Unexpected Orion Session

[AdeKing]

Forecast on CO for tonight wasn't great, but when I got home from visiting my folks, the sky was clear so I took a chance and set up the ED120 on the AZ Pro. 

Tonight was the first time that I'd used the ED120 on the AZ Pro and I was pleased to find that the mount was perfectly happy with it mounted, though it took a couple of seconds to settle after focusing.

After leaving the mount to do its auto setup and doing a 1 star align on Rigel I was ready to go and connected the phone to the wifi, fired up SkySafari and found an observing list for objects in Orion and off I went.

I started with M42 as this is the first time I've observed it this season and so popped in my ES24mm and an Oiii filter as my eyes weren't properly dark adapted.  M42 looked fantastic and I got lost in it for about half an hour.  After removing the Oiii the A-D stars of the trapezium were plainly visible and so I put in a 17.5mm Morpheus that I've just picked up before putting in a 7mm.  I could clearly see the E star with the 7mm, but no sign of F, so I popped in the 3-6mm Nagler Zoom which I've been desperate to try out, and after fiddling with the zoom and focus I found that I got a glimpse of what I thought was F within the diffraction ring of C.  I made a sketch and sat observing this for a while to make sure before moving on.

Next up was M43 with the nebulosity becoming apparent with averted vision when I looked back towards M42, though I couldn't really make out much shape or structure so I moved on.

The open cluster of NGC1662 was next on the list with a tight irregular cluster of stars off-centre within a large loose ring of stars.  Most of the stars observed were a slightly yellowish white to my eyes.

Next on the list was NGC1788 which SkySafari listed as a bright nebula.  I could not see this at all despite trying both a UHC and Oiii filter so I moved on.

23 Orionis was a nice easy double with a yellowish white primary and a slightly bluish white secondary to the NE of the primary.

Delta Orionis (Mintaka) proved to be another easy double with the primary and secondary both white in colour and the secondary virtually due north of the primary.

HR1887 / SAO132301 was another easy double of the same colour and roughly equal brightness in amongst of nebulosity from M42.  To the NE within the FOV of the 17.5mm Morpheus was the close double of Nair Al Saif.

Collinder 69 was a really nice loose open cluster at the top or Orion with a lovely close yellow coloured double of Meissa.

NGC1981 another open cluster with a sinuous line of stars aligned roughly N-S and a nice arc shaped collection of bright stars in the SE of the FOV of the 17.5mm Morpheus.

At about 23:15 heavy dew suddenly descended and everything was quickly soaked and as I was beginning to feel the cold, I figured that I'd call it a night.

Very pleased with the new to me 17.5mm Morpheus and even more pleased with the new to me 3-6 Nagler zoom.  The latter was a bit of an impulse buy as I didn't think I'd use it much, but after using it tonight, I'm satisfied that it will see enough use to justify the extravagance of its purchase.  The ability of being able to fine tune the high magnification to suit the conditions without having to mess about with swapping eyepieces was really satisfying and the fact that it is truly parfocal throughout the zoom range was even better.

A thoroughly enjoyable session and after comparing my field sketch to the attached diagram of trapezium stars, I'm confident that I did manage to see both the E and F stars tonight.  I have seen the E star on a number of occasions previously, but tonight is the first time that I've seen F.  Very pleased indeed and am now off to bed.  Night all.

[RobertI]

Well done on getting the F component, which I have just failed to get with my 100mm achro - I did get the E though! 🙂 Nice report. The AZPro looks like a nice mount. 

[AdeKing]

7 hours ago, RobertI said:

Well done on getting the F component, which I have just failed to get with my 100mm achro - I did get the E though! 🙂 Nice report. The AZPro looks like a nice mount. 

Thanks, I've been trying unsuccessfully to get F for at least 2 seasons. Next challenge is to get it in the ED100. 

The AZPro is turning out to be a cracking mount after a couple of teething probs. So long as I remember to charge it up after each session and remember to clear alignment data at the end of the session it performs really well. 

Next outing I'll try the 102 f/11 on it to see how it fares but I suspect it might be a bit too long. 

[Stu]

Excellent session Ade. The 120EDs are lovely scopes, well done on getting F with it. I was very tired after a long journey yesterday so didn't venture out when it was clear early on, and a bit later when feeling better I looked out and it was pretty foggy outside!

[Mark at Beaufort]

Excellent report Ade. The 'F' star can be difficult and a good frac is far better for this task than a Newt. I also had terrible dew last night which made me finish just after 10pm.

[AdeKing]

48 minutes ago, Stu said:

Excellent session Ade. The 120EDs are lovely scopes, well done on getting F with it. I was very tired after a long journey yesterday so didn't venture out when it was clear early on, and a bit later when feeling better I looked out and it was pretty foggy outside!

Thanks Stu, the mist and dew came in later here but very suddenly. I came back from my folks yesterday but was determined to get out last night and am glad I made the effort. However, the very strong coffee at 21:00 before I went out meant that I was still trying to sleep at 03:00. Lesson learned. 

42 minutes ago, Mark at Beaufort said:

Excellent report Ade. The 'F' star can be difficult and a good frac is far better for this task than a Newt. I also had terrible dew last night which made me finish just after 10pm.

Thanks Mark, I don't recall ever seeing it in the 8" though it is probably a case that I was less aware of it then as I was still starting out. 

When the dew came in last night it was very quick and very heavy and finding everything suddenly dripping was what prompted me to call it a night. I could still see loads of stars but the objective was fogged as I hadn't needed much heat from the dew heater earlier on and as such the dew defeated it before I realised what was happening. 

It was the first time that I'd really looked at Orion this year and the lack of brilliance from Betelgeuse was very noticeable. It was still there obviously but blended in with the rest of the constellation rather than standing out like it normally does.