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Italy - night one

Piero

By Piero
in Observing - Reports

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Piero

Piero

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Just returned inside after nearly three hours out with my dob! :) The transparency was rather poor so, I preferred to spend more time on a small selection of classic and easy targets. 

Seeing: very good
Transparency: poor (high humidity, 23C) 


Saturn. Stunning, particularly with Docter+Zeiss barlow 2x. The Cassini division was a razor line. The planet surface showed coloured "stripes" (2-3 could be distinguished easily). A small shadow of the planet on the rings was noticeable. This covered the rings only partially. 5 moons, Titan, Rhea, Tethys, Dione, Enceladus, were detectable. The last four formed a trapezium around Saturn. The all view was very impressive.

M15: A large amount of stars started being resolved at 192x (docter + Zeiss Barlow 2x). This were visible with direct vision. The core was rather packed and could not be resolved completely. I hope to see this target again under a more transparent sky one of these days. 

M2: as for M15. 

M31: Just the core was visible. M32 was noticeable too. The target was still fairly low, so I could not expect much from it.

M34: Lovely open cluster. Faint stars in the centre of the cluster were visible at very low power. 

Neptune: Disc above 200x. Blue/Grey colour. No Triton.

 

 

While observing M15, M31, and M34, I spent some time comparing two heavy weight: Pan35 and ES30.

- Weight: Pan35 is lighter and a bit more manageable (726g vs 1032g).

- Background sky: Pan35 showed a bit brighter sky but not too much actually (e.p. 5.9mm vs 5.1mm on this F5.9 scope).

- FOV: Pan35 shows about 10% less of sky. This is noticeable at the very edge. Said this, I've never felt the need for that extra area at the edge while observing with the ES30. To my eye the useable fov was essentially the same. For people who like to observe at the edge, the extra 10% can make a difference of course.

- Stars: I didn't notice substantial differences in colours between the two eyepieces, although this might be due to light pollution. Stars were a bit smaller in the Pan 35 near the edge.

- Eye relief: The recessed lenses in the ES30 makes it more comfortable somehow. The eye relief in the Pan 35mm is too long and can be an issue when external lights are present (=>reflections). The 35Pan requires an eyeguard extension when no spectacles are used in my opinion.

In conclusion, I think these eyepieces are very valid alternatives to the more expensive Nagler 31mm at F5.9. My impression is that these two eyepieces perform similarly and deciding "which is the best" is more down to one's preference. Essentially: (82deg, 1kg) vs (68deg, 700g).  

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Piero

Piero

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7 hours ago, Pondus said:

Brilliant report. Your Saturn views really sounds amazing.

How high was Saturn above Your horizon when observing, 23-24° ?

Thank you! :)  At 9pm it was at about 21 degrees above the horizon according to Stellarium. 

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Special K

Special K

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That’s great, Piero!  I felt inspired upon reading your views of Saturn and keen to get some glass on it from my south facing balcony!  You did well to discern color differences on the planet and Cassini sounds great.  Funny, I’ve done little observing for a year, but had a decent session the other night where I also took in M34.  This is a nice tidy cluster which looked like an H shape made of pairs of stars.  Nice one!  

Thanks for the writeup on those eyepieces.  They are both ones I strongly considered for a big whacking widefield and they are both fine EP’s.  I think I came closer to getting the ES30, but a second-hand Nagler31 came along at a fair price.  Out of curiosity, do you see any background Milky Way with either EP in areas like the Double Cluster?  I've picked up a carpet of granularity in the background when using my Nag31 too many times to think it is my imagination.  I strongly agree with your final statement about preference and feel that the Nag31 just fits my eyes.  It’s like putting on a pair of new glasses when I look through it and I’m astounded every time by how much sharper everything is compared to anything else in my box.  I’ve yet to find a high power EP that feels as comfortable.  

Enjoy those views from Italy while you’re there.  I was in Sorrento earlier part of this month and it was quite clear every night.   Looking forward to more reports!

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Piero

Piero

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3 hours ago, Special K said:

That’s great, Piero!  I felt inspired upon reading your views of Saturn and keen to get some glass on it from my south facing balcony!  You did well to discern color differences on the planet and Cassini sounds great.  Funny, I’ve done little observing for a year, but had a decent session the other night where I also took in M34.  This is a nice tidy cluster which looked like an H shape made of pairs of stars.  Nice one!  

Thanks for the writeup on those eyepieces.  They are both ones I strongly considered for a big whacking widefield and they are both fine EP’s.  I think I came closer to getting the ES30, but a second-hand Nagler31 came along at a fair price.  Out of curiosity, do you see any background Milky Way with either EP in areas like the Double Cluster?  I've picked up a carpet of granularity in the background when using my Nag31 too many times to think it is my imagination.  I strongly agree with your final statement about preference and feel that the Nag31 just fits my eyes.  It’s like putting on a pair of new glasses when I look through it and I’m astounded every time by how much sharper everything is compared to anything else in my box.  I’ve yet to find a high power EP that feels as comfortable.  

Enjoy those views from Italy while you’re there.  I was in Sorrento earlier part of this month and it was quite clear every night.   Looking forward to more reports!

Thank you, Kevin :) 

The colours on Saturn are intriguing. If they sky remains clear, I will observe them again. When the seeing fully stabilises I can see subtle multiple lines on the planet between the equatorial and the temperate region. I also want to look for shades and subtle lines on the rings in these days. You are right about M34, very very interesting. NGC752 is also nice in the area. Well worth having a look. 

Well done with the N31. It doesn't come up in the s/h market frequently. Unfortunately the Milky Way is not visible from here so I cannot test what you asked me. I do see that `granularity in the background` with the Docter on my TV60 from Cambridge. A multitude of faint stars (I think mag 10-11) in the core of both the clusters are also visible with that combo. Lovely view! :) Glad to read that you see this with your N31. Do you already have in mind which pair of new eyepieces to get? :) 

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Piero

Piero

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28 minutes ago, David Levi said:

Fantastic report. Did you look for moon Iapetus around Saturn? I find it easier to see than Enceladus which is difficult to pick out of the glare of the planet.

Thank you, David! :) 

Good point about Iapetus. I'm sure I saw it a few times but never checked whether it was actually Iapetus or a nearby star. I was lucky with Enceladus because it was sufficiently away from the planet and the seeing reasonably steady. It is a threshold target with this dob under the sky over here. I attempted to spot it the following day but no success.

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Piero

Piero

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11 hours ago, jetstream said:

Great report Piero!

Its now time to start looking for the "black" tip past Cassini .....

 

saturn-14-728.jpg

Super! Thanks Gerry! 

Can you see all those features on the rings with your telescopes when the seeing is excellent? 

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jetstream

jetstream

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22 minutes ago, Piero said:

Super! Thanks Gerry! 

Can you see all those features on the rings with your telescopes when the seeing is excellent? 

Your welcome Piero, and yes I can see those ring features. The ring colors in the borrowed image (except black) are not how my eyes see them. You will see a little black "tip" ring (not Cassini) when seeing is VG and the planet is obviously much sharper than the image. This image does show the shading preceding Enke that can be easily seen which I always look for.

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