Sunday night observing

[Whistlin Bob]

Sunday night was one of those rare occasions when a clear night is accurately forecast in advance. Shame it was work the next day, but the forecast meant I able to set up both imaging rigs and the dob in the daylight and get going as soon as the sun set..

The observing was pretty good- I really wanted to make the most of the winter targets that are now drifting away and had good views of Venus, M42, the Running Man and the Flame. Conditions were good so I had a go at the Horsehead with a number of eyepieces and filters, but no joy. Having seen it once (at a darker site) it always seems to be teasingly on the edge of vision- the bank that it sits in is often just discernible and so logically you would expect a gap in that bank to be visible too…

To make life easier I spent a bit of time on the Pleiades. It may sound funny, but after 5 years of looking at it, including 2 with the telescope I’m using now, it seems I’m only just now learning how to look at this. When I first look, the magnification of the scope (it’s 1650mm fl) makes the stars relatively sparse. Some strong nebulosity does appear quite quickly, but it’s only after literally minutes of just gazing around the object, wobbling the scope and moving just off the object and back on again that the filmy nebula away from the brighter bits emerges. Really gorgeous. And maybe I’m a just a bit slow on the uptake!

Inspired by the report below I then moved into Perseus- 

Starting with with Mirium (lovely yellow/white double and new to me), I then moved through Theta Perseus (really nice colour, but companion very faint), Melotte 20 (better in the finder!), M34 (quite sparse- I must admit I couldn't see the hunting bird), the Double Cluster (always lovely), and Iota Cass (I couldn’t see the colours very well this time, which was a bit disappointing at it has been very obvious before).

I then moved up to Ursa Major for M51 (it was quite high, the 2 cores were bright, and the bridge was visible, the arms less so, but a nice view all the same) and NGC 2403 which I recently imaged, but which was hardly visible in these skies. Next up was M106, but the clouds beat me to it and it was time to pack up.

All this time I had my Star Adventurer doing a wide field view of the sky to my south. I know this isn't the imaging section, but I thought it might be instructive to post a couple of the images to make a point about flipping light pollution. Firstly- here's a stretched & calibrated stack of 60sec exposures under a Bortle 5 sky:

The blueish tone comes from a CLS filter which is actually blocking a good chunk of the pollution. Isn't it a miracle that we can see anything through this? The bottom left corner is the sky glow from the town that I live in a suburb of. I then used Pixinsight DBE tool to digitally remove it and show what's actually there (I had to crop it a bit as well- the bottom left was beyond the software to fix):

The red is at a wavelength that's difficult for us to see, but the rest of it is hidden by light pollution- it really underlines for me what most of us have to battle with much of the time. If this isn't a motivator to get out to dark skies then I don't know what is!

[Stu]

Excellent report Bob, a most productive night. You must have decent skies together the Flame, which scope were you using? I've still not managed to combine dark skies with this object being well positioned, perhaps another 20 years will allow it 🤪🤪

[Ciaran Meier]

Hello Bob

The first photo looks very familiar 😐. 

I observe mainly from Belfast so have to make do with the brighter clusters and DSO's. Doubles are  available also. Apart from M42 nebula are out of the question.  Our local council are slowly but surely installing the latest low energy street lamps so hoping for some improvement  in that respect.  I use an 8 inch newt and the 15x70 bins. 

Nice to hear of others making the best of it.  Enjoyed your report. 

All the best

Ciaran. 

[Whistlin Bob]

Cheers Stu- it's a 14" dob I'm using. Yes my first view was at a darker site- I do find with these things once you've seen them it becomes much easier to get them the next time. With the flame it's the dark lane down the centre directly beneath Alnitak that reveals it- what I'm seeing at home is a darkening of the glare from the Star perhaps more than the nebula itself. 

[Whistlin Bob]

Thanks Ciaran- good luck with the low energy bulbs. They made my skies better for observing but worse for imaging because the LED is much harder to filter out, but even though it's brighter it's usually better directed.

[Ships and Stars]

Great report. Anytime I can see the flame nebula from home under moderate LP I count that as a win. I tried for the HH in a 20" from home several times on the better nights, no joy. SQM readings 20.1 to 20.3 so far (only had the meter a week).

I have a 300p as well, was really tempted to go for the 14" 350p but now not sure the SW base would have fit through the doorway! The 300p just squeaks past. The OOUK bases are much more svelte.

The good thing about a 14" I imagine is that you can still take it out to darker spots with most cars should the urge and timing come together! 

[Whistlin Bob]

Thanks S&S. Yes- definitely a good session- and I know I'm luckier than many being Bortle 5- it's just that the photography brings home objectively how much is hidden from so many of us by light pollution. 

My Orion 14" is a USA model so made by Synta and a close relative of the Skywatcher models. It's a bit of a unit, but it does pack down nicely and goes in the back of a Focus without dropping the seats- so pretty portable too. So long as you don't want to lift it once assembled! (75kg!!!) 

[grjsk]

excellent report! Very nice to hear that you found some inspiration in my own report; makes it a lot more satisfying to make them!