Night out with APM ED150 - bonus meteors too

[jam1e1]

hi

Rare clear night so took the opportunity to view some doubles / clusters / DSOs. Used AZEQ6 with Skysafari 6 so could work through a number of targets given rare clear nights!

Started with orion nebula, nice view with fair amount of nebula showing. Next moved onto W Ori - a deep red star in Orion - nice deep red star and good contrast against nearby 'white' stars. 

Moved to M78, could make out barely with direct and and ok with averted - its not primarily a deep sky scope although showed appreciable detail. Moved to Sigma Orions - fantastic sharp view that really shows off the APM capability - sharp views and whilst a 5 star system showed off 4 well. The frac certainly has a nice sharp feel about it that has an edge over newt, when viewing doubles and clusters. Can best describe view as white 'electric' pinpoints against dark background. 

Moved onto NGC 2244, nice cluster around Rosette region, although no way could make out rosette give location/aperture, was a nice view of cluster. 

Moved onto Castor, nice double which is easily separated in 17mm or 12mm, noticeable slight yellow vs white star, best view in a while and seeing was relatively steady - even sirius was barely flickering!

Bode's Neb came out really well, both the edge on and other spiral, easily made out in direct and better with averted.

M35 in Gemini came out well, spent a while on the cluster appreciating different colours, also noticed the smaller open cluster 2158 than didn't realise until read about it  Nice contrasts of some pale yellows / whites and slight reds in a few. 

Moved to pieliades with 34mm - amazing as ever, pale whites and blueish stars with pinpoint stars - certainly one of the most stunning views for wide field with this scope, moved over to beehive which again showed similar quality.

Moved to double Gamma Leonis - wow- nice yellow/orange double and a real stunning view, again one of my favorite doubles - sharp, colorful and easily separated

Moved back to Meissa in orion - again really nice cluster/double with blues and whites and pin points.

Lastly moved to uranus - nice pale grey/blue dot in 17mm, tried with 2.5 teleextender and 12mm, though whilst improved image scale lost clarity and sharpness (1200mm focal length) didnt really add much - magnification isnt always best  preferred the 12mm / 17mm view. Used to own a skymax 180mm and reminded me of view, it won on image scale but clarity lost with effective magnification in my opinion.

Whilst in between observing happen to look up and saw two meteors out of luck! When am out usually set off the all sky camera, hence got captures

First was at 1048pm, looked like a dotted line in powerpoint as fell to earth, a nice white dotted streak and mini burst at end near gemini region. Given the Oculus lens compresses it was about fist width from thumb to little finger at arms length over 0.5sec ish.

Next was an amazing white streak around 11.11pm - around forearm length extended with little burst at end, near plane trail.

happened to leave imaging but missed the final but best one, ended observing around 1130pm although this one was at 1.05am - amazing capture

Great session over couple of hours from back garden. thanks for reading !

Jamie

[JeremyS]

Great report and pics Jamie

[John]

Excellent report on viewing with the big refractor Jamie

Nice photos as well !

[Charic]

1 hour ago, jam1e1 said:

Rare clear night so took the opportunity to view some doubles / clusters / DSOs. Used AZEQ6 with Skysafari 6 so could work through a number of targets given rare clear nights!

 thanks for reading !

Jamie

Ah-ha! someone else with a limited view of their skyline, not too dissimilar from my own garden. At least I'm not the only one!

[Stu]

Great read Jamie, sounds like a cracking scope! Sigma Orionis is a lovely sight isn't it, love getting the fourth star clearly.

[jam1e1]

thanks all for comments

@Stu yes went through a period of not using scope for a while as under a pile of other astro boxes, though didn't disappoint! The doubles / triples / quads etc around Orion are amazing, the Sigma Orionis is one of my favorites, like to hunt around for 'resolvable' doubles , triples and above, really look stunning through a refractor. Whilst the Newt is great (12" OO), in my opinion the frac beats for sharpness just and really gives a great overall view across the FoV

[RobertI]

Lovely report Jamie, observing with a150mm frac sounds like heaven. Nice meteor captures too. 

[Simoncwr]

Great to read, have one of these on the way so now even more excited to first light it

Simon

[jam1e1]

thanks Robert - its a great view, when seeing is good! When first got it, seeing was not great and first couple of sessions were ok but not amazing, having had a number of sessions with good seeing/visibility it has really delivered great views. 

@simoncwr which focuser did you get? the feathertouch is a suberb addition as well as rotating focuser, you shouldn't be disappointed  will look out for a post in future!

[Simoncwr]

Jamie

I have ordered the 2.5 as it can be upgraded later and it has been bought as a visual scope. Hopefully I will have it by next weekend so fingers crossed for an hour without clouds and rain lol

Simon