Finally! a few hours observing..

[Barry-W-Fenner]

HI all,

Just a little report about the 3 hours observing i managed to get in lat night from 8.30ish to 11.30 

The plan was to solely use the new 14mm Morpheus and a barlow for the evenings viewing to give the Morph a good run. I found it quite nice doing this as it can help to stop overthinking things to much swapping over eye pieces. Just take targets for what they are at x107 with the occasional x2 barlow. 

I started on the moon when it was dusky and could get the whole moon into the 76 degree FOV - The image was extremely good, the Morpheus was crystal clear from edge to edge and showed some lovely detail. I spent quite a bit of time observing at this power  just taking in all the craters, nooks and crannies.

The mandatory quick view at Arcturus was next 🙂 as always very nice to see in all its soft yellow glory. I then checked out M3. Quite poor viewing as it was still not fully dark and I was viewing at x107 always good to sneak a glob in the viewing though!

Over to Lyra. Vega looked beautiful, The surrounding background stars really stood out in the large FOV - I was starting to get the feel now as to why these eye piece are applauded for the immersion. I had a look at the double, double as the challenge has been set in another thread! I dont think I managed to split the two pairs at x107 on this occasion, conditions were a little on the wobbly side which surprised me considering the sky was spectacular yesterday!  The ring nebula was small at this mag but with some averted vision it still managed to "pop" quite nicely into view.

I then went over to Draco to try and find one of my favorite planetary nebs, The cat eye. Draco often gives me a bit of bother as it can be at some rather funky angles. After getting an idea of its position I had a star hop but no joy finding the cat on this occasion. This failed attempt spurred me on to hunt down other planetary nebs.

firstly I noticed that another favorite The Blue Snowball neb should be visible over my house roof now. after a little star hoping I located it. I was very happy to see this again as I haven't seen it since last year.  A lovely tiny Blue sphere at x107 slowly drifted through the FOV - I decided to put the barlow in and see how it looked at x214 a bit blurry and the colour kind of washed out from a nice Blue to a White / pale Green. Much better at the lower power!

From one planetary neb to another. I decided to try and find the blinking Planetary as it looked to be positioned nicely. I managed to find this quite easily and was very happy to observe this for the first time. What impressed me was the Nebular looked almost perfectly spherical around the central star. I was a bit skeptical about the "Blinking" aspect, But after a few minutes of viewing I could see the nebular kind of pulsing in & out of view. Very cool!

While I was over here a glance at Deneb & then Albireo was in order. The latter looking absolutely superb. The morph picked them out and the two contrasting yellow & Blue stars were beautiful.

I then decided to try for another first and went went looking for the Dumbbell nebula. Again I found this relatively easily, This was a bit of a let down to be honest. I could see the general greyish shape but not very well. I was however surprised at the size of this nebula. Very large and filling up a big area of the eye piece.

I dived over to Jupiter next as it was shining brightly low on the horizon. Conditions were very poor down this low. The disc was  quite wobbly, All four moons were nicely positioned, Two each side of the planet at 9 & 3 o'clock. Only the slightest bit of detail was noticeable on the planet itself. The two main belts just about, along with a third belt to the North of the view. Not the best view but always a joy to see!

Moving over to Saturn and I was surprised to see a central brown/beige?? belt around the planet. This is a detail I have not seen before so it was quite nice to pick this out with the new eye piece. The rings looked good, The angle which they are at is very interesting! No division though at fairly low power.

It was about 11.15pm and I was getting tired after a long day.

Cassiopeia was next as I though a few open clusters would look good in the large FOV I went round most of them and they were all very immersive. The double cluster looked beautiful. Again so much of each cluster was squeezed into the view. The different coloured stars all sparkled wonderfully! While I was in the neighborhood Iota Cas was due a visit.  This triple really is a good test and looks great. I managed to split all 3 stars at x107 which surprised me. Maybe this was aided by each star being a different colour. Great viewing!

Time for bed, but one last thing to do, A quick look at M13 as it was nice and high. I was very surprised as I was expecting a grey smudge at this power but it resolved really well and I could see a large volume of stars in the cluster. a very nice way to end the night.

Off to bed.

Up again at 4am and back outside for a look at Mars, I left the scope out all night intentionally. a brilliant looking Red / Copper gibbous with some dark areas to the disc. Once again the striking polar caps were visible which are a great feature of this planet! 

