Sagittarius and Scorpius from Mallorca

[dogfish]

I arrived home last night from a few days spent in Mallorca. I was staying with my brother, Ian (aka Starflyer), his partner and son. We planned to do some observing whilst we were there and Ian had taken his Lidl 10x50's, the Sky and Telescope Pocket Sky Atlas (lovely book, first time I'd seen it, very impressed and my copy was waiting for me when I got home) and I'd packed my new, to me anyway, WO Megrez 72 FD along with a borrowed Jessops TP323 photo tripod.

The house that Ian had rented was in Sa Coma, on the Eastern side of the island. It was in a suburban position, and there was a streetlight glaring out to the East of the garden where we set out to observe from. I arrived on the Sunday, only to see the sky get progressively cloudier as the evening wore on. This pattern was repeated the following night . Ian kept telling me that the previous two nights had been crystal clear, so we waited.

Despite the cloud, we managed to get a few glimpses of Jupiter in the Megrez, and as this was about 30 degrees up from the horizon, this was a real treat. I'd been unable to even get a glimpse of it this year from Glasgow, but here it was in all it's glory. Although the image scale was small (61x using my 7mm Baader ortho) the north and south equatorial bands were very clear dark stripes across the centre of the sphere, much better than when I'd seen it boiling low in the atmosphere when I'd observed it last year from Scotland. On the Sunday night, Tracy and I also thought we'd seen a tiny red dot which we convinced ourselves was the GRS. A subsequent visit to the sky and telescope page that gives the transit times, makes me think we might have been right (11.53pm +/- 40 minutes, Ian would that be about right?). On these first two cloudy nights, we'd sighted a few small fuzzies but this was nothing compared to the Tuesday and Wednesday nights!

These last two nights were glorious and we could see the whole of Sagittarius and Scorpius! There are so many targets here and we fell into a pattern. Tracy, who despite wearing glasses seemed to have the sharpest eyes (she's also the youngest, so that would help) would scour the sky with the bino's. When she spotted a fuzzy, she'd direct Ian to where it was and he'd consult the Sky atlas and pinpoint it's location. It was then my job to try and get the object in the Megrez. This was a suprisingly successful approach. Below is a list of the objects we located.

M6 (butterly cluster - fuzzy in the bino's but very pretty OC in the Megrez)

M7 (Ptolemy's cluster - ditto)

M8 (Lagoon nebula - emission nebula with OC - brighter in the bino's, able to see separately NGC 6559)

M11 (Wild duck cluster - condensed OC)

M16 (Eagle nebula - emission nebula with OC)

M20 (Triffid nebula - emission and reflection nebula with OC)

M22 (big and bright globula cluster, nice and fuzzy in the bino's and just resolving into stars in the Megrez)

M23 (open cluster)

M24 (star cloud)

M26 (small glob only seen in the bino's, couldn't find it in the Megrez)

We also saw many more fuzzies but couldn't pin them down/didn't take notes/had had too much to drink by this point to care anymore :occasion5: .

This was first light for the Megrez and it did live up to my expectations. Clusters of stars were particularly good, helped by the superb dual speed focuser and lack of image shift that I have to live with when I use the SCT. There was a tiny bit of CA when viewing Jupiter, but this didn't spoil the view. We also looked at the moon on the first couple of nights. Thankfully it rose a lot later on the two clear nights. The view here was a treat. Nice and crisp and no hint of CA. It was also a first using a camera tripod for observing. This wasn't so good. I think this is partly because the Jessop's tripod wasn't that good and it was particularly stiff when panning up and down. I'm now thinking of something like the Giro mini. I am however now hooked on the idea of taking a small scope with me when travelling abroad. We had so much fun with our combination system (might have been the harvey wallbangers and beer ) and seeing so many low down objects was a real thrill.

Cheers, Martin

[Jeff RV]

Nice report, Glad it all come together Martin and it looks like you had a fantastic time, a Beer or two sure goes down well on these occasions.

Cheers!!

Jeff.

[Talitha]

Thanks for your report, Martin! I'm glad everyone had such a wonderful time and that you were able to see so many new targets.

What a great first light for the Megrez!

[Albireo380]

Good report Martin. You are quite right in that getting a good few degrees further South from our usual haunts opens up a whole new group of objects. Sag and Sco are particularly rich regions and I have observed / imaged these from COAA in Portugal. A fantastic sight on a dark night.

Glad you enjoyed the holiday.

See you some cold, dark, clear night somewhere in West Central Scotland, in the Autumn (and bring the WO scope - so I can drool over it).

Tom

[dogfish]

Thanks Jeff and Carol, I certainly enjoyed my new toy.

Yes Tom, it was great to see those constellations in full and see so many new objects, but I'm still looking forward to dark autumn nights at Drymen and having a crack at imaging (which is the other reason I got the Megrez).

Cheers, Martin

[AndyH]

Sounds excellent. I'm jealous.

Oh by the way, if you're in the market for a wee alt/az head, I heartily recommend this wee beauty...

