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A session with the 10x50 Opticrons


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A very clear night, and a half-lit moon. Because it was so low, I hoped it wouldn’t hinder my search for binocular deep-sky objects on the outskirts of Wolverhampton. It did, actually. I did a bit of searching, then decided to get a coffee and wait for the Moon to set. The garage I went to was closed, so no coffee. It wasn’t going great.
Anyway, I got back to my observing spot and found the sky had gotten a lot darker, so I started with Cassiopeia. I’ve been a bit fascinated with Cassiopeia’s clusters since I saw the Binocular Tour map in (I think) April 2018’s Sky at Night magazine.
I first stopped at Messier 103, by the star Ruchbah, (the second star of the ‘w’). It’seasy to make out under dark skies. There are several other clusters to the left of this one, in the area almost between Ruchbah and Segin, but tonight I can only profess to have seen NGC 659, looking like a fainter M103. Obviously, I stopped at the double cluster just down the road in Perseus. Who wouldn’t?
Following the line from Schedar, to Caph, and then just over the same distance again, you get to M52, another bright, unmistakable cluster. Back to Caph, and towards the right, I found a nebulous patch, or so I thought. Checking my star atlas back in the van, I found it was NGC 7789, also called the Ghost Cluster, and I can see why. It looks nebulous, and not at all like a cluster. It’s not in my Cambridge Deep Sky Album, I was surprised to see. It’s quite bright.
A hazy patch on the horizon caught my attention, so I pointed the Opticrons at it and glory be, the Pleiades! And there’s Capella and Auriga rising. Winter is coming!
For quitea while I’ve been trying to find M33. I’ve told people that I saw this with the naked eye ence, in Wiltshire about 20 years ago but these days I wonder if I was right. I’ve not been able to find it recently. It’s fainter than I remember. Anyway, I saw it tonight, by star-hopping from Triangulum. Obviously M31 was an easy find, and as the sky darkened, it became a naked eye object.
Turning to the area under Cygnus, I found M71 (The Angelfish Cluster) in Saggita. This was cool, because I’ve looked for this before this year, and it’s not been forthcoming. I got the 4″ reflecting telescope out the van to get a ‘closer’ look at this, but found I’d left the red dot finderscope on and the battery was dead (again). And I hadn’t got my wide-field eyepiece anyway. But I did manage to find the Ring Nebula in Lyra with it tonight, so that was okay. Grea part of the sky actually. Saw the Coathanger asterism on my travels too.
What else? ah, Bode’s Galaxy and its companion were found tonight too. Making that four binocular galaxies. Could I see M51? I could tell myself I could, put it that way. So five then.
But, being honest, four.
With Auriga rising, I found the ‘Leaping Minnow’ asterism, and one of the clusters above. Which one? I don’t know. The brightest I suppose, possibly M37.
All in all, a good hour's observations. Am loving the Opticrons!

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11 hours ago, Swithin StCleeve said:

For quitea while I’ve been trying to find M33. I’ve told people that I saw this with the naked eye ence, in Wiltshire about 20 years ago but these days I wonder if I was right.

I think you were probably right. I had it naked eye (with averted vision) a few Novembers ago, when it was nice and high in a very transparent sky.

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That's a great session with a pair of 10x50s.  Yea, those clusters around the edges of Cassiopeia near m103 are a tough target for the bins - Although on a dark night, just seeing the faint fuzz around there is nice - and the Double cluster of course with bins is great.  

Thanks for the report

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On ‎19‎/‎09‎/‎2018 at 08:18, mark81 said:

That's a great session with a pair of 10x50s.  Yea, those clusters around the edges of Cassiopeia near m103 are a tough target for the bins - Although on a dark night, just seeing the faint fuzz around there is nice - and the Double cluster of course with bins is great.  

Thanks for the report

Thanks. In retrospect, I'm not sure it was NGC 659 I saw - I've since looked at different star atlases and they all give different objects in that area. I'll re-visit soon, though the moon will be full soon.
I was using Giles Sparrow's Stargazers Handbook for reference on that evening, and it lists three clusters in that area, whereas my Norton's 2000 lists two, and my Universe From You Backyard book only lists one.
This book is fast becoming my favourite star atlas, I think the maps are the best I've seen. I bought it on a whim from Shrewsbury Waterstones, but its handy A4 size and its detailed maps have meant it's my 'go-to' star atlas these days. A tenner very well spent.

Stargazers_handbook.jpg

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15 minutes ago, Swithin StCleeve said:

Thanks. In retrospect, I'm not sure it was NGC 659 I saw - I've since looked at different star atlases and they all give different objects in that area. I'll re-visit soon, though the moon will be full soon.
I was using Giles Sparrow's Stargazers Handbook for reference on that evening, and it lists three clusters in that area, whereas my Norton's 2000 lists two, and my Universe From You Backyard book only lists one.
This book is fact becoming my favourite star atlas, I think the maps are the best I've seen. I bought it on a whim from Shrewsbury Waterstones, but its handy A4 size and its detailed maps have meant it's my 'go-to' star atlas these days. A tenner very well spent.

