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Beating the Dawn (Early morning session from Sat 30th)

alanjgreen

By alanjgreen
in Observing - Reports

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alanjgreen

alanjgreen

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Date: Sat 30th Sept 2017 0315-0545am
Scope: 20" f3.6 Dob, 1814mm focal length (x1.15 with the paracorr2 inserted)

Now that the devils orb has risen to spoil our fun (should the cloud part long enough to have some fun that is!) I spotted a potential early morning session for today.
Knowing that the orb is only going to get even more annoying over the next 10 days I decided to plan for it & set my alarm for 3am...

I woke at 0250 before the alarm! and took a look outside, it was clear to the east only but as the wind was SE decided to get up as I had made the effort to wake up after all :)

I got my warm observing clothes on and checked outside - it was clearing...

So it was off to the shed and get the big scope collimated (Howie Glatter made it so easy to do!) and roll back the shed roof.
- the scope had not had the fans running so I expected to stick to low power for the first period and ramp up later

Now it was completely clear so I set about aligning Nexus with a couple of bright stars at x200 in the eyepiece. Then moved to M33 as a check that Nexus was on the same page as me - it was.

For anyone planning a 3am session, the sky was reasonably dark (not black like at 0130), the milky way was overhead and easy to see but not wide and no sign of the black hydrogen lanes within. And this would be a losing game as the sun was already swinging around underneath inch by inch. It suddenly came light around 0545 fyi.

Onto the targets...

M33 - I had a lingering look in the 21mm, made some notes and also returned later when my eyes were a little wider. It was well placed although a little past it ideal position. There was plenty of gas on offer. So much so that the upper part of the usual "S" shape was lost in the extra gas. The lower "S" was clear and leads to the NGC over near the field star underneath. This was nice and bright. I could pick out a dark patch right of centre and a longer dark streak left of centre. A couple of M33's NGC were easily seen above the galaxy and some more to the left. I tried the 13mm Ethos and the gas was increased but now the eyepiece was overcrowded and it was hard to get comfy and observe anything.

M1 Crab - I have been wanting to get the 20" onto the crab. It has always been a poor target in my other scopes, not a lot to see at the best of times. I swung over (with the 21mm and no filter loaded) and there is was, clear as day - An oval foggy patch. Well that was better than I had managed in the past with no effort at all :)  I played around with the 10mm & 8mm Ethos plus the Astronomik UHC. I concluded that the 8mm had given the best view unfiltered at around x250 magnification. The UHC increased the size of the crab but it was not as easy to see the details within so I noted it as "unfiltered preferred" for next time.

Flaming Star neb - Found it easy with the 21mm and the nebulosity was visible unfiltered. Its was bigger than I remember (at x100) and filled the 100 degree FOV of the 21 Ethos. I cycled through Astronomik UHC, O3 and Hb filters and concluded that the Hb was the best view of the three with more dark areas easily seen. The O3 was pretty poor on this target.

Heart & Soul neb - After my success on the 21st with this target (see earlier posting Night of the Nebulas) I had to pop back for another look. Unfortunately, the lack of darkness compared to the other night was fatal :( I used the O3 and whilst I could trace the outer edges of both. It was just not hitting the spot within the nebula and no sign of those bright blotches from the other night.

Double Cluster - Had to call into the cluster on the way past. It does look fantastic in the 21 Ethos from the big dob. I get >1.5 clusters in the FOV and the stars are so bright that you have to linger and count the little colored dots! What stood out this morning was two lovely red stars present in one of the clusters - never noticed them before. They were more yellow as I remember them from the C11.

Rosette neb - Another first for me and the dob. Wow! This nebula will be fantastic under a darker sky. Again, I could see the nebula straight off unfiltered in the 21E. But when I loaded the O3 it really popped out at me :):) This is another target that was bigger than the FOV and I had to scroll around to see all the edges. With the O3 the nebula was sharp and I could see darker lanes running within it. This was a great view for sure. The nebula was fainter in the UHC so I went back to the O3.

California neb - Similar results to the Heart & Soul. It was quite a challenge in the lightening sky and not a patch on what I saw under a darker sky on the 21st. Oh well!

Comet C/2017 O1 - This comet was easy to find with the 21E as a large fuzzy patch. This is a big (but faint) comet. I tried the 21E, 13E, 10E & 8E on the target and found the 10mm gave the best view at around x200 magnification. The small core was visible in the 10mm but the fuzzy surrounding patch is big and makes it hard to see.

I tried a couple of other comets that were showing in sky safari but failed to find either of them. It was coming light by now.

Just had time to visit the Beehive cluster and the xmas tree cluster as everything started to disappear...


I had to dodge the odd cloud here and there but once again my luck was in and I got a dividend for getting up v. early :)

The feet were cold and the scope was wet (I now have a towel on hand so I can dry it off a bit before I leave the shed with the dehumidifier running...

Decided to stay up and have some coffee & toast (and write a quick report too).

Stay lucky,
Alan

p.s. Just remembered that I also saw three bright meteors during the session. They were roughly in the same area of sky (South) and were pretty bright (I wasn't looking up at the time)

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Stu

Stu

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Well done Alan! Never easy to drag yourself out of a warm bed!

Lovely report of what sounds like an excellent session. Great targets in there, must look amazing in the big dob! If you've got the skies at home and the ability to have it setup permanently then why not! :) 

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Stu

Stu

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25 minutes ago, Littleguy80 said:

Brilliant report, Alan. I was curious as to what other scopes you’ve observed M1 through? I’m yet to see it myself

M1 is another dark sky one I think. It took me years to see, then finally was quite easy even in a small scope. Little or no detail but quite visible. It's quite small so a big scope will let you chuck plenty of mag at it to bring out the detail.

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alanjgreen

alanjgreen

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44 minutes ago, Littleguy80 said:

Brilliant report, Alan. I was curious as to what other scopes you’ve observed M1 through? I’m yet to see it myself

I used to have a C11 & I have seen it with that scope in the past. It was only ever a faint cloudy patch.

Today was a big improvment. Whether darker skies in the coming months will show any more I will have to find out..

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cloudsweeper

cloudsweeper

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2 minutes ago, alanjgreen said:

I used to have a C11 & I have seen it with that scope in the past. It was only ever a faint cloudy patch.

Today was a big improvment. Whether darker skies in the coming months will show any more I will have to find out..

Just out interest Neil and Alan, I checked my log and recorded seeing M1 with my 8SE: "x85 - a faint patch - filters made no difference".

Doug.

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domstar

domstar

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2 hours ago, Littleguy80 said:

Brilliant report, Alan. I was curious as to what other scopes you’ve observed M1 through? I’m yet to see it myself

One of my best stargazing moments was seeing M1 in my 70mm frac from Lidl on my balcony. It's easy to find where it is as it's close to a naked eye star but actually seeing it took over 10 minutes. It's easy now in my 100mm. Just a puff of smoke but actually viewing a supernova remnant from nearly 1000 years ago and recorded at the time is what gives me a thrill despite the lack of detail.

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scarp15

scarp15

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Seeing the potential and taking advantage was completely the right thing to do, a rewarding session. I was also fortunate to be out last night, though with a drive home, had to complete at 2.30. Besides almost uninterrupted clear skies, there was also a welcome light breeze, no condensation issues.

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