A tale of two scopes

[Davesellars]

So there I was walking to my allotment. Dressed like I was off on some arctic expedition with my large backpack, large bright red down jacket, snow boots filled fleece socks, proper winter gloves etc etc.... I may have got some funny looks but I was sure warmer then everyone else.

I hoiked with me the 80ED as it's nice and light, obligatory pack of Jaffa Cakes and thermos filled with hot chocolate.  I was determined to last the night...

So... the humidity looked high initially and transparency so so, although it cleared up nicely later on.  I figured past 2am that it was around mag 5.5 NELM. M31 and the Double Cluster were easy naked eye objects.  The Pleiades looked like a haze as well as the bright stars.

Orion was reasonably high enough to give it a go for the first time this season I was looking forward to looking this up with the dob.  I popped in the ES 28mm Maxvision eyepiece which gives a reasonably wide view.  I then did a little jig. For the first time ever I saw colour in M42! M43 and the Running Man prominent nebulosity also showing.  But the colour in M 42 was amazing. Light green but not only that a bank of reddish purple.  The effect was stunning.  The wings stretched around and could be followed almost around the entirety of the nebula.

I came back to M42 later with the 10mm Delos.  No colour but the amount of nebulosity was significantly more detailed.  A 3D effect almost with layers and layers of the clouds and tendrils.  I stayed with this for some time taking it in.  The Running Man was easily split in to the 3 components with the dark bank running down the middle as was M43 distinctly detached from M42.

I headed over to M1 and after some confusion which way was which got there and came upon the big blob.  With the 10mm Delos it was large and reasonably bright.  A very distinct shape with some subtle hints of detail within but difficult.  My secondary was also starting to succumb to dew so this I believe could have been much better.  Still I was surprised to see M1 like this - previously it had hardly appeared a mere ghost.  Now it was very obvious.

Fighting the dew monster was becoming a chore... and stuff was starting to freeze.  My down jacket was keeping me warm and a thermal hoodie type thing that wraps around the neck was working a treat.

From M1 I went to M35 via IC443 (note to self: remember the oiii filter!).  M35 was a riot of stars with the 10mm lots of colour and varying brightness - a really lovely cluster.  Once I'd remembers to collimate to the primary, the stars were nice and sharp and pin point across the entire view. I wasn't using the Paracorr and to be honest it's not necessary with these focal length eyepieces.  Coma was visible with the 28mm ES though but I didn't notice much with the 24mm ES68 and could not see any with the 19mm Panoptic.

I had a look back around around Orion for the flame nebula but no show.  I suspect I need the UHC.  A quick glance at M51 but it was very faint as it's low down.  M108 and M97 showed but very faint however M97 did show a reasonable size.

I gave up on the dob around around 2am.  The edge of the secondary was frozen and dew had killed off the view somewhat. So after a break I packed away the dob and set up the EQ5 and the 80ED.

The ES Maxvision 28mm was brilliant with the 80ED. Sharp across entire field. Orion was lovely as was Pleiades.  The Delos 10mm gave a spectacular view again of Orion really showing the extensive nature of the nebula and its companions.   Double Cluster as always was magnificent with heaps of tiny pin point stars.  M51 has now risen sufficiently and was easily visible with its companion with the 10mm.

Jupiter had risen and by 4am started to observe this although it was low down the seeing didn't seem to bad and the 80ED cut through it and i put in the ES82 4.7mm.  The view was pretty good with the main bands easily visible with distinct brown grey colour. The GRS just about visible but difficult as it had started its transit.  I followed Jupiter for an hour taking in the detail.  The Moons nicely spaced apart.  At times some nice detail in the main central belts was visible but fleeting.

I packed up around 5am.  Everything had turned white and crisp including me. :).

Well, it wasn't the night to be trying much new.... I'm still getting the hang of using a dob after my C8 on the EQ mount.  It's all still a bit weird and the wrong way round but the RACI at least helps alleviate the issue.  At least finding stuff was faster this time.

[FenlandPaul]

Great report, Dave.  I'm glad it's not just me who struggles with the orientation differences between fracs, SCTs and Newtonians.  I think that was one of the reasons why I could never manage doing a frac + dob night when I still had my fracs - my simple mind couldn't do the gymnastics!!

[laudropb]

Very nice report Dave.

[chiltonstar]

Nice Dave! I was out 'til 1:30 when icing got too bad, and looked at some of the same targets. I'm always amazed that people can't see colour in the Orion neb - it looks so obvious to me, even with my ED80, a sort of pale lilac green. Good to see A-F in the Trapezium again, and a special treat, Sirius B.

Chris

[alan potts]

Very nice report, not much chance of matching any of what you did, apart from getting cold, lots of snow and cloud here.

Alan

[Davesellars]

8 hours ago, chiltonstar said:

Nice Dave! I was out 'til 1:30 when icing got too bad, and looked at some of the same targets. I'm always amazed that people can't see colour in the Orion neb - it looks so obvious to me, even with my ED80, a sort of pale lilac green. Good to see A-F in the Trapezium again, and a special treat, Sirius B.

Chris

Thanks Chris.

I've used various instruments on M42 before up to 8" and never seen a hint of colour.  However thinking about it I doubt I've used sufficiently large exit pupil on it in the past to show colour.  The 28mm and f/4.92 worked out at 5.6 ish exit pupil.

[chiltonstar]

Maybe. I was using my 180 Mak with a 38mm wf EP last night, giving an exit pupil of about 2.5, and it was still fairly obvious.

Chris