Have Tak will Travel

[MalcolmM]

I've taken my FS60CB/Q away to Scotland 3 times in the last 18 months. Twice in the autumn and didn't see a single star or even blue sky. Once in mid summer with short nights and a full moon, though observing Saturn and Jupiter low in the sky in relative warmth at 3 in the morning with bats fluttering round my head was a fab experience. But I craved a dark sky!

Fast forward to now and I have just spent 4 nights in Malin Head, Donegal. Three nights of complete cloud cover but the second night Clear Outside told me I might get two hours of clear sky. So I assembled the 60CB in 76DC mode on a tiny Gitzo traveller with a Manfrotto fluid head. Out I went and was stunned. I could see the Milky Way easily, despite 3 bright farm yard floodlights. At home I can only just see the Milky Way and only then at 3 in the morning when everyone has gone to bed and turned off their lights! Round the side of the cottage I found a dark spot sheltered from the lights; not sheltered from the 20 knot winds unfortunately and medium power on Jupiter was a no go, the telescope shuddering in the breeze. But using a Tak 28mm Erfle and 10LE I started on the fuzzies.

M31 - very impressive, it was huge and I even saw M110 (easy) and M32 (more difficult, more like a fuzzy star) for the first time. 

M36, 37, 38 were all very obvious and easy. In my suburban skies I sometimes have trouble locating them. I particularly like the sort of cross shape M38 appears as. What really surprised me was the dark background, even with the 28mm Erfle. At home I would have been looking at the stars on a light grey background, not so in these dark skies! When popping in the 10mm many stars were resolved against a feint blur of unresolved stars; a lovely view 

M35 was easy and a new one for me. 

I then turned to the double cluster. My notes just say stunning! So stunning I called my partner out and even she, who does not get astronomy, was impressed

I'm racing from object to object trying to see as much as possible before the clouds roll in so I'm looking at all my favourites rather than trying for new objects. So M81, 82 next. Very obvious, I got lost star hopping but got them by just randomly sweeping, they were so bright. M81 looked lumpy. I even imagined I could see the split in the middle, or maybe I just imagined it!

M33 was definitely visible as opposed to just sensing something is there! Ditto the Crab Nebula. I felt I could see texture in the Crab Nebula; structure would be an exaggeration!

The Pleiades were simply gorgeous! Pin prick stars on a black velvet background. I think I may even have seen the nebulosity. Difficult to tell as the main stars were so bright.

Finally Orion was high enough to warrant looking at M42. My notes say fabulous! There was definitely a lot of structure and detail. A UHC filter made a bit of difference again but not as much as I was expecting. I also saw M43 for the first time. I could not resolve Trapezium with the Erfle but it was easy with the 10mm. I'd love to have been able to up the magnification again and see if I could spot the other 2 stars but the strong winds shook the scope too much.

And that was it. The clouds started to roll in but what a night! My first time ever with a telescope under truly dark skies. And fully justifying the expense of a travel scope

I've only seen better skies twice in my life. Great Barrier Island, New Zealand and the Namib Desert. My ambition is to go back to the Namib with a travel scope. Even my totally uninterested children had wow moments just looking with their eyes.

If you're still reading this, thanks for taking the time and hopefully this might inspire someone to get a travel scope and travel. I have been completed wowed by the difference dark skies make.

Malcolm

[Mr Spock]

Sounds like a great session. There's no doubt what a difference dark skies make.

[JeremyS]

Excellent session @MalcolmM 👍🏻

[JeremyS]

@MalcolmM love the title of this thread. Would look good on a T shirt 👍🏻

[MalcolmM]

@JeremyS maybe I should make that Taks pleural with the caveat: have 60CB/Q/76DC/Q which one do I use tonight? Really love that scope(s). Very envious of your FOA60 as perfection personified, but simply cannot justify it (yet )

Malcolm

[Stu]

Excellent report Malcolm, a very good read. Looking forward to getting out with my FS60C/76DCU.

[Captain Scarlet]

Superb Malcolm. Definitely the west of Ireland is a great place to be! If it wasn’t for the regular train of transatlantic storms that is!

Magnus

[Nicola Fletcher]

Loved your report - I especially empathise with that feeling of racing from object to object before the clouds roll in! Really glad you had a good night with your travelscope- mine is yet to really travel!

[MalcolmM]

Thanks @Nicola Fletcher , tonight it travelled all the way to the side of the house where I was looking for the Rima Couchy (courtesy of Turn Left at Orion) with too low a magnification, when the view in the eyepiece started getting dimmer and brighter and dimmer again and I thought my eyes were going funny and when I looked up ... Clouds

My little 60CB is now dejectedly pointing to the ground in the living room waiting for the dew to burn off the objective

I'll cross my fingers things open up and you get a chance to use your scope in foreign and exciting dark locations:)

Malcolm

[F15Rules]

Lovely, inspiring report..and with just 60mm!!

Thanks for sharing👍😊

Dave

[MalcolmM]

11 minutes ago, F15Rules said:

and with just 60mm!!

@F15Rules Actually I had attached the 76DC objective module when I was in Malin so a whole extra 16mm but from my limited experience, even the 60mm gives surprisingly good deep sky views; from other posts and online reviews it seems its high contrast gives it a boost here!

Malcolm