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A marginal Horsehead, I think?


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I went out specifically for a go at the Horsehead earlier in the week. Good to see so many other folks got out under the excellent skies too! :smile: I *think* I got it, but happy to listen and learn if anyone thinks it's unlikely. It really was borderline and I wasn't using the often recommended long eyepiece or H-beta filter. 10" dob used throughout (and 14mm with UHC for the HH).

As it's on a few folks bucket lists I hope the comparison is useful against other targets observed on the night as many of us have wondered whether our usual sites are dark enough.

The scene was set with drive to the dark site under a wonderful alien sky alignment of red Mars, a creamy cresent Moon and an intensely orange Venus just before it set.

Milky Way
Stretched across the sky from close to the horizon in Cygnus through to Monoceros but started to fade through here and wasn't really visible into Sirius. It improved a little as the sky swung past the light dome in the east - southeast (and as the dome shrank as the night wore on). The sky overall was spectacular. Full of stars! :biggrin:

M31 Galaxy, Andromeda
The core (but not the disk) was visible direct vision naked eye. Very large in averted vision. The 24mm and 14mm eyepieces both revealed the inner and outer dust lanes, with the view in the 14mm being the better of the two. The dust lanes wrapped a good distance round the north west side of the galaxy. The nebula region NGC 206 stood out.

M33 Galaxy, Triangulum
In the 14mm, two spiral arms. The NGC 604 nebula was spotted on the end of the delicate northern arm. The broad southern arm showed two particularly large bright regions separated by a darker band. The overall southern half of the galaxy was glowing nicely. The offset central bar was seen. Didn't spot M33 naked eye, but didn't make much of an effort on this. I was briefly flummoxed as I've only seen this spiral in the refractor before - surely arms were swirling the wrong way yet they looked so obvious! The view in the 14mm was just spectacular and HH or not, the trip was worth it for this alone. :smile:

Flaming Star Nebula, Auriga
Not spotted. I just don't seem to have the knack of this one. :icon_scratch:

IC 410, Auriga
Lovely large bright detailed region of nebulosity. Good unfiltered but better with UHC. 

M42/43 Nebulae, Orion
Huge in the unfiltered 24mm eyepiece, wrapping back full circle on itself near to Iota Orionis. Too much detail to describe. At one point, I wondered if the core region appeared a subtle green and outer regions a very subtle pink although I'm not certain. I've never seen colour here before. 

Running Man Nebula, Orion
Unfiltered 24mm with a fainter northern band and a brighter southern band cut by a small semi-circular dark bay.

Flame Nebula, Orion
The (unfiltered) 14mm allowed the bright star Alnitak to be pushed out of field. A smaller field of view would be useful. Central dark lane held in view with a less obvious dark band cutting through eastern half of the nebula.


Now for context, none of the above observations were at all tricky. It just felt like a delightful tour of easy targets! Which leads into the toughness of...


IC 434 and Horsehead

I spent a couple of hours (on and off) assessing the view with various EPs/filters and observing. I had time to do this while waiting for Orion to climb into the south, right between the two distant light domes in the east and west.

I brought the secret weapon - a 25mm Skywatcher Super MA stock eyepiece - for a bright view with a small field, but I just didn't get on with it (and it showed some bright distracting internal reflections from Alnitak when used with the UHC, although this has never been a problem with this combo on any other target), so back to the 14mm and 24mm ES82. The 24mm seemed rather washed out, which was a surprise given its success earlier. I also didn't like the inclusion of Alnitak in the view or the reduced scale of the HH area. The 14mm is my most used EP by a country mile and gave more contrast to IC 434 and with better framing and scale.

By panning around, the IC 434 region was detected with some frequency/consistency, but not 100% of the time. A couple of times, I thought I had it unfiltered, but I could be wrong. The UHC seemed to have a better hit rate. Specifically this was the 1.25" SW UHC. No detail at all detected in IC 434, just a general broad north-south band that was hard to pin down and very faint.

One of my preferred techniques with nebulae is to look away from the eyepiece and then ambush it, which can sometimes make faint shapes briefly pop into view. With this, the HH flashed up briefly maybe 25% of the time I tried. I knew exactly where to look, so bias was a definite possibility, but I tried this maybe 50 times and although the hit rate was low, it was consistent when it did appear, so I think I glimpsed it maybe a dozen times.

The back of the head appeared as a well defined curved outline, while the front of the head showed no detail at all and just blurred away into the IC 434 surroundings.

So I think it was there, but I can't overlook how subtle and elusive IC 434 was, although the back of the HH does seem to be one of the highest contrast boundaries in IC 434 to latch onto? Regardless, to me it was an order of magnitude tougher than anything else I observed.

A great night anyway and here's to plenty more for us all this year! :smile:

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Very interesting report Paul :icon_biggrin:

All the lead in targets to seeing the HH seem to be in place for you so it's quite likely you caught it !

My recent experiences with my 12" dob quite closely follow yours but it sounds as if your skies are darker from your description of some of the other objects you observed. I'm sure that I've seen IC 434 on 2 occasions now but apart from the most fleeting sensation (I can't think of a better way to put it) of the HH in the right position and about the right dimensions, I still don't feel that I've "got it" as yet.

Lets hope for more clear and dark nights as you say :thumbright:

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Excellent report Paul:thumbsup:

I was looking at some of your targets the other day. No HH for me. It's a very tough target, wiht persistency, I'm sure you'l get it with certainty when the conditions is right.:smiley:

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17 hours ago, John said:

Very interesting report Paul :icon_biggrin:

All the lead in targets to seeing the HH seem to be in place for you so it's quite likely you caught it !

