It's been a while..

[Stardaze]

Since I've been able to get the dob out due to an on-going muscle problem that's meant I can't lift anything of any real weight . The sack truck I've ordered has been out of stock and so I'm still waiting for that to arrive. Anyway, with a Bank Holiday weekend looking like there could be some clear nights ahead the cunning plan involved bribing the wife to lift the dob into the garage so that I could roll her out (the dob, not the wife) to view the planets from the front of the house. I did add the first evenings account to the bottom of @John's post but for my own benefit, I'll add a quick summary of the last two evenings here. The front isn't ideal with a couple of stray lights around but that's not so much of an issue for planetary viewing. 

I've been watching the two gas giants rising each night 'between the houses' opposite for a couple of weeks now and whilst the 15x70's have been out plenty on a tripod, I couldn't wait to try a little deeper. Conditions were much better Friday night, the seeing was very steady, although Saturn was below the point where there's a lot of sky pollution in the SE. By midnight, being directly South, I could determine the Cassini band clearly with subtle colour gradations on the disc, but the big thing for me was the presence of 3 clear moons. I now believe that these were Titan, Dione & Lapetus. Last night, although transparency wasn't as good, there were 5 moons - Rhea, Titan, Lapetus, Dione & Tethys. I don't recall seeing all of those together before, so very pleased with thathaul.

Jupiter appeared very sharp for long periods Friday night. The GRS was just disappearing out of view at the start of that sessio, but the bands in the north and south were occasionally showing themselves and a good bit of time was sat at the eyepiece trying to resolve as much as I could. The 4 Galilean moons were spread out as normal with Lo and Europa being very tight together, resembling a tight split double. 

Last night I'd noted the transit of Lo early on, so that was something that I spent a good while observing. Always a fascinating sight to see, that I still find mesmerising. 

I hadn't seen Neptune before, so Friday night was spent hunting her down. The 15x70s really helped me acclimatise around Piscium and Aquarius, both constellations that I'm not that familiar with and sit just below the pollution line in the SE/S, early on. Eta and Zeta Aquari were clear to see by eye but the circlet was lost in the LP. The pairing of Kappa Piscium and 9 Pisc isn't so hard to find, or it wasn't last night. It took me a while the night previous, but the star hop from there was good - funny how simple it was the night following! Neptune didn't jump out at me as the 7.8 mag suggested it might, really pleased she was ticked off but expected maybe a touch more. The reality check is the small distance of 4.3 billion km's through the atmospheric smog of the town at the current altitude. 

I ended both sessions with a trawl through Cygnus directly overhead. The moon was starting to rise through the oak tree in the east and so I had maybe 40 minutes around some popular targets to see how the new 13E performs. I will say that I thought a lot of the APM 13 it replaced, but what a lovely experience, really do love these ultra wide EP's. I love to just hop around the denseness of the Milky Way and the immersive feel just draws you in. I would have liked to try the new Nebustar UHC on some.. well...nebula! But being on the front isn't ideal with those pesky lights, so I stuck to the plan of a few planetary nebs, doubles and clusters. A quick summary of these:

- I often start in the middle at Sadr just to take in the richness of the MW.

- M29 (little sisters) easy hop from Sadr to the SW. A lovely little open cluster.

- Albireo is always a treat, just to see that 'pop' against the background. The new EP didn't disappoint, plenty of punchy contrast.

- M27 is always worth a quick visit. I couldn't be bothered to switch EP's though and so didn't really get the best out of this target.

- 61 Cygni is obviously such a famous golden double which I often stop by to dwell on the history of this pairing. I've been reading Giles Sparrow's "A history of the universe in 21 stars" lately and so this binary is firmly in mind and contrasts nicely against the background. I didn't have the time to watch for any noticeable movement though 😆

- NGC 6826 The infamous blinking planetary. I haven't been able to stop by this year and so a peek of this oddity was long over due. I still find the effect quite fascinating. Having dropped on from Theta Cygni she was easy enough to find, in the peripheral view of course. 

- M56 I plonked the dob in the rough area between Albireo and Sulafat and found the glob sat almost centrally in the EP. A nice happy accident that I couldn't repeat if I tried. Wasn't that bright at 98x and probably could have done with more magnification. 

M57 - Worth a quick trip before packing up. I should have upped the mag really again but so late in the session the EP's were a trip back into porch (I'd been changing during the planetary earlier on) and so I sat it out with what I had. The moon was now having an effect too so it was time to pack away for the evening.

It all felt a little odd on packing up, sat on the doorstep pretty much in a suburban setting wearing summer garb, the garden is a much better escape from this, I've only found myself here in December when Orion first shows herself. I'm hoping the sack truck will arrive this week which will mean I can set up in the back and try a few nebs with the UHC. Fingers crossed that the new moon period coincides with some clear evenings. The veil is still to be explored properly this year.

 

 

Edited August 29, 2021 by Stardaze

[wookie1965]

Great session I set up last night hoping for a good night and I had NGC6826 on my list as I had not seen that before. Cloud rolled in so the night was a let down.

Thank you for posting some great targets there.

[Stardaze]

8 minutes ago, wookie1965 said:

Great session I set up last night hoping for a good night and I had NGC6826 on my list as I had not seen that before. Cloud rolled in so the night was a let down.

Thank you for posting some great targets there.

Thanks! I’ll try not to ruin it for you but when you’re hunting her down, give yourself a little time scanning around each hop as you’ll only see it in your peripheral vision.