California nebula, HH

[jetstream]

The storm has passed and the sky is clear, well kind of. Conditions were average really, with that crystal clear sky not showing itself and the transparency varied through the session.

For the first time the California nebula showed some real structure, a mottled appearance in about half of it and some detached patches were noticeable. The 30mm ES 82/Lumicon UHC gave some very good views- I can say "bright" ( within the context of faint nebula), better than my 2" Lumi Hb which eliminated any structure and left a faint grey smudge. This object NGC 1499 can be a frustrating target which is also quite difficult.

And... can I start a sentence with "and"? and the little 760mm 200mm newt gave up the pimple like Horse Head in NGC 434 Many tries were had and the good old 25mm TV plossl/Astronomik Hb were summoned for the job and what a good job they did! All the other combos failed tonight, the widefields were just not the ticket and thankfully the good old plossl came through- and quite well

Finally, after years of observing the California nebula I got some excellent views of it and this was the real prize of the evening.Finally.

[alan potts]

Nice report Gerry and very well done, not easy to see at all from what I understand, I have never tried it from here with anything. We had a beautiful clear sky but so windy it really was not worth it, even though only the top part of the SC sits above the wall of the obsey it was too much for any power to be used and views were very wobbley to say the least. Wasn't too cold though and had a look around at a very doubles.

Alan

[faulksy]

nice one gerry, glad your little dob is performing so well

at the moment we have had 2 stonking nights on the bounce - 3 last night (nothing for you) so tonight, myself,mapster and dan k are of to my local site mag 21.7 skys here we come. if its clear

[scarp15]

Interesting comparison Gerry with the Lumicon UHC and H beta on this subject. I have never been able to discern structure in the California, if conditions hold for tonight it will be useful to try the two filters. I do not get enough scope time with my Lumicon H beta,  difficult to know really without having another H beta to compare, if mine is a little more forgiving or has the same slight issue characteristics based on your valid and objective criticism. Look forward to more winter reports.

[jetstream]

2 hours ago, scarp15 said:

Interesting comparison Gerry with the Lumicon UHC and H beta on this subject. I have never been able to discern structure in the California, if conditions hold for tonight it will be useful to try the two filters. I do not get enough scope time with my Lumicon H beta,  difficult to know really without having another H beta to compare, if mine is a little more forgiving or has the same slight issue characteristics based on your valid and objective criticism. Look forward to more winter reports.

Thanks Iain.  The 2" Lumicon is being sent away for testing so we'll see whats what. The 1.25" Astronomik/25mm TV plossl gave an inspiring but narrow view of NGC 1499- it spurred me to get the 30 ES/UHC on the target and the reward was excellent. I'll spend more time on this one now that progress has been made. A bit more TFOV would be nice for some of these targets.

Off topic but I'm finding Merope is taking increasingly more mag in this scope, I must bring more EP's down to the dock.

[Helix]

I am still working on California. I observed it several times but I'm waiting for it 'to bright up' a bit otherwise just a gray patch with minor structure at the moment. Well done. Happy to hear there is some potential for this one. 

 

[scarp15]

Just returned from a dark sky trip (a bit foreshortened due to cloud bank rolling in that dispersed as soon as I had hit the road - typical). The California was quite pleasing to observe on this occasion. I used my Lumicon H-beta and a 31mm T5 nagler, that with my 14" scope, created a nice large exit pupil 6.7mm. This combination and at x52, 1.59 degree field (no paracorr used) provided a quite bright and fairly wholesome profile of the nebula, kind of like a faint Veil in some way and with subtle structure apparent. It will be interesting to learn concerning the test outcome on your Lumicon Gerry. Nebulosity around the Pleiades, a little how you'd described in another thread and Merope was highly apparent tonight.