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Variable Success

Littleguy80

By Littleguy80
in Observing - Reports

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Littleguy80

Littleguy80

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It's been a couple of months since my last dark sky trip to the Norwich Astronomical Society site at Seething and I was really excited to be returning. It had been on my mind all day and I ate my tea studying the book "Illustrated Guide to Astronomical Wonders". I arrived onsite around 8pm and was greeted with clear skies and a lovely naked eye view of the milky way. I got the scope set up straight away to let it start cooling whilst I unloaded the rest of my equipment and layered up my clothing. I find the choice of first target on dark sky trips a challenge to pick. My mind is abuzz with targets I want to see but I also need to get my eyes dark adapted and the scope properly cooled. This time I had no such troubles. For Christmas, I'd received a pair of 10x50 binoculars and was really keen to try them out under dark skies.

My binocular tour started with M42, the Hyades and M45. By the time, I reached M31, my eyes were pretty well dark adapted and I was very impressed at the extent of the galaxy. I felt a real appreciation of how much is lost when viewed through my scope. Looking up, I realised that I could see M31 and the double cluster naked eye! I've read plenty of reports of people doing this but I've never been able to do it myself. Dark skies really are worth effort! I next went looking for M33 and was amazed at how bright it was in the bins. From home, M33 takes averted vision and patience to be seen in the scope. This was....easy!! I observed a large open cluster nearby which I think must have been NGC 752. I carried onto the Double Cluster, NGC457, Caroline's Rose (... I think!) and Kemble's Cascade. The clusters continued with M44, M67, Christmas Tree cluster, Hagrid's dragon and finishing on the cluster at the centre of the Rosette nebula.

The Rosette nebula became my first target with the scope. I started unfiltered with the ES68 24mm, observing the cluster and some faint nebulosity. Adding the Astronomik OIII filter transformed the view. The faint nebulosity became a large area of nebulosity. I was able to trace nebulosity all around the the cluster of NGC 2244. This is really large object and definitely something I'd like to get wider views of.

My next target was Hubble's Variable Nebula, NGC 2261. It was a bit of a shot in the dark as I knew it was a tricky target and I really wasn't sure if it was achievable in my 5" reflector. Starting at the Christmas Tree cluster, NGC 2264, I brought the correct area of space into view at 38x magnification. No sign of the nebula. It' a really small target, so I put the 8mm BST eyepiece in (113x) and returned to the Christmas Tree cluster. I moved up to a nearby 8th magnitude star. As I  navigated away from the star, consulting SkySafari to make sure I was on track, a hazy patch caught my eye. I brought into the the centre of the FOV and using averted vision, I was able to recognise the comet shape of the nebula! The best views came at 150x with the 6mm BGO. It really does look like a comet!! Really exciting moment with a great sense of achievement! To celebrate I took a brief chocolate and tea break! 

M50 is neat open cluster. At 75x, in the 12mm BST, there are lots of lines of stars. It reminded my of a bird with it's wings spread. Clusters can be like clouds where your imagination can decide what you see! The night's next big challenge was the Merope nebula within the Pleiades, M45. The ES68 24mm was my tool of choice. I spent my earlier tea and chocolate break studying the nebula in SkySafari. The natural glow of the bright stars makes it difficult to determine if you're seeing nebulosity or just light from the star. My technique was to search the area around Merope using averted vision. What I found was some areas where I could see the bright light of the star became blacker with averted vision. Other areas seemed to maintain this light. After much checking SkySafari and following the regions of light and dark with averted vision, I concluded that I was 80-90% confident that I was seeing the Merope nebula. I'd really like to try it again with more aperture to gain confidence in my sighting but I was still pleased with the result.

