Observing report

[Barry-W-Fenner]

16 minutes ago, Stu said:

Under decent skies it would show in a finder but it certainly wasn’t in my 9x50 last night.

My sympathy Stu. I know exactly what you mean. As if this hobby isn't tough enough. The lp around our neck of the woods justs adds to the difficulty.

I had a look at the es 32mm you advised. It looks an excellent eye piece with an 82 degree field of view. It's a little out of my budget at present. Would you have any other suggestions. I wish I could remember what thread you and John gave me the advise!

 

Baz

[AdeKing]

I found M3 by accident last night when I overshot a star hop from Arcturus to Struve 1785.

Took me a while to work out where I'd gone wrong, as to start with I thought I was looking at a PGC object in the same area based on SkySafari but the field stars were wrong and then I worked it out.

I did find STF1785 when I worked out where I was and then backtracked though.

[Barry-W-Fenner]

11 hours ago, AdeKing said:

I found M3 by accident last night when I overshot a star hop from Arcturus to Struve 1785.

Took me a while to work out where I'd gone wrong, as to start with I thought I was looking at a PGC object in the same area based on SkySafari but the field stars were wrong and then I worked it out.

I did find STF1785 when I worked out where I was and then backtracked though.

Hi AdaKing.

Well at least you managed to locate M3 🙂  Was it an enjoyable target to view? I didn't get out last night, Very cloudy here..

 

Baz

[markse68]

Did you find Tegmine yet Baz? I find it by imagining a line through Gemini intersecting a line vertically up from Procyon and it’s a little to the left of that intersection- point the scope thereabouts and look for the brightest “star” in the finder 👍🤞

Edited April 17, 2020 by markse68

[Barry-W-Fenner]

5 hours ago, markse68 said:

Did you find Tegmine yet Baz? I find it by imagining a line through Gemini intersecting a line vertically up from Procyon and it’s a little to the left of that intersection- point the scope thereabouts and look for the brightest “star” in the finder 👍🤞

Hi mark,

I actually got so engrossed looking at clusters I completely forgot to look for Tegmine!  Your star hop looks a nice straight forward hop from Procyon (which I really like observing) I will give this a go next time out. Not sure when that will be though. The weather has turned rainy and Grey here.

 

Regards

 

Baz

[Barry-W-Fenner]

Morning all.

An update on last nights viewing, But 1st a couple of notes.

I will change the topic to name to just "Observing report" As I will ads to this thread from time to time.

Also I have created this in the "Observing Discussion" Section. It might be better moved to "Observing Reports"?

I set up "last night" Nice and early. Around 4pm as i like the scope on the patio 🙂 I managed to start viewing around 9pm

A quick look at Venus @ x300 mag and it was once again showing an excellent clear crescent phase. Always enjoyable, and pretty decent seeing which is a bonus!

My 1st target was a brief hunt for Tegmine again, And again I failed to locate it. To be honest I was rather impatient as I wanted to get some viewing under the belt so didn't give it the time required. My intention was to come back to it later after some clusters but I didn't get around to it! Maybe tonight then!

It was now open cluster time again and I spent a fair amount of time at x66 looking at the wonderful M35, Beehive and M67. As we have mentioned before, 3 stunning ope clusters. Very enjoyable observing the different colours, brightness and shapes these 3 have. The combination of tight and lose whitish stars in M35, The Orange triangular structures of the beehive & the faint but spiral like structure of M67. Brilliant! 

A peak at Algieba in Leo again next. This double has had quite a profound effect on me since reading about the distances between them. A real joy to look at give an understanding of the shear size of the galaxy!

As touched on in another thread star link was also passing through Leo I lined them up in the finder and watched about 6-8no pass through the eye piece @ x66  - This got tedious very quickly 🙂

Time for a globular hunt...

 

A look @Stu information above showed that M53 should be a very easy Globular to hunt down. I found this with the finder then started to view at various powers to try and resolve as best as possible. I found x150 to resolve this nicely and show a combination of fuzz and faint Stars. Very beautiful. 

