First Use of a Chart (ish) in the Field, Markarian's Chain et al

[Captain Scarlet]

Last night, Monday, after a UK bank holiday weekend, the forecast was for a clear night and although a full-ish Moon, she wasn’t set to rise until after 2am. It had been very windy during the day but as the evening went on it died down completely.

The night turned into probably my most memorable so far. My 12” newt on the AZ-EQ6 worked perfectly, goto was more or less spot on (I aligned with a cross-hair eyepiece), I used a chart for the first time ever, the night was beautifully clear and still. It was twilight when I started at 11pm, the North-Western horizon still clearly bluish, the meter showing 20.3 at zenith. By the time I finished, just after 1am, it was 21.8, M13 was naked eye and the Milky Way through Cygnus and Cassiopeia was stark even though only 20-30 degrees up and on my “bright horizon”, looking towards Cork, Clonakilty and other South coast towns.

I started off - naturally - with Venus, now only 15%. A lovely sight, just a fingernail, but at only 10 degrees up it was showing CA and wobbling in the atmosphere.

Next stop was Izar which was quite clearly two differently-coloured stars, and the “distinct-ness” showed that the scope was performing well, and that I was going to have a good night. To affirm I also went to Epsilon Lyrae, the double-double which showed the same clarity. Excellent.

Whilst in Lyra, I had a quick look at the Ring Nebula, M57. As usual, a lovely bright Polo.

Now I moved to what I’d been anticipating, having previously photographed a fragment of a chart, Tirion’s Deep Sky Atlas, for viewing on my phone: The crowd of galaxies in and around M84 and M86. Rather than just dabbing the buttons, looking and moving on, I tried to match each one to what my chart was showing. Quite tricky with one axis reflected, but I did sort of manage it. Much more rewarding: I got M84 and M86 obviously, also NGC 4388 making a triangle of the three; and moved on from there, seeing two other close pairs of brightish: NGCs 4413 and 4425; and 4438 and 4435. And then further along 4461 and 4458, 4473 and 4477. Which, on looking up elsewhere and at photos, reasonably well seems to describe Markarian’s Chain! There were clearly other smudges around too not marked on my “chart”.

Two or three nights previously, with FullMoonlight interfering, but not high enough early enough to actually view, I’d been out to finish collimating my Skymax180 after complete disassembly (about which huge post very nearly ready…), and finished off with a view of M13. In that 7” scope, in this very dark location, M13 is predictably impressive. So with that image fresh in my mind I turned my 12” last night towards it. The contrast was suitably arresting. Sooo beautiful and deep and well-resolved. And I can never observe M13 without seeing if I can find its little companion, NGC 6207, which was a nice core and surrounding smudge.

I finished off with Polaris and its extremely blue companion before packing up just after 1am.

No fireworks but a lovely lovely clear night, not bad seeing by what I could, er, see, and the clearest MW this Spring. I’ll have to drag myself out of bed one of these early mornings and get Saturn and Jupiter…

Cheers, Magnus

Edited May 12, 2020 by Captain Magenta

[PeterW]

I admit I used skysafari around Markarian s chain, orientated for my reflector and with a field of circle... bit lazy I know. I had spent sometime previously with Interstellarum  deciding what to chase.
“Bright horizon”....!!!

Great to hear you getting some clear skies.

Peter

[Stu]

Fab report Magnus. Mag 21.8 transparent skies are the stuff of dreams!

My best view of Markarian’s chain was actually at the SGL star party some years back. I had a 16” scope but skies were only around mag 21 I think. I used a push to system (Nexus) linked to SkySafari which makes finding your way around all these galaxies much more enjoyable. Perhaps linking your EQ6 up to it would be a good step forward?

Hope the skies continue to play ball!

[Captain Scarlet]

The chart I used, the Tirion one, seems quite large-scale (or is it small-scale) for what I was trying to do. Elsewhere in the sky it might have been fine, and I still want to get used to the "paper method", but this area is so crowded I may need to investigate something like the SkySafari route or have something automatic but less clunky than the hand controller. I do have SkySafari Pro on my phone ... what are the alternatives? Nexus you mention, is that the Nexus DSC that I quickly found on a search?

[John]

The Sky & Telescope Pocket Sky Atlas has a special chart dedicated to the Virgo / Coma galaxy cluster. It's quite good for navigating from galaxy to galaxy I find. Still possible to get a bit lost in there though !

 

[Stu]

1 hour ago, Captain Magenta said:

Nexus you mention, is that the Nexus DSC that I quickly found on a search?

I actually used a Nexus unit, not the full DSC but I don’t think you necessarily need that with the Skywatcher Mount. You can get the WiFi dongle which allows you to connect your phone to the mount and use SkySafari. It works best on Android, with iOS I think you still need to use two devices, one for the Synscan app and the other for SkySafari. I think the Skywire hard wired connection works ok though as an alternative.

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/sky-watcher-mount-accessories/sky-watcher-synscan-wifi-adapter.html
 

[Captain Scarlet]

7 hours ago, John said:

The Sky & Telescope Pocket Sky Atlas has a special chart dedicated to the Virgo / Coma galaxy cluster. It's quite good for navigating from galaxy to galaxy I find. Still possible to get a bit lost in there though !

Thanks John, I might get a copy...

[niallk]

Great report !!!

[Captain Scarlet]

Well I’ve had a rush of blood and ordered a Nexus ii, based on this mention and having read the post mainly between @Ships and Stars and @jetstream about the same. If it fails to give me satisfaction at least I know where @Stu lives  .

Also, only for the time being, failed to order the Sky & Telescope Pocket Sky Atlas, but only because my amazon account is UK and I’m in Ireland...

Edited May 13, 2020 by Captain Magenta

[jetstream]

1 hour ago, Captain Magenta said:

Well I’ve had a rush of blood and ordered a Nexus ii, based on this mention and having read the post mainly between @Ships and Stars and @jetstream about the same. If it fails to give me satisfaction at least I know where @Stu lives  .

Also, only for the time being, failed to order the Sky & Telescope Pocket Sky Atlas, but only because my amazon account is UK and I’m in Ireland...

Great report!

I have push to DSC on my dobs and love it, very accurate if I do my part.

[Stu]

2 hours ago, Captain Magenta said:

Well I’ve had a rush of blood and ordered a Nexus ii, based on this mention and having read the post mainly between @Ships and Stars and @jetstream about the same. If it fails to give me satisfaction at least I know where @Stu lives  .

Also, only for the time being, failed to order the Sky & Telescope Pocket Sky Atlas, but only because my amazon account is UK and I’m in Ireland...

Oh no! Such responsibility!! 😱😱🤣🤣