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The session that almost wasn't


Littleguy80

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My wife had plans for the early evening last night so I was eagerly awaiting her return to I could head out to the dark site at Seething Observatory. It had been cloudy in Norwich until about 9:15pm and this was making me nervous. When my wife returned, I text fellow SGL member Chris, @Cjg, to see how things we're looking. Total cloud out and everyone packing up to go home was the response. I put the scope out in the garden to cool and considered my options. I'd had a recommendation of a village green about 10 miles away where others had had some success. Determined to get out, I loaded up the car. Just as I was finishing putting my gear into the car, I got another message from Chris. The skies had cleared at Seething so he was setting up! So off to Seething I went. Arriving around 11pm, I quickly got set up and had a brief chat with another observer with an 8" SkyWatcher dob. I've never seen one in the flesh and was surprised by the size. I thought it was the 10" version!

My first target of the night was M81/M82. Under dark skies, M81 is particularly impressive. It seemed much larger than when viewed from home. Both galaxies really popped out against the dark background. They proved to be the perfect warm up for M33. I've been regularly visiting M33 over recent sessions to build familiarity with it and the surrounding star field. More than anything, I wanted to see the nebula NGC 604 which sits within the pinwheel galaxy. I was instantly wowed by the view of the galaxy. It presented as the normal grey fuzzy but much brighter and giving a real sense of it's structure. It was like looking at blurred picture of the galaxy. Recognisable as the galaxy from images but without the colour and detail. With averted vision, I slowly picked out the edges of the spiral arms where I could. The Astronomik UHC filter was added and the nebula hunt began. It didn't take long to identify what I believed to be NGC 604. Once I saw it with the filter, I found I could pick it out without the filter. This has been one of my long term observing goals so I was thrilled to have finally seen it. After this, I went looking for the Fireworks galaxy. I believe I found it but it was very faint so I quickly moved on. 

M1, the Crab nebula, has so much more shape when viewed under dark skies. Easily seen with direct vision. I've never been able to see this from home. I took a break to catch up with Chris and some other Norwich Astro Society members. It was really nice to talk about what everyone was viewing or imaging. I had a look through a couple of refractors which was neat. Kemble's cascade was a highlight of the objects seen through the fracs. Chris made several great suggestions for targets that I could see. I finished up my cuppa and headed back to my scope.

I returned to the Eskimo nebula which I saw from home the night before for the first time. The star shone through brightly, with the UHC filter helping to reveal patch of nebulosity that it sat within. The dark skies helped this target much more than I was expecting with the clarity of the star within the nebula being significantly improved. Orion had been catching my eye all night and so I moved onto M42. I used my 12mm BST and Astronomik UHC. I'll never tire of this target. Seeing a nebula so bright and clear in the eyepiece is a real treat. I dedicated some time to the Trapezium at 180x with my 5mm BGO but couldn't pick out the E and F stars. This is rapidly becoming my next big challenge.

My next two target were suggestions from Chris which he'd shown me in his frac. I wanted to see them in my own scope so I could officially class them as seen. M78 was a nice reflection nebula with two bright stars shining within it. I tried the UHC filter but ultimately preferred the unfiltered view. The globular cluster, M79, was quite low in the sky making it a bit of a challenge to get onto. A fairly small globular cluster and a welcome addition to the night's viewing. The chap I spoke to when I arrived mentioned seeing nebulosity in M45 so I decided to go hunting for it myself. The contrast within the cluster was amazing. The stars looking so bright against the black background. With the stars shining so brightly it was difficult to tell if I was really seeing nebulosity. I don't believe I was but looked great anyway. 

Despite wearing my new thermal socks, my feet were feeling pretty cold at this point so I decided to go for one more target. The Rosetta nebula has a bright open cluster, NGC 2244, within it and that's what immediately held my attention on finding this target. Adding the Astronomik OIII and I could see a large patch of faint nebulosity to the left of the cluster as I looked at it. It's a very different experience to M42 but with more time being required to properly discern the nebulosity. I'm looking forward to returning to this target. Cold feet had become my Kryptonite so I packed up.