The Intergalactic Wanderer, NGC2149, really captured my interest simply because of it's back story. I never imagined that it would prove my most challenging target of the night. I tried and tried and tried to find it. Consulting SkySafari, positioning and repositioning using the Telrad. Sweeping the area at the eyepiece with the scope free hand. I got the shivers from the cold so I decided to go and warm up and regroup. Feeling revived, I returned with a new plan. I targeted Castor and then slowly worked my way to 70 and Omicron Gem. HD60694 and HD60771 were found and confirmed and with averted vision, there it was! I now increased the magnification to 75x and the view became clearer. I must have spent over 45mins trying to find this globular cluster! Again I was filled with a great sense of achievement. 15 minutes earlier I was thinking that GoTo would be nice ;) 

Galaxies are always great at dark sites and I had a few on my list! I enjoyed the Whale galaxy though I couldn't quite make it look like a Whale to my eye. M63, the Sunflower galaxy, was a surprise. Very bright and easy to find. I'm sure I could see this easily from home too. My previous viewing of the Leo triplet revealed only the two brighter Messier's. Tonight, I could easily see all three galaxies. There was that sense of achievement again! At this point, the cloud that had been slowly creeping over now enveloped Leo and the view was gone. I got the bins out and found the famous trio of M36, M37 and M38 as Auriga appeared in a gap in the clouds. 

Ursa Major had also found a hole in the cloud. Carefully studying the area around the handle of the big dipper I found M101! This galaxy eluded me for months through my scope and only revealed itself once I tried from a dark site. I couldn't believe I was seeing it through binoculars! I then had a look at it through the scope too. The only other target of the night was the large open cluster of Mel 111. I spotted it naked eye and investigated it with the bins. It was only when I looked it up on SkySafari when I got home that I realised what it was. 

Another fantastic night at Seething, showing that dark skies can reveal a tremendous amount even with a relatively small aperture scope or even binoculars! Thank you for reading :)

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scarp15

scarp15

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Thoroughly enjoyed that read Neil, a captivating range of targets. Those binoculars are very much complementing observing with your scope. That does look like you got the Merope, it is faint in the glare and fans out quite widely. You may be able to determine this more emphatically another time. Great that you got the Intergalactic Wanderer, quite a difficult one and Hubble's Variable is an intriguing subject to observe. Whetted my appetite for tonight, as I plan on a dark sky trip, though cloud with a threat of snow forecast from the east later, so might be relatively short, taking mittens to as part of my layering system. 

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Littleguy80

Littleguy80

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3 minutes ago, scarp15 said:

Thoroughly enjoyed that read Neil, a captivating range of targets. Those binoculars are very much complementing observing with your scope. That does look like you got the Merope, it is faint in the glare and fans out quite widely. You may be able to determine this more emphatically another time. Great that you got the Intergalactic Wanderer, quite a difficult one and Hubble's Variable is an intriguing subject to observe. Whetted my appetite for tonight, as I plan on a dark sky trip, though cloud with a threat of snow forecast from the east later, so might be relatively short, taking mittens to as part of my layering system. 

Thank you, Iain! It was a really enjoyable session and the binoculars really add something to the experience. Best of luck for tonight. Hope the snow stays away!

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Astro Imp

Astro Imp

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2 hours ago, Littleguy80 said:

 The title is a little misleading :) 

Yes, I was expecting to read you had started variable star observing and would be treated to some light curves.

Great read all the same, you caught some interesting targets. Sounds like Seething is a terrific observing site.

Good luck and keep the reports coming.

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Littleguy80

Littleguy80

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15 minutes ago, Astro Imp said:

Yes, I was expecting to read you had started variable star observing and would be treated to some light curves.

Great read all the same, you caught some interesting targets. Sounds like Seething is a terrific observing site.

Good luck and keep the reports coming.

Thank you, Alan. I’m glad that I had a good few months of observing from home before visiting a dark site. I’m not sure i’d have appreciated how good it is if I’d observed at Seething earlier on. 

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Littleguy80

Littleguy80

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1 hour ago, cotterless45 said:

Brilliant report Neil ! Dark sky does make all difference. I was just amazed to get the spirals and knots of M33 and the dust land / halo of NGC891.

Looking forward to the day when we can share some views ,Old Nick.

Thanks Nick! M33 is amazing. I don’t think I’ve seen NGC 891 but it’s on the list now!

That sounds awesome :) 

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