Veil Nebula - First time ever

[Alan White]

I got to see the Veil, East and West for the first time ever with some help.

• Darker sky than at home
• 10" Dobsonian 
• Orion Ultrablock 2" filter (borrowed)
• A guiding hand to help this visual all manual observer to find them, thanks Ed.

And wow, what a sight to behold, it is massive and so delicate and well wonderful.
I just sat and observed and admired and kept saying me oh my etc. 
The delicate nature of the thing is what wowed me so much.

I sketched too, probably got the image scale a bit off, but the sketches are small in my notes.
Forgive the gushing, it has made an impression.

My Vixen 30mm LVW was also in use and made me very happy too.

I just wanted to share as its a real first for me and truly showed the 10" potential, which is proving the best thing Astro so far, 
well except for the above, but chicken and egg.

As a final question, what filters do you folks use to see this and similar deep sky and why?

[cotterless45]

Lovely , always a thrill to catch the Veil.

Look closely at 52 Cygni , you'll find it to be binary,

old Nick.

[Alan White]

1 minute ago, cotterless45 said:

Lovely , always a thrill to catch the Veil.

Look closely at 52 Cygni , you'll find it to be binary,

old Nick.

Thanks Nick,
Next time I will, but I was too busy being in awe of what I was observing than to look at 52 Cyg,
well no more than what a colour with this filter.
It was a lurid blue to slightly Violet, which had my attention.

 

[Eastman]

8 minutes ago, Alan White said:

And wow, what a sight to behold, it is massive and so delicate and well wonderful.

Nice report.

It's a magnificent showpiece Alan, I love it.

I use the OIII filter.

I had it in the eyepiece last fryday night, one of the other stargazers there took a look and said hmmmm is that all?

Some a hard to please I guess?

[John]

Brings back memories of my 1st observation of the Veil - I just had a 100mm refractor back then !

It's a wonderful and complex object to observe and your sketches look spot on.

If you get a chance, try an O-III filter on it - even more impressive !

We were observing the Veil on Saturday night with my ED120 and an O-III filter at low power - stunning

Great Sky & Telescope article on exploring this object here:

https://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-blogs/explore-night-bob-king/explore-veil-nebula/

 

[Paul67]

Great stuff Alan.

[des anderson]

A firm favourite with myself and I still get a buzz whenever I observe it, although my  9.25 sct has such a small field a OH111 filter does wonders. Des

[Whistlin Bob]

+1 on big enthusiasm for the veil.

+1 on using an o3 filter

I do find that it's an object you need to take a little time over to really appreciate. Stuff like M31 and M42 can be quite amazing straight away, but the veil needs a little exploration, especially given it's size. That could explain the reaction of @Eastman's fellow observer. As always with this hobby, patience is needed!

[Stu]

?  Nice one Doug!! One of my favourites, I don't often get a chance to see it so tend to spend a long time on it when given the opportunity.

Dark skies are what makes the biggest difference obviously, plus the filter. Ultrablocks have quite a good reputation; had one once myself before I knew anything about anything, so never tried it on the Veil. I use an old style Lumicon OIII now, works beautifully but from your sketches you were obviously getting some very decent views.

It is one of those objects which is fab both in widefield frac views when you can see the whole complex at once, or in dobs at higher powers where you see less of the extent but can really pull the detail out.

[david_taurus83]

I too observed this properly at the Bromsgrove Astro star party in Ledbury on Saturday night. I had caught a glimpse from my back garden before, very feint, couldn't see any detail, only a difference in contrast where I could see something there. Saturday night though under the best sky I've experienced, it was amazing using my 200p, 25mm BST and Astronmik UHC. Not like the usual grey smudges of galaxies. To see the actual structure and filaments in the eyepiece and recognise it from its photos left myself and others very impressed. Going to treat myself to an Oiii filter at Xmas just for this!

[FenlandPaul]

? awesome stuff Alan. The Veil is one of those gifts that keeps giving. Your excitement mirrors the first time I saw it; I was blown away and I still get a tingle just thinking about seeing that smokey wisp passing through 52.

[Alan White]

On 08/10/2018 at 17:35, cotterless45 said:

Lovely , always a thrill to catch the Veil.

Look closely at 52 Cygni , you'll find it to be binary,

old Nick.

Nick

Just in from a garden session and you are indeed spot on, looked at 52 Cygni and a binary it is.
The two stars are quite obvious when you look.
Thanks for pointing this out.

Alan

[Sagitta]

Yes! The Veil is quite something indeed. I used to observe as a teenager but later I gave up on the observing part of astronomy with all the light pollution and clouds. I never saw the Veil then either.

I saw it for the first time under dark skies and at zenith only last year and my mouth fell open. I like the UHC filtered view a bit better though most of the time (depends on the magnification also).

[westmarch]

Lovely report Alan.  I first saw the Veil a few weeks ago at the Galloway Star Party thanks to Uplooker having a filter set which he allowed me to view through.  I  had tried and failed from dark sky sites many times.  I too was equally entranced by the transparency of the filaments.  His advice was that a UHC filter was the most widely useful for nebulae, as a starter. I don’t doubt that an OIII filter will take you further with the Veil.

John

[Waddensky]

Congratulations, nice observation and sketches! The Veil really is a magnificent object when observed from a truly dark site. I saw it a few times at star parties in very large scopes, but it was only a few months ago when I first observed it with my 8" dob and the NPB from a dark location. It is delicate indeed, very detailed and huge. The filter surely made an enormous difference. Got a hint of Pickering's Triangle too. It was a great night.