I saw the horsehead by accident!

[GavStar]

The clouds cleared nicely in SW London at around 10pm this evening which gave me the first opportunity to use my tec160 with my just arrived tnvc televue night vision adapter and my pvs-14 night vision monocular.

I started with M42, no nv. Very pleasing views with extended nebulosity at 50x. Then I went to 140x and saw E and F clear as day on the trapezium. Best views I’ve ever had of this object. Given the LP, the skies looked pretty good.

So in went the 55mm plossl and NV monocular. First up was M42. This showed significant defined structure and clear tendrils of nebula. M43 was very clear as well.

So I thought I’d push it and try the flame nebula which I’ve never seen before. It was visible very clearly with nicely defined lanes within it. 

But then I noticed something below it in the fov. I was rather surprised when I realised that this was the horsehead and I wasn’t even looking for it. Extremely obvious with great definition against the wall of the nebula. I took my time viewing this since with all the recent discussions about it, i was chuffed to be able to see it so easily from skies close to London. The views of the flame nebula, alnitak, and horsehead all very clear together in the fov was very nice indeed. I had a big smile on my face...

For the rest of the session it was basically NV only. I covered several objects I haven’t seen before such as the heart and soul nebula, California nebula (very clear), Leo triplet galaxies, rosette nebula (nice structure and dark hole hole in the centre enabled the rest of the nebula to frame it well. Other favourite objects just looked so different to how I had viewed them before eg double cluster, pac man nebula, caroline’s Rose, m37 etc.

So in summary, I like the tec 160 and the NV monoculars a lot! A very enjoyable evening - probably the best I’ve ever had and not at a dark site either. 

PS sorry PeterW that I couldn’t come out earlier. I look forward to catching up soon to discuss NV more and hopefully observe!

[Dave In Vermont]

Perhaps that's the best example of using 'averted' seeing in it's purest sense - finding something that you're not even looking for! And has to be the most amazing "I saw the Horsehead-Nebula" story I've ever heard! Maybe of all time, if someone actually keeps keeps records of this. Not to mention that whole region - including the 'Flame.'

Wow!

The poor rest of us mere mortals will have to wallow in our misery. Here's some shallow solace to gargle on.....

 

 

Dave

[andy fearn]

Sound's like you had an amazing time.I'm trying to get image's of that area but not much joy.What am i doing wrong. ???

I have an 8" sct ,nikon d3100, corrector/reducer len's, remote cable for camera.

Will i need a filter to get better data.I try different ISO and either get too orange with some image of nebula or too black and just star's ???

Any help please.(plain english please as a newbie to this )

Thanks in advance.

[carastro]

Quote

I have an 8" sct ,nikon d3100, corrector/reducer len's, remote cable for camera.

Will i need a filter to get better data.I try different ISO and either get too orange with some image of nebula or too black and just star's ???

This is a fairly bright Nebula and should easily show up when imaging in long exposure.  I am not sure how well it will show up on an unmodded camera, but I would have thought it should show up OK.  Are you stacking your images together and processing the result?  If you're only looking at one unprocessed image it might not show up so well.  Also you should be doing something like 5min exposures, are you guiding?

Carole 

[Alan White]

Quite a fortunate accident to have Gav.

[xtreemchaos]

great catch view, I seen it in the vis many years ago with a 10inch newt, never viewed it with any of my fracs yet but that's not for the lack of trying, think I need a bigger frac, my largest at the mo is 5inch. ive caught it with a unmodded cam, it takes 1 min expos iso 800 and plenty of them, its the same with a modded one you just pick up more of the red HA background. charl.

[Chris]

What a spectacular experience! Do you think it's worth doing pure visual of DSO's again after using your new toy?

[PeterW]

Grrrrr. Paul and I went along for a bit around 9pm and when the skies had totally  closed in (despite Sat24 promising clarity) we went home for tea and bed... sounds like we should have kept out a bit longer?! Always the case!

Got a long list of objects to get your teeth into, but good that you’ve made friends with some of the main characters.

 

peter

[Stu]

Awesome Gavin! Love the thread title

Horsey from London, who'd a thunk it?

What an amazing combination, 160mm fluorite triplet focal reduced to f3.6 (?) with NV gear! Should do some real damage at a dark site!

[GavStar]

1 hour ago, Lockie said:

What a spectacular experience! Do you think it's worth doing pure visual of DSO's again after using your new toy?

Very good question. I’m not sure. The fov of the NV monoculars are only 40 degrees but with the 55mm plossl I get over 2 degrees at 20x which gives a surprisingly pleasant open view. It’s doesn’t feel like viewing through a straw at all. 

Also the white phosphor (rather than the standard green) gives a very natural view - it doesn’t feel artificial at all. Planning around is also extemely smooth. The star shapes at the edge are not nearly as well corrected as the pure visual view but I can certainly live with it. M42 showed amazing detail last night unlike anything I have ever seen before. 

I didn’t do a real comparison of natural versus NV last night - I think that’s something I will do next time. However m42 was certainly significantly more stunning with NV last night. 

