First Encounter with M57 (09/09/2020)

[rob_r]

A somewhat unexpected clear night last night over Preston in Lancashire and noticeably fresher too. After a disappointing week near Loch Lomond where I hoped to experience darker skies (Bortle 4) than at home (Bortle 6), a clear night was a welcome treat in any case. My scope was still packed up from the trip up to Scotland. So, gathering up the EQ5 mount and scope, I set up just as it was getting dark and there was a small window for about an hour before the moon came up.

This time I forewent the 'Polar Scope' app and attempted to do the alignment manually through the polar scope, I figured it would be good practice and it seems to work out quite well as the scope started the star alignment process. The Summer Triangle was clearly visible high towards the South so opted for the 3-star alignment method but I could only select the first named star Vega, the other stars on the list were either blocked from view or I wasn't sure where in the sky they should be as the names were still a little obscure to me. More star chart reading required! I hoped to use Deneb and Altair as alignment stars and even a 2-star alignment didn't work out, same problem with an 'Out of Range' error message after exhausting the list. As the polar alignment seems to be fairly decent for once, the scope was only a little off centre from Vega. I opted for 1-star alignment but feared that the GoTo system would be off by some margin.

Surprisingly though, it wasn't. Jupiter was already sat due South by the time I got out and the GoTo placed the planet only marginally off centre within the eyepiece. Knowing that this could be the last decent opportunity to shoot more video of both Jupiter and Saturn due to what seem like persistent cloudy nights and both are nearing to be blocked by nearby buildings, I wanted to get some decent video footage of both. Jupiter was straightforward enough, I took out the diagonal and slotted the Canon 600D straight into the back of the scope. I ditched the 2x Barlow too and used the camera's digital zoom to get Jupiter nice and big in the view. The mount did a very good job on the tracking, usually my targets always drift out of the view after a minute but this time round very little drift was occurring and got to about 7 to 8 minutes where the targets remained in view. I managed to get over 7 minutes worth of footage, the seeing conditions didn't appear to be all that good but there is some marginal detail of the GRS and cloud banding although the video is quite noisy. Next target was Saturn. This was more tricky as the planet appears quite small on the camera so knowing I had it in focus was a challenge but with some persistence, it paid off.  I got 8 minutes worth of footage, quite noisy footage again as the ISO was at 1600. I decided to shoot it again at 800 in the hope for clearer details for another 8 minutes but the planet is very faint in the playback. Perhaps with a little processing, I might get a result, we'll see.

As the GoTo system was working well, a target I tried to find in previous sessions was M57 Ring Nebula. Again, no problem here and coupled with averted vision, I got my first sight of this planetary nebula despite some nearby high cloud drifting across the view. At first, I couldn't see it but when I looked at a nearby star in the 25mm eyepiece, it appears as a brief flash. Keeping my gaze on the star, I could see it more clearly. Small but certainly there. The star in the middle of the ring wasn't visible, I imagine I will need a higher magnification and a lower focal ratio. I was quite surprised that it is so blue, almost a vibrant blue. I got a few shots of this too, only 15 light frames at 25s, maybe the centre will be appear when stacked.

As it was getting late and having work the following morning coupled with a quick peek at Andromeda high to the East, a hazy grey smudge through the eyepiece revealed itself, I called it a night. Took a few dark frames as I packed up the scope and headed indoors. Mars is still behind trees for me at the moment but looking forward to a few more weeks as it should move to a point where I can observe it plus it will be another first for me.

In all, a rather successful session perhaps more in part due to actually getting the polar alignment right or quite close for once. Quite memorable too, due to seeing M57. Very happy with that. I still need to figure out the star alignments for future sessions. Hopefully, if any of the processing yields anything decent I'll post them here at a later date.

Below are a few stills from the videos. The brighter one of Saturn I quickly adjusted the levels.

[TerryMcK]

You might be able to run the video through AutoStackert to get some decent stills from the movie.