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Dob mob Dark skyes


mapstar

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First nights skies here were very dark and the broken cloud finally gave way to clear skies at 11pm.

M33 was easily naked eye and Andromeda showed it's vast width in all its glory.

We woke Faulksy up and all four scopes were quickly redied for the night ahead.

Starting off in Triangulum I retraced my steps from Mothalla (Alpha) a month earlier and really wanted to nail NGC661 which had eluded me in galloway.

Within a minute I was on it? Disbelieving how I'd missed it ,it was bright and easy to make out. I had a quick trip down the rest of the chain NGC670,672,684 and I1727. All easy to pick out.

During the afternoon myself and Estwing had discussed the galaxy clusters starting in Andromeda above M33 working down to pisces . Setting off at Mirach and the Ghost (NGC404) was nice but in such dark skies Mirach was like the moon next door.

The next half hour was spent hopping down this chain of galaxies with NGC431 then AND11, NGC443, 410, 407, 392, 374, 403. Just below these was a packed galaxy cluster which filled the 13E up from top to bottom with NGC380, 383, 403, 382, 385, 384, 379 making for a busy view.

A change of constellation brought into view the little pinwheel NGC3184 as detailed in Steve o meara's hidden treasures book which we'd discussed during the aft as a possible target. Large and face on it was revealling spiral structure and with more time probably a lot more.

I totally missed the galaxies around this as Calvin distracted me with a galxy further north NGC3198. This showed big and bright with dark structures along its entire length. A bright star to the outer edge made this tilted galaxy a pleasant view.

Our resident dumbell expert was taking in the stunning views of the Orion neb. The trapezium looked nice and the E and F stars easily made out in all three scopes. The horse head wasn't too far away so the 13E and H beta revealed it without too much eye strain.

Moving further north I settled in Draco with NGC6654 and 6654A. The first being a harder spot than the second.

Working my way down I headed for a look at the cats eye nebula taking in the galaxies NGC6651, 6689, 6690, 6621 and 6622 along  the way.

We all had a look at the cats eye and a vivid 3d effect was apparent with the central star no problem to see. I could see a galaxy by the side of tge cats eye but studying my star chart it wasn't listed? Mike who was viewing the cats eye came to the rescue with the sky safari and informed me it was NGC6652.

More in Draco and the huge edge on NGC4236 was edge to edge vertically in the eyepiece the cental massive core a distinct s shape with loads of structure. Steve had a look and agreed that it was worthy of note and revisit.

I circled  around this and added U7490, NGC 4250, 4120, 4128, 4034 to my tally.

Calvin was struggling with finding Abell1185 a galaxy cluster at the very boundary of UMA.

Dropping down off Tania Australis I centred NGC3350 at it's core.  This area is packed with galaxies and a huge chain  of galaxies running top to bottom of the eyepiece makes a memorable view.

The clouds had by now started to roll in so we all packed up and retired for 4am with a night cap to hit the hay.

First taster of the universe in Skye impressed and here's to more of the same.....

 

..................:grin:

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I'm of the same latitude,  for Skye, just stunning skies when the conditions allow.
My best hope for pollution free observation  is a place midway between Nairn and Grantown-on-Spey, although I live a little further North East, but the image swamp thing produced is  very similar  to my sky just a mile or so out of town. But the middle of anywhere up here, no light pollution,  is truly a delight, even with  just your eyes  who needs the scope? Bins maybe!

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Great report. You can't beat an eyepiece full of galaxies. Mind blowing.  You could probably spend half the night on any one of the bright lollipops in the Sky(e). It's not often that the HH only gets s brief mention, and 'not too much of a strain'. Normally people spend most of the night failing to see it.

 

. I took my old 6" to Skye once, but unfortunately it was before I realised the importance of dew control. Doh!

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3 hours ago, Physopto said:

I gather from the forecasts that the weather is pants at present. How long have you left up there.

 

It's been poor the last couple of night's Derek but I've found out there is a hole in the bottle of Whiskey I brought and its evapourated!!! :help:

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29 minutes ago, mapstar said:

It's been poor the last couple of night's Derek but I've found out there is a hole in the bottle of Whiskey I brought and its evapourated!!! :help:

You will be alright, there are a couple of "factories" quite near to you that seem to be making the stuff

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Oooh. How did I miss this?

Fabulous stuff - I hope you all had a good time. Some obscure stuff there and being able to see structures in those galaxies is amazing.

I am reading in between the lines here and I guess the skies are somewhat improved from other dark sites but maybe what is more gobsmacking there is the pronounced contrast between the inky black of night and the stars, instead of the usual 'white snow' effect you get in dark skies further south in the UK?

Certainly that was my first impressions when traveling to a relatively LP free site...

Are you guys going next year?

Of course, Dobfest has to take place in the most remotest of places. Atacama next!

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