90% of my observing was with NV last night - it was just so good. But I guess there was the novelty factor. I did discuss with a friend whether it would result in me selling a lot of my dso eyepieces - time will tell. 

For double stars, planets, lunar natural is obviously the way to go, but for everything else maybe it’s NV. 

One point I would add is that NV works better on some types of dsos than others. Eg h beta targets were excellent but reflection nebulas not so much. Galaxies were better but maybe not quantum leap. H alpha for nebula and long pass filters for clusters and galaxies were essential.

Lots more experimenting required and lots more to learn ?

[GavStar]

27 minutes ago, Stu said:

Awesome Gavin! Love the thread title

Horsey from London, who'd a thunk it?

What an amazing combination, 160mm fluorite triplet focal reduced to f3.6 (?) with NV gear! Should do some real damage at a dark site!

Stu, The aspect that really surprised me was that the horsey stood out so much - really clear and obvious with great detail and contrast against the wall of the nebula.

[steppenwolf]

Exciting report, Gav and what a pleasant surprise fr you! Can you give some more details on the NV unit that you were using, please?

[PeterW]

Good transparency too... If it was “easy” then you might consider a narrower filter to up the contrast.

PEterW

[andy fearn]

2 hours ago, carastro said:

This is a fairly bright Nebula and should easily show up when imaging in long exposure.  I am not sure how well it will show up on an unmodded camera, but I would have thought it should show up OK.  Are you stacking your images together and processing the result?  If you're only looking at one unprocessed image it might not show up so well.  Also you should be doing something like 5min exposures, are you guiding?

Carole 

Thanks carole. realise stacking is required for better result but still learning that minefeild. AVX mount seemed to track very well,but will have another go when weather permits with guide scope.thank's for reply.

[Highburymark]

Great report Gavin - would love to experience night vision myself to establish whether it would be worth investing. How light polluted are your skies in SW London? I would be doing much of my observing from light-drenched N1. I would also be using a 100mm Tak afocally like you - but perhaps it would be worth considering a cheap 120mm SW/Bresser F5 achromat for NV? Anyway - fascinating to read your early experiences with these amazing devices. 

 

[GavStar]

39 minutes ago, steppenwolf said:

Exciting report, Gav and what a pleasant surprise fr you! Can you give some more details on the NV unit that you were using, please?

I think this thread gives most of the details of the kit I am using. If there are any other specific details let me know.

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/304710-night-vision-monoculars/

 

[GavStar]

12 minutes ago, Highburymark said:

Great report Gavin - would love to experience night vision myself to establish whether it would be worth investing. How light polluted are your skies in SW London? I would be doing much of my observing from light-drenched N1. I would also be using a 100mm Tak afocally like you - but perhaps it would be worth considering a cheap 120mm SW/Bresser F5 achromat for NV? Anyway - fascinating to read your early experiences with these amazing devices. 

 

The skies were around 19 on the sqm meter last night. So not disasterous but no dark site by any means. 

I think PeterW uses an achromat for NV so he may be able to help here. However I think the key thing is to get as good an NV tube as you can that is suited for astronomy eg low ebi, high sn, generation 3 or photonis intens tube.

Happy to give you a demo sometime in SW London?

[steppenwolf]

Thank you, Gav, very interesting.

[Highburymark]

34 minutes ago, GavStar said:

The skies were around 19 on the sqm meter last night. So not disasterous but no dark site by any means. 

I think PeterW uses an achromat for NV so he may be able to help here. However I think the key thing is to get as good an NV tube as you can that is suited for astronomy eg low ebi, high sn, generation 3 or photonis intens tube.

Happy to give you a demo sometime in SW London?

Thanks Gavin - definitely up for a demo

[GavStar]

NV vs traditional viewing is certainly generating some spirited debate on cloudynights at the moment...

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/600009-anyone-try-nv-and-actually-prefer-traditional-viewing/

[Beulah]

7 minutes ago, GavStar said:

NV vs traditional viewing is certainly generating some spirited debate on cloudynights at the moment...

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/600009-anyone-try-nv-and-actually-prefer-traditional-viewing/

All I can say is that progress is great. If it can, in one fell swoop, enable the urban observer to see more detail in DSOs, bring it on.

Excess and badly designed light pollution is the bane of moden mankind and it's fantastic that people can overcome that. Let's hope prices come down...

A true 'puritan' astronomer would only use their MK1 eyeballs - most of us already use artificial aids in the shape of lenses and coated, parabolic mirrors to bend light repeatedly before reaching our eyes.

If I had the money, I'd love to add NV kit to my small arsenal of astro gear.  

[John]

Great result Gavin. Shows what these devices are capable of

Whatever folks feel about using them, they might be the only way to continue with any sort of deep sky observing from back yards if light pollution levels continue to rise.

It's a shame that the kit is currently pretty expensive and probably beyond many peoples budgets. Perhaps prices will fall if it becomes more widely used ?

 

[MarsG76]

14 hours ago, GavStar said:

I had a big smile on my face

I bet you were.... well, you're very lucky....