M42 Orion Nebula! the highlight as Big Dob views Horsehead & Cone for first time with Night Vision

[alanjgreen]

Date: Saturday 17th November 0110-0415am
Scope: 20” f3.6 Lukehurst Dob with Paracorr (fl = 2089mm & f4.1).
Night Vision: PVS-14 with Photonis 4g INTENS.
Eyepieces: Plossl 55mm (f2 x38), Panoptic 35mm (f3 x60).
Filters: Astronomik 6nm Ha CCD.

 

Well, what a session that was!

Earlier, I had repositioned the Big Dob in the shed ready for a shot at Orion early Sunday (17th/18th) morning as the weather forecast was for cloud all night last night (16th/17th).
However, an opportunity for an unexpected session started when a quick look outside at 7pm revealed a very clear sky! I decided to get outside with the Borg 107FL for as long as it lasted and was soon outside and setup revisiting Milky Way Ha targets with the 6nm Ha CCD filter and Night Vision.
I did not take any notes as I expected the session to end abruptly “at any time” plus the Devils Orb was out meaning that new targets were going to be “a dream rather than a reality”.

Time kept passing and I kept GOTOing…

Eventually, we reached 0030hrs and it was still clear. Orion was now coming “into the zone” for the Dob from the shed and the Devils lightbulb was almost gone! All my kit was soaking with the heavy dew that had descended but I decided to swap scopes/kit and get into the shed for some “Dobbing”.
Everything was soon back in the house but I had to pause “to towel” the Borg, mount and kit boxes as they were covered in water droplets. I swapped some eyepieces, added the ParaCorr2 (& my notebook) to the case and headed back outside and down to the shed.
By 0110am, I was setup and ready to open the roof of the shed…

 

Head straight for the “big hitters”

Sh2-273 incl. Cone – I had the 55mm Plossl and 6nm Ha CCD filter loaded. The Cone was very obvious and probably around 1.5cm in size with the x38 magnification from the dob. Even with 20” the edges of the Cone were not sharp, they were more fuzzy looking but the black triangular patch was very black and ended in a bright circular tip as it touched the brighter star next to the tip.

 

Sh2-275 Rosette – WOW! The Rosette seems to be the best thing since Gamma Cygni and now was showing with the same 3D textures! It was much larger than the fov and I nudged through varying brightness nebula with delicate black lanes running within. The nebula clouds just bellowed, It was awesome!

 

Sh2-282 – A long curve filled the fov.
Sh2-284 – I saw a long sausage protrusion at the right hand side, which extended out wider at both sides at the left hand side. It reminded me of a large “cosmic baby’s dummy”. It was bigger than the fov so I nudged around. Looking at images, it’s clear that a revisit is needed as it seems to have more to give…
Sh2-280 – a large patch with two black sockets to the right hand side. There is a nearby long curving piece possibly detached.
Sh2-269 – small bright “butterfly” seems to be in two halves. Could be a “rib cage”?
Sh2-267 – Medium sized faint patch. Averted vision reveals its full size. It has some black central detailing.

 

Sh2-261 Lowers neb – Very nice. Fills the fov. Looks like an open clam shell. The top lid has a brighter mid section. Some nice shading detail seen in the shell itself.

 

Sh2-254 to sh2-258 – 4 of 5 observed. Surprisingly the view was very similar to that seen in the Borg107 on the 14th November. I saw the three patches in a line. The first was the largest and easily seen. The second was smaller and brighter with black details within. The third was the brightest and slightly smaller than the second patch. But where were the other two? I found the tiny patch in between patch 1 and 2 easily but it did not stand out against the other three. It was much smaller & dimmer – but I had picked it out with the Borg107! I could not see the 5th element at all and I know where it should be but not tonight Josephine!

Sh2-263 – large faint patch around a star.

 

Sh2-276 Barnards loop – Wow, it’s just so easy to see. It’s really wide at x38. I use Nexus to position at the top and then follow it down with ease. It’s like a well-lit freeway!

 

Sh2-277 Flame neb – Immense! I can literally see every detail, just like the image I am looking at as I write it. It is a whole new view to the previous Cactus managed with traditional eyepieces and the same dobsonian scope on previous years. I have to spend time looking and noting. The long thick black trunk of the flame has very bright nebula to both sides. I see 4 branches on the right hand side and a free floating black blob to the left hand side. There is fine black sleeks along the whole structure. I revisited later with the pan35 (x60) and the image was just as fine.

 

Horsehead IC434 – Right its time to put the horse to bed. I nudge up from the Flame and there she sits. A perfect sea-horse head shape nestling in a lane of very bright nebula. I notice a single brighter strand that runs the length of IC434 within the wider lane.

 

M42 Orion neb – I was not ready for this. "Holy Cow Batman".

