Point and hope

[Littleguy80]

I normally start my observing sessions with a plan though, more often than not, the night never goes as expected. Last night, I went out with the intention of getting more use out of my UHC filter. I've used my OIII filter regularly but normally forget about the UHC. M27, the Dumbell Nebula, was to be the first target for the UHC but before that, I decided to pay a visit to the Coathanger open cluster. The whole cluster fit nicely into view at 38x and I had to agree that the name was appropriate. There didn't appear to be much else to note within this cluster. 

When navigating around towards the zenith, I find that I often end up off track of where I expected to be. As I moved from the Coathanger, in search of M27, a faint fuzzy patch caught my eye. With some quick studying of the surrounding stars and my sky atlas, I determined that I was seeing M71. I pushed the magnification up to 113x and found it quite easy to resolve stars within the globular cluster. It seemed to be much less tightly packed than others I've viewed, such as M13 and M92. Another Messier object ticked off the list. The first surprise viewing of the night. 

Continuing on from M71, I finally reached M27. Very clear and bright at 38x with no filter. On went the UHC, at 113x mag. M27 was very bright in the eyepiece and appeared almost as a bright white circular region of nebulosity. Averted vision revealed more structure within M27. For comparison, I swapped the UHC for the OIII. The view was noticeably dimmer but the Dumbell shape became more pronounced even with direct vision. 

Looking up at the sky, many of the faint stars of the milk way could be seen. I'd have a guess that I could see down to mag 4.5 visually. I've enjoyed reading all the great reports from members as they've trawled Sagittarius. In my back garden, Sagittarius sits in the most light polluted part of my sky. I've had a few attempts to find objects in here but with no success. Visually, I could see a few more stars in this region than I have been able to previously so I decided to try again. The sky looked darker in the eyepiece compared to previous nights but I was struggling to orientate myself. Things were getting desperate so I used SkySafari as a guide to try and figure out where I was. I decided that I probably needed to point further round to the west. I took a educated guess on where to look, pointed the scope and hoped for the best. With a small amount of searching, I found an large open cluster. Using SkySafari, I identified where I thought I was. Later I determined that this was M25. It looked like the Omega Nebula was nearby, according to the app, so I moved in the direction the app suggested. I spotted some faint nebulosity. I put the OIII filter on, looked through the eyepiece and gasped at what I saw. There was the distinctive shape of M17, the Swan nebula. I'd been so caught up in trying to find something that I hadn't joined the dots to make the connection between the Omega nebula and M17. I've seen many pictures and sketches of the Swan and was really chuffed to be seeing it for myself. After awhile, a thin layer of cloud started to move in and it was time to move on.

It was clear overhead still so I returned to the North American Nebula and Western Veil. Some experimentation confirmed the conventional wisdom that an OIII is the filter of choice for these diffuse nebulae. The UHC filter was an improvement over no filter but gave a much fainter view of the nebulosity. The cloud continued it's crawl through the sky so I brought the scope round the front of my house. I was hoping to have a shot seeing Uranus or Neptune but cloud was covering this region. A hazy patch in the sky did grab my attention. "What's that?" I asked. When nobody answered, I decided to have a look through the scope and was pleasantly surprised to see the Pleiades, M45. The Pleiades were my first telescope Messier before I even knew what a Messier was! I spent a few minutes exploring the many stars within the cluster. I'm looking forward to spending more time with M45 in future sessions. I packed up and documented my night's viewing in my observing diary. It was a brilliant night with M17 being the completely unplanned highlight!

[alanjgreen]

Nice report Neil. The swan is great the first time you see it!

The good news is, its great every year to see it once again. If you have upgraded your equipment during the year long wait then it's nice to see it reveal more than the last time...

Definitely one of my favourite objects

Alan

[Piero]

Very nice reading Neil.

UHC and OIII filters can really help on nebulae. As you say it takes some experimentation. I also like an OIII or a strong UHC on the nebulae that you cited, but this might be due to my skies which have some light pollution. There are many nice clusters / nebulae in that area. Some of these are: M22, M25, M18, M16, M11, M8. The whole area is rich of targets. Spanning up and down at low power is beautiful I feel. 

