Great night observing/testing

[Knighty2112]

As the skies were nice and clear last night, after sunset I set up my Celestron 6/8SE Goto mount outside and fitted my new Opticstar AS90S to the mount to test it out also. I connected up my Skyportal wifi also to be able to use my iPhone 6+ to command the mount. After doing a 3 star alignment which worked first time, I then used my Baader Morpheus 14mm to give some nice widefield views. The following objects were seen below;

M41 - Open cluster in Canis Major.
M47- Open cluster in Puppis.
NGC2392 - Eskimo nebula in Gemini. Small, best seen with averted vision.
M44 - Praesepe/Beehive open cluster in Cancer.
M67 - Open cluster in Cancer.
NGC2683 - Spiral galaxy in Lynx. Pretty sure I saw this with averted vision. Small. Definitely in the correct area.
M81 & M82 - The two Bode's galaxies. Beautiful view with both easily seen in the same view. 
NGC2264 - Christmas tree open cluster in Monoceros. Beautiful sight in the eyepiece.
NGC2244 - Open cluster in Monoceros.
NGC2232 - Open cluster in Monoceros.
NGC1647 - Open cluster in Taurus.
M35 - Open cluster in Gemini. This was a beautiful sight. Nicest view of the night I think.
M37 - Open cluster in Auriga.
M36 - Pinwheel open cluster in Auriga.
M38 - Starfish open cluster in Auriga.
NGC1893 - Open cluster in Auriga.
NGC1342 - Open cluster in Perseus.
NGC1545 - Open cluster in Perseus.

At this point my iPhone 6+ battery died, so I called it a night. The main reason for so many targets was to test how well my new Celestron Goto behaved, and how well the views were with the new Opticstar AS90S refractor, which was very well with all targets (at least the ones I could see) falling well within the fov of the 14mm EP. Hoping for a similar night again tonight, although I will take more time to look at objects, rather than rush through them.  

[David Smith]

Glad the new setup is working well. Many happy hours to come

[davyludo]

Wow - that's a busy night! Good effort 

I can only dream of being able to see so many things in one night. Just need to stick with it and develop the skills required.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Lovely report!

[Knighty2112]

58 minutes ago, David Smith said:

Glad the new setup is working well. Many happy hours to come

Thanks David. Yes, the new mount is working a treat (and scope too!), and much easier to use with the Skyportal wifi and either my iPhone 6+ or iPad Air. As I am using Skysafari Pro on both of those devices I get a much larger palette of objects to view with the mount, rather than just 40k objects using just th hand control on the mount.  

[Knighty2112]

49 minutes ago, davyludo said:

Wow - that's a busy night! Good effort 

I can only dream of being able to see so many things in one night. Just need to stick with it and develop the skills required.

Well, the Goto mount did all the work really. If I would have been doing all this manually and having to star hop about I doubt that I would have even seen half of these. Some are relatively easy to find on a normal mount, but quite a lot take some hunting down, especially when they are small & faint and hardly able to be seen at all. Some objects do require you to 'look' at them for a while to actually be able to see them well, mostly just with you periperphal vision too which is more sensitive.  

[Knighty2112]

32 minutes ago, michael.h.f.wilkinson said:

Lovely report!

Thanks Michael. It was the best night of the year so far for me. Hoping the clear skies tonight materialise too for more!  

[Mark at Beaufort]

Gus that is a great report and well done on so many objects. I had a star party the other night and the guy next to me was using a tablet to jump from one objects to the next. Interesting to watch the scope move around.

I have often looked at these Celestron mounts and can see the advantage when its difficult to star hop.

Gus is you Opticstar AS90S the f5.5 or f8.8 scope?

[Knighty2112]

3 minutes ago, Mark at Beaufort said:

Gus that is a great report and well done on so many objects. I had a star party the other night and the guy next to me was using a tablet to jump from one objects to the next. Interesting to watch the scope move around.

I have often looked at these Celestron mounts and can see the advantage when its difficult to star hop.

Gus is you Opticstar AS90S the f5.5 or f8.8 scope?

Hi Mark. Yes the tablet/phone control definitely makes things much easier with the goto, so getting a catch like last night is very do-able as long as sky conditions allow. My Opticstar is the shorter f5.5 version, which I specifically wanted so it would work on the 6/8SE mount even when at zenith. 

[Stu]

Nice one, Goto is a great way of seeing lots of targets when it is working well!

Looked at M35 the other night, I often forget about it and focus on the Auriga clusters. Very nice it is too!

[Paul73]

Great haul of clusters!!

I'm a dedicated manual star hopper, but I do find the wireless tablet/phone driven jobbies mightily impressive.

Glad that the new kit is living up to expectations.

Paul

[Knighty2112]

Just now, Stu said:

Nice one, Goto is a great way of seeing lots of targets when it is working well!

Looked at M35 the other night, I often forget about it and focus on the Auriga clusters. Very nice it is too!

Hi Stu. I also have another Goto mount, the Skywatcher Skydiscovery AZ Goto, which although is good, is nowhere near as good as the 6/8SE Goto for accuracy, especially after a 3 star align. All targets selected, even when 180 degrees apart, fell easily with the fov of the EP. First time I believe I've looked at M35 (from what I can remember anyway), and hope to spend more time on it tonight if possible.  

[Knighty2112]

5 minutes ago, Paul73 said:

Great haul of clusters!!

I'm a dedicated manual star hopper, but I do find the wireless tablet/phone driven jobbies mightily impressive.

Glad that the new kit is living up to expectations.

