Fantastic Transparency - 5th October report

[Andrew*]

10pm saw me kitted out in my warmest clothing, just waiting for my dearest Eli to come back from a gig so I could go out and make the most of a beautiful looking dark sky.

As I ventured outside, a case under one arm and one in each hand, I already felt the bitter cold start to bite the back of my hands. Shame I couldn’t locate my gloves… But I looked up and a mysterious milky band wove its way from the southern horizon, climbed up to the celestial swan, and I toppled over in space to watch it stream straight over my insignificant head, careering towards Cassiopeia and Perseus. It was a good night.

Having heaved out the LightBridge, Andromeda Galaxy was the first target. It was quite high and I am getting in the habit of using the misty trio as a test of the night. As I peered into my 32mm Tele Vue, a familiar bright oval patch greeted me. Two companion blobs were clearer than ever before, above and below the main complex. I found the northern edge of M31 to be quite flat, rather than subtly blended into the background. The brightness resumed a little outside this. It can only be a dark lane! Subtle, and faint, but it was there. M31 took magnification very well indeed. I put it up to 171x ultimately and the companion galaxies showed more detail than at low power. M32 showed a halo round the tiny core you usually see. M110 was elongated and stood out from the dark. The dark lane was also clearer.

I think where the 16” is really showing its value is in its ability to push the magnification and hold the detail on DSOs, while darkening the background sky. I’m regularly going to much higher powers, that I would never have bothered with on the same targets in the 8”.

M15 came next. This is a lovely cluster. Up there with M92, easily. I resolved the relatively loose “halo” down to a tiny dense mottled core. I noticed interesting groupings of stars in the cluster, rather than being evenly distributed, as I first thought.

As a quick comparison, I viewed M13 briefly. Yes, to an extent it is nicer than M15, with dramatic streamers swirling around a well-resolved core.

In between Perseus and Cassiopeia, I noticed two little fuzzy patches with my naked eye. Besides M45, I hadn’t seen an OC with my naked eye since Kielder. I swung to the Double Cluster and a magnificent smattering of shining jewels almost blinded me. Unfortunately I could not behold both in their entirety in the eyepiece as the field wasn’t wide enough.

Continuing the cluster tour, I viewed the Seven Sisters, who were making their never-ending journey through the sky. While these little blue gems showed their crystalline beauty, I don’t believe the 16” can do them justice as they were too spread out. This is where a wide field well corrected refractor comes in.

I was recently given an old PDA of my Dad’s and had Astromist installed on it. I decided to give it a go and use the live altitude and my Wixey to locate M2 for the first time. It said it was at 20°, but that was way too low, so I must have had the settings wrong. In the end the sky map got me to my destination.

I resolved this very compact cluster most of the way down to a large dense core. It’s nice, but I prefer M15.

M52 was next. This was bang overhead, so a little tricky to get to. Nothing like a Scorpion, IMHO. A mediocre cluster, about which no gushing lyrical similes spring to mind.

I decided to finish there for the night, as it was getting late. But I wanted to end on a high. What better to offer me this than the fabulous Veil nebula? At 96x using an OIII filter all three main components of the Veil complex were visible, with mottled knotting in the eastern segment and two slender streams making up the broom handle of the west. Quite stunning.

Before I went inside for the night, I took a few minutes to just enjoy the sky naked eye. For the first time, A long slender cloud was visible in Andromeda, very near ? Andromedae - the Andromeda galaxy, naked eye!

Goodnight.

Andrew

[asteria]

Hi Andrew - really good report. The big scope is really coming into its own now with some clear nights. Thanks very much for recording your session.

Ed

[mik]

Hi Andrew nice report don't forget the gloves next time

Mick

[lunator]

Andrew

Very nice report

Cheers

Ian

[algol]

fantastic report mate I'm hoping for the same up here tonight as it has forecast 0% cloud all night