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Imager turned observer at Winterfest Star Party - Night One Observing report - 18" f4 Dobson

Tim

By Tim
in Observing - Reports

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Tim

Tim

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Posted

Just arrived home after four nights at Kelling Heath holiday park for the Winterfest star party. Three out of four nights were clear for the major part of the night. I set up my 18" Dobson on an equatorial platform for the first time. Having been an imager and relying on GOTO for so long, I have resolved to star hop to every target in the dob, using my Interstallarum Deep Sky Atlas and Sky Safari Plus as guides to the DSO positions. On night one, discussed here, I went for the more obvious targets, over a 9 hour or so period.

This is my first observing report btw, so go easy on me :)

Starting the night on targets that would soon be lost to the winter, the Witches Broom, NGC 6960 filled the view in my 31mm Nagler. Observing at first without a filter the nebula was a nice medium grey. Just above it, Pickering's Triangle showed lovely filamentary detail, and framing the top of the Veil complex NGC 6992 with thicker nebulosity was the brightest object. The Veil nebula is a personal favourite target, and after observing as much as possible without a filter, I did it all again using a Baader Oiii 10nm visual filter. Wandering around the filaments with the 31mm EP was a great start to the evening.

Noticing that Hercules was sinking behind the trees we use for a windbreak on our favourite pitch, I quickly moved down to M13. The view was disappointing in the 21mm Ethos, and worse in the 13mm, a milky appearance with no real colour in the red stars, and even the propeller being indistinct. I put this down to low thin cloud and aimed almost straight up at the double cluster. Here the 31mm EP really earns its keep, both clusters in full view, and after settling the eye for a moment the icing on the cake red stars really took on some colour, what a visual treat the DC really is, and frankly I have never seen a photograph of it that does justice to the view at the eyepiece.

Before Cygnus set behind our windbreak I hunted down the Crescent nebula, NGC 6888. In the 21mm EP there was no obvious sign of the nebula without a filter, but what you do get is a lovely red star at the head of a tight triangle just to the side of the nebula itself. Adding the Oiii filter brought the Crescent to life, it's familiar brain shape standing out well.

The 31mm Nagler offers my eyes just about the widest field of view that maintains a sensible exit pupil, 6.8mm in this case. The Andromeda galaxy, M31 is a natural choice of target for it, and M32 and M110 were all visible together, and two good bands of dark dust lanes in M31 itself showed good detail.

Dropping down on to M33 it was great to see enough structure to discern a proper spiral shape, and it is always nice to see the bright HII clumps, the outer ones revealing the true extent of the spiral arms.

While in this region I visited Mirach, as usual, and checked that it's "ghost" was still there. In the 21mm the star is a stunning pale golden yellow, and the galaxy was bright and large in the EP.

A couple of nudges to the left and NGC 891, the Silver Sliver galaxy came into view. This one improves the longer you observe it, and the central dust lane gave the impression of a notchy edge, especially in the 13mm Ethos.

Heading to Cassiopeia, I used the Oiii filter and 21mm EP to locate NGC 281, the Pacman nebula, another personal favourite due to the amount of time I have spent imaging it. The dark and mysterious dust lane showed lots of wispy detail and the bright edges of the nebula stood out quite well. The Baader Oiii filter is a bit dark really, but it does still really make a difference to the view of these emission objects.

Still in Cass. I returned to the 31mm EP for a contextual view of Caroline's Rose, NGC 7789. Well framed in the EP, the roselike shape was easily observed, and the unusual dark patchy bits that seem to separate the stars were nice and contrasty. Like the double cluster, a simple object really, but very pretty and a "must see" when the sky allows.

Time for a change of tack, I used the 31mm EP to locate M74 in Pisces, and then switched to the 13mm for better contrast. The view was awful, and it took me a while to realise that I had left the 1.25" cap on! (The eyepiece has a 2" fitting with a 1.25" barrel inside.)  With it removed the view was ok, a grey circular smudge, no real detail, but the sky was a bit bright in this region.

Moving on, two planets presented themselves, Uranus, an easy find, and the hint, possibly involving averted imagination, of an accompanying moon when viewed through my 10mm Delos. After Uranus, I tried to locate Neptune. This proved quite a challenge until it dawned on me that it was close to a brightish star. I'd like to say the planet was blue in appearance, but if anything it was very very slightly tinged, but nothing obvious.