So all in all I was very happy to get a nice session back at the eye piece after so many weeks of cloud and poor weather. Armed with just the one new eye piece I found it very enjoyable not worrying about having the perfect power for a particular target  and just looking up!

I will be adding a couple more Morphs to the collection me thinks.

Anyhow, Friday night is upon us, Time for a beer and fingers crossed a clear sky. Have a great weekend all!

Baz

 

 

 

Edited July 31, 2020 by Barry-W-Fenner

[Kyle Allen]

Nice report. Makes me want to get out observing! 😀

[Stardaze]

Super Barry. I did a similar set last night but didn’t find it dark enough till about 11.30 and retired at 1pm. Spent a bit of time on the Dumbell with my O-III filter, and like you, find it a little underwhelming. Surprisingly  large though.
 

The Morpheus sounds great. I was supposedly trying out my new APM 20 but most of the targets you mention were better at higher mags. I still haven’t looked at the blinking planetary either so must add that to my list. Struggling with the North American neb too, can’t seem to see much around there other than a band of tight stars? Have you found it?M

Oh, and my new EP was just awesome when I did utilise it!

Edited July 31, 2020 by Stardaze

[Jiggy 67]

Great report Baz.....what was the overall impression of the Morpheus ?

[Stu]

Nice one Baz! Good to get out and it sounds like you had a good and successful session. Jupiter does struggle down low doesn’t it? We had some good views of the GRS last night when the seeing stabilised very now and then.

[John]

Nice report Baz

 

[JeremyS]

Excellent, Baz

[Barry-W-Fenner]

1 hour ago, Stardaze said:

Super Barry. I did a similar set last night but didn’t find it dark enough till about 11.30 and retired at 1pm. Spent a bit of time on the Dumbell with my O-III filter, and like you, find it a little underwhelming. Surprisingly  large though.
 

The Morpheus sounds great. I was supposedly trying out my new APM 20 but most of the targets you mention were better at higher mags. I still haven’t looked at the blinking planetary either so must add that to my list. Struggling with the North American neb too, can’t seem to see much around there other than a band of tight stars? Have you found it?M

Oh, and my new EP was just awesome when I did utilise it!

Hi Stardaze.

I was thinking about having a go at the Dumbbell again with my O-III filter, I havent seen the N/A neb yet, or the Veil. When Cygnus is better positioned I would like to try them all with my O-III. I have heard the veil is superb with this type of filter!

I have read some good things about the APM UFF range. I can see me adding some of them to my range in the future!

1 hour ago, Jiggy 67 said:

Great report Baz.....what was the overall impression of the Morpheus ?

Hi Jiggy.

I really liked the 14mm Morpheus. It gave some stunning views. I have never seen the moon look so good! I found the image very good across the field. Only the last outer edge started to distort a little. I honestly dont know if thats the eye piece or my eyes though 🙂

My only small issue was I struggled to get a comfortable position on the  eye cup. I found my eye was to close to the lense and It took me a while to get used to the eye cup compared to my BST's @John suggested trying the extension piece that comes in the kit and it feels much better now when I place it to my eye. The distance from my eye is much better! I look forward to trying it out.

55 minutes ago, Stu said:

Nice one Baz! Good to get out and it sounds like you had a good and successful session. Jupiter does struggle down low doesn’t it? We had some good views of the GRS last night when the seeing stabilised very now and then.

Thank you Stu, Jupiter sure is a gentle giant 🙂 - For such a large planet is surprising how little detail it shows when conditions are not great. Stunning when conditions suit though. I look forward to seeing it higher in the sky, One day...

Sorry for the many typos in my report chaps. I have just had a proof read and corrected some, I am bound to have missed a few as the kids are jumping all over me! 🙂

Thanks for the seal of approval chaps. Always appreciated when you get the thumbs up from the Veterans on here, It gives confidence that you are doing something right! 🙂

 

Baz

[Stardaze]

9 minutes ago, Barry-W-Fenner said:

Hi Stardaze.

I was thinking about having a go at the Dumbbell again with my O-III filter, I havent seen the N/A neb yet, or the Veil. When Cygnus is better positioned I would like to try them all with my O-III. I have heard the veil is superb with this type of filter!

I have read some good things about the APM UFF range. I can see me adding some of them to my range in the future!

Hi Jiggy.