Paul

Thanks. My star hoping skills are kind of hit and miss. Sometimes works OK, sometimes not. Especially when trying to hunt down M81/82 most nights, which manually can take a while to home in on, even after seeing them quite a number of times too.  

[Stu]

I'm bringing my AZEQ5 with me to DIYSOSPSP and to be honest it will be the first time it has been used in anger! I have my SkyFi unit and GPS with me so will try to get that up and running but priority tonight will just be a good alignment with the handset and to use that for the first night.

In some ways I'm a little scared because I don't have a manual mount with me so any problems and I'll be trying to use the '5' manually.

[Knighty2112]

13 minutes ago, Stu said:

I'm bringing my AZEQ5 with me to DIYSOSPSP and to be honest it will be the first time it has been used in anger! I have my SkyFi unit and GPS with me so will try to get that up and running but priority tonight will just be a good alignment with the handset and to use that for the first night.

In some ways I'm a little scared because I don't have a manual mount with me so any problems and I'll be trying to use the '5' manually.

Hope all goes well Stu!  

[laudropb]

Very nice session Gus and it looks like the new set up is working well. Unfortunately the clear skies did not extend this far North, but I did manage a short session with the bins viewing gaps in the clouds.

[Knighty2112]

2 minutes ago, laudropb said:

Very nice session Gus and it looks like the new set up is working well. Unfortunately the clear skies did not extend this far North, but I did manage a short session with the bins viewing gaps in the clouds.

Thanks. Hope you get some clear skies tonight. Just looked on my weather app and Edinburgh at least looks set to be clear from around 11pm, not sure about Glasgow though. 

[subhas barma]

20 hours ago, Knighty2112 said:

As the skies were nice and clear last night, after sunset I set up my Celestron 6/8SE Goto mount outside and fitted my new Opticstar AS90S to the mount to test it out also. I connected up my Skyportal wifi also to be able to use my iPhone 6+ to command the mount. After doing a 3 star alignment which worked first time, I then used my Baader Morpheus 14mm to give some nice widefield views. The following objects were seen below;

M41 - Open cluster in Canis Major.
M47- Open cluster in Puppis.
NGC2392 - Eskimo nebula in Gemini. Small, best seen with averted vision.
M44 - Praesepe/Beehive open cluster in Cancer.
M67 - Open cluster in Cancer.
NGC2683 - Spiral galaxy in Lynx. Pretty sure I saw this with averted vision. Small. Definitely in the correct area.
M81 & M82 - The two Bode's galaxies. Beautiful view with both easily seen in the same view. 
NGC2264 - Christmas tree open cluster in Monoceros. Beautiful sight in the eyepiece.
NGC2244 - Open cluster in Monoceros.
NGC2232 - Open cluster in Monoceros.
NGC1647 - Open cluster in Taurus.
M35 - Open cluster in Gemini. This was a beautiful sight. Nicest view of the night I think.
M37 - Open cluster in Auriga.
M36 - Pinwheel open cluster in Auriga.
M38 - Starfish open cluster in Auriga.
NGC1893 - Open cluster in Auriga.
NGC1342 - Open cluster in Perseus.
NGC1545 - Open cluster in Perseus.

At this point my iPhone 6+ battery died, so I called it a night. The main reason for so many targets was to test how well my new Celestron Goto behaved, and how well the views were with the new Opticstar AS90S refractor, which was very well with all targets (at least the ones I could see) falling well within the fov of the 14mm EP. Hoping for a similar night again tonight, although I will take more time to look at objects, rather than rush through them.  

Thanks for the listing . 

[cloudsweeper]

Nice combination of mount, 'scope, and control Gus - and a nice harvest of targets!

Doug.

[Knighty2112]

2 hours ago, subhas barma said:

Thanks for the listing . 

My pleasure.  

[Knighty2112]

2 hours ago, cloudsweeper said:

Nice combination of mount, 'scope, and control Gus - and a nice harvest of targets!

Doug.

Thanks Doug. Really enjoying the combination. I also have a Celestron 4SE Mak that I use on the mount too when I want some higher magnification. Love the Skyportal wifi control, which makes selecting targets to view a doddle. Also getting a GPS Skysyn to fit to it too which will make setting up even easier.  

[cloudsweeper]

30 minutes ago, Knighty2112 said:

Thanks Doug. Really enjoying the combination. I also have a Celestron 4SE Mak that I use on the mount too when I want some higher magnification. Love the Skyportal wifi control, which makes selecting targets to view a doddle. Also getting a GPS Skysyn to fit to it too which will make setting up even easier.  

You'll really like the GPS Gus - it does make the process much easier, and made me more inclined to move the 'scope during a session.

Doug.

[Knighty2112]

1 hour ago, cloudsweeper said:

You'll really like the GPS Gus - it does make the process much easier, and made me more inclined to move the 'scope during a session.

Doug.

Hope so Doug. Would much rather spend time looking at objects in the night sky, rather than having to faff about with a hand controller!  

[cloudsweeper]

21 minutes ago, Knighty2112 said:

Hope so Doug. Would much rather spend time looking NHS in the night sky, rather than having to faff about with a hand controller!  

Gus - now I think back, when I used a tablet/WiFi, the date/time/location were taken from the GPS in the tablet.  Is your system somehow different?

Doug.

[Knighty2112]

8 minutes ago, cloudsweeper said:

Gus - now I think back, when I used a tablet/WiFi, the date/time/location were taken from the GPS in the tablet.  Is your system somehow different?

Doug.

 Not sure what the NHS has to do with things here, but anyway........

No, it does do this with the tablet too Doug, but there are going to be times when I might not use wifi, so the GPS will come into it then. Not buying it new, getting it for a good price second hand.