She didn't say 'It's just a fuzzy blob' ??

[Stu]

On Thursday night I wanted to try to spot the asteroid Pallas, having seen it reported on here a few times recently. I was expecting cloudy skies, but there was a clear spell initially, followed by some fairly heavy cloud with the odd break, and finally a very nice clearer spell after around 10.30pm.

My Mewlon has become my workhorse scope these days, and mounted on the GP-DX it is very quick to get up and running each time. I can escape out of the alignment routine on the SkySensor controller and just use the existing alignment. It works beautifully, even better when using SkyFi, which I did on Thursday night to make finding Pallas easier.

It was actually pretty trivial, the goto plonked it right in the centre of the field of view, and with the correct image circle on Skysafari the star field matched perfectly. It's not that I don't enjoy star hopping to find targets, but under poorer skies and particularly with patchy cloud and not that long available, I would far rather find the target than have a wasted session. The image attached shows the view and position as I saw it.

I had a scoot around a few more objects, having been disappointed with M3 the other night I gave it another go and was delighted that it resolved far better than before, perhaps better transparency or just the moon being further out of the way. Popping my observing hood over my head also really helped the contrast and those stars to pop out. At around this point Mrs Stu wandered into the garden to have a chat. I persuaded her to sit and have a look at M3, which she did, and for once managed to resolve the stars in the cluster, I even got her using averted vision! Pallas was met with slightly less enthusiasm although inhave already prepared her for it being 'just a star'! Nice to have a little company for once

Gemini appeared in a clear patch, so the Eskimo seemed worth a go, and indeed it was. Nice structure at higher power, enhanced by a UHC and the hood again.

I don't usually bother with galaxies from home, and often consider that they are pretty much invisible. But last night M51 showed well at around x120 using my APM 20mm; the power and exit pupil of around 1.7 keeping the sky background darker and the image scale helping visibility. The two bright cores showed well, with hints of the outer haloes of the arms. I have plans to take this scope to a dark site on my Sphinx mount to really stretch its legs. Perhaps this autumn that will happen.

M82 looked pretty good at similar power, and even at x193 with the Docter 12.5mm, the central structure showing up well. I confess I had never seen NGC3077 before despite its proximity to these two often seen objects, but there it was, a fairly faint oval, brightening in the centre.

The Needle was barely discernable, I didn't spend long on that one, amazing how much brighter and dramatic it appears in a larger scope under dark skies.

M65 and M66 appeared obvious with their parallel orientation but I couldn't get NGC3268 which I always harder despite similar brightness. It is larger though so surface brightness will be lower.

Finally I fancied challenging to see if I could see anything of Markarian's chain. M84, 86 and NGC4438 were the only ones I could get, but still I was quite happy with that. A mag 10 galaxy from my back garden is better than I was expecting with the 8". The Mewlon does seem to have nice contrast which helps pull these objects out of the murky. I knew what would happen but I did try the 56mm Plossl to get a wider field of view, but the larger exit pupil meant that the sky background was completely washed out. Two of the galaxies were still visible but the view was much worse than at higher power.

I was encouraged by the results I got in this session, and am continuing to enjoy the scope and mount. The combination of enough aperture, top notch optics, an accurate goto linked to Skysafari and an easy setup have increased the amount of observing I've been doing which is great.

[JeremyS]

Nice report, Stu. Good to hear the Mewlon is performing to expectations. The legendary high contrast optics are definitely helping. Have you used at a truly dark site yet? Should give amazing views.

Nice that Mrs Stu was suitably impressed too!

[Paz]

That does sound like a good scope. I'm the same regarding galaxies, I don't normally try for those from home.

[Stu]

27 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

Nice report, Stu. Good to hear the Mewlon is performing to expectations. The legendary high contrast optics are definitely helping. Have you used at a truly dark site yet? Should give amazing views.

Nice that Mrs Stu was suitably impressed too!

Thanks Jeremy. Not used at a decent dark site yet but I'm encouraged enough that the views should be excellent when I do. I had to sort out a way of mounting it on my Sphinx because it has a Losmandy plate which I don't want to remove. Am all sorted now with an adaptor so will give it a go whenever I get the chance. Might not be before the darkness goes for the summer, so perhaps autumn now.

[barkis]

You surely enjoyed that session Stu. Pleased the skies improved as you got further into journey. It's a given you are at home with that setup, and the goto has done a great job of saving you precious time. It's nice that Mrs Stu. Shows some interest in what you enjoy so much too, even if she doesn't voice too many Wows ?.   I gave up on my Mrs, when she insisted on going to the wrong end of the scope when I invited her to have a look at something. Deliberate on her part I reckon,  

Great Report matey, and will serve to inspire anyone reading your post.

Ron.