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West Highland Wow

psychobabbler

By psychobabbler
in Observing - Deep Sky

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psychobabbler

psychobabbler

Posted
Posted

I should have done a report before now, but here goes...

I have been doing a house conversion with my brother over the past year on the lovely Isle of Rasay, which if you look on the map is situated between Skye and the mainland on the West Highland coast of Scotland. The wee place is now finished, and i took the family up there over the new year, largely to get some furniture in the house. We had the best week of weather i can recall at that time of the year since i've been going there over the last 30+ years, and had the scope out on new years day. I'm really blessed to have a back garden with very dark skies covering the east and south. I'm still reeling from how good the viewing is, beaten only i think by Keilder.

The house now makes it possible for me to have the CPC 1100 up there on a permenant basis, and the report below is from my first use of it in Raasay. I've had it up there before only to be met with typically cloudy skies, so this was a real treat, and i guess will make looking at polluted skies in the outskirts of Glasgow a chore from now on!

Location: Isle of Raasay, Western Scotland

Date: 1st January 2009, 8-9pm ish

Conditions: Clear and cold, poor seeing

Equipment: CPC 1100, 20mm Meade 5000 EP (Only one i'd brought up from Glasgow), 140x

Starmap on ipod touch

Anyway, i covered a whole load of M's in the space of about 1 hour, before the cold and the promise of a glass of wine drew me back in. here goes, in no particular order.

M42. Just blew me away and i realised it would be a good night. Not just a clearly resolved trapezium, but a clear hole in the nebula that they had cleared plus one of the huge swooping arms of the rest of it and more to the other side of the trapezium. Very clear, very green and too big for the EP's field of view.

M51. First time i had seen both nebulae, with my first experience of galaxy swirls without resorting to imagination. Huge in the EP making it easy to see.

M82. Another cracker and miles better than my usual view. A big flat fuzzy streak covering about 1/3 of the FOV, with a hint of mottling across the front edges.

M35. Amazing sight - myriad of stars in the cluster, although bubbling and boiling made the scene vomit-inducing after a while!

M31. A bit of a suprising disappointment, but probably because i was looking west and the scene was marred by the street lights on the other side of the house. Still not bad as a huge bright fuzzy.

Other highlights included a bubbling but impressive Sirius as it rose above the Eastern horizon, and NGC 2264.

Very lucky to have such dark skies right out the back decking, and the only problem now is how to convince the wife of the need for another trip up north very soon. Did i lock the front door...?

Cheers

PB

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James

James

Posted
Posted

Nice report!

Pity about the streetlights as you should have dark skies far better than Kielder. Aside from Portree the nearest light pollution will be coming from Inverness and Oban (60 and 50 miles away respectively*, roughly!).

* As the crow flies

James

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psychobabbler

psychobabbler

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Posted

Hey Guys

Thanks so much for the feedback - the whole experience and re-ignited my enthusiasm after having got rather bogged down in the whole imaging malarky. Will post a couple of pictures of the observing site if i can figure it out, but sorry Jeff, no piccies of what i saw.

Cheers

PB

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