Leo galaxies revisited

[Nyctimene]

For a short observing session, I took out this morning my grab-and-go set, the trusty vintage Vixen 80/400 FH refractor with the Seben Zoom 24-8 mmf, mounted on a Manfrotto Fluid Head and vintage tripod. At 03.00 h the temperature had dropped to -8° C; the visibility, with a slight haze, was at 5.0 - 5.2  NELM (UMi).

I started with the galaxy 2903 in the Lion's head, which was in the same 2,4° field of view with Lambda Leonis, and 2 degrees south . At 50x mag, it's elliptic shape and the orientation N - S could easily be made out. Not quite as easy was the galaxy trio M 95/M96/M105. I started star-hopping from Rho Leonis and worked my way, using SkySafari 5 Pro on my smartphone, towards NE. The feature of SkySafari, to show the true field of view of any scope-eyepiece combination as circle on the display,  and to flip the orientation, is very convenient - it allows a change in seconds.  At 50x, M105 (9.3 mag) could be seen with averted vision as a round patch, with brighter center, accompanied by the slightly fainter oblong 3371. M 96 and M 95 were almost in the same field of view, the latter not quite easy and mostly with AV.

The second Leo Triplet with M 65 (9.2 mag), M 66 (9.0 mag) and 3628 showed the two Messier galaxies with direct vision as elliptical smudges with N - S orientation, and more conspicuous than the members of the first trio. 3628 was, as always, more difficult; but I was able to spot it's 5:1 ellipse with AV for about 30% of the time. Of course, I knew the exact position from many former visits with larger dobs, in which the trio is always a spectacular sight.

Again, very convenient for the use with SkySafari proved to be the use of the red light shield "Red Eyes Cling Xtra Dark", which I had bought a few months ago from Sirius Astro Products (www.siriusastroproducts.com; of course, no affiliation with these). It keeps the dark adaption at its best, and clings as a very transparent, deep red  soft vinyl film perfectly to the display, yet can easily and repeatedly be removed without residues. Combined with a screen-dim app (I use ScreenDim Full), it is, to me,  the best solution for using a display near the scope. No stubborn acrylic sheets any more! Very recommendable! (I got this pointer from a CloudyNights forum last autumn).

After 04.15, the sky fogged up more and more, and I finished.

Thanks for reading

Stephan

[laudropb]

Very nice report. A really enjoyable read.

[estwing]

great stuff Stephan, Leo is full of the faint stuff and every time it comes round you know its galaxy hunting time!.Thanks for posting and clear skies!

[alan potts]

Nice report Stephan, I would love to get out to see anything at the moment and for once it is not the clouds that are stopping me but the massive piles of white stuff they dropped.

Alan

[niallk]

Nice report! - also interesting to hear how you preserve night vision with your tablet . Itching for some clear skies here!

[Stu]

Excellent report Stephan, great results from a small scope, shows what can be achieved!

[Nyctimene]

Thanks to all for your kind replies; very encouraging for further posting here!

Niallk: I'm very glad to have found the deep red vinyl light shield for my smartphone. All the previous solutions were insufficient - acrylic sheets too bright, needing two layers; wrong colour (tending to orange); fastening with rubber bands or sticky tape always awkward; and always there was a small gap, which allowed the grayish-blue LED backlight to work it's way through, even in Night Mode. Added to this the fact, that even the best Astro apps are not free from some faults - when you, e.g., in SkySafari's 5 Pro Night mode, enter numbers or letters in the Search field, they light up shortly in black on white (albeit very short), which is very annoying, when you are really dark adapted.

All those problems are sorted now. I'm using SkySafari in Night mode, adjust the brightness using the device's settings or, still better, the app ScreenDim Full, which allows separate settings of screen brightness and contrast, that can be stored for further use. The light shield blocks the  screen LED backlight completely.  The price is ok; fast delivery. When using the 18" Dob, this combination has replaced the Interstellarum Deep Sky Atlas more and more.....

Stephan

[Stu]

I think SkySafari is brilliant. I've used it exactly as you describe with a 16" and Nexus push to system. Kept my dark adaptation perfectly well and was able to Galaxy hop across Markarian's chain without getting lost!

Do keep posting, especially reports with the 18"!