[Littleguy80]

39 minutes ago, alanjgreen said:

The good news is, its great every year to see it once again. If you have upgraded your equipment during the year long wait then it's nice to see it reveal more than the last time...

Thanks Alan. It was so exciting. Hopefully I'll get to see it again later in the summer as the sky gets even darker

[Littleguy80]

41 minutes ago, Piero said:

There are many nice clusters / nebulae in that area. Some of these are: M22, M25, M18, M16, M11, M8. The whole area is rich of targets. Spanning up and down at low power is beautiful I feel. 

Thanks Piero. It's given me the confidence that I can have success observing in this area from my garden now. Will be going back to try and observe some of those clusters and nebula

[Stu]

11 minutes ago, Littleguy80 said:

Thanks Piero. It's given me the confidence that I can have success observing in this area from my garden now. Will be going back to try and observe some of those clusters and nebula

You often find that a heavy downpour washes all the muck out of the atmosphere so the sky reflects or scatters less light and the sky background appears darker.

I remember a few years back I wandered down to bottom of my garden after just such a downpour at this time of year. Normally I cannot see anything in that direction but this time I could clearly see the stars in Sagittarius and with binoculars was able to pick out a few of the brighter messiers.

Mag 4.5 is about what I put up with. Get to a mag 5.5 sky and you will really start to see the Milky Way properly and those M objects will jump out at you

I'll find one of my reports which covers this area just for your info.

[Piero]

16 minutes ago, Littleguy80 said:

Thanks Piero. It's given me the confidence that I can have success observing in this area from my garden now. Will be going back to try and observe some of those clusters and nebula

Sure! Be confident about that!  

Your telescope can show you many targets. With some patience and dark adaptation, you will find and observe many fuzzies. If you have a chance, you could take your telescope under darker skies. All those targets will be easier and richer in detail. 

[Littleguy80]

5 minutes ago, Stu said:

I'll find one of my reports which covers this area just for your info.

Fab. Thanks Stu. I find observing reports so useful for ideas of what to look for

[Stu]

Just now, Littleguy80 said:

Fab. Thanks Stu. I find observing reports so useful for ideas of what to look for

Here you go

 

[Littleguy80]

4 minutes ago, Piero said:

If you have a chance, you could take your telescope under darker skies. All those targets will be easier and richer in deta

This is high up on my to do list. I know there's so much more to see if I can get under some darker skies 

[Stu]

This one is useful too...

If you search for Dorset, Devon, Samos and or Genesis you may find some more.

[Littleguy80]

Great reports, Stu. I'm blown away by how much you were able to see in one night. Thanks for sharing

[cotterless45]

Super report, Sagittarius is over the light polluted town , when its south. It came as a surprise to catch the full Swan nebula, especially without a filter. Both uhc and Oiii enhanced the views of this and other nearby nebulae. Always worth taking a shot at these dark sky wonders , even from town,

Nick.

[Littleguy80]

10 minutes ago, cotterless45 said:

Super report, Sagittarius is over the light polluted town , when its south. It came as a surprise to catch the full Swan nebula, especially without a filter. Both uhc and Oiii enhanced the views of this and other nearby nebulae. Always worth taking a shot at these dark sky wonders , even from town,

Nick.

Very nicely put, Nick!

[alan potts]

Another nice report Neil, your title sound somewhat like the way I use my Dob. As for M71, I often feel this looks more like a normal cluster than a globular, a nice sight though.

[Littleguy80]

2 hours ago, alan potts said:

 

Another nice report Neil, your title sound somewhat like the way I use my Dob. As for M71, I often feel this looks more like a normal cluster than a globular, a nice sight though

 

Thank you, Alan. M71 was a really interesting one. I read in one of my books that there was quite a long time where it was uncertain if it a globular cluster or a very tight open cluster. Either way, as you say, it's a pretty sight with all those resolvable stars