• The Orion nebula just moved to a whole new level, its 3D and there is a mesmerising swirl of nebula sitting out behind the 1000 watt fish head that my eyes are drawn to. Eventually I pull me eyes to the fish head and its covered in clear small black sleeks or scales! Then I notice M43, astonishing!, M43 has what appears to be a brighter lobster shape inside the overall outline – What? Gobsmacked.
• I nudge around M42, I notice the black section between M42-M43 looks like space invader on its side. I can see three of the trapezium stars beaming brightly, I am swearing out loud now as I sit back from the eyepiece and rub my face processing what I have just seen.
• Back to the eyepiece and I notice that the upper wing of M42 is splitting into two sections as it heads out back over the top. There is a very black section in the splitting section. I encourage you to google an “M42 Ha” image – it was truly astounding.
• In a previous report, I wrote “if you have ever seen M42 in a big dob then you ain’t seen nothing like Gamma Cygni in a big dob with Night Vision”. Well, I now need to amend my statement “If you have seen Gamma Cygni with Night Vision with a big dob then just wait until you see M42 with Night Vision with a big dob!”

 

Right, back into the undiscovered Sharpless search…

sh2-279 Running Man (NGC1975) – Finally I can see it. But what is it? Not a “running man” that’s for sure. I see a large faint patch with 3 brighter stars within. There is something large and faint under the 3 star section.

 

Sh2-278 – large faint patch.
Sh2-288 – very bright tiny patch.
Sh2-260 – very large. Sausage shaped. Faint.
Sh2-262 – seems to be another sausage. The edges are traceable. Faint.
Sh2-268 – I can see a big curve. Other side is flatter. The edges are faintly seen.

Sh2-271 – small bright patch around a star. Black detail seen in centre. Missing from Sky Safari, the location is around star TYC-0738-1135-1

 

Sh2-283 – very small fuzzy patch. Missing from Sky Safari, the location is around star HD291952.
Sh2-285 – tiny fuzzy patch next to a star. Missing from Sky Safari, the location is around star HD50773.
Sh2-286 – faint fuzzy patch. Medium sized. Double star at 7 o’clock and triple star at 11 o’clock. Missing from Sky Safari, the location is around star HD 50637.

 

Sh2-287 – faint patch. Medium sized. 2 stars inside. Seems to be a curve above. Looks a bit like a “comma”.
Sh2-288 – small bright centre. 2 fainter sections either side (like wings).
Sh2-291 – medium sized patch next to a plough type star formation. Nebula seems to extend up & down.
Sh2-289 – medium sized. Faint patch around a star.

 

Seagull neb – A quick dip into the Seagull to confirm sh2-293 & sh2-295, two small faint patches in front of the wings. I saw them both but they were pretty faint. The Seagull was looking majestic, and the head (sh2-292) revealed the black jagged mouth section nicely.
LBN1036 – Sitting next to the Seagull. I saw several thin parallel lines running horizontally.
Sh2-294 – A small bright “clam”. Bright clam shell lids separated by blackness cutting in.

 

Sh2-298 Thor’s Helmet – it looked like a mini flaming star nebula. There was a clear curvy “tail” moving away from a shimmering circle (around a star).
Sh2-299 – a faint patch over a star. Missing from Sky Safari, the location is around star HR2868.
Sh2-300 – a faint patch over several stars. Missing from Sky Safari, the location is around star HD59752.

 

Sh2-274 Medusa – The clear outline of a crescent moon is seen. Underside seems “active” and “moving”. Unusual!
M1 Crab – Looks like a multi-celled bubbling patch. Nice.

 

IC410 – Wow – more 3D nebula! I see two black “eye sockets”. There are two tiny bright patches like two “nostrils” (the tadpoles). The left cheek section is the brightest part. Lovely!
Sh2-302 (Gum6) – a large patch next to 2 bright stars.

 

A Comet to finish!

C/38P Stephan-Oterma – With the Ethos10 traditional viewing resumed as I hunted and found 38P. It is a big comet with a bright core. There is a decent dust halo surrounding the core.

 

Thoughts of the observer.

• I packed myself off to bed, happy that I my chance to get into Orion had arrived a day early (you cannot trust the weather forecasts). I knew I had managed to observe many of the small Sharpless that the Borg107 cannot reach. After confirming my notes and my Sharpless tables in Bracken, I make that 20 new Sharpless objects (to me) tonight.
• Previously, I had spent time marking stars in Sky Safari where the “missing” Sharpless objects “should be”. It was nice to have some success last night in finding the missing! – I have noted the star location details above should you wish to add them into your Sky Safari lists.
• I saw some wondrous sights, the Flame (a favourite of mine) was tremendous and night vision has moved the big dob’s view to another level, it was just great to see all the details on either side of the main trunk.
• The Horsehead is no longer a disappointing patch near the awesome Flame. Tonight, it puffed out its chest and stood its ground with the Flame. It became an “object worth seeing” at last. I also need to investigate the fine white line detailing within IC434 a lot more in the coming weeks…
• I never expected M42 had more to give but boy was I wrong. It was quite rightly the highlight of the morning and I saw so many new unseen features that I hope I was able to get them down on paper for you to enjoy. An honourable mention goes to M43 (always a disappointment) which really came to life at last, revealing intricate detailing that I never knew existed.
• Considering that I started observing at 1930hrs (with the Borg) and I did not finish until 0415hrs (with the dob), that was a pretty long session of over 8 hours!
• Finally, a big thank-you to my Nexus unit for enabling me to "find & observe" all these targets.

