Newbie - some easier first finds - 14th May

[Zermelo]

First report from me. Lifelong armchair enthusiast, but only started to observe properly this year. I have decided to learn the basics with a cheap 70mm F/10 refractor before spending any serious money. I live on the outskirts of a small town, back garden is limited to about mag 5 naked eye, even in these amazing skies we’ve been having in lockdown.

I skipped the last couple of clear nights because of the moon, so decided to stay up for this one and made up a mixed list of a few easier objects I hadn’t seen yet. Venus was almost set as I went out, so I let that go.

My scope has no drive but it does have a German mount, so I do find it worth polar aligning at the start, saves me fiddling with one of the two slow-mos later on. By the time I’ve done that, the sky is darkening and I can see how much the constellations have moved since I was out last – quite a bit. On previous nights I’ve been focused mainly on the East and North-East, but I can see how far to the South Leo has now moved, while in its place Bootes and Hercules are now high and distinct, and there is a jumble of less obvious shapes beneath them that I know must be Ophiuchus and Serpens. To the North-East, Lyra is now higher than before behind Hercules, and Cygnus is now making an appearance through the light pollution. This familiarity comes as a pleasant surprise – I could always pick out half a dozen of the brightest isolated constellations, mostly winter ones, but never able to scan across the sky like this. I don’t think you can learn it from charts alone, you need horizons and reference points, and you need repeated observing sessions like this to see the changes.

Before full dark, I start the list with the double stars. First up is nu Draconis. Draco was one of those constellations I had always assumed I could never even make out before this year, but now I find it quite easily snaking around the Little Bear. I identify the “head” and line up on the star – nothing. Strange, as it should be very wide at 62”. I check again, wrong star! I re-align, and there it is, very nice in a 26mm plossl. Two very white components, I can’t tell any difference in colour or magnitude, as it should be.

Next, beta Lyrae. The sky is dark enough now that I can make out the four stars below Vega by eye. I can just get both of the lower two into my finder at the same time, so it’s easy to identify and line up beta, and then check again in the 26mm – yes, it’s double. I also try it with a 15.8mm orthoscopic, but there's not much to choose between them. This is still very wide at 45”. Both components are white, but this time one  is much fainter.

Feeling confident, I now try delta Herculis, apparently separated at 12.4”. This should still be comfortable for my kit (only a bit tighter than Mizar) and it’s easy enough to find delta, but I can see only one star. Odd.

OK, what about kappa Herculis? I can’t identify it with my eye, but I’ve noted down some instruction about “following down one leg and then carrying on about the same distance”. I spend a little time manually shunting the scope while scanning with the 26mm eyepiece, and get lucky – there it is. A wideish pair, one slightly brighter and possibly more yellow? Nice.

By now, Cygnus is just about out of the low haze so I might as well have a go at Albireo for my first time, and it does not disappoint. A brighter, yellow main with a dimmer blue companion. It will be worth returning to this one on another time when it is higher.

It’s almost midnight now and as dark as it’s going to get, so I try to assess the conditions (this is one aspect I hope to get better at – I realize I have previously contented myself with “aren’t the stars good tonight?”). I found a guide on the astroleague website that uses criteria to rate Transparency and Seeing. For transparency, I would say 6 out of 7, on the grounds that I could see all the stars in the Little Dipper, but not any surrounding ones. For Seeing, I’d say probably "Very Good": I didn’t notice twinkling with the naked eye, but I did experience a little jumping in the eyepiece at higher magnifications.

Now with the sky dark, I turn to another first attempt – the Ring Nebula. Obviously I know where it ought to be, back to beta Lyrae in my finder, and line up half way between beta and gamma, then switch to – which eyepiece? I knew it was small, but also dim, so I couldn’t push the mag much with my limited aperture. I try it with the 15.8mm and see only background stars. I wait, and flick my eye around the field. There. Yes – no – yes. With averted vision only, and small, but definitely identified. I try adding a barlow, but as I suspected, blowing it up washes it out completely. Another time, a darker place, a bigger bucket. But still very pleasing.

Confidence in the little scope now abounding, I turn it vertically for an attempt on M82. I had failed to find this previously on a very clear evening, but this time I had a different star-hopping approach – a diagonal line through gamma and alpha in Ursa Major, the same distance further on should just about do it. I’m not even using my finder now, just lining it up straight down the barrel. The temperature has plummeted now and my fingers are numb. Back to the 26mm eyepiece, and some manual shunting around the sky. Stop – were those two fuzzy patches in the field at the same time? Just then, a neighbour switches on their bedroom light and floods my view. Cursing, I lock both axes, wait for the light to go off, and hope to find the same view when I return. I do. I play with the slow-mo’s while my eyes re-adapt, convincing myself that there is something there. And they become a little more distinct, though only blotches. But I can see that the left hand one is more elongate and the other is more rounded, and in the rounded one I can – just – detect slightly more density in the middle than the edge. So there it is, M82 with a bonus of M81. Time to call it a successful night, and rescue my fingers.

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

Congrats for getting out of the armchair! Nice report. 👍

[cloudsweeper]

Good report!  I too began with a 70/700 frac (on an altaz) - there is a lot you can achieve with such a telescope.  But I rapidly got hooked, and it all took off.

Have fun!

Doug.

[Stu]

Excellent stuff! Finding targets and observing with a small scope will teach you very good skills in averted vision and getting the best out of a scope, so it is all great experience. I was having fun the other night with my 63mm f13.3 on similar targets, very rewarding when you find and identify them; you definitely got M81 and 82 from your descriptions so that’s a major achievement! 👍👍

[domstar]

Excellent report. I still have a lot of fondness for my 70mm refractor. 

[Zermelo]

Thanks for the comments, all.

I'm just starting to work my way through this great resource and I can see there's a wealth of experience here.
If I get to feeling that I'm hitting the buffers with the 70mm, then perhaps I'll use the summer to shape up my (currently very conflicted) ideas about where to go next kitwise, and hope to get some input here.