A Halloween broomstick

[domstar]

Despite a wonderfully clear October, I hadn't been to a darker site for over three weeks, preferring to use the balcony. I'm so glad I made the effort last night. Periodic clouds could not mask the sharpness of the clear parts of sky. Also, the clouds gently nudged me to targets in the clear areas giving me some unexpected treats.

 M30 in Capricorn, which had given me so many problems in the light-polluted east, was an easy find six weeks later in the south. Then a half hearted and therefore unsuccessful search for the Helix nebula. I've never seen it and I find planetary nebulae difficult because I need low mag to search the area but higher mag actually identify them. The same thing happened with the cat's eye. These are definitely goto objects in my book.

What else? M45 was surprisingly sharp, the Auriga open clusters were beautiful but it was strange to see an object that I usually observe in early spring. My first for the evening was the m and m double cluster in Perseus. Quite nice but the real double cluster won't be losing any sleep just like in the world of confectionery, m and ms are far inferior to smarties.

By this time Cygnus has dropped down far enough for me to point my telescope at it with more confidence. First the stunning Milky Way around Sadr and then, with a UHC, over to the Veil. Not much going on there til it quite suddenly revealed itself as an audible 'Yes' escaped my mouth. Unlike my esteemed colleagues here, I'm not one to linger on a target and I can really crack on at the eyepiece, but this time I hung around looking at all parts as the veil showed me more and more. It was only my third time on this target but I saw so much more this time from the kink in the broomstick to the expanding brush to isolated bits of nebulosity further out than I imagined. At some points it seemed like I could see the eastern Veil as a round rather than flat object. I spent longer on the Veil than I might do on the moon. It was a real highlight of my observing days, the memory of which is still giving me a thrill.

After I'd had enough, I put my 20mm in and tried for a cheeky M74- my enemy from last autumn. It almost smacked me in the face. Transparent skies, darkness and the time spent trying to tease detail from the Veil really made this previously difficult galaxy easy to spot. I saw it immediately as I moved into position.

The night ended, like a lot of nights, with Bodes and the Cigar. At 45x the Cigar was spread out further than usual and I was just about to give Bodes a good staring at when headlights and a man poking a round my car interrupted me and ultimately reminded me it was probably time to go home. A beautiful thrilling and silent evening.

Thanks for reading.

 

[David Levi]

Nice report. Glad to hear that you finally got M74. I saw the Helix Nebula for the first time earlier this week. Strangely (?), the OIII filter made it just about visible for me from my back garden.

[domstar]

1 hour ago, David Levi said:

Glad to hear that you finally got M74

Thanks, it's strange how objects that give me big problems become easy to see after I've seen them a couple of times. It seems like the Helix is going to be another one like that. Did you hop to the exact place and find it with magnification or did you move slowly towards it low-mag and spot it as you went past?

[MarsG76]

What a great report... you definitely lucked out with a nice dark and transparent sky.....

 

[Littleguy80]

Great report, Dom. M74 is on my hit list for this autumn. The Helix nebula is a good size much bigger than the likes of the cat’s nebula. It has quite a low surface brightness though. 

[David Levi]

2 hours ago, domstar said:

Did you hop to the exact place and find it with magnification or did you move slowly towards it low-mag and spot it as you went past?

Hi Dom. I was using my 200mm reflector. I star hopped using my finderscope (9x50) from delta Aqr (Skat) to the approximate position of the Helix Nebula. I'm sorry but I can't remember if I had to increase the magnification after my initial look at 58x. I don't think so. The nebula was large and diffuse and I wouldn't have said that I had seen it without using the OIII filter.

[estwing]

Good report and read..

Same here, tend to spend only a few minutes on most targets but I can spend  hours on a few fuzzies!...clear skies!

[Eastman]

On ‎01‎/‎11‎/‎2018 at 17:31, domstar said:

By this time Cygnus has dropped down far enough for me to point my telescope at it with more confidence. First the stunning Milky Way around Sadr and then, with a UHC, over to the Veil. Not much going on there til it quite suddenly revealed itself as an audible 'Yes' escaped my mouth. Unlike my esteemed colleagues here, I'm not one to linger on a target and I can really crack on at the eyepiece, but this time I hung around looking at all parts as the veil showed me more and more. It was only my third time on this target but I saw so much more this time from the kink in the broomstick to the expanding brush to isolated bits of nebulosity further out than I imagined. At some points it seemed like I could see the eastern Veil as a round rather than flat object. I spent longer on the Veil than I might do on the moon. It was a real highlight of my observing days, the memory of which is still giving me a thrill.

Great report Domstar, the Veil is a wonderful object en will show more and more when observed for a longer time.

[Stu]

On 01/11/2018 at 18:38, domstar said:

Thanks, it's strange how objects that give me big problems become easy to see after I've seen them a couple of times. It seems like the Helix is going to be another one like that. Did you hop to the exact place and find it with magnification or did you move slowly towards it low-mag and spot it as you went past?

The Helix is far bigger than many On a so perhaps you looked through it? Without seeing the edges it is easy to miss the changes in contrast. The circle in this image is 0.5 degree, compared with the Cat's Eye it is huge!

The Veil is an amazing object and one I will spend plenty of time on when observing in good conditions, there is so much to see!

[domstar]

Thanks @Stu. I found the Cat's Eye on Sunday. I was just about to dismiss the non Dumbbell planetaries as being unimpressive in my 4 inch but then caught the real ring shape of the Ring for the first time, which enthused me all over again. (thanks UHC)