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Darks skies, the Milky Way and Perseids


Littleguy80

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The unusual circumstances of this year has meant that it's been several months since I've visited my local dark site. There have been some lovely sessions from home though. In recent weeks the planets have proven good entertainment. GRS and shadow transits on Jupiter being particular highlights. Wednesday night gave me the chance to reach dark skies though and, despite an uncertain forecast, I loaded up the car and headed out. It was a little after 10 pm when I arrived. No one else was observing so I had the place to myself. After setting up and collimating, I headed over to Saturn and then Jupiter for a quick check on the finder alignments and to ensure everything was working as expected. Looking overhead, I enjoyed the bright Milky Way. It was wonderful to see it so clearly under dark skies. I took some SQM readings over the course of the night, best coming in just under 21. Not the best for this site but a significant improvement on my back garden.

My plan was to take a tour through some Summer favourites, the first of which being the Wild Ducks Cluster. Open clusters aren't normally on the list for dark site trips but they really do benefit from dark skies. The many hidden fainter stars add up to a nebulous glow around the brighter stars in the cluster. My eyes were still dark adapting at this point so the differing colours in the stars was more apparent. I moved further down to arrive at the Eagle Nebula, the views improved considerably with an OIII. The Swan nebula was a real highlight of the evening. The TeleVue Bandmate OIII revealing lovely shading across the nebula. It almost seem to have texture to it and is the best I remember seeing this nebula.

Arcturus caught my eye and reminded that Comet Neowise was in Bootes. It was hard to believe the now dim Comet was the same one that shone so brightly just a few weeks ago. It was nice to get a final look in before it travels too far away to be seen. The memories of Comet Neowise are certain to last much longer. A tour of Sagittariuses open clusters followed. I also battled to find a place where I get down low enough to see the Lagoon nebula. I succeeded but the views were just ok on this occasion and a slight disappointment after some really memorable encounters last summer.

Looking up towards Cygnus, I spotted several Perseids streak across the sky over the course of a few minutes. During lockdown, I was given a DSLR as a birthday gift. I now set this up to try and catch some meteors against the Milky Way. I left the camera clicking away and with the OIII filter in place, pointed the dob at Cygnus. The Veil showed some fine whispy structure including Pickering's triangle. It was noticeable that there was quite a bit of moisture in the air now and I had to spend some time setting up the dew heaters. The Crescent nebula, similar to the Lagoon, was visible but not spectacular under these conditions. The North American and Pelican Nebulae put up a better show. It was great to trace the edges and look for subtle features within the NAN. 

The Perseids were putting on a great show and I spent as much time looking up as looking through the eyepiece. The 10mm Delos went into the focuser and I took a tour of some Planetary Nebula plus the lovely little globular cluster, NGC 6934 in Delphinus. The Blue Flash and bright green NGC 6572 were the stand outs of the Planetary Nebula observed. 

As I considered packing up, I looked over at Mars now rising high. Turning the dob towards the red planet proved to be an excellent decision. I was immediately struck by the well defined polar ice cap. I used the Nagler Zoom and Baader Contrast Booster to gain some image scale and contrast. I spent a long time taking in the Albedo features on the planet's surface. Absolutely amazing and the perfect note on which to end the evening. In fact, it also proved to be the perfect encore. On arriving home, I couldn't resist setting the dob up for another look before making my way to bed.

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Edited by Littleguy80
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A great read. I love the first dark site sky in August after a break. All the old favourites are new (ish) again. After a couple of nights it's time to look for new stuff but that first night of well-seen oldies is great.

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16 minutes ago, domstar said:

A great read. I love the first dark site sky in August after a break. All the old favourites are new (ish) again. After a couple of nights it's time to look for new stuff but that first night of well-seen oldies is great.

Thanks Dom. Completely agree. Just feels nice to be back out and visiting old friends :) 

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Glad to read this account Neil

I had my first dark sky outing Tuesday night for Perseid watching, with just MK1's and Binos.
Sky was a bit off, but when it had its moments it was workable.
Left me with promise for more to come, which is fine with me.

I too watched Mars rise, but only with the kit I had.

 

Edited by Alan White
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Just now, Slingshot said:

Hello Neil,

Just read your report. What struck me was your knowledge but obvious delight on what seemed a great evening. I am new to the forum and a total novice. 

regards

Slingshot

Thanks Slingshot and welcome to SGL. It was a great evening :) I got my first telescope for Christmas in 2016 and had absolutely no idea what I was doing. This forum has been a fantastic source of information and advice. Ask all the questions you want and soon you’ll be seeing all sorts of fabulous sights :) 

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That's great Neil, good you managed to get out again. I'm still to do it myself and it now seems like weeks here of clouds with no end in sight..