I really liked the 14mm Morpheus. It gave some stunning views. I have never seen the moon look so good! I found the image very good across the field. Only the last outer edge started to distort a little. I honestly dont know if thats the eye piece or my eyes though 🙂

My only small issue was I struggled to get a comfortable position on the  eye cup. I found my eye was to close to the lense and It took me a while to get used to the eye cup compared to my BST's @John suggested trying the extension piece that comes in the kit and it feels much better now when I place it to my eye. The distance from my eye is much better! I look forward to trying it out.

Thank you Stu, Jupiter sure is a gentle giant 🙂 - For such a large planet is surprising how little detail it shows when conditions are not great. Stunning when conditions suit though. I look forward to seeing it higher in the sky, One day...

Sorry for the many typos in my report chaps. I have just had a proof read and corrected some, I am bound to have missed a few as the kids are jumping all over me! 🙂

Thanks for the seal of approval chaps. Always appreciated when you get the thumbs up from the Veterans on here, It gives confidence that you are doing something right! 🙂

 

Baz

I love The Veil. It didn't pop as much last night in the APM 20 XWA which I put down to the extra brightness of the 24 that I replaced it with. I'd like the APM 30 UFF, which should really suit the veil a bit more. I will say that I love the two APM XWA's that I have now (13 & 20) The 20 was certainly more immersive than the ES 24 (82) that it replaced, really did feel like I was climbing in at times. Super value for money, and a nice size without being too heavy for my dob. Just need to add a 10mm Delos next month and I'll be pretty happy with my core EP's.

At the moment Cygnus is right overhead, above my house, so it's perfectly placed for me. Hoping that now there's some true darkness coming back, I'll be able to study it some more - cloudless nights pending. 

Edited July 31, 2020 by Stardaze

[Jiggy 67]

1 hour ago, Barry-W-Fenner said:

My only small issue was I struggled to get a comfortable position on the  eye cup. I found my eye was to close to the lense and It took me a while to get used to the eye cup compared to my BST's @John suggested trying the extension piece that comes in the kit and it feels much better now when I place it to my eye. The distance from my eye is much better! I look forward to trying it out.

Yep, I found exactly the same but the the extension ring increases the eye relief, like you it’s solved the problem 

[John]

When you folks have another look at the Veil Nebula, here is a handy guide to the various parts of it. See what of this you can see !

https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-blogs/explore-night-bob-king/explore-veil-nebula/

As you can see, there is lots to explore with just this one target under a dark sky

[Pixies]

Nice report Baz. Sounds a little like one I had earlier this week. Which scope were you using?

I've never heard of Iota Cas. I'll have to check it out next time. In fact I've missed triples in general - I'll need to find a good observing list.

I like M13 at around 100x, I think that's because this is at a 2mm exit pupil with my setup and the image is really contrasty. I can often see the propeller at this magnification.

[JeremyS]

17 hours ago, John said:

When you folks have another look at the Veil Nebula, here is a handy guide to the various parts of it. See what of this you can see !

https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-blogs/explore-night-bob-king/explore-veil-nebula/

As you can see, there is lots to explore with just this one target under a dark sky

Thanks John - not seen that before. Really useful stuff!

[Dantooine]

On 31/07/2020 at 17:33, Barry-W-Fenner said:

HI all,

Just a little report about the 3 hours observing i managed to get in lat night from 8.30ish to 11.30 

The plan was to solely use the new 14mm Morpheus and a barlow for the evenings viewing to give the Morph a good run. I found it quite nice doing this as it can help to stop overthinking things to much swapping over eye pieces. Just take targets for what they are at x107 with the occasional x2 barlow. 

I started on the moon when it was dusky and could get the whole moon into the 76 degree FOV - The image was extremely good, the Morpheus was crystal clear from edge to edge and showed some lovely detail. I spent quite a bit of time observing at this power  just taking in all the craters, nooks and crannies.

The mandatory quick view at Arcturus was next 🙂 as always very nice to see in all its soft yellow glory. I then checked out M3. Quite poor viewing as it was still not fully dark and I was viewing at x107 always good to sneak a glob in the viewing though!

Over to Lyra. Vega looked beautiful, The surrounding background stars really stood out in the large FOV - I was starting to get the feel now as to why these eye piece are applauded for the immersion. I had a look at the double, double as the challenge has been set in another thread! I dont think I managed to split the two pairs at x107 on this occasion, conditions were a little on the wobbly side which surprised me considering the sky was spectacular yesterday!  The ring nebula was small at this mag but with some averted vision it still managed to "pop" quite nicely into view.

