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Lightbridge 16" Report - 21.10.2008

Doc

By Doc
in Observing - Reports

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Doc

Doc

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Observations 21.10.2008

Meade Lightbridge 16" F4.5 FL 1829mm

Seeing abt mag 3.8

No Moon.

Wheeled the LB out about 16.00 to cool the mirror down.

Started observing at 18.30 Jupiter was my first target, pretty low still but was such a fantastic sight still. Could easily make out 4 bands and 4 moons.

Swung the scope over towards the SE and headed for NGC 7662 the Blue Snowball Planetary Nebula in Andromeda, this reminded me of how Uranus looks like. Definetly a blue circular shape. looked best in my 21mm Hyperion at x87 mag. Tried various eyepieces but it increasing magnification didn't reveal more detail.

Next on my list was Alberio otherwise known as Beta Cygni this was easy split in the 21mm Hyperion the double consisted of a yellow primary and a light blue secondry. Very attractive pair.

Just over 8 degrees East of Alberio is M27 the Dumbell Nebula in Vulpecula it is approx mag 7 and was easily detected. I could find no colour but could make out the dumbell shape quite easily the nebula was amoungst lots of white stars. It looked best in my TAL 25mm at 73x. Tried going to x228 by using my 8mm Hyperion but no more detail was shown.

About a 5 degree south I came to M71 in Sagitta a lovely looking Globular Cluster. Quite a compact cluster with loads of little white stars. It sounds strange but I even detected some nebulosity amoungst those stars.

Just south of M71 is Harvard 20 also in Sagitta at about 7' and a mag8 it was easily seen as a little cluster of about 40 white stars.

Over to Lyra and the double double Elsilon Lyra was next. Split with the 21mm at x87. This is great object to test your scope both doubles even in the Fov of my 8mm with lovely black background split on both doubles.

Next was Delta Lyrae a wide binary that may be gravitationally bound despite the great distance. The two have a nice colour contrast, orange and blue.

The time was now 20.50 and I started looking at the Planatery Nebula M57 The Ring Nebula in Lyra. This was very easy to find as it's half way between Beta and Gamma Lyra. I spent ages looking at this, it appeared pretty large and brighter then it's supposed 9.3 mag and 1.4' x 1.0' . Could definetly make out a green bluish colour and the ring shape was easy to distinguish. Tried all my eyepieces but best was 25mm Tal. By adding magnification this nebula showed a bit more detail and colour but could not see the centre star no matter what mag I used.

Had a quick look at the double star Beta Lyra could detect the 8.6' split easy and the colours were white and yellow.

Over to M31 wow I could clearly see it's centre core alot brighter then the spiral arms. Moved further up and could see M110. Always amazes me how far out M110 is. When you see photos they always look so close. My baader Hyperion 21mm was great, the 8mm was a bit dissapointing as it didn't show much more. The more Istared at the object the more I could see. The spiral arms were definately visible.

Next was my favourite the NGC 884/869 Perseus double cluster. In my 32mm TAL it fills the whole fov. It looked awesome so many different colour stars. There must be 150 stars. Surely out off all those suns and possible exoplanets there must be life.

Wasted another 25 mins trying to find the elusive M33 in Trianglum.

And also another 25 minutes trying to find the M74 in Pisces. This is a face on spiral galaxy but with a surface brightness of mag 14 I knew it was going to be hard.

It was getting late now and my bed beckoned me so I packed it about 23.20.

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Andrew*

Andrew*

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Superb report, Doc.

Never heard of the Bluebell Planetary before. Must try that one while Pegasus is high.

Do you have a wider field eyepiece than the 25mm? M33 is elusive unless you use a low power, but if your transparency :) was only mag 3.8, using low power can make the background sky almost lighter than the target, so it's very difficult to pick out.

Andrew

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Doc

Doc

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Oh, I see! But I'm still confused - the Blue Snowball is in Andromeda...

Oh, and well done for detecting colour in M57. :thumbright: Must have been subtle?

Andrew

Good job there's a modify button

Pegasus to Andromeda pretty close. As I said above I looked at the M57 for ages and I'm 100% sure I detected some green bluey colour. Feint thats for sure but definetly there.

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