Jump to content

Banner.jpg.b83b14cd4142fe10848741bb2a14c66b.jpg

Nebula heaven, great seeing & black skies

alanjgreen

By alanjgreen
in Observing - Reports

Recommended Posts

alanjgreen

alanjgreen

Posted
Posted

I was lucky enough to get an unexpected night out under very black skies last night. Forcast was not showing Sunday as clear until early yesterday.

I had decided that the horsey was going to be the main target so planned to time the session when it was at its highest.

Had a peep outside at 6-30, lovely black skies, milky way and plenty of stars so came back in ready for my tea!

Peeped out again around 8 and stars had gone! Still, perhaps they would return. Had a quick nap for an hour with the Mrs asked to wake me at 9pm (I had been out from 5am so was feeling a little sleepy)

After being awoken, peeped outside and blackness had returned :) so off to get well dressed...

Opened up the shed, decided to go with CPC only and leave the Borg's covers on. Used the now spare heater port for the 2" eyepiece heater and stuffed in the Ethos21 (wrapped and warmed).

Slid off the roof.

Fired up the starsense and had a wonder around with my eyes while it did its magic!

---- Double Cluster easy, Andromeda "averted only" (some doubts entered my mind, maybe it wasn't as good as i thought...), M33 No

Scope ready, so started with some practice objects while I waited for my eyes to open up

M33 - had a nice shape, missing the clumpy bits that I had seen before (but it was the first object and now passed its best position)

NGC2403 - I like this galaxy, its in a nice setting within a group of foreground stars

NGC2865 - nothing special

NGC2841 - a nice view of the core with nice surrounding dust disk

Right, time to switch to the nebulas... eyes getting opened up.

NGC2024 flame - always a good start and BANG there it was clear as day with no filter at all - not seen that before!

- added the UHC and not much improvement to be seen over the unfiltered.

- feeling good about the horsey now... Over the last 2 months, I have seen the flame better than this only once, and all other times worse than this for sure

IC434 horsey - still had the UHC installed, made my way over to its position and wow, hints of horsey. After some time, the dust lanes were clear enough to see, followed along and here it comes! Never seen the horsey with UHC before! but there it was - lovely head shape.

- switched to the Hb, and after getting my eye in again on the gas. The horsey appeared, "more than the UHC and easier to tease out too"

- spent a good 20mins with the horsey then time to move on...

M42 next, check the trapezium count...

- got 5 stars easy, no.6 was in & out. couldn't find the focus sweetspot to keep it there. Nebula look good unfiltered.

NGC2244 Rosette - one of my favourite objects, its HUGE at x133. Usually use the Borg for this one, but CPC only tonight. In with the UHC and had a good pan around the scene. The Ethos makes the background so black :) The star cluster in the centre really sparkled and stood out in the view. Enjoyable.

NGC2264 Cone - CPC cannot do justice to the cone, it is Huge squared. Traced some of the gas around but I really needed less power and a dob! (soon)

IC410 - looked great (a highlight), the black sky really made the stars stand out and the nebula was easy to follow around. Had success with both UHC and O3.

IC405 flaming star (one of my failure objects) - in with the Hb. One of my best views. Gas was not standing out in my face but it was clear enough, traced it around. Tried the O3, nope Hb was better.

By now, my fingers ( with fingerless gloves ) were like icicles :(, time to switch to full gloves and leave nebulas behind :(

But onto my favourites "galaxies" :)

M82 - great view, clearly had brighter and darker dust areas

M81 - seen it better, maybe the sky was deteriorating now. The double double (in the same view) were easily split (first time the E21 has split the tight pair for me - for ref: the pan24 splits the little one easy peasy)

M51 - dust lanes visible, but again I have seen it better

M108 - I like this one, but the sky feels like its going on me now...

Some galaxy pairs...

4088 & 4085 - looked good, one big and one small

4490 & 4485 - good, one big and one v.small

4625 & 4618

bagged a few more but I could see stars visibly vanishing now as the fog moved in.

Toes feeling chilly too by now, so Im thinking of my warm bed.

Closed the roof to the sound of ice being squashed :) 

-- The Ethos21 spend the whole night in the diagonal (wrapped in its warm blanket). Its a great eyepiece for sure. The wide views are addictive. Should be good in the big dob...

Lights on.

The dew shield was covered in ice.

The Borg (riding on top) was covered in ice.

My toes felt like they were covered in ice :)

The path on the way back to the house was icy and slippy.

But i was smiling inside after a great night, my best yet with the horsey the highlight!

 

Alan

P.S. just been in the shed to put the dehumidifier on, it's still below zero in there at noon! :) 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
xtreemchaos

xtreemchaos

Posted
Posted

wow what a night, well done, skys like that don't come around too often, I had a night like that 2 days before Christmas, could see all of the goodes on the vis list even the faint horsehead, the flame do look amazing through my newt the colour really pops out. thanks for a great report Alan,  clear skys , charl.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
alanjgreen

alanjgreen

Posted
  • Author
Posted
44 minutes ago, xtreemchaos said:

wow what a night, well done, skys like that don't come around too often, I had a night like that 2 days before Christmas, could see all of the goodes on the vis list even the faint horsehead, the flame do look amazing through my newt the colour really pops out. thanks for a great report Alan,  clear skys , charl.

Good nights take away the pain of all the waiting for clear skies :) 

Please can I have some more...?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
mapstar

mapstar

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, faulksy said:

still can't believe you seen the cone nebula, you should go for the centre star next alan congrats again mate

I've seen the easier side where the contrast between the nebulosity is more pronounced. The other side has eluded me though. 

It is a challenging object.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Dave In Vermont

Dave In Vermont

Posted
Posted

Sorry for being late to this party - but your observing-session demands it:

INCREDIBLE!!

This one for the record-book! Or, perhaps, a book all of it's own!

I stand utterly amazed at your fantastic accomplishment. Worth it's own chapter just for the Horsehead or the Cone alone.

Ineffable -

Dave

Link to comment
Share on other sites
clarkpm4242

clarkpm4242

Posted
Posted

Excellent session!

The wider area of nebulosity around the Christmas Tree cluster is large however, I think the notch of 'the Cone' is actually very small?  Not sure if this is a naming issue or which bit is the Cone...

...whatever.

Well done!

 

Yes, I have envy :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
PeterW

PeterW

Posted
Posted

The whole area is a ash with diffuse nebulosity "fox fur" nebula. The cone is a tiny bark notch pointing to the top of the Christmas tree cluster... see many images online. I forgot it was there when I was last looking in the general ar a or I would have paid it more attention!

Cheers

peterW

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
clarkpm4242

clarkpm4242

Posted
Posted
16 minutes ago, PeterW said:

The cone is a tiny bark notch pointing to the top of the Christmas tree cluster

Yes, tiny.

Pedant alert!

Worth being clear about visibility of IC434 and B33 when viewing the Horsehead too.

Think I need some clears skies!! :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.