Next I was determined to locate M3. So a quick look at the Soft Orange Arcturus then straight up. A bit of navigation from Sky Safari and I located M3 in the finder. 🙂 This Globular even more spectacular than M53 with the same viewing methods. However I tried to push my lack and observe at X240 This was to much power. I wanted to try and tease out a bit more detail as this Globular was resolving better than M53 - More than x150 but less than x240... A x2 barlow and my 12mm BST giving x200 was the answer. I found the perfect middle ground to get the best view. I sat for quite a while looking at M3 with my eye patch on, Relaxed at the eye piece with averted vision, More detail seemed to come and go but I could make out a huge number of stars very faintly & briefly. Absolutely amazing!

I now had my eye in for Globulars. Half of Hercules was peering over the front of the house roof. Fortunately for me I could just get to roughly where M13 should be. Again this was located through the finder and I used the same x200 method as above and tried to relax as best as possible. A very similar outcome to M3 but bigger and brighter! great stuff.

I had viewed these 3 globulars in the right order. From least impressive to most. Each one showing more than the last. A great 2hrs at the eye piece 🙂

 

I am interested to know other members techniques at viewing globulars. Such as what sort of power used and best ways to try and tease out more detail.

I hope you all managed to get some great viewing at the eye piece last night.

 

Cheers

 

Baz

 

 

 

 

[Barry-W-Fenner]

Forgot to mention on my report. Had a good look at M45 also, it's a must!
Can't believe I forgot about it 😁

 

[Barry-W-Fenner]

I went for a wander at 4am this morning to search for Jupiter, Saturn and Mars. Managed to get a view between houses and take a little shot.
 

If I have the energy I might have another go at globulars again tonight. I found x200 to be the right mag to resolve nicely. Any advice for the best methods to view globes? Is there an ideal power? 

 

Baz

 

[John]

I find the view at of globulars stunning with my 12 inch at around 200x baz so I think you are on the right track

Under a dark sky I also use lower power on M13 to try and see a little galaxy that is in the same field of view:

 

[Barry-W-Fenner]

14 hours ago, John said:

I find the view at of globulars stunning with my 12 inch at around 200x baz so I think you are on the right track

Under a dark sky I also use lower power on M13 to try and see a little galaxy that is in the same field of view:

 

Thanks John. Great to know that in your experience 200x is around the right power. I bet the extra apertura is a big benefit when viewing Globes. I could see them well but really needed to concentrate and relax with some averted to get better views. I found that the detail keep kind of pulsing in and out of view. Huge numbers of stars slowly appearing then gone again. Seeing was good, However I am really hoping that I can get better seeing conditions and try to resolve more detail next time out.

I will lower the power on M13 and try to locate the galaxy also. Galaxy's have been quite tricky with my sky though. 

I decided against viewing last night. The 4am planet hunt had taken its toll and I wasn't in the right frame of mind. I have found that if I go out viewing tired I tend to lose concentration fast and it becomes frustrating.  Hopefully I am recharged for tonight!

 

Cheers

 

Baz

[Barry-W-Fenner]

Just a brief look at the moon and Venus this evening. The moon looked nice at x100 just about fitting the full phase in the field.  Always nice to go lower mag and get the full perspective.

I had a look at it through the new 3.2 at x375 but it was a bit blurry. Maybe it would look a bit better at full darkness.

Venus on the other hand looked very good at x375 a fairly clear view of the phase with only the slightest bit of fuzz.  That's very encouraging with Mars approaching fast..

Baz

[Guest]

38 minutes ago, Barry-W-Fenner said:

Just a brief look at the moon and Venus this evening. The moon looked nice at x100 just about fitting the full phase in the field.  Always nice to go lower mag and get the full perspective.

I had a look at it through the new 3.2 at x375 but it was a bit blurry. Maybe it would look a bit better at full darkness.

Venus on the other hand looked very good at x375 a fairly clear view of the phase with only the slightest bit of fuzz.  That's very encouraging with Mars approaching fast..