 

Hope you enjoyed my trip.
Clear Skies,
Alan

[GordonD]

My goodness. That sounds like an incredible session!!

Great Report too - thanks.

[Littleguy80]

Excellent report, Alan. Do you think viewing objects like M42/M43 and the Horsehead with normal visual setup will hold the same appeal after seeing them in night vision?

[GavStar]

52 minutes ago, Littleguy80 said:

Excellent report, Alan. Do you think viewing objects like M42/M43 and the Horsehead with normal visual setup will hold the same appeal after seeing them in night vision?

That’s a great question Neil, and I’m interested to see Alan’s reply.

I’ve thought a fair bit about precisely this over the past few months and I’ve come to the conclusion that on emission nebulae such as those you mention, I just can’t see me going back to a normal visual setup - the NV views are just so much better it’s not a fair comparison. 

Obviously I’ll still use my normal eyepieces for planets and open clusters but I note from cloudy nights that many US observers are NV only.

[Eastman]

Excellent report Alan, 

19 hours ago, alanjgreen said:

M1 Crab – Looks like a multi-celled bubbling patch. Nice.

Must be great, to see so much more then a faint fuzzy.

[alanjgreen]

9 hours ago, Littleguy80 said:

Excellent report, Alan. Do you think viewing objects like M42/M43 and the Horsehead with normal visual setup will hold the same appeal after seeing them in night vision?

My quick "off the cuff" answer is that "I do not see me ever attempting to view Nebula without Night Vision again".

However, if I spend a couple of minutes thinking about it, then my answer changes to " I do not see me ever attempting to view Nebula (that I have seen with Night Vision) without Night Vision again". This is a subtle change to the sentence but there are many nebula (especially Blue - like the WitchHead for example - that are hard to get anything with NV (I may need to get a narrowband OIII to try).

Certainly, those I have now seen with NV (Veil included), I do not see me improving that view by going back to the Ethos21 and visual filters.

 

Does this mean the end of my Ethos collection? Definately, "NO!".

I am a "Galaxy man" first and foremost and whilst I have seen many "improve with NV" (especially edge on and have seen clear spiral arms in large side on such as M100 and Fireworks), the smaller "grey smudges" are inferior with NV and I cannot for example see me deciding that "I don't want to see banks of galaxies in a Leo widefield with the Ethos21 ever again".

Galaxy season will be along in a couple of months, so lets see how much use the NV gets up against the mighty Ethos21 and Ethos10 with the 20". But I would also say that if I only had a 4" frac at my disposal then the galaxy experience with NV must be well beyond any traditional eyepiece experience.

 

Finally, globular clusters and tiny open clusters must get a mention. I don't see me using eyepieces on these objects again in either scope (with the exception of getting the Ethos 8mm onto M13 in the dob). The sheer number of tiny open clusters that just jump out at you when panning with NV is amazing. These tiny objects are just missed completely without NV.

 

Comets are another of my favourite objects and I had to use the Ethos10 to see 38P the other night. I have spotted smaller comets with NV but the tight fov makes finding them a bit of a challenge. I would probably reach for an eyepiece when bagging comets.

 

Larger open clusters are just better with eyepieces. The double cluster is nice with NV but better without. Carolines Rose is terrible with NV and one of my favourites when using eyepieces.

 

For planets then you just need eyepieces.

 

So, my conclusion is that I am not rushing to sell off my eyepieces just yet.

Alan

[Littleguy80]

Thanks Alan. Very interesting response. It seems to boil down to using the right tool for the job. NV can’t be beaten on most Nebula but definitely has its limitations too. 

[Littleguy80]

10 hours ago, GavStar said:

That’s a great question Neil, and I’m interested to see Alan’s reply.

I’ve thought a fair bit about precisely this over the past few months and I’ve come to the conclusion that on emission nebulae such as those you mention, I just can’t see me going back to a normal visual setup - the NV views are just so much better it’s not a fair comparison. 

Obviously I’ll still use my normal eyepieces for planets and open clusters but I note from cloudy nights that many US observers are NV only.

Even though I don’t have NV it’s something I follow with interest. It seems to have all the fun of traditional visual observing. The technology simply enhances the views. The targets that can be seen are stunning. I’m certainly sold on it. Just need to sell a kidney, or perhaps a child, or two  

[PeterW]

.... it has its place. Not a do-all, but not as one trick as a h-alpha solar telescope. The worse your skies the greater the impact (though as Alan keeps showing, it gives more with better skies and bigger scopes.... not the “end of aperture fever” some of us might have hoped for!

Your Sharpless list will be a good resource for us all.

PEter