Finally my first report!

[BS269]

Finally excited to tell my first worthy stargazing night! I’ve had a few nights out over the last few months but they were right next to my light filled house and were mainly just chances to get used to my dob.

I looked outside to see the sky was about half clear, with the clouds mostly reigning in the lower altitudes. So I took a gander up to my new observing location, where my new Astro-shed is built and found myself just gawping at the sky for a while. Feels like a very long time ago since I got to spend some time just taking in it’s beauty. I realised recently as well that putting on my glasses completely transformed my naked eye viewing, which I have been surprised by as I only have a very weak prescription and never use them otherwise. The stars become pin point sharp, 100s of dimmer stars pop into the fray and I can look directly at the Pleiades and the Orion Nebula  and see the stars within them.

During my gawping, I had completely forgotten this is the time to observe the Geminids, and was abruptly reminded as the largest shooting star I’ve ever seen shot right across where I was looking. I only saw about 4 more but it was enough for me!

Due to the rolling clouds I was worried about setting the big dob up, so opted for my neglected TAL-1. I wasn’t able to use him for months, and it’s the first time I’ve been able to look at DSOs with it. First turn; Pleiades... granted it doesn’t all fit into the FOV with my baader zoom, but still a lovely sight none the less. There’s something so simple yet captivating about this cluster I think, with it’s striking blue stars. Around some of the brighter stars there was a slight blue haze around them, not sure if this is a sign of the nebulosity? Very exciting if it is!

Next I went to M42. I tried looking at this last week with my dob but there was a full moon quite close so was almost completely washed out. Tonight was far better, and I got a much better view at a higher magnitude, boosting the contrast as the sky around it got darker, making it much easier to see detail. To be honest, I don’t know which part of the nebula I was looking at but I definitely couldn’t see all of it. I’m guessing I could see the core as it’s the brightest area? Amazing view regardless. Afterward I just started aimlessly navigating around, seeing what was out there. I searched for the pinwheel galaxy but no luck, I’m not well acquainted with that area and the old 1993 EQ mount isn’t the easiest to control. The scope might have too small an aperture to pick it up, I’m not sure.

What I was impressed by with the TAL is it’s optics, for such an old scope, and it’s ability to hold collimation. I got it perfectly collimated in June, and it’s been moved about a fair bit since then. I didn’t even check collimation tonight, and achieved sharper stars than I ever have in my dob, which I check every. single. time. Really lovely views in my Russian rocket launcher!

I don’t know if this is too long for an observing report, but I’m just glad I can finally give one worth telling. I’ve added this lil pic I took tonight on my iphone 12, testing out it’s night camera mode. Not too shabby!! Thanks for reading!

[Paul73]

Great write up. 
Glad that you got some time under the stars.

Paul

[Nik271]

Nice report! Well done for seeing the nebulosity around the Pleaides!

The Pinwheel galaxy (M101) is a difficult object to see, harder than the Triangulum galaxy in my opinion. It is very large, as large as the full moon by area so the surface brightness is very low. You have a better change with binoculars and only if the sky is reasonably dark (Bortle 5/4 at least).

 

 

[Jasonb]

Excellent report, can't beat getting some.time out under clear skies!

[BS269]

35 minutes ago, Nik271 said:

Nice report! Well done for seeing the nebulosity around the Pleaides!

The Pinwheel galaxy (M101) is a difficult object to see, harder than the Triangulum galaxy in my opinion. It is very large, as large as the full moon by area so the surface brightness is very low. You have a better change with binoculars and only if the sky is reasonably dark (Bortle 5/4 at least).

 

 

Thanks for the advice, I wasn’t hopeful on seeing it to be honest with 4” aperture and only having a rough idea where it was. I actually live on the border of bortle 4/5 skies so hopefully I’ll be able to catch it with my 12” dob and wide angle EP? I’d love to get a decent view of a galaxy but the only one I’ve managed to find so far is andromeda. Which would you say is the easiest to see? 

[Nik271]

 

1 hour ago, BS269 said:

Thanks for the advice, I wasn’t hopeful on seeing it to be honest with 4” aperture and only having a rough idea where it was. I actually live on the border of bortle 4/5 skies so hopefully I’ll be able to catch it with my 12” dob and wide angle EP? I’d love to get a decent view of a galaxy but the only one I’ve managed to find so far is andromeda. Which would you say is the easiest to see? 

 

After Andromeda in my opinion the next easiest is the pair of M81 and M82 in Ursa Major. They are less than 1 degree apart and can both fit in a wide angle eyepiece view.

There is also the Leo triplet M65, M66 and NGC 3628 of which the first two are easy to see (but the third is much harder). Again they can fit within 1 degree field of view together which makes it a great sight. 

For me galaxy hunting is very frustrating because the neighbours have security light which turn on at seemingly random intervals and ruin my night vision, and of course the light pollution is always there. The above I have easily seen with 127mm aperture Mak at F12, not exactly a galaxy instrument so you should have no problem with a 12inch.

 

[BS269]

1 hour ago, Nik271 said:

 

 

After Andromeda in my opinion the next easiest is the pair of M81 and M82 in Ursa Major. They are less than 1 degree apart and can both fit in a wide angle eyepiece view.

There is also the Leo triplet M65, M66 and NGC 3628 of which the first two are easy to see (but the third is much harder). Again they can fit within 1 degree field of view together which makes it a great sight. 

For me galaxy hunting is very frustrating because the neighbours have security light which turn on at seemingly random intervals and ruin my night vision, and of course the light pollution is always there. The above I have easily seen with 127mm aperture Mak at F12, not exactly a galaxy instrument so you should have no problem with a 12inch.

 

Next time I’m out I’ll take a look at these. I’ve tried andromeda but struggled to see any detail besides the core. I’ve since gotten my wide angle EP so I’m hoping for a much better view next time. Would love to see some spiral arms or dust lanes on any galaxy! Can’t wait for a clear night for my dob so I can do some proper deep space hunting, thank you for the advice!