Everything is awesome!

[Davesellars]

OK...  I think I managed to de-rust myself (again) with a pretty decent session!

Last night the clouds all wonderfully cleared from 6pm and we were left with pristine blue skies.  Directly from work I met up with the family in the park and brought along a picnic.  The kids wore themselves out and thus were pretty much directly in bed not long after getting back at 9ish.  This left me just to pack my bag, grab the 120ST as backup and a large thermos of tea and make my way to my site.

It was certainly looking very promising by 10 it darkness has just descended and transparency looked good although it was already a bit dewy.   I setup the 12" dob (been such a long time since the last session with it!) and everything seemed fine.  The home-made dew-shield which had not seen use yet was put directly on as the secondary is very prone to dewing up with this design especially at my humid site.  Hopefully it would work...  So, I was ready just past 10pm and off to the races...

M13 beckoned as it's in such a great place for viewing at the moment.  Resolved beautifully with the 24mm Panoptic and a fine sprinkle of stars.  With the 14mm Delos it was resolved properly and considerably bright.  The 7mm Pentax XW resolved right in to the core.  I noted that the stars were just a touch out of collimation so I checked and indeed it was a bit once that circle was dead centre I popped back in the 7mm - Much better!  The seeing was very good and the air extremely steady so I put in the Delos 6mm for 250x  At high power this cluster is really something and fills the entire FOV resolving a huge amount of fine stars. The dark propeller off to the edge of the cluster was obvious.

NGC 6207 Using the 17.3mm Delos I viewed the nearby galaxy to M13,  - An oblong patch of fuzz that was easy to see.  Transparency was certainly good enough.  With the 17.3mm Delos in the focuser thhis galaxy and M13 could be in the same view which was a nice visual.

M51 - Perhaps not in an ideal position at the moment but it's an easy one to point to directly so I couldn't resist.  I think the altitude was affecting it somewhat as it was no-where near as clear as my previous observation.  Still two spiral arms were reasonably bright with the 10mm Delos and a decent patch of extended fuzz from its companion.  I could not see however the bridge between the two nor detail. between the spirals. 

On to some proper summer viewing - The Veil!  I've not viewed this yet with the 12" dob so I was looking forward to it...  I've viewed it many times with the 120ST and OIII but was chomping at the bit to see what the extra aperture would bring.

Veil Nebula - Western Section:  With the Astronomik OIII in place with the 24mm Panoptic I have a 1.09 degree view which just about fits in the entirety of one section of the Veil.   I was pretty blown away by the view which resembles a water-spout twisting through Cyg52.   The wider section at the top splitting in to two and then eventually fading out with various filaments of nebulosity.

Veil Nebula - NGC 6974 This large area of the Veil which encompasses Pickering Triangle is much less obvious and requiring more time at the eyepiece however a very fine structure of nebulosity is still easily visible.

Veil Nebula - Eastern Section  Again the 24mm Pan just about fits the entirety of this section of the Veil.   I think this part is my favourite - It's not quite as bright as the "water-spout" feature of the Western section but it contains so much interest here.  The nebulosity is much more extensive though the bottom section (upside down view)  really containing a mass of fine structure and then up to the claw like feature.

I was scanning the Milky Way for a bit with the naked eye which seemed to show some reasonable structure although you need to work your eyes on it quite a bit to show.  Very nice to see for the first time this year!  during observing I saw quite a few meteorites but one really stuck out as it flew directly overhead through Cygnus and was massive!  It had a large area at the front especially as it burnt up and large blazing tail.  Was it a fireball or a meteorite?  I'm not sure of the difference...  It was quite something though! 

M27 It's been quite a while since I last logged an observation of this and the view with the 12" dob certainly did not disappoint.  I used the 17.3mm Delos with the OIII which makes a considerable difference to the view.  Without the OIII the nebulosity is very obvious but there's no real feature.  The shape is quite distinct as the bow-tie but that's it.   With the OIII, this is quite a different beast altogether - the nebula is suddenly very bright indeed and with showing quite a bit of structure inside the nebula contrast of dark area to the bright nebulosity going through it.  Quite spectacular!

I needed to log for the H400 the Saturn nebula which was now in a prime position.  First I stopped off at M71 which is quite a faint little globular cluster needing some magnification to really do it justice and resolve.  Quite fine and compact.

NGC 7009 - Extremely bright - surprised me a little bit.  Obvious shape even at low power and green/blue colour.  I went directly to the max with the 6mm Delos for 250x.  With this there's a good amount of detail. Oblong that looks very much like an eye with the brighter outside and dark central region. Nebulosity slightly extended further at the edges.

Another planetary close(ish) on the list was NGC 6781 in Aquila.  With the 10mm Delos this was a ring with lower contrast nebulosity in the centre.  Quite bright with no OIII and a slight improvement in contast and detail with the OIII.

M11 One for the Summer's viewing highlights for me is M11.  I love this cluster - it's one of my favourites indeed and always showed well when I had my 8" SCT but I have to the say that the 12" dob blew it away with awesomeness.  What a view.  with the 24mm Panoptic, the cluster itself was very bright and fully resolved with the scattering of bright and different colour stars embeded in a mass of fine stars of the Milky Way.

