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Dob's epic first night under dark skies

Littleguy80

By Littleguy80
in Observing - Reports

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Littleguy80

Littleguy80

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With clear skies forecast, plans were made with @Cjg to head to Seething. This was to be the dark skies debut for the 10" dob that I bought a couple of months ago. It's felt like a long wait to give it a proper test run. As I left home, there was a lovely crescent moon with Venus shining brightly above it. Arriving a little before 9pm, I got set up and aligned everything using Venus. As the sky's darkened it was time to start observing. The Leo triplet made a great warm up, the added contrast from being away from the city lights allowing NGC 3628 to stand clearly. I decided to go for the Sombero Galaxy next. On the way, I took in the double star Algorab and the the planetary nebula, NGC 4361. For years I had the Hubble picture of the Sombero galaxy as computer desktop background. This made seeing it through my scope for the first time extra special. The halo around the galaxy reminiscent of the image I know so well. The view through the eyepiece just as spectacular to my eye!

One of the best parts of this session was that there was a group of 5 of us all observing together. A collection of dobs and a 3" frac. Everyone was calling out their targets and we'd all have a look in each others scopes and then try to find the target for ourselves. I had a look at M51 through 12" OOUK dob which was stunning and hurried back to see it in my own dob. I was not disappointed! For the first time, I clearly saw spiral arms on a galaxy. The dark lanes were unmistakable. I followed the one arm most of the way to NGC 5195. It was one of the absolute standout of targets of the night and I returned to it multiple times. I ventured over to M101. The spiral arms weren't as in your face as M51 but they were still there to be seen. Moving to the other end of the plough, I got both M97 (Owl Nebula) and the galaxy M108 in the same field of view. Adding a UHC filter and increasing the magnification on M97 showed the "eyes" of the Owl when using averted vision.

Following my fellow observers, I moved onto the Whale galaxy. At 50x, I have both the Whale and the Hockey Stick galaxy (NGC 4656) in the same FOV. A fantastic pairing. Increasing magnification on the Whale allowed me to pick up it's little companion galaxy, NGC 4627.

It was now late enough for astronomical darkness to begin so it was time to hit Virgo. Using Vindemiatrix as my starting point, I went off in search of more galaxies. SkySafari was my map allowing me to identify all the galaxies that kept popping up in the eyepiece. My initial route was via M60, M59 and M58 and eventually landing with the Siamese Twin galaxies. I was so excited to see this pair of galaxies. I read reports of them last spring and really wanted to see them for myself. I continued picking off NGC's as well as M89, M90, M91 and M88 and then I was into Markarian's chain. It was thrilling to have so many galaxies in the eyepiece at once, the Eyes galaxies were a highlight within the chain. By the time I left Virgo, I'd added another 28 galaxies to my haul for the night.

I was tempted away from Virgo from numerous excited exclamations regarding M81 and M82. Before long, I had the two bright galaxies in my own eyepiece. M81 seemed so much bigger under the dark skies and M82 looked stunning with a halo around it. A pair of galaxies that I'd seen many times before but never like this. I swung across to Leo to pick up another triplet, M105, NGC 3384 and NGC 3389 plus M96 for good measure. We all enjoyed picking up the galaxy NGC 2903. It was great to see the same target across multiple scopes. The Needle galaxy and Black Eye galaxy came next. The Needle seemed to stretch on and on.

Taking a break a from galaxies, I went to M13. This really surprised me as I didn't expect dark skies to make a big difference to the big glob. The view just felt much clearer than it is at home. Possibly a sign of the good transparency we were enjoying. A couple of times with averted vision I thought I caught the propeller. I haven't gotten close to seeing it at home so this felt like a little victory too. A good look a M57 through the OIII. Back to Leo for the third trio of galaxies of the night. This time it was NGC 3681, NGC 3684 and NGC 3686 in the tail of Leo. Much fainter but a satisfying find. The last of the DSO's of the night was the Cat's Eye Nebula. Saying goodbye to my dark adaption, I took a look at Jupiter, the seeing was poor but I could still just about make out the GRS.

An epic first night for the dob at Seething and the best part...tonight I get to do it all over again!

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Littleguy80

Littleguy80

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3 minutes ago, JOC said:

Great report, how much fun it must to be to observe with others that know their way around and to also be good at that yourself!

It was really fun. You end up looking at things you’d never think to look at otherwise

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Littleguy80

Littleguy80

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55 minutes ago, domstar said:

Brilliant and inspiring. Thanks for the report. I'd heard a lot about globs in dobs but I really wanted to know about any difference in detail on galaxies. It sounds amazing.

Thank you! There’s a big improvement in detail with the dob and dark skies. M51 was the real stand out!

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Littleguy80

Littleguy80

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26 minutes ago, alan potts said:

Great report there Neil and I see you saw things at Seething. Long time to wait for a trip out but that what the UK can be like, I remember back in the 70's I almost lost interest waiting for a clear night.

Alan

Thanks Alan. It can be frustrating but a good night invariably comes along in the end :) 

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estwing

estwing

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Sounds like another dark sky converted observer ...I do a 280 mile round trip to Elan and when it comes together it's worth every mile...even when it's cloudy we still have a good laugh!...lovely report, clear skies 

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Littleguy80

Littleguy80

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5 hours ago, laudropb said:

Terrific report Neil. Dark skies really do make a difference. Infact I am off to Astrofarm in France soon. I hope I am as successful as you were.

Thank you! One of my friends from Seething has been to the Astrofarm. He said the skies there are a level up from Seething so I think you’re in for a brilliant time!

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Cjg

Cjg

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Was a superb night, transparency the best I've seen in the UK for what feels like years. I know it's a great night when I can see NGC3628 with direct vision in my 3"  Tak. We are very fortunate to have this site, 25 miles from my home and about 40 minutes drive. 

From the far end Neil, Sattigarius is going to be stunning in your dob. Let's hope we get the weather!

@laudropb Please give my best to Sue and Andrew; their skies are another level, I'd be very interested to hear your thoughts on the 6 inch refractor on the Panther mount if you get to use that?

Chris

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Littleguy80

Littleguy80

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16 minutes ago, Cjg said:

Was a superb night, transparency the best I've seen in the UK for what feels like years. I know it's a great night when I can see NGC3628 with direct vision in my 3"  Tak. We are very fortunate to have this site, 25 miles from my home and about 40 minutes drive. 

From the far end Neil, Sattigarius is going to be stunning in your dob. Let's hope we get the weather!

@laudropb Please give my best to Sue and Andrew; their skies are another level, I'd be very interested to hear your thoughts on the 6 inch refractor on the Panther mount if you get to use that?

Chris

Agreed great night and fantastic site for observing.

Really looking forward to Sagittarius over the coming months. New eyepieces arrived today too! 

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laudropb

laudropb

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1 hour ago, Cjg said:

Was a superb night, transparency the best I've seen in the UK for what feels like years. I know it's a great night when I can see NGC3628 with direct vision in my 3"  Tak. We are very fortunate to have this site, 25 miles from my home and about 40 minutes drive. 

From the far end Neil, Sattigarius is going to be stunning in your dob. Let's hope we get the weather!

@laudropb Please give my best to Sue and Andrew; their skies are another level, I'd be very interested to hear your thoughts on the 6 inch refractor on the Panther mount if you get to use that?

Chris

Hi Chris. I will be happy to do that. I will have a go with the refractor and tell you how I get on.

John

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