ED120 Shines

[John]

I've had a lovely evening with my old Skywatcher ED120

Started with some double stars as the sky darkened. Zeta Herculis, Delta Cygni, Izar, Epsilon Lyrae, etc, etc. The old favourites. Did try to split Antares as it peeked between a gap in the the nearby rooftops but it was a rather ill-defined, sparkling orange and blue / green spot so no joy with that.

Then had a happy 45 minutes on the Messier globular clusters in Ophiuchus, M12, M10, M107 and M14. Some lovely settings amongst star fields with these, especially M12.

Popped up to Hercules for M13 of course - fabulous view for just 12 cm of aperture - masses of stars resolved across the face of the cluster at 120x or so.

With the sky quite dark now I had a look at M57 in Lyra and, as well as a really nicely defined ring structure, I could see the magnitude 13 star close to the nebula with direct vision.

By now Cygnus was well up and just a smear of the milky way was showing through it so I sought my favourite Summer target, the Veil Nebula. I experimented with 3 eyepieces - 40mm and 30mm 2 inch 68 degree Aero ED's and the 24mm Panoptic, and 4 filters, the Lumicon and Astronomik O-III filters and the ES UHC and Meade 4000 Nebular Narrowband.

Without a filter at all even the brighter Eastern Veil segment was virtually invisible. Swapping around eyepieces and filters I got the best results with the 30mm and 24mm eyepieces. The 40mm showed the most sky of course but the sections of nebulosity were just not as distinct against the lighter background.

Of the O-III filters, I felt that the Lumicon was a touch more effective than the Astronomik tonight but both did a good job of teasing out both the East and Western portions of the Veil and the elongated chevron of Pickerings / Flemings Wisp in between. Of the UHC type filters I felt the rather old Meade 4000 Narrowband put in a better performance than the Explore Scientific with the ED120.

All the filters made a noticeable difference to the visibility of the Veil nebula though. Without them, there was little to see apart from star fields.

I finished my session with M27, the Dumbbell Nebula which had just risen above the trees. With this object I usually prefer the filter less view but tonight the UHC's just added to the contrast of the "hour glass" portion of the nebula and drew out the surrounding fainter halo that frames it rather well.

A bight meteor that streaked down though Serpens and Scutum was a nice additional touch. I did wonder if it was one of the "Scutids" which is an active shower from 2nd June ?

The forecast this evening was very mixed to say the least so getting a nice 3 hour session with my trusty ED120 was a real bonus  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Sunshine]

That old skywatcher is a fine 120 frac, a good looker too! sounds like you had a memorable session.

[Stu]

Fab session John, the trusty old 120ED delivering again. Lovely simple setup there with the Ercole Mount.

[F15Rules]

Great report John, sounds as though you had some lovely clear sky last night.. 

Sadly, here, just 15miles from the east coast we had a second night of low cloud and mist after some bright blue skies in the daytime!😟

I'm impressed that you could see the mag 13 star close to M57 with direct vision..I have always struggled with it (I know my eyes aren't as good as they once were), but I haven't attempted it so far this season. Can I ask what ep/magnification you found worked best for you to see it?

I have really been struck in the past week just how light it still is at almost midnight now..no wonder many of our Scottish friends pretty much give up on observing up there until August or later!

Dave

[Mark at Beaufort]

A very enjoyable report John - some of my favourite objects. I set up my Skywatcher 150P to use after the Admin debrief session last night but was too tired.

I really fancy using a 120mm APO frac at some time especially on doubles. 

[johninderby]

Nice report. 👍🏻

At least you had some clear skies. Here it was wall to wall clouds and showers and when it stopped raining the mist / fog moved in. 

Edited June 15, 2020 by johninderby

[DirkSteele]

Sounds like a great sesssion.

 

[John]

3 hours ago, F15Rules said:

...I'm impressed that you could see the mag 13 star close to M57 with direct vision..I have always struggled with it (I know my eyes aren't as good as they once were), but I haven't attempted it so far this season. Can I ask what ep/magnification you found worked best for you to see it?.....

Thanks Dave,

I was using the 7.2mm setting of my 7.2-21.5 zoom so 125x. At the longer focal lengths the nebula was clear but the mag 13 star needed that power boost to get it clearly. With my 100mm / 102mm fracs I just get occasional suggested glimpses of this star but with the 120mm it is noticeably easier to pick up.

I am increasingly finding the zoom eyepiece very useful when observing deep sky objects from my back garden. Add that to its usefulness when barlowed for lunar / planetary / double stars and I'm going to wear it out at this rate

 

[Alan White]

@John did you align this report with the For Sale section and @carastro 😉

Nice report by the way, perhaps the next size scope should be 120-130mm for me.

[John]

1 hour ago, Alan White said:

@John did you align this report with the For Sale section and @carastro 😉

Nice report by the way, perhaps the next size scope should be 120-130mm for me.

For a crazy few minutes I was thinking of buying @carastro's scope and then making a pair of giant binoculars from the two scopes

But, divorce is very expensive I hear .........

 

[alan potts]

That always was a favourite of yours now even with the more exotic glass added to your collection it's nice to know it still gets out. Getting out in any shape would be nice for me at the moment, weather has been awful for 5 weeks, and more to come. Antares is a tricky one, condition are paramount, I have split it with my M/N 190mm but not smaller, the 18 inch handles it most times at about x120 or so.

Alan