Having fun with my 12 inch dob

[John]

A rather nice clear and dark night tonight.

I had a short time with my 100mm refractor observing Jupiter and Saturn. They were OK but the seeing was not that great. Because of the dark sky I decided to get more aperture out so out came my 12 inch dobsonian.

While the rising moon was masked by conifer trees I managed to have a lovely late Summer DSO tour. All the old favorites were showing really well with my 12 inch dob. First time for ages that I've had this scope out.

The Veil Nebula was excellent with the 31mm Nagler and Lumicon O-III filter and the Crescent Nebula also showed it's subtle curves.

The Dumbbell Nebula was superb with and without a filter. Followed this with further planetary nebulae, the Saturn Nebula, Blue Snowball (nice detail here) and the Little Dumbbell Nebula.

Off with the filter and in goes the 13mm Ethos to have a look at some globular clusters. The magnificent M15 and M2 and the fainter NGC 6934 and M72. Lots of resolved stars in the brighter of those.

With moonlight starting to invade the sky, I've switched back to planetary observing and picked out Neptune in Aquarius. I wanted to see if I could spot Neptune's brightest moon, Triton which I have managed in the past with this scope. I piled on the magnification with the Pentax XW  3.5mm for 454x and Neptune's tiny 2.5 arc seconds disk was surprisingly well defined even at this high magnification. I carefully examined the background sky within a few planet diameters using a sort of "1000 yard stare / averted vision" technique and a suspect point of light popped in and out of visibility around 10 arc seconds to the south east of Neptune. I observed this though several drifts across the eyepiece field and made a rough sketch of its position. 

Back inside to check Cartes du Ciel and, lo and behold, Triton is just where my suspect point of light was shyly blinking in and out of view. This distant rocky / icy world shines at magnitude 13.5 so I was pleased to pick it up with some moonlight in the sky.

Waiting for the Moon and Mars to rise into visibility now. Who knows, maybe Phobos and Deimos will be possible ?

[John]

Well I didn't see Phobos or Deimos - a misty cloud layer spread across the sky obscuring all but the brightest stars. I did get some fine views of Mars though with the thin cloud acting as a rather effective natural filter.

All in all a very pleasing night

[Barry-W-Fenner]

Lovely report John, sounds like a very enjoyable night's observation. 

I spent a bit of time trying to find Neptune Saturday night, unfortunately the moon made it very difficult to locate even the brightest stars in that direction, Neptune escaped me again.

I am also yet to see the Veil & Saturn nebs, they are both on my list for this autumn /winter.  Great to hear you encouraging words on the blue snowball, another one of my favourites there! Some great detail and colour to be seen in this target.

I had a similar experience with Mars in the early hours of Sunday. Some beautiful detail showing. To my eye it is a copper disc with a grey band running through it, the polar cap was also showing nicely which gave a stunning contrast in colours. Quite a bit to be seen!

Cheers for the enjoyable report

👍

[John]

Neptune looks quite "star like" at lower magnifications although there is something about the way it looks through the eyepiece even then that makes you think that it is a planet rather than a star. The tiny disk becomes visible at about 80x - 100x but it is tiny - just 2.5 arc seconds so it would fit into the gap between the wider pair of Epsilon Lyrae !

Found this piece on spotting Phobos and Deimos:

https://astronomynow.com/2018/07/30/find-martian-moons-phobos-and-deimos-at-the-red-planets-closest-approach/

They should be possible with my scope but I need to choose a time when their elongation from the planet is more favourable and when there isn't a layer of misty cloud around. The latter did help enhance the contrast of Mars a bit though I think, until it got too thick that was

 

[Mark at Beaufort]

Great report John. I never appreciated that you could observe  Phobos or Deimos so I will give it a go. I have looked at Stellarium and you can judge the best time when the Moons are furthest away from Mars.

Not observed Mars this season so I must give it a go.

[wookie1965]

Nice report John now should I get a a big telescope to get the same views or have I got aperture fever.