The 16" collects some more photons! - Belated 27th September report

[Andrew*]

I usually like to type up my observing reports while they're fresh in my mind. The last three sessions I have totally failed to do this. I'm using my observing journal to jog my memory now.

I started off about 9pm to a lovely looking sky, in which the stream of the milky way overhead was obvious.

The Southern horizon was looking very good, so I tried to find something new there in a lazy grope-in-the dark fashion and stumbled across a stunning cluster. More than I'd bargained for, to be honest. It had a kind of double-outlined diamond shape of stars, and was dominated by a orangey yellow star in teh middle. Later this was proved to be The Wild Duck (M11). Well worth a visit.

Total change of scene brought my to the Andromeda Galaxy and friends. I always like to view this as a test for the scope, the skies, and my eyes, and see if I can squeeze out a dark lane. I couldn't, surprise surprise, but for the first time I definitely-certainly-without-a-doubt identified M110 and M32, and Andromeda itself showed itself to be really much larger than you usually realise, revealing elongation that stretched way out of the FOV of my 32mm Wide Field.

Becoming a real favourite of mine, and rightly so, I swung over to the Veil nebula again. I experimented with higher power for the first time and put in my 14mm UWA (130x!) with OIII filter and peeked in. Nebulosity streamed through the 82 FOV. I had a very unique and mysterious experience, like I was tumbling in space. What with the immersive spacewalk feeling of the 82° eyepiece, and that stream of nebulosity flying through the field of view, I almost lost my sense of balance and place. It was most magical, but unfortunately lasted only about 2 seconds, as I was awkwardly plonked down to earth hearing an all-too-familiar voice. My mother.

5 minutes later I got back to the eyepiece and was getting the best view I've yet experienced of The Dumbbell Nebula (M27). Certainly no colour, but I've never seen it so elongated. Take a look at the photo I took. All the nebulosity you see on that photo was just right there. Of course it didn't have all the structure of the photo...

It was about time I ticked that elusive Blue Snowball off the list, so back to Andromeda and sweeping around the territory I've explored all too often to search for this small planetary. YESSS!! Finally it came into the FOV and I could see why it has its name. Blue, small and bright. I noticed nothing more than a slight darkening towards the centre, but it was a relief to find it finally.

The Triangulum Galaxy (M33) was getting higher, but was still in a worse area of sky. I saw little beyond a small faint core.

And, according to my observing journal, that concludes my night! It feels so silly saying this as it sounds like it was worth staying longer for more targets. Likely it either clouded over or dew struck...

I'm sorry, next time I'll do better :oops:

Edit: I remember now why my observing was cut short: I was getting frustrated by dew forming and eyepieces fogging every time I tried using them, so I "resorted" to imaging and took that image of M27. I also imaged the ISS pass with my SLR. Got to wait for that I'm afraid.

Andrew

[Rob]

Great report. I'm still on the hunt for the viel. I have an UHC to use in the C8, but not much luck!. sounds like a great session though.

[Doc]

Andrew like yourself i have the 16" LB and like yourself was looking at the Andromeda galaxy tonight.

You must have darker skies then me because try as I can I could not seperate M31 and M32. I think I seperated them from the m110 as this is further away but it was only through averted vision.

In your opinion would you say that this is due to darker skies or collimation. As I don't think mine is spot on.

[GazOC]

Andrew, you're bang on the money saying M32 is a good test of seeing for these big scopes. Its the first think I go to if its at a decent height above the horizon because I know if I can see dust lanes in my 14" I know its a good night, on OK nights I can see M31/ M101...bad nights I see a big smudge!!!

[Doc]

Andrew, you're bang on the money saying M32 is a good test of seeing for these big scopes. Its the first think I go to if its at a decent height above the horizon because I know if I can see dust lanes in my 14" I know its a good night, on OK nights I can see M31/ M101...bad nights I see a big smudge!!!

Cheers Gaz reading this it sounds as if It might have been a poor night for me. But personally I would have classed this as a semi good night.

I'm still pretty new to this stuff and do really need to get to a dark site just so I can clarify waht I can see and cant see in certain conditions.

[lunator]

Andrew

Nice report

The 16" sounds good fun to use.

Cheers

Ian

[John]

You must have darker skies then me because try as I can I could not seperate M31 and M32. I think I seperated them from the m110 as this is further away but it was only through averted vision.

M110 appears fainter than M31 and M32 and is often challenging if the seeing is a bit so-so. M32 is pretty condensed - more like a fuzzy star at low power and closer in (from our viewing angle) to M31.

If I can see M110 with my 4" refractor then the seeing is not too bad.

Nice report Andrew, as usual

John

[Solar B]

Excellent Reports Andrew....i have to confess that i find them quite intoxicating.

(even though im really a solar astronomer) They are beautifully written and read like prose....fingers crossed you can show me what the beast can do at Kielder Brian

[Sam]

Great report Andrew, very interesting. The 16" is a brilliant scope, glad to hear you're getting enjoyment out of it.

Sam

[Andrew*]

Thanks all for your comments!

Excellent Reports Andrew....i have to confess that i find them quite intoxicating.

(even though im really a solar astronomer) They are beautifully written and read like prose....fingers crossed you can show me what the beast can do at Kielder Brian

:oops: thank you!

I was quite taken aback at how different M110 is from M32. While the latter really is almost stellar, with a kind of fuzzy outline, like a star looks like in a fogged eyepiece, the former is large and diffuse, barely coming out of the background sky.

Gaz, what's your sky like? How obvious are the dust lanes to see? Only I'm under the impression my skies are usually better than average and tonight even more so. Perhaps my collimating needs tweaking...

Cheers

Andrew

[GazOC]

Hi Andrew,

I have pretty good skies, maybe mag 5.5, on very good nights the dust lanes are obvious from my backgarden, but it doesn't take much for them to go from "obvious" to "non existent". There doesn't seem to be much (any?) of a gray area, if you know what I mean. Stick with it, I'd say, as a VERY rough guide, if you can see the veil neb from your location, you'll be able to see the dust lanes in a 16" Newt on a good night.

Gaz

[Andrew*]

Cool. Cheers.

Unfortunately in my particular case the Veil nebula's not a good comparison. It's right overhead where the transparency is at its best. M31 is in Aberdeen's LP at the moment. I'll try get out to a better site, or wait for it to come round a bit and see if my luck changes.

Andrew

[asteria]

Hi Andrew - great report - glad that you are getting used to the 16" dob.

Ed

[SteelRat]

Nice read that Andrew 8) Glad you found that snowball at last.

The UWA obviously works well with the LB. Would really like a 5000 SWA some day.

[John]

Hi Andrew,

I have pretty good skies, maybe mag 5.5, on very good nights the dust lanes are obvious from my backgarden, but it doesn't take much for them to go from "obvious" to "non existent". There doesn't seem to be much (any?) of a gray area, if you know what I mean. Stick with it, I'd say, as a VERY rough guide, if you can see the veil neb from your location, you'll be able to see the dust lanes in a 16" Newt on a good night.

Gaz

Thats useful Gaz, thanks. I've been trying to detect dust lanes in M31 for ages now but I've not had scopes in the aperture class of the scopes that yourself and Andrew own to try with - 10" is the largest I've tried with. With M31 being so extended, is there a particular area of the galaxy where the dust lanes are easiest to discern ?.

John

[GazOC]

I've only ever seen them in my 14" and as I say they are pretty obvious on good/ great nights, most prominent just either side of the core IIRC. I'll have to have a try with my 10" SCT and see if thats enough aperture for my location, my gut feeling that on a very good night it would be doable with a 10" scope but thats just a guess