful white uber bright point. Nicely framed in the ES 24 68, with a sprinkling of fainter stars all around it. At a higher power, of x80, the faint 10th magnitude optical companion was clearly visible with direct vision, sitting right below and slightly to the left of Vega as I looked at it (using a 2" diagonal, so image reversed left to right). Have you seen this one?

Double Double - just close by Vega, and just visible at the edge of the field when viewing Vega, this is a classic double and on good nights delivers just beautiful images as twin bullseyes set at right angles to each other, like two pairs of mini headlights. At x80 were split with the Pentax 10.5mm XL, but not with the Morpheus 14mm at just x56. At x150 in the Pentax XL 5.2mm they were simply stunning, with jet black sky and almost zero light scatter.

M13 Globular, Hercules - I know, it's an obvious target, but one which draws me back each time I go out in the summer. It just gets better and better with higher magnification, and at x150 in the Pentax 5.2mm it really started to resolve dozens of faint individual stars, and at x 180 with Pentax 10.5mm and Intes x2.25 barlow it was hypnotising, I just kept wanting to watch how more stars "popped" into view with averted vision.

Delta Cygni - the highlight of the all too short session. A notoriously difficult double, not to split, but to get a really clear view of, as the companion sits very close to the bright diffraction ring of the primary and is much fainter. Last night, at x150 it was clearly double, but blinking in and out a bit. So I put the Pentax 5.2mm in the Intes barlow for to give me an effective eyepiece of 2.31mm. Normally, this level of magnification (c x344) would be stupid, a waste of time. Last night, it treated me to the very best view of Delta I have ever seen. A very clear, direct vision view of the companion, with lots of clear black space between it and the primary, with a single, rock steady diffraction ring from the primary - the companion star sat just ever so slightly outside of the diffraction ring (normally, it almost appears to be sitting ON the ring). I just gazed at it for fully 15 minutes with the drive on, before realising that it was 12.20pm  - not great when the alarm would be set for 06.15am!

But so worth it!

Dave

[Stu]

Lovely report Dave, Foxy is obviously giving you some excellent views  

We must think along similar lines..... Yesterday night I had the scope out, and viewed.....Vega, the Double Double, Delta Cygni and M13! I threw M57 and Zeta Herc in aswell just for good measure.

I love Vega with its tiny pin point secondary. Same reason I enjoy Polaris and Rigel I guess, they are relatively easy but look gorgeous.

I managed Delta Cygni too, at probably around x200 plus, can;t recall exactly. Nice views, but I was, as ever, comprehensively beaten by Zeta Herc. I've just never managed it!

The Double Double takes some beating doesn't? I enjoy the challenge of splitting it at low power, but enjoy far more sticking some power on it and getting those beautifully resolved airy disks with clear black between them. Can't beat it  

[rockystar]

sounds similar to my 5 minutes

started at 10:40 though, finished about the same time. Summer beehive, m27, m71 and the Andromeda triplet were my targets last night.

[F15Rules]

51 minutes ago, Stu said:

Lovely report Dave, Foxy is obviously giving you some excellent views  

We must think along similar lines..... Yesterday night I had the scope out, and viewed.....Vega, the Double Double, Delta Cygni and M13! I threw M57 and Zeta Herc in aswell just for good measure.

I love Vega with its tiny pin point secondary. Same reason I enjoy Polaris and Rigel I guess, they are relatively easy but look gorgeous.

I managed Delta Cygni too, at probably around x200 plus, can;t recall exactly. Nice views, but I was, as ever, comprehensively beaten by Zeta Herc. I've just never managed it!

The Double Double takes some beating doesn't? I enjoy the challenge of splitting it at low power, but enjoy far more sticking some power on it and getting those beautifully resolved airy disks with clear black between them. Can't beat it  

Thanks Stu, great minds think alike etc.. 

I did actually have a quick peek at M57 too, but didn't mention it as I always find it a bit underwhelming in a 4" scope - but there it was, a little grey smoke ring

I confess I've never tried Zeta Hercules, but if you couldn't split it with your younger eyes and a Tak, I very much doubt I could with my older eyes and setup! Would love to see a head to head though of the Tak versus the Vixen: I don't doubt the Tak would win, but it would be interesting to see exactly by how much .

 

Dave

[F15Rules]

57 minutes ago, Stu said:

Lovely report Dave, Foxy is obviously giving you some excellent views  

We must think along similar lines..... Yesterday night I had the scope out, and viewed.....Vega, the Double Double, Delta Cygni and M13! I threw M57 and Zeta Herc in aswell just for good measure.

I love Vega with its tiny pin point secondary. Same reason I enjoy Polaris and Rigel I guess, they are relatively easy but look gorgeous.

I managed Delta Cygni too, at probably around x200 plus, can;t recall exactly. Nice views, but I was, as ever, comprehensively beaten by Zeta Herc. I've just never managed it!

The Double Double takes some beating doesn't? I enjoy the challenge of splitting it at low power, but enjoy far more sticking some power on it and getting those beautifully resolved airy disks with clear black between them. Can't beat it  

PS: I just love that minimalist equipment list in your signature Stu!

Even though I know it's not quite true...

Dave

[RobertI]

Nice report on some lovely objects. Many's the time I have gone out for a quick five minutes in my shorts and slippers, only to be still outside freezing an hour later, and holding out for "just 5 more minutes"! I am definitely missing a refractor in the 100-120mm range in my arsenal and your report highlights this even more!

[John]

Great report Dave !

I've been viewing simiar targets myself with the Tak 100 and occasionally the LZOS 130 but I'm sorting out a more stable mount for the latter at the moment.

 

[Stu]

6 hours ago, F15Rules said:

Thanks Stu, great minds think alike etc.. 

I did actually have a quick peek at M57 too, but didn't mention it as I always find it a bit underwhelming in a 4" scope - but there it was, a little grey smoke ring

I confess I've never tried Zeta Hercules, but if you couldn't split it with your younger eyes and a Tak, I very much doubt I could with my older eyes and setup! Would love to see a head to head though of the Tak versus the Vixen: I don't doubt the Tak would win, but it would be interesting to see exactly by how much .

 

Dave

I'm sure they would be very close Dave, perhaps only just at the very limit that the Tak might win. The fluorite does seem to have lovely contrast and low scatter, but I'm sure your vixen does too

I suspect my constant failures with Zeta Herc are as much to do with my skies as anything else. Constant vapour trails over head and between three large reservoirs so plenty of moisture in the air. That's my excuse anyway, probably just my eyes! It's just strange that Delta Cygni seemed relatively easy so I'm sure it is possible.

[Stu]

5 hours ago, F15Rules said:

PS: I just love that minimalist equipment list in your signature Stu!

Even though I know it's not quite true...

Dave

Yes, not quite true but I was getting bored reading through the 'war and peace' that was my previous sig so opted for the one that is my favourite. Still selling stuff off so it's a bit of a variable feast at the moment.

[alan potts]

Great report Dave and a lot for just 5 mins. We have had a long run of clear skies now with 2 nights out of 47 where it was cloudy and one of them the heavens opened dropping 38mm in 15 mins, never seen rain like it.

Even though the nights have been clear it was rarely steady seeing with Mars going from Half Crown to dustbin lid through my scopes. However a few nights when it was not so hot in the day it was stunning, Saturn one night just looked like a PS'ed photo.

Alan

[cotterless45]

Can't beat a 4" for super contrast. Rukh is a favourite to see if anyone can catch the companion, clear skies expected here, soon !

Nick.

[jabeoo1]

I am drooling for a 4" frac even more now.  Nice choice of rewarding objects.