Conquering my nemesis

[Kon]

As the title says, I was after my nemesis, the Helix nebula, that evaded me all summer. Being low in my S horizon I struggled several times to see it. I had been in the right place but I suppose the combination of light haze and thicker atmosphere to look through had proven really hard to get any glimpse over the summer. Tonight it has been the darkest without moon and seeing was pretty good. I finally saw it with averted vision, on and off. I read somewhere that an OIII or UHC filter can bring up the details and since I only have an OIII, I gave it a try. There it was, finally! A nice round outer ring and a fainter inner. It kind of felt the big brother of the Ring nebula but more diffuse. Seeing was coming in and out even with the filter but at last the nemesis has been conquered!

I also had a go at the Wizard nebula based on another discussion and it looked like a diffuse nebula around the star cluster with my OIII filter.

I had a look at M31/32/33. Andromeda showed some nice structure. M33 still low on my E horizon, that has some light pollution, showed some structure. Looking forward to seeing later in the year. Pleiades were also coming into view but clouds ruined the fun.

My summer list of targets has successfully been accomplished. I noticed that it is getting cooler to observe.

[Epick Crom]

Great job conquering the Helix Kon. It has evaded me so far. It's a real toughie! Clear skies mate

[Kon]

7 minutes ago, Epick Crom said:

Great job conquering the Helix Kon. It has evaded me so far. It's a real toughie! Clear skies mate

Yes very pleased with that. It should be higher up for you,shouldn't it? I think the filter helped a lot.

[Epick Crom]

16 minutes ago, Kon said:

Yes very pleased with that. It should be higher up for you,shouldn't it? I think the filter helped a lot.

Yes it is high up for me, and yet I still can't see it! I'll definitely be getting a filter for Christmas. 

[Jiggy 67]

12 hours ago, Epick Crom said:

I'll definitely be getting a filter for Christmas.

If you’re putting a Xmas list together, try and squeeze two filters out of the relatives 😀 I think you need both an OIII and a UHC both are great for PN’s but sometimes one will work when the other doesn’t, they seem to g hand in hand. Sometimes with the real faint objects the OIII darkens the image too much which is where the UHC comes in because it doesn’t darken it as much due to the band width. So take advantage of the Xmas spirit, be cheeky and ask for both 🎉🎉😀👍

[Epick Crom]

1 hour ago, Jiggy 67 said:

If you’re putting a Xmas list together, try and squeeze two filters out of the relatives 😀 I think you need both an OIII and a UHC both are great for PN’s but sometimes one will work when the other doesn’t, they seem to g hand in hand. Sometimes with the real faint objects the OIII darkens the image too much which is where the UHC comes in because it doesn’t darken it as much due to the band width. So take advantage of the Xmas spirit, be cheeky and ask for both 🎉🎉😀👍

You know what Jiggy, you are right! I was thinking that before as I've read how different filters work better on different objects. I will go full Xmas mode and get both as you suggested 😊. Clear skies to you mate

[Nik271]

Great job! I've never seen the Helix and your account prompts me to try again this season before it goes away for another year. The Helix is at 17 degrees of altinute for me at 11pm, not too hopeless.  Luckily I have a UHC filter. The proper tool for this job seem to be a fast widefield Newtonian, I have a Celestron 6 inch F5 Newt sitting somewhat neglected in a cupboard, time to take it out!

Nik

[Stardaze]

Super report @KonI haven’t tried to see the Helix yet but it does look like it might be a bit low from my backyard. Unfortunately the forecast this week, across the new moon, doesn’t look good at all. 

Haven’t really used my Nebustar yet either so I really do hope things improve in time.

[Kon]

3 hours ago, Nik271 said:

Great job! I've never seen the Helix and your account prompts me to try again this season before it goes away for another year. The Helix is at 17 degrees of altinute for me at 11pm, not too hopeless.  Luckily I have a UHC filter. The proper tool for this job seem to be a fast widefield Newtonian, I have a Celestron 6 inch F5 Newt sitting somewhat neglected in a cupboard, time to take it out!

Worth a try, looking forward to hearing if you manage it (assuming the clouds move). The main issue I had is that we had that horrible evening haze in the past few months and being such a low object it made things worst. I tried at least 5-6 times this summer and in the end I had memorised the star hoping to get there🤣

[Nik271]

Tonight seems to be promising, it will be windy but that's not a problem for large DSO and low magnification, at least it will blow the fog away.   I havent used my Newtonian in an year now, I'd better make sure its collimated. To be continued... 

[Kon]

1 hour ago, Nik271 said:

Tonight seems to be promising, it will be windy but that's not a problem for large DSO and low magnification, at least it will blow the fog away.   I havent used my Newtonian in an year now, I'd better make sure its collimated. To be continued

I found x50 magnification was the best. I tried x86 but it did not bring more details, it was actually worst.

[Nik271]

I'm pleased to report that I managed to see the Helix nebula yesterday  It was a battle of perseverence though and the view was a subtle gray smudge, no detail at all. But still I'm very pleased, my southern horizon is polluted with the city centre lights and the Helix rises just a couple fo degrees over the house roofs when near the meridian. So the view actually beat my low expectations!

The UHC filter was essential. Without it I had no chance. I used a 6 inch newtonian and a 27mm EP giving 5.4mm exit pupil and magnification of x28. It may be easier with a slightly more magnification as Kon suggests, just because the large exit pupil also makes the light pollution of the sky worse: without the UHC filter the star background in the EP view was grey instead of black.

I had difficulty finding stars in the 6x30 finder in the haze so my star hop started with Jupiter towards Deneb Algedi and continuing all the way beyond until I hit  the bright pair 47 and 41 Aqr. After that Upsilon (59) Aqr was spotted eastwards in the finder and I knew that the Helix is one third of the distance between Upsilon and 47. 

Nothing was visible initially but when I put the UHC filter and tapped the scope I spotted a subtle grey smudge with a 8-th magnitide star north west of it. Sadly there was no sign of the ring hole, but considering the conditions I'm glad I was able to spot it.

Thanks, Kon, for suggesting this target! This is one of the most challenging objects I've managed from my backyard.

Edited October 4, 2021 by Nik271
typo corrected

[Kon]

@Nik271I am pleased to hear that you managed to see it. I agree that this has been a challenging object considering that is shouldn't 🧐. I bet if it was higher up it would have been a magnificent object.