Stargazers_handbook.jpg

Its hard to tell with binoculars. I had a look here at the weekend, I think we imagine 103 to be more impressive as it's a messier object but the others stand out much more , although they are very close together.  I always work down from Cassiopeia eta, 654 first, then arching out to 663 which is bigger, right next to that is the smaller 659 and then over beside Ruchbah is 103.  ?

I am on the lookout for a new star atlas, so I may check that one out. 

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52 minutes ago, mark81 said:

I am on the lookout for a new star atlas, so I may check that one out. 

Here's a couple of phone photos of that area from the maps in my books. The first is the Sparrow book, the second is from my copy of Norton's 2000, which I bought in the early 90's. See what you think...

EDIT - I've just added the same area from my Universe From Your Backyard book, which features maps that were in the US Astronomy magazine in the 90's. I always thought this was my most detailed star atlas, but I see now I was wrong. Norton's shows more, and the Sparrow book shows even more.

sa1.jpg

sa2.jpg

ufyby.jpg

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Great report. I like to just grab the bins sometimes. Where abouts near Wolves do you observe? I live in Dudley and have no chance of M33 with bins. I have driven out on the Bridgnorth Road a few times, where the skies are quite a bit better,  but need to find a good spot to park up.

I was a member of the Wolves astro a few years back but had to stop going because of work. I have been meaning to go back again.

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On 20/09/2018 at 11:12, Swithin StCleeve said:

Thanks. In retrospect, I'm not sure it was NGC 659 I saw - I've since looked at different star atlases and they all give different objects in that area. I'll re-visit soon, though the moon will be full soon.
I was using Giles Sparrow's Stargazers Handbook for reference on that evening, and it lists three clusters in that area, whereas my Norton's 2000 lists two, and my Universe From You Backyard book only lists one.
This book is fast becoming my favourite star atlas, I think the maps are the best I've seen. I bought it on a whim from Shrewsbury Waterstones, but its handy A4 size and its detailed maps have meant it's my 'go-to' star atlas these days. A tenner very well spent.

Stargazers_handbook.jpg

that is a good book :)

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2 hours ago, bish said:

Great report. I like to just grab the bins sometimes. Where abouts near Wolves do you observe? I live in Dudley and have no chance of M33 with bins. I have driven out on the Bridgnorth Road a few times, where the skies are quite a bit better,  but need to find a good spot to park up.

I was a member of the Wolves astro a few years back but had to stop going because of work. I have been meaning to go back again.

Hi Bish.
The report I wrote on this thread was from a site I use near Wolverhampton, about 8 miles outside the city, near Tong on the Newport road. The Wolverhampton Society uses sites in Trysull and Bobbington to observe (if you click on the society website, under 'Lyra', there are reports of our sessions I've written).
There's been a few changes at Wolverhampton Astronomical Society in the past year. They asked me to join the committee a year ago, and because of this I set up observation sessions, because for years I've been disappointed that the society didn't do much practical observing, (the lecture side is fantastic, they have some real experts),  So now we do more observing, and the most exciting news is we'll soon have an observatory with a 16" mirror scope in. This will be on the Shropshire border, only six or seven miles from Wolves, (and not that far from Dudley!).
We've got a meeting on Monday. A talk on the Faulks Telescope, and we'll be collimating a 12" Dobsonian. I've also got a little club shop with really cheap astro books and magazines. Be great if you could make it Bish! (the more practical observers the better, I really want the club to grow in this respect).
Here's a link to last week's observing session. I got the name of Saturn's moon wrong, so ignore that! ;)

https://www.wolvas.org.uk/2018/09/14/trysull-observation-session-thursday-13th-september-2018/

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8 hours ago, Swithin StCleeve said:

Hi Bish.
The report I wrote on this thread was from a site I use near Wolverhampton, about 8 miles outside the city, near Tong on the Newport road. The Wolverhampton Society uses sites in Trysull and Bobbington to observe (if you click on the society website, under 'Lyra', there are reports of our sessions I've written).
There's been a few changes at Wolverhampton Astronomical Society in the past year. They asked me to join the committee a year ago, and because of this I set up observation sessions, because for years I've been disappointed that the society didn't do much practical observing, (the lecture side is fantastic, they have some real experts),  So now we do more observing, and the most exciting news is we'll soon have an observatory with a 16" mirror scope in. This will be on the Shropshire border, only six or seven miles from Wolves, (and not that far from Dudley!).
We've got a meeting on Monday. A talk on the Faulks Telescope, and we'll be collimating a 12" Dobsonian. I've also got a little club shop with really cheap astro books and magazines. Be great if you could make it Bish! (the more practical observers the better, I really want the club to grow in this respect).
Here's a link to last week's observing session. I got the name of Saturn's moon wrong, so ignore that! ;)

https://www.wolvas.org.uk/2018/09/14/trysull-observation-session-thursday-13th-september-2018/

That all sounds great. The possibiity of a club observatory is fantastic. As I don't make it to star parties as much as i used to a local site to meet up with others is ideal.

I should be able to come tomorrow for the meeting. Guess you will know it"s me as there will be a strange face at the club! Thanks.

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Cool! Come and say hello. I'll be doing the club shop.
The observatory is actually up, we just need to put the telescope in.  The scope needs a bit of TLC, and the observatory's on private land, so we need to have a system in place before members can visit re access and parking etc. I think Doug (the president) will be showing some pictures of it tomorrow night.

 

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