What dew heaters do you use for your dob? I'm purchasing the 10mm Delos at the end of the month but the dew kit is next on the list. 

Edited by Stardaze
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Thank you. I think we’ve been lucky in Norfolk and have generally had a pretty decent run weather wise this summer. 

I had a problem with an Astrozap heater tape which blew my old dew controller. I got a replacement 4 channel controller and heater tape from here:

https://www.dewcontrol.com

It’s been very good so far. The heater tape is an improvement on the Astrozap one. 

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1 hour ago, Littleguy80 said:

Thank you. I think we’ve been lucky in Norfolk and have generally had a pretty decent run weather wise this summer. 

I had a problem with an Astrozap heater tape which blew my old dew controller. I got a replacement 4 channel controller and heater tape from here:

https://www.dewcontrol.com

It’s been very good so far. The heater tape is an improvement on the Astrozap one. 

Ah great, thanks. Are you just using a single band somewhere close to the secondary? Any around RACI or dew hood? Still not sure how mad to go with it (single large band for a 10" dob, Telrad and RACI with power supply and controller) 

Edited by Stardaze
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1 hour ago, Stardaze said:

Ah great, thanks. Are you just using a single band somewhere close to the secondary? Any around RACI or dew hood? Still not sure how mad to go with it (single large band for a 10" dob, Telrad and RACI with power supply and controller) 

I had one for 2” eyepieces, one for RACI and a separate dew heater designed specifically for the Telrad. Don’t have anything on the secondary currently. 

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22 minutes ago, Littleguy80 said:

I had one for 2” eyepieces, one for RACI and a separate dew heater designed specifically for the Telrad. Don’t have anything on the secondary currently. 

Thanks again Neil and sorry for hi jacking your thread re. gear.

Just totalled what I need, and thinking I’ll just use a mains power unit for home use, the Telrad heater and 2 straps saves me about £100. I’ll get a portable power pack another time. Don’t you  have anything around the OTA? I’ll prob add an EP strap for what they are and therefore need the 4 way controller. 

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Lovely shot fusing the Milky Way and Perseids Neil, captures the event really well. Great that you got to your club's dark site and not a bad SQM reading for the time of year. A lot of interesting targets in the session, good that the 10mm Delos is delivering, with a lot of scope time. Thursday night, hmmm a supposedly good weather window but could be windy ha ha. May need to dust off the equipment, get my mojo back. Where to go, your dark site specifically gated, requiring a key is good, my usual dark site is probably remote enough and OK to go to, I have another new one, which might also be OK. Staycation campervans being everywhere currently is the thing.

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2 hours ago, scarp15 said:

Lovely shot fusing the Milky Way and Perseids Neil, captures the event really well. Great that you got to your club's dark site and not a bad SQM reading for the time of year. A lot of interesting targets in the session, good that the 10mm Delos is delivering, with a lot of scope time. Thursday night, hmmm a supposedly good weather window but could be windy ha ha. May need to dust off the equipment, get my mojo back. Where to go, your dark site specifically gated, requiring a key is good, my usual dark site is probably remote enough and OK to go to, I have another new one, which might also be OK. Staycation campervans being everywhere currently is the thing.

Thanks Iain. I was really pleased with how it turned out. Weather looks hopeful here too. With any luck another dark site trip will be on the cards. I hope you manage to get out. I’m sure a good session will get your observing mojo back. 

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Great report 👍

The Swan neb is an amazing target: I caught it one stunningly dark transparant night with an O-III and the detail on offer was just mesmerising - I spent ages on it.  It appeared to show a 3D like structure and the turbulent structures along one edge in particular. Its a true show piece of the sky.

That Mars polar cap is so in-your-face bright, isn't it!!

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8 hours ago, niallk said:

Great report 👍

The Swan neb is an amazing target: I caught it one stunningly dark transparant night with an O-III and the detail on offer was just mesmerising - I spent ages on it.  It appeared to show a 3D like structure and the turbulent structures along one edge in particular. Its a true show piece of the sky.

That Mars polar cap is so in-your-face bright, isn't it!!

Thank you. That night with the Swan sounds amazing. I bet the 15” really helps to bring the detail out. 

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6 minutes ago, Barry-W-Fenner said:

Fantastic report Neil, sounds like a wonderful nights observing. 

Reading this really inspires me to try and find a nice dark site to take the dob. I bet the views are stunning compared to urban skies!

 

Regards

Thanks Barry. It’s well worth the effort of getting to a dark site. It’s like getting a load more aperture for the price of the fuel to get you there 

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