27 Jan - Big Dob sees Nebula, Comets & more arms in the brightest galaxies (Night Vision)

[alanjgreen]

Date: Sunday 27th January 2019. 2230-0215am
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).
Filters: Chroma 5nm Ha filter.
Moon: 46% (from 0130am)

 

Make a start on Milky Way Nebula.

As Orion was now past its best position from my shed, I headed straight into its heart to see the big hitters before it was too late! I had the 55mm Plossl and 5nm Chroma Ha filter loaded.

M42, M43, Flame, Horse head – Were all nice but signs were that the transparency was not at its best as I have seen them all better. Of course, I was not helped by the fact the shed wall was taking away some light from the big mirror.

Running Man NGC1973 – I got a fleeting glimpse of a bright patch around 3 stars and had just started to look for the black finger above and the two sideways legs underneath when cloud passed over and took it away. I stayed a few minutes but did not get the brightness back of the initial “look”. The fleeting glimpse did however give me some optimism that the Running Man can be observed directly if and when the conditions & location are right.

Rosette – The Rosette was another story. It was stunning – maybe my best ever view? – it was lush with nebula on all sides of the centre star cluster. I noted two brighter patches to the LHS and one brighter area to the RHS. The “black veins” stood out well underneath and I lingered a while to have a proper look.

Fox Fur & Cone – Another good one. The Fox Fur was large and I nudged around to try to see as much of it as I could. The Cone area was more of a challenge not helped by the fact that I started looking in the wrong area. The bright central cluster has cut a black area into the Fox fur and I was looking here for the Cone before I checked Sky Safari and moved up to the right to find the Cone, which was showing both sides well but still needed plenty of averted to appreciate it properly. Even with Night Vision, it’s still much tougher than the Horsehead.

Monkey Head & IC443 were next. Again they looked good but I have seen them better.

Then onto the Seagull, its low position from the shed making it a pretty faint target. The head and mouth were nice but the fainter Sharpless around the wings were beyond me. This is a target for the Borg107 which has no issues getting down so low.

Sh2-294 – This is a nice target. It shows as a midsize bright patch. There is a black section up the centre and it appears like a “rib cage” or “waistcoat” with two bright sides.
Sh2-291 – A much fainter mid-size patch. Some blackness inside. Has the appearance of a “curve”.
Sh2-289 – Brightish patch around a star.
Sh2-286 – small, faintish patch.
Sh2-287 – Large pear drop shaped. Varying black and bright within. Bottom edge is the brightest near a line of bright stars.
Sh2-288 – Very bright & tiny patch.

Medusa neb (sh2-274) – Fuzzy bright crescent outline with black interior. Seems to be hazy on LHS as if tendrils falling away. Nice target.

M67 open cluster with 5nm Ha filter still installed. I dropped onto M67 and it appears as a “clover” with three oval streams of stars catching the eye!

 

 

Next up, chasing some Comets.

It was now 0015hrs and the Milky Way had moved west of the shed, time to try some Comets using Sky Safari…

C/38P Stephan-Oterman – With the 55mm Plossl (x38) and no filter. I saw a small bright core with a surrounding dust head.

C/46P Wirtanen – The core appeared larger than 38P but with less brightness. A large dust head surrounded the core.

C/123P West-Hartley – I was unable to locate this comet in Ursa Major. I have updated Sky Safari Pro’s “comet orbit data” this morning so maybe I will have better luck next time?

 

 

Finally, back to the list of “brightest” galaxies.

Sticking with the "heated" 55mm Plossl and no filters. I moved onto my Sky Safari "bright galaxy observing list" ( Galaxy High Brightness.skylist  ).

NGC2683 – Bright edge-on galaxy. Central bulge and appearance of black swirls to RHS.

NGC3003 – Small, faint edge-on.

NGC2841 – Bright side-on. Bright core & centre with swirls around. Hints of detail in the black patches seen above and more faintly below. Nice.

NGC2681 Helix – Initially, a small bright core is seen but with time at the eyepiece a circular disk appears away from the core. The gap in between the disk and the core is black. Great.

