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Observing the horsehead at Regent’s Park

GavStar

By GavStar
in Observing - Reports

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GavStar

GavStar

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Yesterday evening I went along to the Baker Street Irregular Astronomy meeting in Regent’s Park. It’s only the second time I’ve been, but it’s pretty popular with around 80 people and 20 scopes setup last night.

It’s also probably about the worst place you could have an Astro gathering. You can clearly see the BT tower lit up to the south and the sky is bright grey. It makes my South London back garden seem like a dark site. I’d estimate an SGL of 17-17.5. The observing site it also right by the cafe which has its bright white lights on all the time. But the attendees are very enthusiastic and clearly have fun observing  planets, lunar and brighter star clusters such as the double cluster or m45.

However, I had a different objective ?. I contacted Matthew (DirkSteele) the day before and said I was thinking of bringing along my night vision setup. However I had a meeting in Milton Keynes so Matthew kindly suggested he bring along his APM 105/6.2 so that we could give the NV a real challenge.

I arrived pretty early at around 6.45pm. I had an initial assessment of the skies at 1x using just the photonis 4g monocular and the chroma ha filter. (The more expensive Harder monocular I left at home given I was expecting it to be busy). This initial scan was not promising. M42 was bright but the rosette was much less obvious than in my garden. There were hints of the flame nebula. The relative lowness of these objects was not helpful due to the extreme milkiness of the skies. But higher up the California was okish. 

Matthew then arrived and setup up his scope. My monocular was attached to my 55 plossl to make an effective fiscal ratio of 3, the chroma Ha filter fitted and we we off. In Matthew’s scope this gave a fov of 3.5 degrees and a magnification of 12x. As an easy starter we went straight for m42 and i think Matthew was pretty surprised and pleased by the views. I had a look and this object was very similar to the views at a dark site - it’s just so bright that the NV delivers. M43 was clear, as was the fish mouth with lovely detail and the nebulosity curved round virtually completely to make an oval.

This clearly was a showpiece and we quickly had a queue of people wanting to see these views. Two older ladies were hilarious- with various expletives uttered as they observed! Quickly more people joined the queue as they were told this was the ‘best telescope’ to look through. It was great to see the interest and explaining what they were looking at and how the system worked. Several people took down details of the night vision monoculars. One older chap said he has been visually observing for around 4 years and this was the highlight by far. 

When the queues died down a bit, Matthew and I were keen to see how the NV would do on the fainter stuff. 

So up to the horsehead. The flame was immediately obvious albeit quite faint with limited constrast but the dark lane clearly visible. After a few seconds of careful study ic434 became apparent as a slightly angled brighter line going south from Alnitak. And then on the edge of perception both Matthew and I could see fleeting glimpses of a darker notch in the line. There it was - the Horsehead in Regent’s Park ?

We then had an emission nebulae cruise round the skies. Rosette was visible around the central star cluster but faint and with no real detail. California was much better with the two brighter lanes clearly running horizontally through the fov. A circular blotch of the flaming star was found by Matthew. 

With Orion heading lower now we changed the filter to a 642 Astronomik and went galaxy hunting. M81 and m82 were surprising good. Although small they were very clear with some mottling visible in the centre of m82. These objects brought another queue of people to see their first galaxies and real surprise when they were told they were seeing something 12 million light years away. 

For a final challenge I wanted to see the Iwamoto comet. We had a look around but unfortunately the battery on my monocular decided then was the time to run out and annoying I hadn’t brought a spare (they normally last for months - that’s the last time I don’t bring a spare!) But we’d had a good session and it was near pack up time. 

Quick glass of wine and a chat to finish and then pack up and head home on the tube.

Thank you again Matthew for bringing your lovely scope. A very fun evening and great to share the views with so many enthusiastic people.

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Paul73

Paul73

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Stargazing 1 : Light Pollution Zero !! Not something that we hear very often.

Each education authority should have one of these babies to take astronomy to city schools where many of the kids won’t haven seen a star. As always, it’ll come down to ££ and ☁️.

Paul

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DirkSteele

DirkSteele

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It was a great session.  I really enjoyed my time with the NV and am incredibly impressed with what we could see even from what is probably the most light polluted location in the UK.  Seeing the California Nebula and glimpsing the Horsehead is not something I would ever have thought possible in central London, especially with a 4" scope!

Thanks for bringing it Gavin!  Now I want one.

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RobertI

RobertI

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3 hours ago, DirkSteele said:

Now I want one.

Me too! :)  Sounds like you had a great evening, there is nothing more satisfying than getting a 'wow' from someone when you show them an object - you know you have created an amazing memory for them.

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GavStar

GavStar

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52 minutes ago, PeterW said:

Nice one. @GavStar another nice bit of spreading the word! The flaming star too, not the brightest. Did you try for the monkeyhead?

Peter

We didn’t PEter. Should have done but forgot about it. Flaming star seems to respond pretty well even in poor skies.

We were starhopping with an optical finder and with the very limited stars visible it was a challenge to find even things like the rosette - a situation when a goto mount would have been helpful. I’d like to get my fast Epsilon with my harder digital there sometime to see what difference that would make.

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DirkSteele

DirkSteele

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On 28/02/2019 at 14:24, Ceramus said:

Wow! I missed that. I was there last night with a humble Heritage 130 and a bit frustrated with the very bright cafe lights at full bast. Would have loved to see the HH and Cal Neb... Maybe next time?

The cafe lighting was certainly brighter than it has been in the past. Certainly made aiming at objects (like the Double Cluster) that were in the same direction as the Hub quite tricky.

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