First Light for new 300p Secondary Mirror - Baltimore Ireland 11th April 2020

[Captain Scarlet]

A couple of weeks ago I finally got around to fitting a new secondary mirror, a Hubble Optics 1/30 wave, to my 300p Newtonian. Last night was its First Light. Moon not up until the early hours, 21.6-7 on the SQM-L in the event, and a forecast that had been coming and going all day, with a band of cloud undecided whether it was going to interfere at 8pm or midnight. I set up anyway during the early evening with the 12” newt on one side of my AZ-EQ6 and my 6” Intes mak plus some weights on the other.

As the light faded, things were looking good and as it happened the band of cloud only stopped play around 2330.

I’d prepared a list, including Tegmine aka zeta Cancri which came to my notice from others on the forum mentioning it; the main open clusters in Auriga again, M36, 37 and 38; M84 and the rest of Markarian’s Chain; M51 and a pair nearby, M63 and 94. There were others on the list but as the evening went on I was aware of the sky getting progressively snuffed out from the North West. It became a race and I had to abandon some of the targets over there and concentrate further South-East.

First up was Venus, obviously. It’s getting more and more interesting these days, it’s still high for a good 3 weeks and because it’s swinging around in its orbit to our side of the Sun and towards us, it’s getting increasingly “phased”. Although now rapidly losing altitude, even on 3rd May it will still be 27 degrees up half an hour after sunset but only 22% phase! Exciting.
Anyway, the view of the planet last night the best I’ve yet seen it, at 40%. It was so clear of CA and glare, and so sharp that I dragged my wife out to see. She was unimpressed, saying I’d shown her much better views of the Moon before, what was so special about this one, and why so small? I had to explain that it wasn’t the Moon, it was Venus. Then she was impressed haha! I am seriously looking forward to seeing it get slimmer and slimmer over the coming weeks.

Having got the obligatory Venus out of the way and having spent more time than anticipated on it (on her? … or is that only for astrologers?), I moved on to a forum-inspired target, a system or star called Tegmine. I’d read the name from various places on SGL but hadn’t properly absorbed what actually it was. I deliberately didn’t look it up, except to find its SAO number, to leave it as a surprise and see if I could discover for myself what the fuss was about.

Sure enough it was a nice double, a few easy arcsecs separation, but I could see at medium magnification, 150x, that one “end” of the double seemed very slightly different from the other, perhaps a very slight elongation? I put in the 6mm for 250x, and the difference was slightly more apparent, so I went for the Delos 3.5mm, 430x. My God, there they were, plain as day, three dots, two very close together but definitely a separation. Lovely. The seeing must have been good. Definitely one to note for the future and I now understood the fuss. I’d loved to have spent time trying with the little Intes as well, but I was aware of the approaching clouds and left that for another time.

Next, I went for some of my Auriga targets, M36, 37 and 38. M37 was first, I wanted another better-informed look at that remarkable much redder star in the exact centre, and there it was again, knowingly this time. Very nice. M36 and 38 also good but I moved on from them quickly.

I skipped Auriga’s “double-double” (SAO 58502 and pals) and moved South to M84 as a starting point to “cruise” Markarian’s Chain. I found the initial trio, M84 M86 and NGC 4388, and not having time to identify any of the others, simply dabbed the “left” and “down” keys on my handset from time to time for galaxy after galaxy after galaxy to heave into view: mesmerizing. There were so many of them! Next time I’ll concentrate on the area with a chart, something I’ve not used yet.

I could see time was running out, as Auriga was now becoming engulfed, so I moved on to M51, and was treated to, by a very long distance, the most spectacular view of it I have ever had. Not just 2 cores (and so bright!) but highly evident spiral detail, most unexpected, and far more than I would have guessed would be visible from simply looking. After spending some fascinated time on that, I quickly moved on to nearby neighbours, M63 and M94, both galaxies. I hadn’t knowingly researched these (I still haven’t though I shall) so didn’t know what to expect or what I was really looking at, I simply “ticked” them and moved on.

By now I had minutes if not seconds left so I finished with a quick view of Izar, a double in Bootes, new to me, very nice, and packed up for the night.
As I mentioned, this was First Light for my new high-quality secondary mirror on my newt, 70mm for 70mm, very obviously better-made from its general finish, and without the extra-spike-inducing straight edge to the silvering that all the Skywatcher ones seem to have. Did it make a noticeable difference? Who knows? My views of Venus were breathtaking and glare-free, but so they were from the Intes. Stars were generally lovely and Tegmine was still crisp and well-defined even at 430x, and the view of M51 completely blew me away. So I’m happy with whatever contribution the mirror made to all that.

Thanks for reading, Magnus

 

[Captain Scarlet]

... second clear night of a few in store apparently last night, Monday was the occasion of second light for my new mirror.

although ostensibly a very clear night, even better than previously to the naked eye, in the event the Seeing was terrible. Polaris at high magnification was entirely free of diffraction rings, just a big wobbling splodge. I took in a few things in but it really wasn’t worth it and packed up quickly.

hopefully Tuesday night will be better...

 

 

[Captain Scarlet]

Last night the 4th clear night in a row, seeing not too bad but the wind was! Counter-to-forecast strongish NE and nowhere to easily set up to shelter from it. I’d prepared a list, but only got to item one on it and gave up: a beautifully bright Cat’s Eye Nebula was whizzing back and forth across the field of view!

Just for a bit of easy instant gratification I did look quickly at M13 and got the propeller in a patch of momentary lull.

list to be resumed, but cloud forecast for the next night or two.

 

Cheers, Magnus