Third time lucky - or just better prepared

[Zermelo]

This is my third report, the first time having had a bit of good fortune, the second time out having had a reverse and found very little of what I was looking for. Armed with a few tips from members of this forum and some learning points of my own, I start setting up at 22.30.

It’s still far from dark, but some patterns now showing above. A little low cloud on the horizon, forecast is for some high cloud moving in from 23.00. I’ve planned a target list in two parts for tonight. First part is objects I’ve seen before but my other half hasn’t (she has to be in work tomorrow and will be staying out for the first act only). I need to be able to find these quickly. The rest of the list is objects I’ve yet to find, which I can take my time over after she’s retired.

By 11 I’m aligned and I can see enough to find the first target by eye – nu Draconis. While the contrasting doubles get the plaudits, there’s something to be said for such a perfectly symmetrical pair, in brightness and colour.

Next I switch to beta Lyrae, again an easy enough find by eye (though my partner remarks kindly at the speed of operation). A nice contrast to the Draco pair, obviously different mags, and we argue about the colours for a while.

Then on to Albireo, which she has heard much about, and seems impressed by, even in the twilight. Again we discuss colours.

I’ve left the fuzzies until later, and I now pick out M13 surprisingly quickly. In our 70mm at x27 it’s only a smudge, though as on previous evenings, averted vision does suggest some speckling. I try adding a 2x barlow, which I’ve not done before, and am surprised to see now some differentiation – a slightly denser core. Partner’s eyes are a bit astigmatic, but she does see it too.

Pushing it now, I head back to Lyra for M57. The sky isn’t as dark as when I (just barely) saw it before, but we try. I can just get beta and gamma into view in my widest EP, so somewhere in the middle. I flick my eye about as I did last time, and catch it again. I try to describe the procedure to my other half, and after a few minutes, she says she does too. I would have bet against that one, but the last item on list A is one I haven’t even found myself before – the Dumbbell – and it will take some finding.

Learning from last time, I’ve ditched the Mag-7 Star Atlas Project maps - pretty though they were, I just couldn’t read them in the dark. Instead, I have printed a selection from the Michael Vlasov atlas (also plugged on this forum) which are larger on each A4 page. The other thing I have realized is that my hopping technique was flawed (or non-existent). I was either just finding a known starting point and then sweeping in the direction indicated by the chart, and hoping to spot the target in the EP, or else I was trying to use the finder but “giving up” too soon and switching to EP view when I thought I was in the general vicinity of the target. The problem with approach 1 is that for a faint target, with a small scope in polluted skies, you could pass right over it and not spot it. The problem with approach 2 is that a refractor pointing upwards (hence with star diagonal) reflects up-down and left-right so if you switch to your EP before you have your target in field, a beginner is going to struggle making that last hop from the chart. Whereas my finder gives a true view. This makes good sense now, but I needed to spend a cold, fruitless evening at the EP to realize it.
So for M27, softly softly – there’s nothing especially close and naked eye that I can use. So I start at Albireo, nudge a little down and northwards with the slow-mos, then check in the finder against the chart. I’m just looking to match a pattern of the new stars now in view, and I can see one. I repeat the process. It still works, this is great. I’m amazed that this tiny, plastic 6x30 is delivering the goods. I can now see a star in my finder that I can see on the chart is right next to the Dumbbell. I adjust the scope a last time to centre on where the chart says it should be (and I know that actually M27 is pretty big). And only now do I switch to the low-power eyepiece. OK, I must have knocked my finder alignment out slightly during the evening, but a slight correction and there it is, in all its glorious smudginess. Extra mag doesn’t make much difference; I can see structure alright, but I can’t honestly say I can see the apple core, certainly not as good as the (full colour!) sample illustration in my  Bresser instruction manual. But I don’t care, it’s M27, it’s another first, and I found it the proper way. It’s gone midnight now and my other half wishes me luck and heads off to bed.

Before I look at the second half of the list, I take a breather and have a look at the sky. It’s actually not that bad, considering we’ve now officially lost astro dark. It looks perhaps better than last time I was out – I could see the milky way behind Cygnus then, but now I see it extending across the eastern sky well into Ophiuchus, and I can see bands of light and dark structure. It’s going to be interesting to see if this is maintained when lockdown is over.

Back to the list, and I yet again try to split delta Herculis, without success. This will definitely be the last time until I get a bigger scope.

Then to another double, kappa Bootis. I’ve found iota previously, and looked for kappa twice, but failed. That was before I used my finder properly though. So let’s start from lambda, work up to theta, then I recognize the field from the chart. Again, the finder’s slightly off, but there’s certainly a double in the EP, with a companion noticeably fainter. To be sure I haven’t found iota again by mistake, I quickly slew to compare with Mizar (which I know has almost the same separation). Tick.

Another previous escapee, psi1 Draconis. This one is a bit trickier and I end up doing three or four separate hops, having to start again at one point. But I do find it, a nice pair at 30”, the brighter one seems slightly whiter to me.

The tail end of the list has some clusters: M10/M12 in Ophiuchus, M92 in Hercules and M4 in Scorpius. A bit frustratingly, I realize that these are either now behind houses, or else dead vertical, and after a few minutes trying the starhopping procedure in a painful crouched position (BUY THAT NEWT) I decide I’m far enough in credit now to call it a night. It's nearly two.

 

[Stu]

Excellent session you had there, pretty successful all in all. Everything you do now will help you in future when you get a larger scope, with better finder etc etc.