lightbridge 16" as of 24.10.2008

[Doc]

24.10.2008

Lightbridge 16" F4.5 FL1829mm

Mag 3.8 to 4.2 skies

Started 19.30 finished 23.00

After problems encounted by the wixey angle gauge on past observations, this time it turned out to work very well

indeed.

Wanted to see the Coathanger CR 399 an open cluster in Vulpecula. Moved wixey up to 53.5 degrees altitude and after a little sweeping n Azimuth with my Tal 32 at x57 I found it. I would say about half of it fitted in the FOV of this eyepiece which is just under 1 degree. I spent a while looking and could make out the coathanger shape. Lots of orange stars amongst the bright white jewels.

Next I needed a small footstall as I went hunting for the Veil Nebula Ngc 6992 in Cygnus . I never spotted any nebulosity at all but the shear amount off stars in the area beggars believe. I spent a good twenty minutes with the feeling of just gliding through space. There were lots of different colour stars and quite a few really tight doubles.

Next on the list was going to be a hard one at mag 12 and 4200 light years away it was the Blue flash Nebula NGC 6905 in Delphinus. And believe me it was hard my wixey was working a treat so I knew I was in the right area but I tried sweeping in Azimuth with numerous eyepieces and nothing appeared. Made a mental note I must get some nebula filters.

Next I found NGC 663 in Cassiopeia a very nice open cluster consisted of about 50 white stars that fitted into my 21mm field of view easy at x87.

At last found the M76 The little dumbell or the Cork Nebula as it's also known in Perseus. At mag 11 it was quite hard to find but managed to find Phi Perseus and it was little over my 21mm field of view to the M76. Appeared as a white smudge in the 21 mm Hyperion at x87 but switched to my 10mm TAL and I could just make out the dumbell shape but no other features. Did note a lovely yellow star HD 10498 within the smae FOV in the 21mm Hyperion.

Next was the M45 wow always amazes me this does just sat there for twenty minutes looking at this marvel. The 16" really shows so much detail. With the Baader Hyperion it feels you are actually there. The sky is black and the stars so colourful. Really is amazing.

Footstall time again for the M31 this time much higher and does it make a difference. Seeing was really good and I could clearly make out the dust lanes and they were huge. Never seen them extend so far.

Then on to M81 and M82 Bodes Nebulae in Ursa Major. The wixey started reading funny maybe the cold I don't know but this took some seeing. It was pretty low down amoungst all the light pollution. Managed to see M82 the spiral galaxy. Considering it's meant to be 8.5 mag it very hard to catch. It turned out to be a very dim elongated patch of diffused white light . I could definitely make out the shape of a cigar but that's about it.

As for the M81 I can not guarantee i saw this so am leaving this to another time. I'm also not ticking M82 of my messier list until I get a better view.

It was nearly 23.00 by now and had to call it a night.

[Andrew*]

Another great report, Doc,

you are getting out very often now. Taking every opportunity I imagine?

For the veil under anything but excellent skies, a filter of some sort is essential. A narrowband UHC or OIII work best, but an LP filter (CLS, LPR) or broadband UHC (UHC-S, UHC-E) might be of some help.

And well done on bagging the wee Dumbbell finally.

Andrew

[Doc]

Cheers Andrew your advice is really welcome.

A filter are on my Xmas list