Seeing the Veil with UHC and OIII filters

[RobertI]

Tonight’s mission - to test out my newly acquired Astronomik UHC and OIII filters. I also planned to re-acquaint myself with the Tal before my new ED100 arrives. I resurrected the venerable battery driven non-goto CG5 as the host for tonight’s observing .

 

Whilst the C8 was cooling I had a quick scan round with the Tal. The double double (of course) was easily split and the stars showed lovely ‘glowing’ diffraction rings. Jupiter and Saturn were rising but still low over the rooftops. At 164x Jupiter was showing a surprising amount of detail in moment of clarity. The great red spot was coming into view and was easily visible although nothing more than a smudge. Several bands were visible with hints of detail and one band showing a significant feature near the limb. A blue filter helped improve contrast slightly. Saturn revealed less detail, but the Cassini division and ring shadow were prominent together with some faint banding. The driven mount was proving to be a delight for this kind of observing - no pushing or knob twiddling required.

Time to put the Tal away and bring out the C8. Surprisingly Jupiter and Saturn did not look much better, and I put this down to the mediocre seeing at such a low altitude.

And on to the main event, the Veil with the UHC and OIII filters. Popping in the UHC revealed the Eastern Veil quite clearly. Not so much detail evident but very bright. Then on to the OIII, popped it in and ..... nothing....or very nearly. Very disappointed I put it down to the relatively bright sky, then I realised what was up - dew on the corrector! I hadn’t put on the dew shield. While waiting for the dew to clear I pulled out the Heritage 130P on its tripod mounted Giro (a one handed lifting job), popped in the eyepiece with OIII filter and .....oh my .... the entire eastern Veil was in the FOV with a clarity and sharpness never before seen. Filamentary detail was definitely there but mostly with averted vision - with a darker sky in a month or two it should look spectacular. I swapped between the OIII and the UHC and the differences were clear - UHC darkened the sky less than the OIII but made the nebula slightly brighter more extensive. However there was definitely less filamentary detail than in the OIII. By this point the moon was casting quite a glow so time to pack up, but very much a success and looking forward to darker skies with the UHC and OIII!

Completely forgot about the comet! 🙄

Lessons learned from tonight's session:

• I realised after I had finished that the FOV in the C8 was much smaller than it should have been and I think that this was because the focal reduction was less than 0.63 (possibly more like 0.8) due to the eyepiece being closer to the reducer than it should be (I was using an SCT threaded diagonal which removes the need for a visual back and I was sitting the Hyperion eyepiece ‘deep’ into the 2” fitting of the diagonal). Lesson learned for next time.
• Aluminium tripods should not be used for long or heavy scopes, too much vibration - I wasted valuable time swapping it out for the 2” tripod.
• Batteries should be checked before observing - the red dot finder in the H130P was dead.
• SCTs need some form of dew control - always.
• GEMs are pain the butt for moving around the sky to see different objects and 'freestyle',  but are great for critical and lengthy observing of individual objects.
• Long fracs look great on GEMs!

 

Edited July 11, 2020 by RobertI

[John]

Great report Rob !

I completely forgot about the Veil last night - it would have been a great night for that target but there was so much else going on !

You description of the impact of the UHC and the O-III on this target are spot on.

Both worth having though

John

[RobertI]

3 minutes ago, John said:

Great report Rob !

I completely forgot about the Veil last night - it would have been a great night for that target but there was so much else going on !

You description of the impact of the UHC and the O-III on this target are spot on.

Both worth having though

John

Thanks John, yes very pleased with filters so far. I was pleasantly surprised at the result in the 130P, I had got the impression that these filters only really worked in scopes at least 6-8" aperture, which is why I was trying to get the C8 into action. Do you think they would also work with smaller scopes such as the ED100 or even the ZS66?

[Stu]

6 minutes ago, RobertI said:

Thanks John, yes very pleased with filters so far. I was pleasantly surprised at the result in the 130P, I had got the impression that these filters only really worked in scopes at least 6-8" aperture, which is why I was trying to get the C8 into action. Do you think they would also work with smaller scopes such as the ED100 or even the ZS66?