Baz

 

Glad the 3.2mm eyepiece worked out for you. 👍  That's very similar to what I saw in the eyepiece with Venus, but my photo skills aren't as good as your's.  Perhaps you could Barlow it, just for a laugh...

Edited May 4, 2020 by Guest

[Barry-W-Fenner]

31 minutes ago, merlin100 said:

Glad the 3.2mm eyepiece worked out for you. 👍  That's very similar to what I saw in the eyepiece with Venus, but my photo skills aren't as good as your's.  Perhaps you could Barlow it, just for a laugh...

My camera skills are poor to say the least haha.

I actually put my skywatcher 4mm planetary eye piece in the barlow and was looking at Venus at x600 when the seeing was very good on Venus a couple of weeks ago. Not the best view but interesting to see at that power! 🙂

[Guest]

48 minutes ago, Barry-W-Fenner said:

My camera skills are poor to say the least haha.

I actually put my skywatcher 4mm planetary eye piece in the barlow and was looking at Venus at x600 when the seeing was very good on Venus a couple of weeks ago. Not the best view but interesting to see at that power! 🙂

It'll be interesting to see what you think the difference is between the 3.2mm and SW 4mm.

[Guest]

Here's my humble attempt at the moon, phone to eyepiece. 😕

First one is the 8mm BST and the second is the 3.2mm BST. Now you can see why I said that you were the better phone to eyepiece photographer. 😉

[John]

I got these with my old mobile and ED120 refractor a few nights back. Thats about as far as my imaging goes !

 

 

[Barry-W-Fenner]

Great shots there guys!

Merlin, I have far more poor shot in my camera reel than good ones. I need to go through them and delete then actually 😁 I literally just try to line my phone to the eye piece let it focus on the target then click.  I haven't a clue how to adjust shutter speeds, exposure ect...

John, what power did you get them close shots at? The detail is amazing! Very clear and crisp. What type of scope is an ED120?

 

Baz

[Stu]

8 hours ago, John said:

I got these with my old mobile and ED120 refractor a few nights back. Thats about as far as my imaging goes !

 

 

Excellent shots John! Very sharp.

[mikeDnight]

Just a few hand held phone pic's through my 100mm frac. Very difficult to get the camera positioned right, but I'm pleased they turned out as well as they did.

 

[John]

3 hours ago, Barry-W-Fenner said:

John, what power did you get them close shots at? The detail is amazing! Very clear and crisp. What type of scope is an ED120?

 

 

I use a 7.2 - 21.5 zoom eyepiece with the mobile phone held over the top of it in a very cheap clamp affair (which is pretty rubbish to be honest but it just about does the job). I "zoom" the image on the mobile a bit so it's difficult to say exactly what magnification is actually being used.

Its about the simplest form of astrophotography so I can cope with that !

[Jiggy 67]

11 hours ago, John said:

I got these with my old mobile and ED120 refractor a few nights back. Thats about as far as my imaging goes !

 

 

Maybe you should take imaging up John, you’re a natural!

[Stardaze]

The moon wasn't helping much last night but I did have an hour viewing M44, M82 & M82 with my new dob, so enjoyable nonetheless. 

[Stardaze]

Quick question: anyone know of a resource whereby I can create a list of notable objects by magnitude (brightness)? Logic being that I could populate a list of things to view under varying conditions, especially when the moon is near full. Would help this time of the year more so when viewing times are limited (I'm not much of a night owl!) 

[Trikeflyer]

I’m pretty sure sky safari allows you to produce and sort an observing list by magnitude.

Steve 

[Stu]

32 minutes ago, Stardaze said:

Quick question: anyone know of a resource whereby I can create a list of notable objects by magnitude (brightness)? Logic being that I could populate a list of things to view under varying conditions, especially when the moon is near full. Would help this time of the year more so when viewing times are limited (I'm not much of a night owl!) 

The Observer Pro app is quite good for this. These snaps show how it shows visibility changing with the Moon phase.

SkySafari is another good option, you can craw custom lists of objects including by location or constellation, brightness, time etc and highlight them on the map, again some snapshots included here.