15" back in the game

[jetstream]

A nice break in the winter weather gave an opportunity to observe tonight even though the wind chill was near -25c. Always cooled and easily collimated the 15" is my favourite and most used telescope which enlisted one eyepiece- the 20mm APM 100 deg. Televues new and excellent OIII and UHC were used.

First off, the Pleiades , a very unique structure system of nebulosity and lanes, also known as the Pleiades "Bubble".  The Merope nebula presented a bright mass- follow the chain of stars near it into the center and tonight the complex looked like it was set into darkness intermixed with nebulous stars and surrounded by a grey shade of variegated nebulosity. There was hints of detached structure near the far side of the Merope- a lane if you will. My earlier reports have described this very complex system and is one of the jewels of the sky.

The Running Man was, well running lol! Always a favourite to see the lanes that define the shape of the namesake. M42 was stunning, no filter, with the complete lower loop showing.M43 had its dark lane cutting through 2/3 of it or so.

The HH appeared no filter tonight which while a nice challenge object underwhelms me.

So much observed... the Jellyfish in Gemini- yup still there, the Monkeyhead, another highly structured favourite shone well in both filters and the Rosette gave the nod to the Televue Nebustar, an excellent filter.

I just had to view the Leo Triplet and the Hamburger galaxy gave up its nice cut through lane tonight. Have to mention M81 again- it will show its spikey spirals under good conditions and tonight was no exception.

NELM tonight , using 17 Umi, with averted was 6.8 and Stellarium says airmass adjusted (for its elevation) was about 7 mag. Is this accurate? who knows- all I know is that the views were very nice tonight and it sure felt good to observe.  Tons more observed but I wont bore with more lol!

Edited March 3, 2022 by jetstream

[Stu]

Thanks for the report Gerry, sounds amazing 👍

[GavStar]

Gerry, nice report! Some of my favourite objects in there. Regarding your comment regarding the Hamburger galaxy - is the dark lane sometimes difficult to see through your 15 inch? I did have a recent galaxy session with my 16 inch dob on the Isle of Wight which I enjoyed a lot.

 

[jetstream]

7 hours ago, GavStar said:

Gerry, nice report! Some of my favourite objects in there. Regarding your comment regarding the Hamburger galaxy - is the dark lane sometimes difficult to see through your 15 inch? I did have a recent galaxy session with my 16 inch dob on the Isle of Wight which I enjoyed a lot.

 

Thanks Gavin!

Yes, the lane feature is very sensitive to transparency IME. In reality my 20mm APM 100 was not the best choice for this and many of the other objects, but its great for a general sky cruise. Perhaps the best mono eyepiece that I have is either the 12.5mm Doc or the 10mm Delos on this galaxy and its lane.

The very best view I've had of the Hamburger lane in the 15" was years ago when I first got the binoviewers and was playing round with the "false exit pupil" concept. I only use simple TV plossls, 32mm, 25mm and the view of the Leo Triplet and in particular the Hamburger lane is still burned in my brain. Conditions were excellent.

Congrats for a fine viewing session with your 16" Gavin, great to see your posting.

[Kon]

Excellent report and it seems conditions were ideal!

With your 15" and under your skies, does M42 show nice colours? I seem to be getting them with my 8" under excellent seeing but it is not reported very often. 

On 03/03/2022 at 03:34, jetstream said:

Tons more observed but I wont bore with more lol!

I think you should, I always like getting ideas from others 😉

Kostas

[jetstream]

1 hour ago, Kon said:

Excellent report and it seems conditions were ideal!

With your 15" and under your skies, does M42 show nice colours? I seem to be getting them with my 8" under excellent seeing but it is not reported very often. 

I think you should, I always like getting ideas from others 😉

Kostas

Thank you Kostas, yes I l always see a mottled green core and under top conditions pink under the wings, kind of a salmon colour. My 200mm f3.8 also shows this and the 24" adds a faint blue to the mix.

Question is- is it an "illusion" or the brain filling in color? A thread a long while back discussed the brains power to (correctly) fill in information and was very interesting.

Something to ponder...  I observe solar white light with A Baadercool wedge that has a green "solar continuum" filter in there. When I first start observing I see a green sun- after a bit the sun turns to yellow...

How can this be?

Others note the phenomenon as well.

So do I see colour in M42? yes. By what mechanism I have no idea. The Eskimo neb always shows as green-no filter, sometimes with different shades in there.

[Kon]

29 minutes ago, jetstream said:

Thank you Kostas, yes I l always see a mottled green core and under top conditions pink under the wings, kind of a salmon colour. My 200mm f3.8 also shows this and the 24" adds a faint blue to the mix.

Question is- is it an "illusion" or the brain filling in color? A thread a long while back discussed the brains power to (correctly) fill in information and was very interesting.

Something to ponder...  I observe solar white light with A Baadercool wedge that has a green "solar continuum" filter in there. When I first start observing I see a green sun- after a bit the sun turns to yellow...

How can this be?

Others note the phenomenon as well.

So do I see colour in M42? yes. By what mechanism I have no idea. The Eskimo neb always shows as green-no filter, sometimes with different shades in there.

Interesting comment about 'filling in information'; we (the brain) could potentially be influenced by the APs and it's trying to make them up?...I would like to think not. From personal experience, when the seeing is not good, I see greyish/greenish but not the reds in the wings or teal in the trapezium, so it has to be a real phenomenon/observation; under that assumption the brain would still try 'add' the colours?

(your blues have me intrigued!). In my 8", Eskimo is greyish.

Regarding the sun, it could be down to exciting the green/red cones; green and yellow are very close to each other in the spectra with the red and greens overlapping, so saturating one over the other could potentially have this effect. At 540nm you only need some bleeding at 550 to get the yellow through and these filters when I look at the spectra do allow some 550 through.