An ST80 Under a Clear Sky in Cornwall... and not so clear in Yorkshire

[MercianDabbler]

We're staying near Constantine in Cornwall for a short break. It was not planned as an astronomy getaway, in fact it was hardly planned at all, being rescheduled once and finally booked at about 3 days notice. The ST80 has come along for the ride, just in case.

Skies so far have not been great but last night (Tuesday 14th) was forecast to be clear so the ST80 came out. The day itself was glorious and the sky was clear into the early evening but driving back from our coast path walk there was a worrying haze over the land to the north. As darkness was falling I looked out over Goonhilly to the south and it was very misty. Some low clouds were also developing to the north.

I headed out as darkness was falling. The cloud was now starting to be intrusive but was whipping across the sky quite briskly so there were windows of clarity. My plan was to try to see some of the more well known galaxies that had eluded me from home, primarily M33, M51 and M101, starting with the Ursa Major area while it was highest.

Things did not go to plan for the first couple of hours - I'd just get my bearings and start to increase the magnification on the M101 area and then clouds would intervene. After a long time waiting for Ursa Major to clear I decided that the Andromeda area seemed less cloud affected so I moved the scope and pointed at M31, not a difficult one to spot. From there I star hopped downwards to look for M33. I'd managed to leave my tablet on charge at home so I was relying on a laptop outdoors instead - far from ideal when you need to do the keyboard by feel.  To cut a long story short I found the right area but could see no convincing sign of M33.

By 10PM I was on the verge of giving up completely and then noticed that the clouds had mostly dissipated so went back and tried M101 again but still could not convince myself that I was seeing it. I decided to try M51 before packing up, hopping down from Alkaid... and there it was! - as obvious as I could wish for trying to turn a three sided asterism into a four sided figure. I tried a few eyepieces and all of them showed it but none showed any detail. The moon was by now getting lower and the skies looked nice and dark so after that success I revisited M101. This was still a struggle but I could now convince myself that I was seeing something more often than not.

I then moved the scope again and set up for M33. Then the laptop battery died. I took it indoors and plugged it in for another star hop check and convinced myself that this was not going to be an easy one to do from memory. Back at the scope I had Mirach in view and fitted the 30mm Plossl. I made a tentative downwards sweep and was surprised to see a fuzzy blob come into view - not at all difficult to see now so no tricky star hopping was required. This one was definitely best at low magnification so that the contrast between the galaxy and the surrounding sky could be seen - the 15mm SLV was too much for it. Finally I stopped by M31 and enjoyed some easier viewing before packing up just after 11PM.

Edited October 9, 2021 by MercianDabbler
thread title

[cloudsweeper]

Nice going!  I've not had much luck lately what with poor skies and pollution, however I shall put my 80mm (Exp Sci ED80 Apo) to use next time out for the good reason that it can be used on the Celestron GoTo mount, thus making it easy to locate targets.  And tack-sharp stars, widefield views - lovely!

Doug.

[Epick Crom]

Great job bagging M 33! Sounds like you had an enjoyable night observing through the gaps of those dreaded clouds.

[wookie1965]

I have never seen M51 from home in any of my scopes in fact not even a t a few astro meets apart from a friends 22" dob and that was outstanding, so congratulations seeing it a 80mm scope.

[Carbon Brush]

Well done spotting those with an 80mm scope.
FYI Tuesday here was rain, rain and more rain.
Spent the evening checking my scuba kit and looking at ark building techniques🤣

[MercianDabbler]

5 hours ago, Carbon Brush said:

Well done spotting those with an 80mm scope.
FYI Tuesday here was rain, rain and more rain.
Spent the evening checking my scuba kit and looking at ark building techniques🤣

Thanks - it definitely wasn't happening until sky conditions improved but I was well pleased to have bagged M51 and M33 and more or less seen M101. Clear Outside has us as Bortle 4 here. I think it may be better because once the building lights are off there really is no artificial light that I can see. A very welcome change from home, just a shame about the moon and the clouds really.

We'd heard tell of some biblical deluges back at home, we even sent them a nice photo of the sunny Cornish coast to cheer them up a bit. I don't think it worked 😁

Today has been mostly glorious here again but cloud has now moved in so there will be no repeat performance. We did walk out along the breakwater at Porthleven just after dusk and saw the moon reflecting off the sea which was a lovely scene. Jupiter was also in evidence. 

Edited September 15, 2021 by MercianDabbler
wrong bortle number

[MercianDabbler]

Just back from a week in Yorkshire staying between Catterick and Northallerton. Bortle 4 skies again - a few built up areas but nothing too close. Not really enough observing time to justify a new thread so I thought I'd tag it on here.

The trip was timed to coincide with the new moon so the SP102 and ST80 both came along. Unfortunately we were unable to book any very clear skies so the SP102 did not come out to play at all and time with the ST80 was very limited - a couple of hours after we arrived on Friday 1st Oct in the back garden of the cottage and rather constrained by the house and a large tree. The second occasion was the evening of Sunday 3rd after returning from an excellent fish and chip dinner in Whitby. This evening I was on a footpath in a nearby field. The sky started out looking clear but I was fully clouded out after about an hour of observing time.

Target-wise there was nothing particularly new. The Milky Way was well visible, a welcome change from home. Both evenings saw broken cloud drifting across the sky so it was largely a matter of looking to see where the clouds weren't and pointing the scope in that direction. I managed to see M33 and M51 again to repeat what I'd been able to do in Cornwall. I tried M101 again but that was not a success. I did remember to stop by the double cluster on the way to Cass... but then Cass was clouded out so I got no time there. I might have managed M110 but cloud interruptions meant that I did not have enough time to be sure whether I saw something or not. I also had a try at NGC7000 on the SUnday. It was pretty much directly overhead so an awkward task involving having the (camera) tripod at full height as well as using the vertical extension to allow the scope to point directly upwards without fouling the legs. I think I could see some nebulosity along the 'east coast' but I really wasn't sure if I was really seeing something or just 'joining the dots'.

All in all not much to show for the effort of packing two scopes and their associated bits. The ST80 again proved its value in being able to set up in 5 minutes, hop quickly around a partially clouded sky and show enough in a 26 or 32mm eyepiece to make star hopping an easy task.