Big Dobs! Dark skies! Ethos! And slideshows!

[Ags]

I took a trip into the rugged Gran Canaria foothills with AstroGC tours (https://www.astrogc.com) this evening. We stopped at a viewing point to watch the sunset and then made our way up to about 800m altitude. Three big Dobs including a 16 inch lightbridge were set up quickly and we were soon admiring the Moon in the fading twilight. Luna was 2 days old so it showed many features not visible from my garden and also very strong earthshine. Many of the 19-strong group had never looked through a telescope before and were all duly amazed by the sight. But I don't think they appreciated they were looking at the lunar Terminator with a 8mm Ethos - but I did

Then we had a brief presentation of the chosen targets including M31, Double Cluster, Orion Nebula and M81/M82. A nice feature of the presentation was each target was shown as a Hubble style long exposure, followed by three representations of what you would really see under good, average and bad conditions.

First up was M31 and the lightbridge gave a pretty good view with M32 and M110 easily seen. I did feel however I had seen better definition in M31 with binoculars, once, long ago... Anyway, tonight I couldn't see any dust lane detail but could clearly see the disk extending to the sides of the bright core. Observations were done with a 38mm EP so I'd guess we were using about 10 inches of aperture.

Next up was the Double Cluster and the big dob really delivered. The eyepiece was full of stars, many showing strong color. Was the view more yummy than that offered by my ST80 from Amsterdam recently? The lightbridge obviously gave brighter views, but both instruments gave bright and satisfying views...

The Orion nebula was up next and I knew my little scopes would not compete with the lightbridge, and indeed that was the case. Orion showed expansive nebulosity filling the field of the 38mm EP. The only thing I can say compares is my little ST80 once again and it did give a better view (once, long ago) but I had to fly it to Nepal and then take it high in the Himalayas to get that sharper but much smaller view.

The final sight of the evening was M81/M82, and seeing them together in the eyepiece was very rewarding.

There were some hopeful questions at this point about whether any planets were visible and of course only Uranus was visible. Our guides duly showed us this planet (after a bit of hunting, I felt sorry for them!) and I am pleased to say I have definitely now seen this planet as a disc.

Then we got a final bonus object, M46, which was new to me - a cluster with a planetary nebula superimposed! This was the most amazing sight of the evening for me. I was disappointed later when I googled it and saw it is a southerly object that is not really accessible for me at home.

After that we had an interactive session on meteorites and the evening was sadly over. Very enjoyable, not just for the DSOs and the awesome kit, but also for the chance to talk to many like minded enthusiasts.

[Ags]

Some more pics...

 

[John]

Great report - and lovely photos !

Looks nice and warm there compared to the UK chills and damp. Enjoy the rest of your trip

[Ags]

Ha! We were freezing and numb from the cold! 800m doesn't sound like a lot of altitude, but you can certainly feel it

[MarsG76]

Reads like a awesome night... thanks for the report.

 

[Ags]

It was awesome. Oddly I can now say I've looked through an Ethos but I can't say I've seen an Ethos - it was too dark!

I edited the first post to include the URL of AstroGC: https://www.astrogc.com.

[Astro Imp]

Thanks for sharing what was obviously a brilliant experience.

[niallk]

Sounds class 

Beautiful photo of the sunset too!

[Ags]

Google spontaneously offered me the HDR process of the sunset image... Gotta love AI.

We are going back in July and will take advantage of AstroGC again. According to their site the program would include a couple of globular clusters which of course really benefit from big aperture.