Ducks and Eagles In The Garden

[Stardaze]

Last night cleared to reveal a lovely sky that the forecast hadn't predicted (tonight always looking best) and so I put the new dob truck to good use. Saturn was already between the houses upon set up and a quick peak confirmed this following collimation and alignment of finders (I did bump her around with the truck but everything held up very well). With virtually no cooling I could tell that things looked steady, game on!

I spent a lot of the night with the two gas giants. I've really enjoyed this month watching the changing Galilean moons. Io and Ganymede were almost touching when Jupiter appeared but the seeing deteriorated around half an hour in so I retreated for a quick brew and to get the new Nebustar out for it's first airing. 

The Milky Way is a little tricky from home. Above next doors house isn't ideal, having to dodge window light when I returned. An altitude of -10 is just possible and it's still the prime constellation I have little experience with, but the one I so desperately want to explore. I knew the duck cluster was possible, so started there first. I'd left my phone inside, so reverted to my trusty pocket atlas. The star hopping needed work! My eyes hadn't adapted properly yet and the window wasn't helping. But then, what appeared to be a spread out glob in the 20 APM, there she was. The APM 20 and XW 7 turn out to be par focal, which I realised when I decided to drill down into the cluster. Just a super sight, fully resolved across the eyepiece. I spent a good while taking it all in and allowing my eyes to fully adapt. I really wanted to try for the Eagle Neb so popped the Nebustar on the 20mm. I had a jumper draped over my head by now to avoid the stray lights, one had gone out. Not as intuitive as having SkySafari next to the 9x50, the star hop whilst juggling the torch and atlas was a bit clunky at best - definitely out of practice in pastures new! And then, like it does, it just popped into view. I'll admit that I wasn't totally certain at first that it was M16, but I pieced it together in my head slowly. I decided to just drop the dob a little and got lucky with M17 too, but the fence line was appearing into view. A slightly washed out image resembled a galaxy to my eye, so not a lot of detail, but really pleased with anything around -16 altitude which was lurking in a washed out horizon. 

Time was ticking now, so I decided to spend some time back with Jupiter, quickly noticing that it wasn't as steady as before. It never really did stabilise that well but occasionally there were moments where the tropical belts came in to view, which isn't so bad. Whilst packing up I glanced up to see superb clear sky with the Milky Way being just visible, now that all the peripheral lights had gone out. Now would have been the time really to be out, but burning the candle wasn't an option tonight. I just clocked Delphinus and with the 7mm still loaded I took in one of my favourite doubles, Gamma Delphini. The contrast of the two colours really do pop, the lime colour of the B star was really evident against it's warmer sibling. 

Hopefully the forecast is true tonight and I'll have to concentrate on Sagittarius from the off, see if I can find the Star Cloud... 

Edited September 7, 2021 by Stardaze

[rl]

Nice report, well written. Glad to see you're getting to grips with the star hopping!

The seeing in Pershore was excellent last night. Using the 14" with the APM 13mm 100 degree the focus was really snappy (*140). I watched the Io transit early in the evening. I was amazed how sharp and how black the shadow was compared to the view in smaller scopes...and how much smaller the shadow appeared compared to Io itself. I managed to pick up Io while it was still on the disk and follow it off over a period of about 30 mins. 

Moved on to Saturn..spotted all 5 moons on the S+T predictor, plus one field star which caused some confusion. Hints-no more- of the crepe ring. 

Moved on to M71 in Sagitta. One of my favourites...never sure whether it's a large compact open cluster or a small loose globular. I could see a lot of stars with direct vision, but averted vision really opened it up right into the core. 

One thing that really struck me last night was that looking at an object centered in a 100 degree eyepiece means that all the outer field is effectively been seen with averted vision and is thus enhanced..this was particularly noticeable trolling through the Cygnus star field. 

I only used one eyepiece last night..the 13mm would be a good contender for a "do-it-all" eyepiece in this scope. 

RL

 

[Stardaze]

20 minutes ago, rl said:

Nice report, well written. Glad to see you're getting to grips with the star hopping!

The seeing in Pershore was excellent last night. Using the 14" with the APM 13mm 100 degree the focus was really snappy (*140). I watched the Io transit early in the evening. I was amazed how sharp and how black the shadow was compared to the view in smaller scopes...and how much smaller the shadow appeared compared to Io itself. I managed to pick up Io while it was still on the disk and follow it off over a period of about 30 mins. 

Moved on to Saturn..spotted all 5 moons on the S+T predictor, plus one field star which caused some confusion. Hints-no more- of the crepe ring. 

Moved on to M71 in Sagitta. One of my favourites...never sure whether it's a large compact open cluster or a small loose globular. I could see a lot of stars with direct vision, but averted vision really opened it up right into the core. 

One thing that really struck me last night was that looking at an object centered in a 100 degree eyepiece means that all the outer field is effectively been seen with averted vision and is thus enhanced..this was particularly noticeable trolling through the Cygnus star field. 

I only used one eyepiece last night..the 13mm would be a good contender for a "do-it-all" eyepiece in this scope. 

RL

 

It’s a lovely eyepiece Richard 🙂 It’s replacement didn’t get used at all last night, found myself either long or short. 
It’s been a while since I’ve hopped around a new constellation with just an atlas so definitely a bit rusty. I could certainly make out 4 moons too with Saturn but the spread of the two on the righthand seemed wider than how Enceladus and Dione appear on SkySafari. Hyperion is out of my scopes range so had to be.