Teeny weeny, but it could carry my old Tal 100RS, and track at around 150x with ease.

Available here, http://www.helix-mfg.com/grabngo.htm

With the $/£ exchange rate at the mo, it's a bargain IMHO.

I'll be taking it along to Kielder if anyone wants a wee shot of it.

Andy.

[dogfish]

Hi Andy

That looks very neat and I see it only weights 2lbs. If I don't succumb to temptation before Kielder, either for foreign travel or flexing the credit card, I'll definitely be in the queue to have a look at it.

Thanks for the tip, Martin

[narrowbandpaul]

i have first hand experience of how bad the seeing is from glasgow, having the misfortune of using the 16" Meade at the Glasgow Uni observatory. It blocks out all detail low in the south, ie Jupiter. You have to head south for a good view

I too want to travel south for a weeks imaging

Envious of your views of the southern skies

Paul

[Starflyer]

Hi Martin,

Great report, definitely sums up the lovely sights from those two nights, but not how drunk we were by the early hours 8) and I quote "this is great, we can do drunk astronomy - hic"

Despite the cloud, we managed to get a few glimpses of Jupiter in the Megrez, and as this was about 30 degrees up from the horizon, this was a real treat. I'd been unable to even get a glimpse of it this year from Glasgow, but here it was in all it's glory. Although the image scale was small (61x using my 7mm Baader ortho) the north and south equatorial bands were very clear dark stripes across the centre of the sphere, much better than when I'd seen it boiling low in the atmosphere when I'd observed it last year from Scotland. On the Sunday night, Tracy and I also thought we'd seen a tiny red dot which we convinced ourselves was the GRS. A subsequent visit to the sky and telescope page that gives the transit times, makes me think we might have been right (11.53pm +/- 40 minutes, Ian would that be about right?). On these first two cloudy nights, we'd sighted a few small fuzzies but this was nothing compared to the Tuesday and Wednesday nights!

Glad to hear it was the GRS, Tracy's very pleased that she actually saw it and that it wasn't the drink

These last two nights were glorious and we could see the whole of Sagittarius and Scorpius! There are so many targets here and we fell into a pattern. Tracy, who despite wearing glasses seemed to have the sharpest eyes (she's also the youngest, so that would help) would scour the sky with the bino's. When she spotted a fuzzy, she'd direct Ian to where it was and he'd consult the Sky atlas and pinpoint it's location. It was then my job to try and get the object in the Megrez. This was a suprisingly successful approach. Below is a list of the objects we located.

I should mention here that Tracy could split 01Cyg and 30Cyg with her glasses on, I definitely couldn't with my naked eyes but when I tried Tracy's glasses on I could split them too It was great fun tracking down and identifying the faint fuzzies, excellent team work and so much to see in such a small area of sky.

M6 (butterly cluster - fuzzy in the bino's but very pretty OC in the Megrez)

M7 (Ptolemy's cluster - ditto)

M8 (Lagoon nebula - emission nebula with OC - brighter in the bino's, able to see separately NGC 6559)

M11 (Wild duck cluster - condensed OC)

M16 (Eagle nebula - emission nebula with OC)

M20 (Triffid nebula - emission and reflection nebula with OC)

M22 (big and bright globula cluster, nice and fuzzy in the bino's and just resolving into stars in the Megrez)

M23 (open cluster)

M24 (star cloud)

M26 (small glob only seen in the bino's, couldn't find it in the Megrez)

All great sights and all new objects for me, the Lagoon nebula was stunning through the cheapo binos, and I'm glad we had the opportunity to view Jupiter at such a decent altitude - beautiful :hello1:

We also saw many more fuzzies but couldn't pin them down/didn't take notes/had had too much to drink by this point to care anymore :occasion5: .

We can do drunk astronomy :occasion5:

This was first light for the Megrez and it did live up to my expectations. Clusters of stars were particularly good, helped by the superb dual speed focuser and lack of image shift that I have to live with when I use the SCT. There was a tiny bit of CA when viewing Jupiter, but this didn't spoil the view. We also looked at the moon on the first couple of nights. Thankfully it rose a lot later on the two clear nights. The view here was a treat. Nice and crisp and no hint of CA. It was also a first using a camera tripod for observing. This wasn't so good. I think this is partly because the Jessop's tripod wasn't that good and it was particularly stiff when panning up and down. I'm now thinking of something like the Giro mini. I am however now hooked on the idea of taking a small scope with me when travelling abroad. We had so much fun with our combination system (might have been the harvey wallbangers and beer ) and seeing so many low down objects was a real thrill.

Cheers, Martin

Again, a great report and a great holiday Martin

Cheers,

Ian

[dogfish]

And there was me leaving the "drunk astronomy" bit out of the report

I also forgot to add that we saw M13 and M92 in the bino's and a pity that we couldn't get the tripod to point the scope up that high.

Cheers (hic) Martin

[beamish]

A great report Martin- you guys certainly know how to make one green with envy! We've had some VERY clear nights here-CLEARly orange