My recent experiences with my 12" dob quite closely follow yours but it sounds as if your skies are darker from your description of some of the other objects you observed. I'm sure that I've seen IC 434 on 2 occasions now but apart from the most fleeting sensation (I can't think of a better way to put it) of the HH in the right position and about the right dimensions, I still don't feel that I've "got it" as yet.

Lets hope for more clear and dark nights as you say :thumbright:

Thanks John, I hope you get a chance to see it as I know it's on your list. I hope the report was useful. We've had a few Horsehead sightings on the forum recently, but (and I could be wrong here) I think most/all were from sites out in the wilderness. I was in the New Forest which is lovely and dark, but more countryside-dark than wilderness-dark - but doable as a cheeky spur of the moment midweek trip which is more realistic for a lot of us I guess. I noticed that although it was beautiful at zenith, the direction of the light domes really came into play. It was touch and go on IC 434 in these conditions even though the warm up targets were easy! Looks like moon has come round again, but hopefully some more chances before the season passes!

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9 hours ago, alan potts said:

Another very nice report! I feel reading it you have seen the HH but I guess you are like me I have to be 100% sure of seeing something and up to now this one has escaped me, maybe next time I will close the gate.

Alan.

It's a tricky one isn't it! It's good to be 100%, but on those at-the-limit targets, I'm not sure we ever can be - which I think is ok, until the moment you have to either tick it off the list, or not...! :icon_scratch: I hope you get a chance to see it. Sounds like your skies and skills are good so just a matter of time. I wondered how many other beautiful objects I could have explored in the time I spent getting (maybe) the briefest glimpses of this one!

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16 hours ago, YKSE said:

Excellent report Paul:thumbsup:

I was looking at some of your targets the other day. No HH for me. It's a very tough target, wiht persistency, I'm sure you'l get it with certainty when the conditions is right.:smiley:

Thanks, it is a toughy for sure and that's even from a few degrees south of you. You must need everything to come together to catch it so far north! Keep up the good work on your reports!

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Nice report Paul, good and steady session. I like the comment about ambushing it, I guess that none of us are really cut out to be cowboys and you are quite right, the horse head does require a degree of tactical inventiveness. I think that you are edging closer, the UHC  just might do, however are you considering a H-beta filter?   

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10 hours ago, scarp15 said:

Nice report Paul, good and steady session. I like the comment about ambushing it, I guess that none of us are really cut out to be cowboys and you are quite right, the horse head does require a degree of tactical inventiveness. I think that you are edging closer, the UHC  just might do, however are you considering a H-beta filter?   

Thanks :-) Certainly tempted with an H-beta. I usual like to check whether I can see something with my current kit before splashing out on something new (especially as the H-beta seems to have fewer uses than the other nebula filters). Probably need to press the button now if I'm getting one though or Orion will be gone for the year!

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Initially I considered the H-beta filter as an occasional use in facilitating the observation of a specific and small handful of targets. As is quite well known, Dave Knisely has formulated a fairly extensive and comprehensive list of H-beta filter targets and in my recent observing sessions, I am reaching for my H beta filter increasingly more each time, as I gain a little in experience and understanding and particularly since I started using an eyepiece with a large 6.7mm exit pupil.  The H-beta filter has become almost on equal terms to my OIII and UHC filters. If you plan to increasingly investigate diffuse nebula as a primary target, it is perhaps worth while considering.

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2 hours ago, scarp15 said:

Initially I considered the H-beta filter as an occasional use in facilitating the observation of a specific and small handful of targets. As is quite well known, Dave Knisely has formulated a fairly extensive and comprehensive list of H-beta filter targets and in my recent observing sessions, I am reaching for my H beta filter increasingly more each time, as I gain a little in experience and understanding and particularly since I started using an eyepiece with a large 6.7mm exit pupil.  The H-beta filter has become almost on equal terms to my OIII and UHC filters. If you plan to increasingly investigate diffuse nebula as a primary target, it is perhaps worth while considering.

This could prove expensive advice if I need a fat new eyepiece too (although it's something I was considering at some point)! :smile:What brand H-beta are you using and what do you think of it? I see the skywatcher is reasonable priced, but I'm not entirely convinced by the quality control of the skywatcher filters I already own (not to imply they aren't good for the price). The astronomik seems pricey, although it's encouraging to hear you're getting good use out of this type of filter, as I've also seen it referred to as a fairly niche filter (one of the reasons for trying my UHC on the HH first).

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Each of my filters are Lumicon in 2" format. My first was the OIII, which I used for at least a couple of years before I purchased my next, going against the grain somewhat was to be the H-beta, then eventually I finally got to purchasing the UHC. I have used a borrowed H-beta, do not know the brand but would have been one of the reasonably priced options, I recall that a colleague had no problem in seeing the HH with this through my then 12" scope, even commenting that it was his best ever view to date - I at the time, could not make head nor tail of it. Unfortunately I am not best placed to make comparisons, clearly astronomic are a fairly costly contender, other less costly alternatives may do, otherwise yes potential expensive options unfortunately. I would not worry about the new eyepiece though, using what you have will be just fine and I can definitely understand the logic in using your UHC as fully as possible. It may depend a bit upon how your observing habits and time evolves. For myself sessions at home are usually fill in times in-between dark sky trips, my appetite firmly for the next opportunity in which I at least anticipate, will get to apply each of these filters and other accessories.

As mentioned earlier, you are getting close, it is as much about training and fine tuning your eye and not just the equipment you are using, so maybe push that UHC once more and perhaps as you will be fully aware, take a long term approach to buying additional accessories.  

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