Jump to content

SkySurveyBanner.jpg.21855908fce40597655603b6c9af720d.jpg

Mob views in Easter Elan


mapstar

Recommended Posts

An April session in Elan had been planned for a while by the Mob, so we all decided on the new moon and set out for the weekend of the 21st hoping that the skies would be kind. The forecast looked promising.

I met Faulksy at Newtown and carried on to Beulah a distance of 165 miles for me. The last 25 miles was slow going.

We were the last to arrive with Steve, Peter and Calvin already there. The church was already erected and Steve was just fitting the shroud to his scope. An exchange of welcomes and eventually all 4 scopes were set up and ready for the Friday night. Unfortunately the weather wasn't too good though and no clear spells appeared.Awaking Saturday morning (well 4 of us) we were greeted by skies that quickly cleared into a promising transparent blue hue which presented the usual photo opportunities. I'm sure the others will add to later but here are my camera phone attempts.

20170422_132249.thumb.jpg.d7232e4f406d7817f61cb766e611a069.jpg

20170422_132417.thumb.jpg.d7fd6c893afb9a4f20b4eea9d551acae.jpg

20170422_132446.thumb.jpg.2c99d681c250963d6e8cf0cdf542091c.jpg

Catching an hours kip in the afternoon we all waited with anticipation for the darkness to decend. The clouds had drifted in but clear skies lingered behind and around 10pm it opened up and Arcturus was the first star to be spotted, so we took in the view and did a little star image comparison. Mine was slightly spiky whilst Mike's 20" formed a tighter image. Jupiter then came into view and gave some great views especially through thin clouds which damped the glare. Mike was happily pushing the mag up and it was great to hear the kid like excitement in his voice. I viewed the planet and lots of detail but my thoughts were waiting for the dimmer, deeper stuff to come out.  

I started off around Bootes and the others tried out M51 and said it was looking good even in the twilight .

I managed to pick up NGC-5492 an edge on galaxy (north east of Arcturus) during this time which was my first and it could only get better from here on in. I worked my way futher north through galaxies NGC-5513, 5508, 5523 and 5548

The patchy clouds kept drifting over but we were treated to the Inky blackness of Elan as night finally dropped its veil over us at 11pm. I then tried Hickson 71 and could see the face on spiral NGC-5008 easily and also IC-4382 but didn't get much deeper due to slight cloud drifting in.

A quick discussion with Calvin and I pointed out that Corvus was well up so we both headed for the Antennae galaxy NGC-4038/39 with both being easily visible but being low down the extended arms were unattainable to us. Maybe later when it was a little higher

Travelling further south I intended on bagging M68 so I picked up NGC-4027 which was a face on but with a bump the scope hit the stops and yet again it was too low!!!! Grrrrrr. I raised the scope and picked up NGC-4033 another face on and quite nice to say it was low down.

Clouds again meant a change of constellation and I decided to go for an easy Leo triplet. Aiming the Rigel I quickly found the spot and looked through the 9x50 finder to see if I was in the right spot. I quickly shouted over to Calvin that I could see them both in the finder! With that I took in the view through the 13E at 168x. Wow after all the small fuzzies these were just huge and the detail especially in M65 with its central bar and spiral was stunning. Steve and Pete came over for a look and said he'd never seen it so good. NGC-3628 was a ribbon of light and dark with the whole thing extending the width of the eyepiece. Absolutely top notch.

Lets try some more old favourites I thought. The whale NGC-4631 up next and I swung the scope around to Coma Berenices and lined up with the Rigel.

A testament to these skies there they were in the finder both the whale and hockey stick (NGC-4656/4657) two thin smudges which I quickly verified with Calvin taking a look and exclaiming his amazement too :eek:.

The detail in both of these was something else. The Hockey sticks delicate faint light extending 3/4 of the way across the field of view and the kick at the end with the slight gap easy to make out.

The whale was my highlight of the night. Edge to edge it filled the view with the bright core and head part trailing off towards the tail. It had Knots and sparkles throughout and I spent a good 10mins looking at it. NGC-4627 nestled below was really dwarfed but bright and added depth to the whole view.

Clouds by now were becoming thick and I skipped over to Gemini to catch a very blue Eskimo nebula with great inner detail.

Unfortunately though I never really tried M51 or 101 for the acid test but the others did as Mike said both looked good. The clouds had arrived and that was all the views Elan gave up.

But what memorable views they were. Especially for my first Elan outing with the rest of the Mob.

Cheers lads it was a blast (quite literally in some respects)  :headbang:  

Damian

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 29
  • Created
  • Last Reply
5 minutes ago, mapstar said:

 

Cheers lads it was a blast (quite literally in some respects)  :headbang:  

Damian

Blast!!! more like a ungodly stench............coming from you :D 

Was a laugh and great to see everyone again, pity the observing session was so short.

Next time............ :) 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

just add like damo said, he didnt get chance but m51 and m101 were jaw dropping m101 looked like a star fish that had been dried out in the sun the arms were amazing. not that we look from dark sites but jupiter was taking nearly 500x mag in my dob and this is when it was still low in the sky not quite south yet. i have never seen colours in jupiters moon's like that. unbelievable night, calv also spotted m13 naked eye :eek:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, Helen said:

Great report :smile:  sounds like really fun!  

Helen

PS I recognise that tripod and Canon lens too (and the camo back! - hope he's well :wink: )

he is in great spirits helen :headbang:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Are those other (tiny) non-dobs insee hiding in the corner?? Blue is much more "refreshing" colour for a scope shroud. Hate it when the day skies are glorious and the night doesn't follow suit!

great location

 

peter

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, PeterW said:

Are those other (tiny) non-dobs insee hiding in the corner?? Blue is much more "refreshing" colour for a scope shroud. Hate it when the day skies are glorious and the night doesn't follow suit!

great location

 

peter

Actually camera lenses! :eek:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Really glad you guys got a chance at quality skies, you can rely on the british weather to try to stop a determined bunch of astronomers.

Having had the pleasure of looking at some  lovely deep sky objects with Damian's 22" i am now less than satisfied with the ED120

Glad you all had a good time 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 minutes ago, nightfisher said:

Really glad you guys got a chance at quality skies, you can rely on the british weather to try to stop a determined bunch of astronomers.

Having had the pleasure of looking at some  lovely deep sky objects with Damian's 22" i am now less than satisfied with the ED120

Glad you all had a good time 

I'm afraid big dobs can do that Jules...the only downside to them 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, nightfisher said:

Really glad you guys got a chance at quality skies, you can rely on the british weather to try to stop a determined bunch of astronomers.

Having had the pleasure of looking at some  lovely deep sky objects with Damian's 22" i am now less than satisfied with the ED120

Glad you all had a good time 

Was a pleasure Jules but I'm sure the ED120 will come into it's own with a few more sessions at the eyepiece.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great report and thread guys :icon_biggrin:

Enough to trigger a serious bout of aperture fever I fear :shocked:

I've just worked out that your observing site is probably only around 80-90 miles from me.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

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

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • 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.