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DSO delights from deepest darkest Cornwall

RobertI

By RobertI
in Observing - Reports

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RobertI

RobertI

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Currently spending a week in Cornwall with fabulously dark and transparent skies. The cabin we are staying in has an unobstructed southerly aspect and we are treated to views of objects we can never normally see clearly from home. On our second day here the thin crescent moon had set early so armed with my 72ED frac on the Giro WR, with the Milky Way sparkling overhead, I explored Sagittarius and surrounding regions. 

 

Starting with Saturn and Jupiter, a surprising amount detail was visible considering their miserly elevation and the scope's small aperture. At 86x (the highest I could go) Saturn's equatorial banding was easily seen as was the Cassini division. Jupiter showed many light and dark bands and I think the GRS would have easily been seen if it was visible.

 

Next onto some DSOs:

The Wild Duck cluster M11 was  beautiful, compact, rich and well defined. It seemed like there was an awful lot more to see and would benefit from a more magnification and aperture.

The Eagle Nebula was well bounded and roughly circular with scattering of stars within.

The Swan Nebula was an unmistakable swan shape, very bright and well defined. My favourite object of the night.

The Lagoon Nebula was a very bright and large area of nebulosity filling most if the eyepiece field of view with with the 10mm Hyperion giving 43x.

The Triffid Nebula was smaller than the others and try as I might I could not see the dark lanes.

 

Then a walk around the rest of the sky, including:

The Saturn Nebula - easy to find and appeared as a small, fuzzy oval shape, more aperture and magnification needed for this one.

The Veil - the east and west portions were easily visible, slightly enhanced with a UHCE filter with lots of faint nebulosity visible in between. 

The 'wall' of the North American clearly visible with UHC.

The Dumbell, M27, looked wonderful, clearly showing the fainter parts of the oval 

I viewed numerous OCs the length of the milky way from the double cluster in Perseus, through Cassiopeia, Cygnus and Aquila through to M25 in Sagittarius.

The session lasted from 12:00 to about 02:30, by which time my feet were getting cold and the noises from the nearby woods were starting to freak me out! 

 
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Lurcher

Lurcher

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Brilliant write-up and report Rob. I haven't viewed the swan nebula yet so I will have to add that to my list of objects to look at the next time I'm out. Sounds good.

(Along with the triffid nebula and eagle nebula).

Thanks for adding the light maps. It does look a great place to go. I've always wanted to go to Exmoor or Dartmoor and enjoy the remoteness of those areas. It looks fairly close.

(I've just bought a 2nd hand Heritage 130P so I can get out to slightly more remote areas easily with a scope. (Although I've got to find or think of a suitable support or mount).

All the best.

 

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Trikeflyer

Trikeflyer

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Some of my absolute favourite objects.  The swan nebula is just awesome and draws me in every time, the wild duck cluster is one of my favourite messiers.  Perhaps there's a bird theme going on??

Sounds like you are having a great time, i'm envious!

Next year I've booked to stay near where you are (Eddington Lodge) they have 20 inch dob to use for guests so hopefully the skies will co operate. Oh that's gone and done it then!

Steve

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RobertI

RobertI

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Thanks Lurcher, I’m kind of wishing I had bought my 130P to Cornwall for its greater light grasp. Being so light weight it sits nicely on even the smallest mounts, the Giro WR on a heavy duty photo tripod carries it fine as long as you don’t go mad on the magnification! 

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RobertI

RobertI

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3 hours ago, Trikeflyer said:

Some of my absolute favourite objects.  The swan nebula is just awesome and draws me in every time, the wild duck cluster is one of my favourite messiers.  Perhaps there's a bird theme going on??

Sounds like you are having a great time, i'm envious!

Next year I've booked to stay near where you are (Eddington Lodge) they have 20 inch dob to use for guests so hopefully the skies will co operate. Oh that's gone and done it then!

Steve

Thanks Steve, Eddington Lodge is literally round the corner, I had a guided tour for future reference, superb set up, definitely want to give them a go sometime, you’ll have a great time. 👍 I was thinking how amazing the views would be through those dobs as I was peering through my 72mm glass!

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Stu

Stu

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Cracking report Rob. Fabulous descriptions of some wonderful objects. I don't get to view them often but do enjoy trawling up the Milkyway with a widefield refractor under a dark sky.

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Paul73

Paul73

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6 hours ago, estwing said:

Crody reservoir is one of the darkest spot in Cornwall...mike73 used to observe from there...his sketches are very impressive 

Do you mean Crowdy Reservoir? Can’t seem to find Crody reservoir.

Paul

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Stu

Stu

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33 minutes ago, Paul73 said:

Do you mean Crowdy Reservoir? Can’t seem to find Crody reservoir.

Paul

I checked back on previous posts here and yes, it is Crowdy Reservoir.

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niallk

niallk

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Great report - impressive list of targets with the 72ED!  The Swan is truly a great object, and the Saturn neb is beguiling.  Mike73's website of all his fantastic  sketches that @estwing mentioned was a great resource - I used to look it up after a night's observing to compare versus the details i was able to see.

I used to have it bookmarked, but think it has moved/gone now....?

Edited by niallk
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  • 2 weeks later...
Chris

Chris

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Posted (edited)

The 130p would have been great but crikey! What views you had with the ED72! Just goes to show, there is no substitute for dark skies!

Glad you had fun and cheers for the report :) 

Edited by Lockie
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RobertI

RobertI

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17 hours ago, Lockie said:

The 130p would have been great but crikey! What views you had with the ED72! Just goes to show, there is no substitute for dark skies!

Glad you had fun and cheers for the report :) 

Thanks Chris, your old Megrez 72 is still giving sterling service. ;)

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