They definitely work with smaller scopes Rob. I do get a little frustrated at this incorrect advice which is out there. You definitely benefit from good dark adaptation with smaller scopes, but they give wonderful widefield views of the Veil and NAN. I think a widefield 100mm is best for these objects; my Genesis is lovely at 500mm focal length and 5 degrees of sky, but I have had good success with smaller scopes too. The TS72mm was excellent from the Pembrokeshire coast last year with an OIII, the who Veil fitting in the field of view comfortably.

[John]

12 minutes ago, RobertI said:

... Do you think they would also work with smaller scopes such as the ED100 or even the ZS66?

As Stu say, yes !

One of my favourite sights during the Summer months is of the Veil with my 102mm Vixen refractor, the O-III filter and the widest 2 inch eyepieces I've got. The whole thing is visible in the field of view then.

 

 

[RobertI]

51 minutes ago, Stu said:

They definitely work with smaller scopes Rob. I do get a little frustrated at this incorrect advice which is out there. You definitely benefit from good dark adaptation with smaller scopes, but they give wonderful widefield views of the Veil and NAN. I think a widefield 100mm is best for these objects; my Genesis is lovely at 500mm focal length and 5 degrees of sky, but I have had good success with smaller scopes too. The TS72mm was excellent from the Pembrokeshire coast last year with an OIII, the who Veil fitting in the field of view comfortably.

 

43 minutes ago, John said:

As Stu say, yes !

One of my favourite sights during the Summer months is of the Veil with my 102mm Vixen refractor, the O-III filter and the widest 2 inch eyepieces I've got. The whole thing is visible in the field of view then.

Thanks John & Stu. That’s really good to know. I will give the ZS66 a go next time as it looks like it should get the whole Veil and NAN in with my existing 21mm 68’ eyepiece. An easy scope to take out for a quick trip to a dark site too. As for the inbound 100ED, the best FOV I can get is 1.6’ with my current gear, so I think a 2” eyepiece and filters may be something for the future and/or a shorter FL scope. 

[Stu]

1 minute ago, RobertI said:

 

Thanks John & Stu. That’s really good to know. I will give the ZS66 a go next time as it looks like it should get the whole Veil and NAN in with my existing 21mm 68’ eyepiece. An easy scope to take out for a quick trip to a dark site too. As for the inbound 100ED, the best FOV I can get is 1.6’ with my current gear, so I think a 2” eyepiece and filters may be something for the future and/or a shorter FL scope. 

With the 66mm, get yourself well dark adapted and you should get it all; a lot depends on your skies but I think they are quite good?

The 100ED is too long a focal length to fit the whole lot in, you really need a scope of around 650mm focal length to fit it in comfortably; around 3.6 or 3.7 degrees field is what you need I think. John’s Vixen is 660mm, I used to have a 106mm triplet that was 690mm and that would do it with a 31mm Nagler. The Genesis is 500mm so will just about do it with my 24mm Panoptic (3.4 degrees). The 40mm is better from a field of view perspective (5.4 degrees) but the exit pupil is 8mm!

[RobertI]

1 hour ago, Stu said:

With the 66mm, get yourself well dark adapted and you should get it all; a lot depends on your skies but I think they are quite good?

The 100ED is too long a focal length to fit the whole lot in, you really need a scope of around 650mm focal length to fit it in comfortably; around 3.6 or 3.7 degrees field is what you need I think. John’s Vixen is 660mm, I used to have a 106mm triplet that was 690mm and that would do it with a 31mm Nagler. The Genesis is 500mm so will just about do it with my 24mm Panoptic (3.4 degrees). The 40mm is better from a field of view perspective (5.4 degrees) but the exit pupil is 8mm!

Thanks Stu, yes the skies are ok and I can drive to a nice secluded spot away from the neighbours fairly easily. I don't often do it but I think it's worth it in this case to see the entire Veil complex in the FOV! If my 130P was capable of taking 2" eyepieces it would be perfect (650mm FL), although I guess fracs are better for these faint low contrast objects?

[DeathWarpedUp]

Great Post mate. A bit jealous, I have an 8" Sct Astronomik UHC 2" and waiting on the  lowest powered suitable ep I could find... Currently in the post (56mm/52). Itching to get out there. 

 

Edited July 11, 2020 by DeathWarpedUp