Baltimore, Ireland: 3rd Starry Night. Fri 3rd May, 2245-0100. SQM-L: 21.65-21.80. APM-LZOS 105/650 & SW 12” Newt.

[Captain Scarlet]

Having had just two clear nights during our fortnight Easter trip to Baltimore, when our final night, Friday, beckoned clear I just had to set up again. The sky didn’t seem quite as clear as previous nights, but compared to SW London I had no right to complain. Star tests were showing diffraction rings fairly energetically wobbling around.

As soon as astro dark had set in my SQM-L read 21.65, though I did take a couple of readings during astronomical twilight with the Sun at 13 & 15 degrees below the horizon, getting 20.78 and 21.25 respectively.

Once again I’d prepared a list. I stayed on 36x for the 105 and 150x for the 12”, no changing of eyepieces as I didn’t want to be too late up for travelling home the next day. My shortest eyepiece is the Delos 6mm which would’ve given me 250x, but would also have caused me to spend more time hunting around or changing eyepieces, so I chose to stick with the 10mm for the night (and the DeLite 18.2 on the 105).

-    NGC 3628. The third member of the Leo Triplet which I missed last time. As expected, the central dust lane was quite evident. I moved on quickly to M65 and M66: they were still there.
-    I also revisited M57, which last time I was obscured by dew on my secondary. A really nice sight, a bright fuzzy dot through the 105 and a bright polo in the 12”. It could clearly have done with more magnification, but I wanted to “get through the list”.
-    M82, the Cigar Galaxy again, good to see the oblique stripe.
-    M92, M3, M13, M3 but not M5 (can’t see through walls!). A series of the bright globulars, these are truly marvellous objects through a 12”. I also confirmed that M13 and M92 could be discerned with naked eye. I didn’t try the others.
-    M86 in the midst of the Virgo Cluster, I used it as a launch-pad to cruise around looking at all the fuzzies, of which there were plenty evident. Next time I’ll have a book with me, perhaps Bracken, to start identifying them. For now it was good enough just to take them all in.
-    M104 FAIL. Once again, stone wall getting in the way.
-    SAO 33693 aka Herschel’s Garnet Star. It is indeed VERY orange. I’ll have to do the Carbon Stars more systematically at some stage.
I now had a few Planetary Nebulae on the list. I stayed on 150x, but they could all have done with lots of extra magnification. Next time.
-    NGC 6826 the Blinking Nebula. An obvious central star, and an obvious diffuse halo. And yes, they did seem to alternate, sometimes I could see one or the other, but not both simultaneously. Very odd.
-    NGC 2392 & 2371 (Eskimo and Double Bubble) both obscured by wall.
-    NGC 6543 Cat’s Eye. Really, extremely bright, definitely oval-shaped and I think I was aware of the central star, but can’t be sure. Definitely a candidate for more magnification than 150x. Again next time.
-    I tried next for IC 342, the Hidden Galaxy. I failed to find it, it remained hidden.
-    Finally, because it’s a double I love, I pointed at Albireo and enjoyed the blue/yellow for a while.

It was now about 1am, I couldn’t be too late because of travelling next day, so it was time to pack up. The problem was, it was quite cold, and although my core and feet were fine with a down jacket and a pair of Uggs, my hands were very cold from having been touching so much metal. So cold, in fact, that they’d lost a lot of strength. I was barely able to undo the tube rings to get the 12” off.
Also, the wind had been steadily picking up while I was observing, and with the 12” newt pointed in a certain direction it became a very large flute, producing a loud low hum.

Anyway, still good to get a first tick on many new objects, tasters for the future!

Cheers, Magnus.

[niallk]

Great report Magnus, I'm itching to get my scope down to West Cork / Kerry again   it has never hummed to me though 

Nice going to detect those globs naked eye!

The Cats Eye is a great object, I've pushed up the mag on this before with an o-iii and detected two intersecting ovals - took a bit of close study from my East Cork skies.  Never heard of the Hidden Galaxy before - will look it up.

-Niall

 

[Eastman]

On ‎07‎/‎05‎/‎2019 at 17:08, Captain Magenta said:

M13 and M92 could be discerned with naked eye. I didn’t try the others.

Great report and nice objects. Must be good skies.