Family Lunar jaunt followed by a late night.

[SuburbanMak]

Had the pleasure of the company of my youngest son Bertie (15) for the early part of last night who wanted to have a look at the moon.

Took the opportunity to play with all the 'scopes (Mak 127, ST80 & Prinz 60mm old-school refractor) in the garden &  give him a little tour before our lunar excursion and he was blown away by Castor as a double, imagining Tatooine like twin sunsets - he was amazed that they were different colours and could see a clear blue-white & yellow contrast invisible to me (both white in my eyes)- I am sure its nothing to do with age...

On to Mizar which is one of my favourite fields and from there picked up rising M13 in Hercules which fired the imagination with its slightly extra-galactic status and wondering what the night sky would look like from a planet in the middle of that lot, packed with stars and with our galaxy beyond. This was apparently, "cool" - & I agree. 

Seeing and transparency by the time we got on to the moon were quite good although I have had nights where I can pile on the magnification and keep teasing out detail, last night it wasn't really adding anything much above 200x. 

We spent most of the time around Sinus Iridium enjoying the light on the Jura mountain tops and great views of Plato and the various mountain massifs on the Mare Imbrium plain. Bertie remarked on Vallis Alpes and was surprised to see something so straight-line. 

We noted two small bright spots on the otherwise dark side of the terminator to the South of Sinus Iridium & after a look at the map I think these might have been the Gruithuisen domes catching the sunlight on their 900m uplands (although any other theories welcome...).

Some hours later I came back out alone to retrieve the scopes and thought I'd just take a quick last peek at M13....  & that was it for the next 3 hours! 

After midnight seeing & transparency had become excellent round these parts with Hercules now very high and Cygnus flying parallel to the north eastern horizon. M13 was the best I've seen it so far, comparatively bright and yielding up plenty of points of light with averted vision at around 150x in the Mak + Baader Zoom.  I fancied I could see some darker lanes in it but I had had a glass of wine by then, really don't know if that's possible with only 5 inches of aperture. 

I then enjoyed a colour contrast I could see  with Alberio and followed up with some nice crisply split views of the Double Double in Lyra.  

Remembering my slowly growing Messier count I hunted for M57 the Ring Nebula, something I have so far failed to see many times, as Lyra has been down in the murk earlier in the year even though navigationally it should be a doddle.  Well there it was - another one of those "wow" moments, I spotted it at about 75x (20mm) in the Baader Zoom a tiny,  wispy circle in a rich star field. More magnification yielded up the central hole and at about 120x I was looking at a tiny but perfect-smoke ring in space two and half thousand light years away, absolutely amazing. 

I fetched the ST80 over and found it in that too - really, really tiny this time but definitely identifiable.

I watched the moon slipping rapidly below the roofline at 188x, the image boiling and shimmering with the air currents coming off the slates, then turned back to the Ring Nebula phone battery by now dead so slewing the Mak manually and letting M57 drift across the field.  

Might have to pop out and have another go tonight if this high cloud clears...

  

 

 

 

[Pixies]

Nice report. M13 and M57 were the first targets I ever saw in a scope.

Youngsters' vision is a lot better. My son (same age as yours) can see colour in the Orion nebula. And last year when hunting for comet Neowise, I was using binoculars but he could pick it up naked-eye!

 

[SuburbanMak]

4 minutes ago, Pixies said:

Nice report. M13 and M57 were the first targets I ever saw in a scope.

Youngsters' vision is a lot better. My son (same age as yours) can see colour in the Orion nebula. And last year when hunting for comet Neowise, I was using binoculars but he could pick it up naked-eye!

 

They'll definitely be high on my Summer regulars list! 

Interesting you say that about the Orion nebula - it was of the few things I was able to locate in my 40mm Tasco back in about 1982 and I remember it distinctly as green  - now at 50 its pretty much in monochrome! Took my eldest (19) out on a galaxy hunt a couple of weeks back and he was seeing way more detail than me.

Just have to buy a bigger scope I guess...

[Kon]

Nice report and good targets. M13 is quite spectacular especially as you up the magnification. Ring nebula is pretty amazing and worth trying to get your son out for it  if you can; my 5 year old has been amazed to see the owl and eskimo nebulas (in winter). I think tonight is looking promising so far so have an enjoyable night again.

[callisto]

Lovely...thanks for sharing your report 

 

Mark

[Luke]

That was a great read. Well done bagging the Ring Nebula. I was supposed to be just nipping out for a bit of lunar (cough) but sneaked a quick look at M13 and M57 as well. M13 was pretty decent in my 100mm scope, better than I was expecting.

[Stu]

43 minutes ago, SuburbanMak said:

We noted two small bright spots on the otherwise dark side of the terminator to the South of Sinus Iridium & after a look at the map I think these might have been the Gruithuisen domes catching the sunlight on their 900m uplands (although any other theories welcome...).

This is the location of the domes, but there are also two brighter spots further down the terminator which might have been what you saw? I think these are the Montes Harbinger....

[Stu]

Meant to add, an excellent read and glad you were able to share some views with your son.

[SuburbanMak]

19 minutes ago, Stu said:

This is the location of the domes, but there are also two brighter spots further down the terminator which might have been what you saw? I think these are the Montes Harbinger....

Thanks and yes I think you’re right, they were really bright and from the spacing do look like the mountains further to the South - the domes might be a bit subtle, although I do want to find them now as it’s such a great name. 

[Stu]

7 minutes ago, SuburbanMak said:

Thanks and yes I think you’re right, they were really bright and from the spacing do look like the mountains further to the South - the domes might be a bit subtle, although I do want to find them now as it’s such a great name. 

They look like they will be better illuminated tonight. Worth a look.

[Stu]

1 hour ago, SuburbanMak said:

Thanks and yes I think you’re right, they were really bright and from the spacing do look like the mountains further to the South - the domes might be a bit subtle, although I do want to find them now as it’s such a great name. 

Have a look tonight, I’ve just seen them through my little Zeiss Telementor and managed a quick smartphone image.

[wookie1965]

Brilliant report M57 the ring nebula is one of my favourites one of the first Messiers I got in a scope. 

Great read thanks for posting. 

[SuburbanMak]

On 23/04/2021 at 19:57, Stu said:

Have a look tonight, I’ve just seen them through my little Zeiss Telementor and managed a quick smartphone image.

For "quick snaps" these are great images!  Yes you are right, this is definitely what I was looking at.