NGC2537 Bear Paw – This was an unusual one! Very interesting appearance of a small fuzzy patch. As you look then it appears like two circles drawn on different planes. It does look like a “paw”!

NGC3184 – ARMS! At last, some clear arms. There is a central core with halo surrounded by a black circle. The backward S shape of the arms comes into view after a few seconds…

NGC3432 – appears as a thin pencil line. The core is only slightly brighter than the rest.

NGC3254 & SN2019np – A quick revisit to the bright supernova in NGC3254. Tonight the SN is much brighter and easily spotted just outside the dust disk of the galaxy.

M95 – ARMS! A thick central bar leads to circular arms. The arms are brightest near the bar. The galaxy has a bright core.

M96 – A bright core with a circular disk. Circular arms are hinted with more time at the eyepiece. Faint arms start at the ends of the central bar. The best view of the arms is LHS where they are small and away from the centre. Black patches appear above and below the galaxy.

M105/NGC3384/NGC3373 – Two very similar bright galaxies with bright core and small dust disk (elliptical) and one fainter (core can be seen) but longer companion. This galaxy (3373) has swirly (spiral) features.

NGC2903 – ARMS! There is a bright core with a central bar (there are brighter areas at the ends of the central bar too). There is a clear double arm on RHS. A single arm is seen on the LHS (this may also be a double arm which seems to be coming & going). The arms are quite short. Great.

M100 – ARMS! Two faint and full swirling arms are seen with time at the eyepiece. This is a mini M51. Very nice.

M99 - ARMS! Two long circular arms are seen leaving the central bar of the galaxy.

M98 – A long edge-on galaxy. A bright core and bright patch to RHS. Swirly arms are hinted to LHS. There is blackness on both sides.

NGC4216 – Edge on galaxy with a bright core. Blackness on both sides. Another small edge-on galaxy is seen nearby.

 

By now it was 0215 and the light of the moon was lighting up the west side of my shed. I was cold and decided that I had had enough for tonight.

 

Thoughts of the observer.

1. It was a shame that I missed Orion as I was really looking forward to enjoying the Sharpless around that area. But I did at least get a decent session in before the Devils Orb appeared.
2. Once again, I was able to see clear arms in five more galaxies with definite “hints” in others too. The key seems to be to spend time at the eyepiece and don’t have the gain turned up to much on the PVS-14.
3. It was great to get two comets into the mix. But a tinge of disappointment that I failed to bag a couple more…
4. The supernova in NGC3254 was easily seen – another highlight. I did try for the “other” supernova in UGC7534 but the Plough had not come around over the shed roof so I was severely restricted with light gathering abilities. I need to try after 3am to get any chance (or relocate the dob on the shed floor).
5. It was a pretty cold night (-2) with heaters running on the secondary and eyepiece. The scope had a layer of ice to be wiped off once I closed the roof and put the light on.

 

Clear Skies,
Alan

[JOC]

You saw all that with a 55mm plossl?  Well that's a slap in the face to all us hording our big collections of EP's.  Sounds like a great night.

[John]

2 hours ago, JOC said:

You saw all that with a 55mm plossl?  Well that's a slap in the face to all us hording our big collections of EP's.  Sounds like a great night.

I think the long focal length eyepiece is key to getting night vision tech to work well.

[alanjgreen]

22 hours ago, JOC said:

You saw all that with a 55mm plossl?  Well that's a slap in the face to all us hording our big collections of EP's.  Sounds like a great night.

Hi Joc,

Ha Ha, yes I have plenty of eyepieces in my collection too. But for night vision use I only have three really:  55mm Plossl, 35mm Panoptic & 27mm Panoptic.

These eyepieces allow me to get more mileage from my PVS-14 night vision.

Firstly, they allow me to achieve large exit pupils (14mm for the 55mm Plossl!), which would overpower a human eyeball but the PVS-14 has a 20mm objective so it can use all the light.

Secondly, any eyepiece over 27mm also produces the effect of strangely increasing the effective focal speed of my setup. The 55mm Plossl acts as a 0.5x reducer and effectively brings the dob to f2 which is much closer to the PVS-14's f1.2 thus increasing image brightness.

 

Further info can be found here...

HTH,

Alan