M72 Small and quite difficult glob to pick up against the star field at first.

A change of direction after a break and on to Perseus and Cass.

The Double Cluster - Viewed pretty much in every session and never fails to impress.

NGC 281 - Pacman Nebula With the OIII the nebulosity was quite obvious around the loose cluster of stars although I could not see the entire shape.  I put in the ES Hbeta filter but I could not discern any nebulosity with this - Perhaps I need to spend a bit more time with this to see what works well with it.

M31 / M32 / M110 - M31 bright and massive.  It seemed the "nebulosity" was pretty much filling the entire FOV as outside of the core it did not darken until outside of M32.  M32 showing a decent amount of extension to the core of the elliptical galaxy.  M110 also surprisingly large especially with the 10mm Delos and thought I could see a darker bar across the centre of the core but it was quite fleeting.

NGC 404 - Mirach's Ghost - Easy medium size elliptical galaxy quite close to Mirach. Bright core and reasonable amount of extension of the nebulosity of the elliptical.

NGC 7814 - Galaxy in Pegasus A little bit of haze perhaps affecting the viewing of this.  However this is quite a difficult galaxy but at least direct vision with the 10mm Delos as a medium size oblong but with no distinct difference in contrast in the surface.  I was hoping to be able to see the darker lane than runs through this galaxy but I think it will have to wait for better transparency / darkness - As the Moon as also coming up now!

It was 1:30am so I did what any other sensible person would do on a school-night and packed up the dob quickly and setup the AZ-4 mount and the 120ST!  I had to give the AZ-4 a go you see as it was a relatively recent purchase that has yet to be used.  First I was quite impressed by its solidness and it's easy to find a balance point with the short scope.

I shot through a few targets - M31 with M110 still nicely visible despite the lower aperture, Double Cluster, M45 and a whizz around the Milky Way.  The AZ-4 was a real please to use.  Finally the Moon with the 7mm Pentax and 6mm Delos both providing a really stunning view with very little CA apart from the very edge of the Moon.  The seeing was very steady at both magnifications (86x and 100x) and the AZ-4 did not show one ounce of vibration.   After that I packed up just around 2:15am to head back.

So that's my lot... Hope you enjoyed it if you made it this far.  Hopefully will be able to fit a couple more sessions like that later this week if the weather allows!
 

[Stu]

I made it all the way Dave, very enjoyable report. A 12" under decent skies can certainly show some wonderful views.

I'm hoping to head somewhere dark with some others from my club on Friday, provided the weather plays ball of course! C925 is the biggest I have available which should still be decent hopefully.

Hope you manage some more sessions too, and I look forward to reading your reports. Get after those Southern treasures while you can, M8,20,16 and 17 etc, lovely stuff.

[Wikiastro]

Great report - plenty of faint fuzzies on show!

[Davesellars]

Thanks Stu and WikiAstro!

Yep, I've still got to view the Southern nebulae this year...  Had some wonderful views last year with the 120ST mainly.   M8 is the most annoying to get as it's lowest and need to be timed right from where I observe.   I'll have to lug the dob a bit further to see them but for sure it will be worth it.

Good luck for Friday with the astroclub, Stu!

[harrym]

Wonderful report - sounds like you had a very good sky. This sort of report is making me want to buy an OIII filter

Have you tried Stephan's Quintet in Pegasus? It should be within reach with your 12" dob.

[John]

Excellent stuff Dave

If you enjoy galactic browsing Markarian's Chain in Virgo is mind blowing with a 12" under a dark sky - 10+ galaxies in a single field of view

 

[Davesellars]

34 minutes ago, harrym said:

Wonderful report - sounds like you had a very good sky. This sort of report is making me want to buy an OIII filter

Have you tried Stephan's Quintet in Pegasus? It should be within reach with your 12" dob.

Hi Harry!  I have not yet with this 12" - I had one session late last year I attempted I think on its first light and got myself completely Bottom about face as not used to the upside down element of a Newtonian. The nearby NGC 7331 I managed though...   I have just been able to make out with my old 8" SCT before that Stephens Quintet but was unable to resolve in to any individual galaxy as such.  Certainly, I will be re-attempting this on the next clear night.

[Davesellars]

12 minutes ago, John said:

Excellent stuff Dave

If you enjoy galactic browsing Markarian's Chain in Virgo is mind blowing with a 12" under a dark sky - 10+ galaxies in a single field of view

 

Thanks John!  Yes, I really enjoyed Markarians Chain in one of the few sessions earlier this year with the 12" dob.  Many galaxies that night in Virgo!!!    I've got a whole host more to do for the H400.  A good number in Ursa Major / Canis Venatici and of course a plethora of them in Virgo and Coma still...

[John]

I get a bit lost in the "bowl" of Virgo with my 12" dob on a dark night. You keep coming across galaxies, it's difficult to know which is which

[Cjg]

Congrats on a great night, yet to see 7009, was out on Tuesday night, but it got very damp and milky by midnight. M11 is beautiful, a favourite of mine. 

Fingers crossed for the weekend.

Chris

[Paz]

Great report and a good source /reference of information about what to expect for other visual observers.