Short report on a weekend of astronomy firsts

[Basementboy]

After what I think I'm right in saying was five straight months in London during which it rained at least once every day, I finally got a chance to try out my TS Optics 115 triplet and 6" OOUK Newt under some dark (and warm!) skies in Suffolk for a camping weekend in the Ferrariat.

The AZ5 having been successfully adapted to reduce vibration (thanks again to the SGLers who helped me figure out that the trick is to mount the arm vertically!) and the heavy SW 3/8 steel tripod heaved into place, I pointed the refractor at the big bright star low in the sky.......

I had never seen Jupiter before. So that was pretty special. Four moons, at least six bands and what I think was a moon transiting across the surface?!?!?!? Or possibly a shadow transit. Anybody know how to tell?

Saturn meanwhile was the whole reason I got into astronomy in the first place. It is the planet of my dreams. And in a telescope it looks exactly like a glow-in-the-dark sticker on a child's bedroom ceiling. It's like a comedy planet. Hard to believe it's real.

I have to admit: it was Jupiter that was the better sight. It was huge and spherical and jaw-dropping. So there really is an unimaginably vast storm planet up there above us ...

DSOs: Ring Nebula, Dumbell nebula, Whirlpool and Pinwheel. Swan was too low. First sighting of Andromeda, too, which I can't see from London and was, predictably, best at lower magnification.

Great Hercules cluster was VERY cool, particularly in the Newt and at high mag (I've got a 5mm Hyperion that's dark but good) in the refractor. Dozens of visible stars and a real sense of the 3D clustery-ness of it.

Only drawback was that I struggled to use the 9x50 RACI. It's almost TOO magnified for a relative beginner like myself: I got lost a lot. Am I the only person who finds the RDF sufficiently intuitive?

All in all, a great time. Now to move to a country with better weather. I hear the Atacama isn't bad.

 

Edited July 28, 2021 by Basementboy

[cloudsweeper]

Nice work, your enthusiasm is clear!  You're not likely to see more than four of Jupiter's moons, so a dark spot on its face could be a shadow.  M13 and M31 are great to see, and are always worth going back to.  

I only use a RACI with my Dob, in conjunction with a Rigel.  For all others, I find a simple RDF coupled with a large FOV is perfectly adequate.

Doug.

[wulfrun]

Good bag of objects there. I've only recently managed to "tick" Jupiter and Saturn in a telescope eyepiece and I tend to agree that Saturn is amazing but Jupiter is the more interesting view.

An RDF is probably fine in dark skies and with a widefield EP but in my backyard adding a RACI was transformative. The RDF gets you close but a RACI let's you star-hop via the stuff that just isn't naked-eye visible in light pollution. I use a Telrad and RACI in conjunction with each other.

[Stardaze]

A few great ‘firsts’ there 😀

I know what you mean about a 9x50, I too found it tricky to get my eye in but do stick with it, they’re invaluable for drilling into an area for a proper hop to targets. A RACI and RDF work really well together once you get the hang of it, just takes a little perseverance.

[Zermelo]

Nice report. It must be great to get away and use kit like that to its potential.

18 hours ago, Basementboy said:

I think was a moon transiting across the surface?!?!?!? Or possibly a shadow transit. Anybody know how to tell?

You can check the position of the Galilean moons with the link on this page. It looks like Io was transiting last weekend.

18 hours ago, Basementboy said:

struggled to use the 9x50 RACI

I found that a 6x30 RACI transformed my observing experience. I recently bought a 9x50, which has better performance when the sky is a bit lighter. The TFOV is narrower (about 5.5°, vs 7° for the 6x30) but I find it easy to match star patterns with SkySafari on my phone - the FOV for the finder is displayed, I can zoom in and out and I can adjust the stellar limiting magnitude to match the prevailing conditions.

[Basementboy]

On 28/07/2021 at 17:40, cloudsweeper said:

Nice work, your enthusiasm is clear!  You're not likely to see more than four of Jupiter's moons, so a dark spot on its face could be a shadow.  M13 and M31 are great to see, and are always worth going back to.  

 

Yeah I'm still at the stage where I'm perfectly satisfied with the "hits". As for the transit/shadow issue, I was so excited I forgot to count whether the number of moons had reduced to three. As it was a black dot, I'm guessing it was probably a shadow. Just as cool in my book

[Basementboy]

On 28/07/2021 at 18:06, wulfrun said:

Good bag of objects there. I've only recently managed to "tick" Jupiter and Saturn in a telescope eyepiece and I tend to agree that Saturn is amazing but Jupiter is the more interesting view.

An RDF is probably fine in dark skies and with a widefield EP but in my backyard adding a RACI was transformative. The RDF gets you close but a RACI let's you star-hop via the stuff that just isn't naked-eye visible in light pollution. I use a Telrad and RACI in conjunction with each other.

Good point – I haven't really had it out in London yet. And star-hopping in the city has indeed been difficult with an RDF. Glad to know it has a future...

[Basementboy]

11 hours ago, Stardaze said:

A few great ‘firsts’ there 😀

I know what you mean about a 9x50, I too found it tricky to get my eye in but do stick with it, they’re invaluable for drilling into an area for a proper hop to targets. A RACI and RDF work really well together once you get the hang of it, just takes a little perseverance.

Yes, in fairness to the 9x50, I haven't really used it in situations where I actually need it – and in London I really will.

[Basementboy]

8 hours ago, Zermelo said:

You can check the position of the Galilean moons with the link on this page. It looks like Io was transiting last weekend.

On 28/07/2021 at 15:48, Basementboy said:

Oh that's handy – thanks! Based on the exact times I was observing, it looks like it was Ganymede's shadow ... and if I'd waited until 1:56am I would have seen Ganymede itself transit. That's somehow just a wonderful thing to know. Thank you