Sweeping the Milkyway

[mikeDnight]

Last night was a real surprise, as the sky was crystal clear from horizon to horizon. As darkness fell I set my little Tak up in the garden mounted on the squeaky AZ5. After aimlessly sweeping around for half an hour or so, and getting more than a bit fed up with the noise the mount makes, I moved the scope into the observatory and onto its equatorial. 

Using a 35mm Eudiascopic I swept the milkyway in equatorial mode by locking the dec and using the counter balance arm as a lever to gently push the scope across the sky. I swept from Perseus through Cassiopeia soaking up the amazing double cluster and numerous other clusters along the way. I detoured into Andromeda to take a brief look at M31, 32 and 110, then on to Cygnus. Each time i found an interesting target, and there were many, I'd try various eyepieces to see what I could tease out of the image. The 20mm and 5mm Ultrascopics I'd been trying to sell, but which nobody apparently wanted, proved to be simply stunning. I've now withdrawn their sale! M56, M57 were glorious, and dropping down to Vulpecula to view M27  just added another WOW to my galactic journey. After a good two hours or so i ended up in Hercules and had the best view of M13 I've had in years. In the 5mm Ultrascopic the globular took on a real 3D effect, and the finest peppering of starlight just added to the amazing effect. The globular was just a mass of stars without giving the often nebulous background glow. Last night M13 was just solid starlight! 

 

[xtreemchaos]

hope ya got a big brush , sorry couldn't help meself. great report. charl.

[Alfian]

Superb! What a great tour. Conditions were surprisingly good. Due to a very early start this morning time was quite limited last night but enough to get some good views of Saturn with the 127. Given the low angle I was quite surprised how well I could push the magnification. Good luck with squeaks.

[paulastro]

So you like the Ultrascopics then Mike? 

[mikeDnight]

18 minutes ago, paulastro said:

So you like the Ultrascopics then Mike? 

I love emm!!!