On my actual observing list was B33, the Horsehead nebula. I have seen it from Kelling, in a 16" Dob with Hb filter, and was hopeful that my cheapy Skywatcher UHC filter might just help me pull it out. Spent ages looking at its exact spot through the 21mm, and it simply wasn't visible, not a hint. The Flame nebula was nice and contrasty, but nothing of the Horsehead at all. This was most disappointing, but look out for the observing report from nights two and three for an update!

To cheer myself up  I dropped down onto M42 and M43, where the 18" of aperture just throws thick bright nebulosity at you from all angles, a subtle greenish blue in colour. The trapezium, including E & F, surrounded by knotty nebulosity was a real visual treat, and I spent a long time taking it all in, including NGC 1977 and 1975.

Dragging the scope away I settled it on M1, the Crab nebula. Although large and bright, I couldn't make out any particular features or shape, except perhaps the hint of a curled filament at one end. Adding the Oiii filter brought to life the brightest filament, and gave the whole nebula a bit more definition.

Wondering what another favourite photographic target might look like, I tracked down NGC 2244, the centre of the Rosette nebula, using my 31mm EP and Oiii filter. Pivotal moment!! What a revelation, there was so much detail in the nebula, knot upon knot, dark patch and curling wisps, just fantastic. I have never observed this visually before, despite having photographed it for probably hundreds of hours over the last ten years. Will definitely be spending a lot more time on it in future, and in fact, more details came on night two and three, report to follow.

After the Rosette, everything else seemed a little mundane, but it was pleasing to add NGC 2392 the Eskimo nebula to the list, along with NGC 2022 in Orion, and the tricky little devil that is M78.

At this point, I was joined by a very experienced observer, who revealed the surprising little PN with the lacklustre name Abell 12. Although there is the tiniest hint of this at high power, you need an Oiii filter to reveal the surprise. We also viewed Abell 21, the Medusa nebula, again in the Oiii filter.

Stretching my legs and stomping a bit to keep my feet warm as the temperatures dropped below freezing we made our way to Andrew's 18" f4.5 dob, which is a pleasure to use and silky smooth in operation. Here we observed NGC 1514 the Crystal ball nebula, again in an Oiii filter, this time a Lumicon. Although it was low, NGC 2359, Thor's helmet showed lots of structure, and the helmet horns were easily visible. While the Oiii filter was in place we moved higher in the sky to view a couple of animals, namely, the Monkey head NGC 2175, and IC 443 in Gemini, the Jellyfish nebula. The monkey's head showed good shape, very distinct, and familiar from having imaged it in the past. However the Jellyfish nebula was only really visible as unrelated wisps, probably need to come back to it with a wider view.

Mentioning my issues with the Horsehead nebula and Skywatcher UHC, we had a look through Andrew's dob using a Lumicon UHC. DAAA DAAAAHH! There it was, the filter helping to pick out the curtain wall of nebulosity, and the dark notch of the Horsehead standing out against it. (Note to self: Get a Lumicon UHC! (See night 2 report))

Returning to my own scope, and tiring a little as it was past 4am and -2°C I went for a few standards to round off the night. Starting with M51, the aperture revealing the whirlpool shape really well. Checked the area around Regulus to try and find some of the nearby galaxies, but the combination of fatigue and average skies didn't allow me to find any, so back into Ursa Major for M108, M97, both a treat in the 13mm Ethos.

After this, open cluster M41, invisible to me from home with its low position below Sirius, and then up to M35 which was a cracking view, and even the stars in NGC 2158 being cleanly resolved.

Happy with this as a final view of the night, I dropped the dob down to Leo for a last-ditch look at a rich galaxy area, you know, just in case. Lo and behold, there was a large, bright, round smudge, right there, central in the eyepiece, quite by chance. I noted it's position and resolved to identify it in the morning. It turned out to be Comet 62P Tsuchinshan, had I known I would have spent longer on it, oh well.

Through the night we were treated to a good show of meteors, including several bright Leonids with long tails and smoke trails. All in all, a busy, packed, and most rewarding session, in fact a truly memorable night, which is great, as it was my first real attempt at a visual only all-nighter, I am usually distracted by having an imaging setup working alongside.

Thanks for reading

Tim

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Stu

Stu

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1 hour ago, Tim said:

PS, just to be clear, I'm STILL imaging!! :) 

Just think of all that observing time you are wasting Tim ;):)

Fab report of a wonderful session. Looking forward to the next instalments, horsey and all :) 

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