19 July - Big Dob cries tears of joy after viewing Sadr with Night Vision

[alanjgreen]

Date: Thursday 19^th July 2330-0100

Scope: 20” f3.6 Lukehurst Dob with Paracorr (fl = 2089mm & f4.1). Night Vision: PVS-14 with Photonis 4g INTENS.

Eyepieces: 55mm (f2 x38), 35mm (f3 x60).

Filters: Astronomik 6nm Ha CCD.

Moon: 49%

 

Desperate to get out again...

After having a GREAT night out on Tuesday, I was desperate to get out and view more Nebula with Big Dob as soon as possible. The sky was partly cloudy (mainly to the west) so I set the fans running early and went out anyway!

Once I had 2-star alignment completed (for my Nexus push-to) I headed straight into Cygnus as I had ignored this area on Tuesday night and wanted something different…

 

Crescent – First up was a revisit to the Crescent. I was using the 55mm Plossl and had the 6nm Ha CCD filter attached to the Paracorr2. The view was lovely with the whole of the crescent showing. I could make out black detail within the whiteness of the crescent nebula. The centre section was particularly eye catching. I upped the magnification by switching to the 35mm Panoptic and the view was even better, slightly darker (so I had to turn the gain up on the NVD to compensate) but the black details within the nebula were more easily viewed.

 

NGC 6857 – Looking at Sky Safari, I moved quickly to NGC6857 which was seen as a small bright nebula with a slightly elongated shape. I could see another blob of nebula in the same fov…

 

Sh2-100 – Checking Sky Safari the “other blob” was identified as sh2-100. It appeared slightly larger and fainter than NGC 6857.

 

Sh2-99 – Onto a nearby neighbour sh2-99. Just outside the same fov as the previous two targets. This nebula was the hardest to see of the three. It was also the largest appearing as a ghostly patch.

 

Sh2-101 – Quickly centered sh2-101 which was a decent size. I switched back to the 55mm Plossl. The nebula appeared to be “mushroom shaped” (lying on its side) and was pretty transparent except for a brighter leading edge. Nice.

 

NGC 6842 pneb – A planetary up next. It appeared very small but was of reasonable brightness and easily seen in direct vision.

 

Veil nebula

WOW WHAT A SURPRISE! Last time I visited the Veil (with my Night Vision and the big dob) it was low in the sky and the view had been underwhelming compared to that seen previously in the Ethos21 and Big Dob.

Well tonight, it was a different story all together

• NGC6992, 6995, IC1340 – Wonderful bright structure to trace and comparable to that seen in the ethos21 previously.
• “Pickerings triangle wisp” was magnificent. Also see NGC 6979 (very bright), “E” also very bright.
• “The thin thread” was not as bright but easily followed, passing both “G” and “B” on the way up.
• NGC6960 – this was vastly improved over my previous NVD attempt at the Veil. I could see the split into 2 parts at the top (I see a split into three parts with the ethos21), so still not quite matching. “J” and “I” were visible along with “B” and “A”

 

Sadr region of Cygnus

Before I begin, let me say that the view was so good that it made my eyes water! (no, I am not lying). If you have ever seen M42 in a big dob and been wowed by the sheer texture and 3D of the Orion nebula then “you aint seen nothing yet!”

I was completely blown away by the texture and variations in density visible in the eyepiece. Put this together with the sheer size of the Nebula – you just keen panning and panning and more and more beautiful 3D depth nebula just keeps coming and coming.

This was a real highlight of all my years in Astronomy. I cannot overstate how good it was! Surely, couldn’t get better unless you were there in person!

 

Sh2-104 – A small roundish patch was seen.

 

Sh2-112 - Beautiful. This decent sized nebula is split by a thick black lane of Hydrogen running through (or in front of it). There is a bright nebula to the right hand side of the Hydrogen which looks like a letter “C” on top of a stick. ( I thought of the Rolls Royce silver spirit on the bonnet of a car as I looked at it! ). Very nice.

 

Sh2-115 – A big nebula with lots of intricate detail. The upper sections were billowy in nature. Underneath was flatter with more straight lines. I could see a bright blob within this lower section too. Checking images this morning, they reflect what I saw very closely!

 

I still can’t believe that I can see “the same as images” with my eye at the eyepiece – MIND BLOWN!

 

AR0352 – Yes I know, what is AR0352? It was there on Sky Safari next to where I was so it would have been rude to not go over to take a look!  It turns out to be a decent sized planetary nebula. Not too bright but easily seen in direct vision and bigger than most planetaries that you see.

 

North American nebula

After Sadr, I had to come revisit the NA & Pelican. Another moment to look away if you don’t want to know how good it was I am afraid!

The North American nebula was INCREDIBLE. The Bay of Mexico so black, the bright leading edge to the trunk bit was very bright. Another bright curvy bit seen towards the top side. So much texture and variation in “whiteness”. Beautiful.

 

Pelican – Wowsers. I had a pic of the Pelican open in Sky Safari and once rotated to match my view. I was able to eek out every (and I do mean every!) detail. If was much fainter than the North American but it was all there. Its just a shame that you have to pan around and I can’t get it all into the fov but it seems inappropriate to complain when you get the view that I had.

 

< CLOUDS ROLLED IN>

 

Thoughts of the observer

When the clouds rolled in cutting my session to just 90 minutes, I shrugged my shoulders and said “oh, well”. What a journey I had just had, too good to be dampened by a few clouds coming over.

I am still stunned and eyes welling up again this morning when I remember the view of the Sadr region, it really was a highlight of all my astronomy years.

Can’t say that I will die a happy man because of it but I will certainly never forget it!

 

Clear Skies,

Alan

[Paz]

Great report, these are targets most of us can only read about in books or see in photos!

It's nice when you have a mega session that you won't forget, you never know when these experiences are going to hit you.

[Stub Mandrel]

So you had a fairly decent evening then?

?

[scarp15]

Lovely session Alan, those descriptions paint a picture, to those of us who explore this region under darks skies, filtered observing, of something very enticing. 

[PeterW]

Told you gamma Cygni is hard to beat! Should take you a while to explore and check off all the northern Cygnus nebulosity. ? ? 

Peter

[Paz]

21 hours ago, alanjgreen said:

Sadr region of Cygnus

Before I begin, let me say that the view was so good that it made my eyes water! (no, I am not lying). If you have ever seen M42 in a big dob and been wowed by the sheer texture and 3D of the Orion nebula then “you aint seen nothing yet!”

I was completely blown away by the texture and variations in density visible in the eyepiece. Put this together with the sheer size of the Nebula – you just keen panning and panning and more and more beautiful 3D depth nebula just keeps coming and coming.

This was a real highlight of all my years in Astronomy. I cannot overstate how good it was! Surely, couldn’t get better unless you were there in person

I was reading up on Cygnus objects in Burnham's Celestial Handbook this morning (as one does!). Here's n extract about Gamma /Sadr that got me thinking back to this post...

 

"... the area around Gamma itself contains vast stretches of faint diffuse nebulosity whose intricate details may be studied only on the photographic plate..."

 

Times are changing!

[RobertI]

Sounds like you are experiencing visual observing at a completely new level Alan. Really wonderful and I would really love to be able to share that experience one day. Let me know of you are going to any star parties this year - I would travel to get that experience, I really would. ?

[Eastman]

Great report Alan, nice read and again a trip to the unknow for me.