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Meade Lightbridge 16" Observation report as of 1.3.2009

Doc

By Doc
in Observing - Reports

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Doc

Doc

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Meade Lightbridge 16" Dob 1829mm FL

1.3.2009

Seeing 3.5 mag

Crescent moon.

Started the night on Venus and boy was it awesome, the crescent phase was so clearly visible, even the wife was amazed and thats rare.

Spent some time on the Crescent Moon. Simply lovely those craters along the terminator just popped out in detail. The detail in the 12.5mm Ortho at x 146 was amazing.

Tried to locate the Leo triplets could not detect any. Made mental note to myself to get out to darker skies. This scope should excell on galaxies being 16" in aperture but from my light polluted back garden it sucks.

Next tried the M44 in Cancer I could not fit this into my 32mm fov but what an awesome sight so many stars all seem white and vary in sizes. Looked lovely in my Bresser 10x50 binoculars as well counted about 25 stars.

Moved scope down and found the M67 in Cancer a very small dense cluster of very dim stars I would say mag 11 at least. One bright star visible amoung the cluster.

Next onto the M42 in Orion, tonight was perfect, a sea of green, with so much detail, the borders were easily defined against the black background.

Saw 5 stars in Trapezium using the 9mm ortho at x 203 was easy but for some reason the sixth one didn't appear. Looked at the Running Man Nebula and swear I could see the seperation in the nebula using the Tal 25mm.

Then moved scope upwards and took in Sigma Orion, what a lovely system. Looks like a proper solar system with planets circuling a central sun. I love looking at this one.

Tried finding the M51 in Canes Venacti, I thought this would be easy but how wrong was I. As it's pretty low down I was looking through a fair bit of light pollution and I know I was in the vicinity as the Wixey Guage was working spot on. But for the life of me could I find "The Great Spiral galaxy" .

Next was Comet Lulin and tonight it was amazing. Definetly saw it's tail and blue hazy disc similar to a fuzzy dso. Studdied it for at least 20 minutes using various eyepieces, the best being the 21mm Hyperion at a mag of x87.

Captured all clusters around Rosetta Nebula. Some yellow stars inside but mainly white. These were the CR clusters namely Cr97, CR104, CR106, Cr107 and Cr111.

So many stars and maybe just a hint of nebulosity surrounding the nebula but cannot be sure about this. In my Tal 32mm this makes one hell of sight. This area of the sky is simply adorned with stars, cannot believe how many.

Swept the area between Monoceros and Canis Major this area is just awash with open clusters some very dense others loose. Stars vary insize and colour. Looked at M50 in Monoceros an interesting cluster it took the shape of an arc of bright stars intersected by lots of dimmer stars also including a few yellow stars amoung them.

And then swept downwards and swept up NGC 2335, 2343 and 2353 all open clusters with very small stars mag 8 or dimmer.

Moving eastwards I picked up quite a few smaller open clusters namely NGC 2396 and NGC 2374. The area is awash with so many stars it's hard to find where one clusters starts and finishes. Luckily I had the wixey and tonight it was exactly spot on in altitude that Iwas able to find quite a few of these open clusters. I managed to distinguish the M46 and M47 in Puppis. M47 is slightly bigger then M46 at 30'x30' and contains a few more stars i would say I counted 16 bright stars and many more dimmer ones.

The M46 in Puppis is alot fainter then M47 and the only reason I found it was I could distinguish the Planetary Nebula NGC 2438 amoungst the background of dim stars that make up the M46. It's strange why Messier didn't include this nebula as a messier object because he must have seen it inside M46. The nebula is very hard to spot and looks like a larger star but takes magnication well and popped out when using the Tal 10mm at x182. No colour noted but could see a disc shaped object.

While in the area I tried for the Nebula NGC 2359 in Canis Major also known as the Duck Nebula. No luck on this one. I was in the right area and maybe just picked up a lighting of the background sky but definetly need a 0111 filter for this one.

Lastly spent a little time on Saturn, it's rings clearly visible and I detected some banding on the surface. Only saw two moons I'm not sure which ones were visible at that time.

Packed in about 22.30. This was my first night in at least 6 weeks because of the weather and boy was I happy.

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jarbi

jarbi

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Nice to read this Doc, you had an amazing evening outside ! As I see your Wixey Gauge works very well also. I will try to spot some of your targets, makes me wonder if I can catch them here ( I have also a lot of light pollution ... ).

Let 's see when do I get the next chance with my LB... since it's First Light there was not a single clear night here :-(.

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calibos

calibos

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Bought my LB 16 just before Christmas.

Its been out........once!!

Theres been a few more clear nights around here than that would indicate but they always occured around full moon or when I had other things to do or when I had the scope in pieces performing mods.

Murphys law!!

Mods will be finished in a few weeks, Work shifts getting more adaptable now so by April I should be able to take advantage of much more clear sky opportunities with nothing getting in the way of a session.

Nice to know someone is getting use out of their Lightbridgebucket at the moment though!

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mdstuart

mdstuart

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Lovely vewing reports. How do you decide what to look at or have you a mental list that you juct go through when you are outside....

I do not understand the lack of M51 I can make it out in my semi rural position quite well. How about M63, M106 etc next time as they are close.

Mark

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kniclander

kniclander

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Doc, that's a great report of what must have been a fantastic night. I saw, er, ....... the moon :blob8:.

How do you plan your sessions and what do you take out with you (ie star chart, books, PDA etc?). Are you just using the wixey or have you got an azimuth instrument as well? I must admit that I've got a bit lazy lately and just look at the same old stuff ...:lol:

anyway, well done again.

Dan

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Doc

Doc

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Cheers guys I'll try and answer your questions.

1) Regarding M51 like yourself I just could not understand it. Today I was reading last months Astronomy Now Mag and in it it tells you how to find the M51. It says 2 degree's south and then 4 degrees west. I forgot to drop 2 degrees south. I think i was looking in the wrong place.

2) What do I use to plan my night. Well I use Cartes du Ceil and type down in Notepad all the galaxies, clusters etc in constellations that are observable in my back garden. I then take out my laptop and pick objects of the list. I make notes as I go along as to what I saw and what eyepieces I used to see it. The next day I write up a report. Cartes du Ceil tells you the Az/Alt positions as well.

3) The Wixey is perfect for Altitude as long as it's leveled at the start of the session. I do have a Azimuth encoder with digital readout which is also very accurate but it's broken, my son tripped over it and pulled the wires out.

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