Breaking news: Fragmented evening relieves S.A.W.S. (25th August report)

[Andrew*]

It was looking to be a very promising evening, so I decided to make the most of it by preparing very well.

I made up an observing list, dressed up warmly, assembled all my kit, making sure everything was there that I might need, and I was out at 9pm for the start of the twilight.

Jupiter was only 9° up in the sky, and I still had not seen him in a scope before, so he was the obvious first target. Beautiful. So much larger than Saturn or Mars and with more disk detail than I’d seen on either. GRS was not on view tonight, but I caught two bands across the disk and saw 5 “moons”, one of which was identified later as an m5.9 star. Seeing was quite good for such a low altitude, but transparency was variable, with veil clouds intermittently obscuring the planet. I made a rough sketch of what I saw.

My entire observing list was based around the deep southern sky which boasts an impressive bunch of unseen Messiers. I didn’t make the effort of trying to navigate new territory with this irritating cloud hanging about, so I retreated to more common grounds higher up in the sky – Cygnus and co.

I wanted to bag the elusive Veil nebula. I was hopeful of getting this due to the sky being pleasingly clear for my location (LM 5.0) - in between the clouds, that is! I had no 2” filter, so the odds were against me, but I tried it anyway. In the 31mm in both the ED80 and the 8” I kept on “imagining” a band of nebulosity running along a belt of stars. Later I realised this band of stars runs vertically between the two portions of the veil. I must have simply mistaken deeper Milky Way stars for nebulosity. At one point the E portion may have emerged.

It was a similar story with the NA nebula. At times I thought I saw not-quite-so-black sky, but it was too large and unclear to be sure.

Time for a sure-fire object – the Ring (M57). This was a refreshing change, but not the best I’ve seen it. I sketched all the stars in the field at 166x and moved onto the nebula at 143x. Comparison with the view in SN pro 4 showed my sketch to be rather accurate, although I missed the bright star immediately next to the nebula – it probably blended in with it using AV.

I finally bagged the beautiful Albireo. While the secondary was a cold blue, the primary was not as golden as I’d hoped. Pastel yellow perhaps. The 31mm Baader Aspheric may have a colour cast or lack of colour contrast… I must return to this at a later date.

Since my great view of M27 (the Dumbbell Nebula) in 15x70 binoculars, I had to confirm my sighting telescopically. I got the archetypal Dumbell image – a bright rectangle inside a fainter circular area of nebulosity, with some brightening at the ends and diagonally across the rectangle. It was really quite pleasing. Sketching it would have been simpler than describing it I suppose :S

I decided to test the sky towards Aberdeen, NW-NE. LP appeared to be comparatively well controlled tonight.

M31/2 (Andromeda Galaxy) showed up but I missed M110. M31’s core was bright and the halo very faintly visible with plenty of “averted imagination”. M51 (the Whirlpool Galaxy), a little further from the worst of the LP, revealed larger and smaller faint blobs, with perhaps some swirly spiral structure, again with averted imagination. No, the sky did not pass the naked eye test.

All this time, I was getting more and more frustrated with the clouds, and with my eyepieces misting up ALL the time. I was permitted maybe 10 seconds with a nice clear view before it would all wash out in condensation. I need to invent a heated eyepiece box.

I went inside to check on the baby and see if the other half had come home yet, with the feeling that I might pack up if it was still cloudy when I came back. It was only 11pm. The other half was back, so I told her to wait up for me – I would come inside in 10 minutes, after I’d packed up.

The inevitable happened – once outside again, all trace of the veil cloud was gone and the sky looked beautiful. I spent another hurried half-hour out, as I was desperate to add at least one new object to my repertoire.

I searched the southern horizon and spotted a lovely nebulous cluster. Superb – M16, the Eagle Nebula! It was a great sight to see a triangular cluster of stars embedded in a glowing halo. My pride was dented later when I realised I was viewing M11 – the Wild Duck, and had mistaken the fainter members for nebulosity

I could now see the little arrow of Sagitta, and decided to find the loose glob M71 for the first time. I saw that it was as often described - a loose GC or a tight OC. To me it most resembled an OC as viewed at low magnification. So I did manage a new object after all!

And that was that. I packed up hurriedly and rushed home to a warm bed.

The session was riddled with frustration with my eyepieces misting up and the irritating clouds. This meant I didn’t have the peace of mind to note down my targets in my journal as I went along. Despite the fragmentation of the evening, I managed to relieve my S.A.W.S. (summer astronomy withdrawal symptoms) and enjoyed the moments in between.

Thanks for reading!

Andrew

[Casus belli]

Thanks for the report. It saves me writing one out as I had almost the same targets conditions and frustrations. I did manage m110 but couldnt see m51. Other than that we saw exactly the same.

I spent some time looking for the blue snowball but cloud and dew combined to foil me.

[Sam]

Great report Andrew. I am wondering if it is possible to see the NA and Veil Nebs?

[Andrew*]

Hi LB,

The Veil Nebula is bright but extremely spread out. This means that extra aperture becomes a secondary factor to wide field for viewing it. Under excellent skies, it should be visible in 70mm binos, if not 50mm ones, thanks to their wide field. I tried with the 80mm first at just 19x magnification - about the same TFOV as 15x70 binos, but higher magnification and 10mm extra aperture.

Of course, it was probably the skies that were holding me back. It's also said that an OIII filter can make the difference between seeing it and not. I didn't use one.

The NA nebula is a slightly different (more tricky) matter, although a similar principle applies - wider field, more aperture, perfect skies and filtration are required.

Thanks for the report. It saves me writing one out as I had almost the same targets conditions and frustrations. I did manage m110 but couldnt see m51. Other than that we saw exactly the same.

I spent some time looking for the blue snowball but cloud and dew combined to foil me.

There was me thinking I had a unique night! I really must come back to M31 from better skies. I can't remember being positive of ever having seen M110 because the smallness of the core puts things out of perspective and I don't know where to look.

What does it look like? Is it almost stellar? If so, I may have seen it last night after all... :? unless that was M32 :? . I'm confused :scratch:

Thanks for your comments - always very welcome!

Andrew

[Starflyer]

Thanks for sharing your evening Andrew - I always enjoy reading your reports.

Cheers,

Ian

[Sam]

M110 is like a fingerprint and M32 is like a big fuzzy star. M31 can be quite deceptive on working out where M110 and M32 are as in the images they almost look they are in the foreground to the M31 - in the scope only the core is really visible on M31 so the other two are quite some distance from that - hope that helps

[Andrew*]

Thanks Ian and LB.

I'll look out for what you describe at the next opportunity.

Andrew