TV plossl's & the Owl

[mikeDnight]

After everyone on SGL seemed to be experiencing clear skies, the early part of the evening was clouded out for me. Then around 10pm I noticed it was clear from horizon to horizon. I set the scope up on its mount in the observatory, and oggled M42 and M45 for a while before aiming the scope towards M97. There must have been some mist or thin cloud, as the transparency wasn't at its best, but after carefully checking the field M97 revealed itself. Sometimes the Owl nebula can be seen without much of a challenge, but tonight it was a ghostly ball of light with averted vision. I began plotting the stars, which wasn't easy in the dark and the red light rendered the dots invisible. Still after a short while I'd made a rough impression of the 25mm TV plossl field. The Owl though remained indistinct! So to try and get a little more contrast i tried a 15mm and then a 13mm TV plossl. It was the 13mm that began to reveal indications of the varying surface brightness of the nebula, so I quickly sketched the impression given by the eyepiece. Sadly the clouds returned just as I was getting to grips with the detail, and so the observation was cut short. Stars are very roughly placed and the nebula remains only partially observed. Hopefully there will be better nights ahead! 

M97 "The Owl Nebula," 9/2/18, 22.46UT.

100mm F7.4 refractor with prism diagonal.

X30 (25mm TV plossl),  X49 (15mm TV plossl), X57 (13mm TV plossl).

S = 2 to 3 Antoniadi, T = 5 to 4 degrading.

Not all field stars shown!

[Saganite]

I was using my 12" Dob tonight and finished with a  look at M97 and M108 @ 38X ,and your sketch is spot on Mike.It was dimmer than I have seen before.

[jabeoo1]

Your writing & image seem to accompany one another perfectly.  Your contributions to the forum are really of weighty value Mike, especially as your images show a very realistic take on what we should be expecting to seek behind the eyepiece.  The value is in the honesty, showing that the fireworks are distant, but at that distance they are certainly some fireworks. 

[N3ptune]

@mikeDnight Thanks for the report and sketch.

Reading the text gave me pure motivation and the sketch made me think of the object from a previous observation where I saw the owl, it looked about the same thing has in your sketch, very round and dim.  It was one of those memorable observations.

I can't see the owl from home due to light pollution, it's a prestigious dark sky target.

 

[mikeDnight]

8 hours ago, Saganite said:

I was using my 12" Dob tonight and finished with a  look at M97 and M108 @ 38X ,and your sketch is spot on Mike.It was dimmer than I have seen before.

Thanks Steve,

Try as I might, I couldn't see M108 last night, which was likely an indication the night wasn't that transparent. Burnley is situated in a valley surrounded by moorland and the river Calder is just a couple of hundred yards from my home. The atmosphere is usually quite stable and I'm not plagued with excessive street lighting, but even though I can easily see the milkyway from my doorstep, there's nearly always some mist in the air. Great for cotton mills and planets but not so good for fuzzies, especially with a small aperture! 

[alanjgreen]

18 minutes ago, mikeDnight said:

Thanks Steve,

Try as I might, I couldn't see M108 last night, which was likely an indication the night wasn't that transparent. Burnley is situated in a valley surrounded by moorland and the river Calder is just a couple of hundred yards from my home. The atmosphere is usually quite stable and I'm not plagued with excessive street lighting, but even though I can easily see the milkyway from my doorstep, there's nearly always some mist in the air. Great for cotton mills and planets but not so good for fuzzies, especially with a small aperture! 

Yep, same conditions for me too. The owl was ghostly in the 20" unfiltered, just faint hints of the eyes. Not a patch on Tuesday night. Conditions were good at 8pm but only seemed to last an hour or so before dropping off.

[mikeDnight]

1 hour ago, alanjgreen said:

Yep, same conditions for me too. The owl was ghostly in the 20" unfiltered, just faint hints of the eyes. Not a patch on Tuesday night. Conditions were good at 8pm but only seemed to last an hour or so before dropping off.

I can't say I really saw the eyes last night Alan. What I was beginning to see just before the clouds ruined the view, was a brighter edge to the lower side of the nebula in the sketch, which gave the impression of extending upwards towards the centre. Perhaps if I'd have had longer to observe it I may have better defined the detail, but detail remained scanty at best. To get a more realistic impression of what I saw you could look at the sketch using averted vision!

[Stu]

27 minutes ago, mikeDnight said:

I can't say I really saw the eyes last night Alan. What I was beginning to see just before the clouds ruined the view, was a brighter edge to the lower side of the nebula in the sketch, which gave the impression of extending upwards towards the centre. Perhaps if I'd have had longer to observe it I may have better defined the detail, but detail remained scanty at best. To get a more realistic impression of what I saw you could look at the sketch using averted vision!

Your sketch seems to show the eyes though Mike?

[mikeDnight]

13 minutes ago, Stu said:

Your sketch seems to show the eyes though Mike?

Yes they were there, but in the eyepiece it was the shape of the slightly brighter lower part of the nebula that was more apparent. There were hints of the eyes using averted vision, but when concentrating on their exact position, they disappeared. I was just getting to see some detail after changing to the 13mm TV plossl when the clouds rolled in. 

[mariosi]

A fine sketch! Bravo 

Marios

[Ruud]

It is a wonderful sketch. Thank you Mike!

[Saganite]

12 hours ago, mikeDnight said:

Thanks Steve,

Try as I might, I couldn't see M108 last night, which was likely an indication the night wasn't that transparent. Burnley is situated in a valley surrounded by moorland and the river Calder is just a couple of hundred yards from my home. The atmosphere is usually quite stable and I'm not plagued with excessive street lighting, but even though I can easily see the milkyway from my doorstep, there's nearly always some mist in the air. Great for cotton mills and planets but not so good for fuzzies, especially with a small aperture! 

In this part of the country Mike the transparency changed during the evening. I started observing at about 8 pm, and bagged E & F with ease, and was content to study M42 for some while. This was with the Meade UWA 8.8mm, so  X180. I changed to the Bino at 1.4X with 19mm Pans, giving 117X, and still I got E&F with ease. As I said, I closed with M97 and M108 at about 11.30 'ish, and by then the transparency had changed because M97 was quite dim as was M108. From my garden with the LVW 42mm, I have got M81, M82, and NGC 3077, all in the same FOV before, but this time just a dimmer M81 was all I could pick out. During the evening Nick ( Cotterless) posted his observations which I switched to and after a quick split of Castor, I found NGC 2281 and spent some time there.

The sketch you did of M97 is quite superb Mike.

[Wiu-Wiu]

This sketch is SPOT ON! 

I've visited M97 a couple of times the last month, and this sketch couldn't be closer to what you can actually see. 

 

Congrats!