Just as I was starting to walk back to the car, Chris arrived. He quickly reeled off a number of great targets that were now up. His description of M46 got the better of me and I put the Telrard back on and got the ES68 24mm back out of the eyepiece case. 5 minutes later, I had the dense open cluster in the eyepiece. With averted vision, I was able to identify the planetary nebula, NGC 2438, within the cluster. M46 reminded me of M37 as it's such a dense cluster with stars of a similar brightness. Happy with my bonus viewing, I headed home. Over the course of the evening I saw lots of small meteors. Nice showing from the Leonids and Taurids.  

I got home at 3:15 AM and very much enjoyed the feeling of a great night's viewing and slightly warmer feet! Big thank you to @Cjg!

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Excellent and enjoyable report Neil, you convey clearly how potentially impressive, deep sky objects can be when observed from a dark site. Keep with the Rosette, its immense and dynamic, when it climbs higher the contrast will increase.    

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Great report! :)

The Rosette nebula can be a bit challenging. Once it is on the field of view, I let my eye to fully dark adapt on the eyepiece. Alternating direct and adverted vision can help to assimilate more information of how this target is structured, I feel. A low power + OIII filter can do the trick assuming that the sky is sufficiently dark. Well done! 

About the cold, I use snow (ski) trousers on top of normal trousers, two jumpers + jacket, two pairs on socks (one is made of wool), and hard trekking boots. The last are not ideal but they still do the job for 2-3h. My favourite are proper snow boots like these:

 manbi-1.png  .

I use them in Italy, and never had any issue with cold feet, even on the mountains up to -10C, -15C. 

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Great report, sounds like you really enjoyed it.

As it goes, although clear around the corner here at Kelling heath, the sky was pretty claggy, which was blocking out anything really faint, but your selection of targets was wise and could still be appreciated. The rosette is a particular favourite, especially with an oiii filter, hopefully get a chance to try a new to me UHC on it later.

Tim

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1 minute ago, cloudsweeper said:

Fabulous, Neil!

It's about 30+ miles to a decent dark for site me, but I'm going to have to make the effort soon.

Doug.

Well worth the effort, Doug. All the months observing from my garden have certainly helped me appreciate the difference dark skies makes :)

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1 hour ago, Piero said:

Great report! :)

The Rosette nebula can be a bit challenging. Once it is on the field of view, I let my eye to fully dark adapt on the eyepiece. Alternating direct and adverted vision can help to assimilate more information of how this target is structured, I feel. A low power + OIII filter can do the trick assuming that the sky is sufficiently dark. Well done! 

About the cold, I use snow (ski) trousers on top of normal trousers, two jumpers + jacket, two pairs on socks (one is made of wool), and hard trekking boots. The last are not ideal but they still do the job for 2-3h. My favourite are proper snow boots like these:

 manbi-1.png  .

I use them in Italy, and never had any issue with cold feet, even on the mountains up to -10C, -15C. 

Thanks Piero. I definitely need to invest in some decent winter boots :) 

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Hey Neil, great report; so pleased (and relieved) that the journey out to see us was worthwhile. The "far end" of Seething is one of my favourite places in all of Norfolk!

Congrats on getting NGC 604, that's a tougher one, even with dark skies.

Most of us "only" lasted until around midnight last night; but I saw Hubble's Variable Nebula in Paul's 12 inch dob....that's well worth tracking down, and NGC 891 in Andromeda; both too faint for my 3 inch frac, 3 nights running, am trashed today!

Fingers crossed for the weather next weekend. 

Chris

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Great read!  Thanks for sharing!

I was just observing the trapezium a few nights ago, for for my first time was able to make out the "e" star.  I just love looking around in Orion, it's a real treat.

It's funny how some nebulas do seem to look a little better unfiltered.  I have only had my nebula filter for a few weeks now, but when I first got it I anticipated that the view of every nebula would be greatly improved.  It quickly became apparent that it helped some more than others, and I too have experienced several that I prefer the unfiltered view.

It sounds like you've been out for some great times lately.  Good on ya!!  Keep it up!

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