I then went over to Draco to try and find one of my favorite planetary nebs, The cat eye. Draco often gives me a bit of bother as it can be at some rather funky angles. After getting an idea of its position I had a star hop but no joy finding the cat on this occasion. This failed attempt spurred me on to hunt down other planetary nebs.

firstly I noticed that another favorite The Blue Snowball neb should be visible over my house roof now. after a little star hoping I located it. I was very happy to see this again as I haven't seen it since last year.  A lovely tiny Blue sphere at x107 slowly drifted through the FOV - I decided to put the barlow in and see how it looked at x214 a bit blurry and the colour kind of washed out from a nice Blue to a White / pale Green. Much better at the lower power!

From one planetary neb to another. I decided to try and find the blinking Planetary as it looked to be positioned nicely. I managed to find this quite easily and was very happy to observe this for the first time. What impressed me was the Nebular looked almost perfectly spherical around the central star. I was a bit skeptical about the "Blinking" aspect, But after a few minutes of viewing I could see the nebular kind of pulsing in & out of view. Very cool!

While I was over here a glance at Deneb & then Albireo was in order. The latter looking absolutely superb. The morph picked them out and the two contrasting yellow & Blue stars were beautiful.

I then decided to try for another first and went went looking for the Dumbbell nebula. Again I found this relatively easily, This was a bit of a let down to be honest. I could see the general greyish shape but not very well. I was however surprised at the size of this nebula. Very large and filling up a big area of the eye piece.

I dived over to Jupiter next as it was shining brightly low on the horizon. Conditions were very poor down this low. The disc was  quite wobbly, All four moons were nicely positioned, Two each side of the planet at 9 & 3 o'clock. Only the slightest bit of detail was noticeable on the planet itself. The two main belts just about, along with a third belt to the North of the view. Not the best view but always a joy to see!

Moving over to Saturn and I was surprised to see a central brown/beige?? belt around the planet. This is a detail I have not seen before so it was quite nice to pick this out with the new eye piece. The rings looked good, The angle which they are at is very interesting! No division though at fairly low power.

It was about 11.15pm and I was getting tired after a long day.

Cassiopeia was next as I though a few open clusters would look good in the large FOV I went round most of them and they were all very immersive. The double cluster looked beautiful. Again so much of each cluster was squeezed into the view. The different coloured stars all sparkled wonderfully! While I was in the neighborhood Iota Cas was due a visit.  This triple really is a good test and looks great. I managed to split all 3 stars at x107 which surprised me. Maybe this was aided by each star being a different colour. Great viewing!

Time for bed, but one last thing to do, A quick look at M13 as it was nice and high. I was very surprised as I was expecting a grey smudge at this power but it resolved really well and I could see a large volume of stars in the cluster. a very nice way to end the night.

Off to bed.

Up again at 4am and back outside for a look at Mars, I left the scope out all night intentionally. a brilliant looking Red / Copper gibbous with some dark areas to the disc. Once again the striking polar caps were visible which are a great feature of this planet! 

So all in all I was very happy to get a nice session back at the eye piece after so many weeks of cloud and poor weather. Armed with just the one new eye piece I found it very enjoyable not worrying about having the perfect power for a particular target  and just looking up!

I will be adding a couple more Morphs to the collection me thinks.

Anyhow, Friday night is upon us, Time for a beer and fingers crossed a clear sky. Have a great weekend all!

Baz

 

 

 

That was a nice read. You did well giving respect to the one eyepiece. It’s all to easy to keep changing up and down. Sometimes it just simplifies the evening and it’s good to find out what a mew lump of glass is capable of. 

[Barry-W-Fenner]

18 minutes ago, Dantooine said:

That was a nice read. You did well giving respect to the one eyepiece. It’s all to easy to keep changing up and down. Sometimes it just simplifies the evening and it’s good to find out what a mew lump of glass is capable of. 

Thank you dantooine.

I was keen to just enjoy the new glass and not over think things chopping and changing.  Just take  targets for what they are at one mag and enjoy.  👍

[F15Rules]

Nice report Baz, a very enjoyable read🙂.

The Morpheus range is excellent, right up there with the best. I have owned the 14mm and now have the 17.5mm, which is in my opinion even better than the 14mm.

They both Barlow really well with the Baader Hyperion zoom 2.25x Barlow..in my scope that gives me x74 native and x167 with the Barlow, both nice powers. I think the eyepiece extension is a must and this new threaded part is a great addition to a great eyepiece.

Thanks again for sharing your enthusiastic observations 👍🌝

Dave