7th June 2020 - Bright Night Observing with the Mak 180, NexusDSC =>AZ EQ6

[Captain Scarlet]

It’s been a cloudy week since I walked into the glass doora dn the Full Moon has come up, but last night although forecast cloudy again was totally clear all the way until around 1am.

Lack of astro darkness, big Moon rising, and a school night notwithstanding, I decided to have a session. Partly to collect useful twilight data using my SQM-L, partly just to quell the “longing to observe” urge to play with my toys that starts after a few days not doing so, and partly to get more experience using my Nexus-DSC controlling my AZ-EQ6 (a bit glitchy in Nexus/SynScan/PC-Direct mode as the supplied cable wouldn’t communicate with the mount).

Given it was likely to remain quite bright, I eschewed my 12” and instead opted for my Mak180 and restricted myself to a small number of doubles. The darkness-level started off at 13.75 around quarter to 11 with the Sun about 6.5 degrees below the horizon, climbed up to 20.25 around half past midnight before brightening again as the Moon rose.

I used the bright times to do the alignment, a learning process using the NexusDSC which I managed to utterly confuse a couple of times and start from scratch. Very few and mundane targets but I just wanted to get something in and some practise with the Nexus.

First proper target was Izar, fairly close to my 2^nd alignment star (Arcturus), and it showed lovely and crisp at 148x using my 19.2 DeLite.

Next I went for zeta Herculis, which using the same scope a week earlier I had completely failed to separate or even see a hint (just after walking into glass door). This time, with seeing not bad at all, at 450x (6mm Delos) there was very clearly a sharp spot exactly on the diffraction ring around 5 o’clock as I was viewing it, where it should’ve been apparently with a vertical diagonal. Quite pleased at that.

I moved on to the Double Double, and still at 450x was treated to the widest clearest separation I’ve had on that system that I can remember. Two pairs of diffraction rings with seemingly oceans of black in between each pair, the whole system spread all across the eyepiece view. The Mak is clearly a good performer. 450x on this and previously on zeta Herculis provided surprisingly satisfying prolonged viewing.

I finished off with Mizar, Alcor and Ludwig’s star (and plenty of dimmer ones in and around) with the whole ensemble filling the view at 148x

Very happy with the way the Mak 180 performed; a little more experience with the NexusDSC in what I would call “compromised mode” as the supplied USD-RJ45 doesn’t communicate with the mount thus having to be used in Synscan PC-Direct mode; and I managed to avoid breaking my nose again!

Cheers, Magnus

Edited June 9, 2020 by Captain Magenta

[Paz]

Nice report and a nice setup, those doubles make for lots of good targets at this time of year.

[Captain Scarlet]

Next out I’m going to be having a hunt around the head of Draco, where it seems there are some nice ones...