Welsh holiday skies

[PeterW]

With the flurry of posts from people I thought it rude not to add my own from the end of
My holiday in wales last week. Spent a week in far Pembrokeshire in a barn conversion, the moon rose soon after full darkness and I had a couple of very short sessions truncated by cloud or the moon. Skies were mag 21.4, but with local house lights that were tricky to totally avoid. 

 

The only kit I had bought was a recently acquired set of APM 70mm 45degree binoculars, mainly bought for daytime use as a more potent spotting scope. Let me spot seals a mile or more away and rafts of Manx shearwaters way out to sea at 30x with a lovely sharp 80degree field of view. Used on a manfrotto 190 tripod with a nice fluid head,  by tightening the tension it was able to still provide a steady view up to close to the zenith.

Although I had brought the green laser with me and part of the mounting for it, I had left the important bit behind!! Luckily the laser itself is able to rest in little groove along the binocular handle, so I could use it as a finder as intended. I mostly used the supplied 18mm (22x) flat field  eyepieces 
The Lagoon was very low with little detail. The omega (swan shaped) and eagle further up were much clearer, as was the rich open cluster ngc6604 and the various star clouds up through M11.
The two eyes view having much better tiny faint stars and using averted vision seemed much easier on nebulae that one eyed. I am going to get some 24mm ep for the richest view from dark sites and maybe also get some dew bands so I don’t get my sessions cutoff in the future.

Next opportunity was from some relations with a south facing garden, in Llanbedr in the Brecon Beacons National Park. Although the streetlights were new full cut off LED types they partially illuminated the garden and faintly lit up a house wall nearby too. I have reported it as a nuisance so hopefully will improve soon for them.
After a long, warm afternoon with a BBQ, gave an impromptu view of Saturn and Jupiter to several people who’d asked what the bright stars were. Good deed done and with darkness  falling I set out to seeing what I could find. The Milky Way was clearly visible with the Cygnus rift, though a little less contrasts as before. The Sagittarius starcloud was great with so many little stars spread across the field of view. The eagle and omega nebulae nearby were clearly visible too. Using skysafari (and red colour scheme hack on my phone), I was able to look for things to observe (as I don’t get to see this bit of sky from home well), still got to mag 21.2.
M22 nearby was large, though at this magnification the globs didn’t quite resolve (need a bigger set of bins?!)
Went looking in ophiuchus (a constellation I don’t really know), surprised to find M10 and M12 so easily and only a field of view or so apart. Upto M13 which is easy to find and then I tried for M51, which I was surprised to see as a distinct double fuzz.
All up Cygnus the fields of view were just filled with stars, lots of unknown little asterisms. The eastern veil was quite easy, with its curved end, the other part less clear. I probably ought to get some UHC filters to help the views. I tried for the North America, but I am not so familiar with its location, there was definitely some nebulosity about, but I wouldn’t be confident over the shape.
Moving across the sky I picked up ngc457 (ET cluster) and the double cluster which was really good. M31 pretty much filled the field of view, one side definitely sharper defined than the other an M110 large and diffuse nearby. I would have had a go at M33, but it was too low. Finally headed over to M2, another glob that I have enjoyed before. People were starting to head to bed and as we were leaving the next day I thought it best to not get too late a night. I used to not think much of binoculars, but with a good, well mounted pair under good skies they certainly deliver a lot.

Peter

[Stu]

Lovely stuff Peter, glad you got a few sessions in. Definitely get some filters for the binoculars, I've had good success with them in the past, with 15x50 Canon IS and also 22x85s (I think that's what they were). I used to use an OIII for one eye and a UHC for the other as that's all I had and it seemed to work well.

[cotterless45]

Lovely report ! Dark skies rule every night ! Always worth taking bins on jollies!

Nick.