A Cluster of clusters and a couple of frosty Doubles

[SuburbanMak]

(Originally posted this in the wrong section Notes from 10.2. )

Had three sessions last night, the first the CPRE Orion star count with my 11 year old daughter, magic. 

The second was from the light-blighted garden mid evening - successfully picked up M41, M35 and M67 all for the first time - then a neighbour put on more lights so had a go at Polaris, nearly, almost sort of resolved as a double this time. 

After a tea and warm break I managed to convince myself that the Mak 127 carry over to the park at 11:30 pm constituted allowable lockdown exercise (body AND mind officer...) so headed out to a wider and, it turned out, reasonably darker viewing spot in the park.

 I haven't yet much comparative experience of conditions but I would say seeing was quite steady while transparency a bit milky. Winchester sits in a river valley and I suspect this may be a local feature until I can get up & out of town. Anyhoo, what started as proof-of-concept of some grab & go bag & padding ideas, turned into a really super session of clusters and doubles, most of which I had never seen before, & fruitless searches for fainter things. 

Technique-wise I brightest star aligned on Sirius and Arcturus & did have a few accuracy niggles with the GoTo , however a combination of the Telrad + 10x50 Bino sweeps got most of the bright targets quickly in the Finderscope and centred.    Highlight has to be the Beehive, M44 which I found breathtaking & can't believe I have never looked for before, Beta Mono triple-star which was amazingly 3D and set me off on a Tatooine sunset imagination-trip  and M67, dim & red the kind of place where Klingons might hang out!   After much reading on here over all these starless nights I had made a list and although I deviated a bit from it and failed to find ANY galaxies or planetary nebula, the list was a great idea and reminded me that I wanted to go and hunt down the targets in Cancer which I would otherwise have forgotten and missed two of the highlights of the evening.   Eventually my phone battery gave out and as I was wi-fi tethered to the AZ GTi this ended my session shortly before frost-bite ensued.

That dew shield was a good buy 

For what its worth, here are my notes, all observations made on SW Mak 127 on AZ GTi, Baader Hyeprion 24mm 68 degree fixed  for most & occasional higher mag on Baader Hyperion 8-24mm Zoom. Telrad & SW 9x50 finder, supplemented by Celestron Nature DX ED 10x50 Bins.   

 

[Epick Crom]

Nice thorough report 👍. Is that frost on your scope? Sound like you had a great time👍👍

[SuburbanMak]

53 minutes ago, Epick Crom said:

Nice thorough report 👍. Is that frost on your scope? Sound like you had a great time👍👍

Thanks - it was a great night, thing about being a beginner is there are so many firsts! Yes that was frost  

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

That was a great session with a little adventure! Thanks for the report.

Technique wise, you may see some GoTo accuracy improvement if you use North Level Alignment. Rough north is enough. I either use a compass or Polaris.

Another tip is to split the sky in half. I use North/South. Pick two alignment stars between SE-SW and have a southern session. Then for northern observations realign using stars between NE-NW. 

The Synscan App manual bottom of page 12, onto page 13, "Choosing an Alignment Star explains better.

https://skywatcher.com/download/manual/synscan-hand-control-and-synscan-app/

 

Have another go at splitting Algieba. Definitely worth it. Actually easy to find without the GoTo using naked eye if you consult a chart.

Regarding the DSO failures, if you live in a very light polluted area, then the Leo Triplet is probably a waste of time. The other night I spotted after many previous tries, M66 through a 4" refractor, but that was so incredibly faint, it took probably 15mins or more to confirm.

M81 & M82 are worth another crack. They're the only two faint galaxies I'm guaranteed to see every session under Bortle 8 skies.

 

Edited February 12, 2021 by ScouseSpaceCadet

[SuburbanMak]

2 hours ago, ScouseSpaceCadet said:

That was a great session with a little adventure! Thanks for the report.

Technique wise, you may see some GoTo accuracy improvement if you use North Level Alignment. Rough north is enough. I either use a compass or Polaris.

Another tip is to split the sky in half. I use North/South. Pick two alignment stars between SE-SW and have a southern session. Then for northern observations realign using stars between NE-NW. 

The Synscan App manual bottom of page 12, onto page 13, "Choosing an Alignment Star explains better.

https://skywatcher.com/download/manual/synscan-hand-control-and-synscan-app/

 

Have another go at splitting Algieba. Definitely worth it. Actually easy to find without the GoTo using naked eye if you consult a chart.

Regarding the DSO failures, if you live in a very light polluted area, then the Leo Triplet is probably a waste of time. The other night I spotted after many previous tries, M66 through a 4" refractor, but that was so incredibly faint, it took probably 15mins or more to confirm.

M81 & M82 are worth another crack. They're the only two faint galaxies I'm guaranteed to see every session under Bortle 8 skies.

 

Thank you it was an amazing night. This is really helpful advice I was wondering if picking stars further apart might make a difference. When I got back home I did also notice a little bit of play where mount meets tripod which I’ll make sure is tighter, hopefully tonight. 
 

On galaxies, LP isn’t disastrous here but may wait until lockdown eases and I can drive out of town to get serious about inter-galactic travel. Will have another shot at M81 though. 

Meantime  there’s plenty of clusters and doubles to keep me busy - will definitely have another go at Algieba and I read someone recommending Almach as a good colour contrast - have been really surprised how satisfying I find doubles to be! 

Looks clear right now... 

 

[wookie1965]

Great list and really enjoyed the read thanks for posting. 

[SuburbanMak]

On 12/02/2021 at 13:49, ScouseSpaceCadet said:

That was a great session with a little adventure! Thanks for the report.

Technique wise, you may see some GoTo accuracy improvement if you use North Level Alignment. Rough north is enough. I either use a compass or Polaris.

Another tip is to split the sky in half. I use North/South. Pick two alignment stars between SE-SW and have a southern session. Then for northern observations realign using stars between NE-NW. 

The Synscan App manual bottom of page 12, onto page 13, "Choosing an Alignment Star explains better.

https://skywatcher.com/download/manual/synscan-hand-control-and-synscan-app/

 

Have another go at splitting Algieba. Definitely worth it. Actually easy to find without the GoTo using naked eye if you consult a chart.

Regarding the DSO failures, if you live in a very light polluted area, then the Leo Triplet is probably a waste of time. The other night I spotted after many previous tries, M66 through a 4" refractor, but that was so incredibly faint, it took probably 15mins or more to confirm.

M81 & M82 are worth another crack. They're the only two faint galaxies I'm guaranteed to see every session under Bortle 8 skies.

 

@ScouseSpaceCadet I did go back the following evening and after using Regulus as second alignment star quickly found and easily split Algieba thank you for the encouragement! 

As you say beautiful golden colour,  great to compare with Castor straight after, much brighter white.  The realisation I'd clearly not been looking at the correct star the other night sent me to re-find a couple of the targets from toward the end of the previous session - M34 in particular captured the attention far more than first time around.  Moral of the story I guess is not to try and pack in too much new stuff in one go, track down a few targets and have a good look while concentration is fresh (& feet warm) and maybe spend a bit longer looking at the highlights  as I get tireder. 

I  am ending up with a greatest-hits and target list of doubles which as the moon comes back will be handy!  

Edited February 17, 2021 by SuburbanMak

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

Happy to help. Starting off can be daunting, and cock ups frequent!

You're right about taking one's time. Especially with DSOs. Letting your eyes adapt at the eyepiece can reveal wonders a quick glance doesn't do. 

Onwards and upwards!