This week's finale - Galaxy hunting, clusters, dark skies - Long read.

[OK Apricot]

The weather in Northants has been very pleasant for the past week, with high teen temperatures and 6/7 cloudless nights. As we all know, the transparency has been pretty terrible with equally underwhelming seeing, but last night really saw this week out with a bang. I packed both scopes into the van and drove out to the Helipad, getting them out at the other end to set up and begin cooling. While letting them equalise, I sat back in my chair just staring up, appreciating the beauty that was above. As I became more dark adapted, it was obvious there were hundreds more stars visible to the naked eye, that the transparency was actually very good, that the sky actually had a "darkness" about it. I had a really good feeling about this! A few minutes before I began observing, I saw a bright meteor moving at huge speed from east to west around 15 degrees below Leo, starting around Vindemiatrix and ending just west of Regulus - what a treat that was. Anyway, I'd got set up at around 2200, planned to explore Markarian's Chain and other galaxies, a cluster here or there, and put the 200P and 127 head to head. M13 was the absolute highlight of the night-  read on for more!

Conditions - Very calm, air almost motionless. Approx 5 degrees C. Transparency very good. Seeing Pickering 7-8, bright stars lazily twinkling. 

Equipment - Skywatcher 200P Dobsonian, Skymax 127 AZ-GTi. 

My first venture of the night was to explore Markarian's Chain, a target I'd not set my eyes on before. I felt that I was in with a good chance owing to the decent transparency, although it was not as favourable as looking toward the East. Having left the 200P cooling for half an hour or so, I felt it was time to begin, so I placed my 42mm SuperView in for a wide 28x and nudged the Dob between Denebola and Vindemiatrix.

I scanned around for a few minutes, and it wasn't long until I started to notice diffuse blobs, three particularly bright ones. I identified these as M84, M86 and NGC4438. I swapped out the 42mm for the 30mm SuperView hoping to eliminate some of the background brightness and bring out a bit more definition, and found three well pronounced cores with a gently tapering nebulousity. This EP was definitely favourable so I stuck with it and scanned around the chain some more, with numerous grey smudges moving through the FOV, and noticed a few more stand-out features - NGC4459, 4473 and 4477 visible as diffuse patches of light with subtle brightening revealing their cores. I had so much fun nudging around seeing all these smudges of light, knowing each one is an island universe in its own right, the way they are oriented providing a sense of the unfathomable size and distances between them, the millions of years these photons had travelled to end their journey in my own eyes - I was almost entranced. A quick glance at the time and I'd been here for 25 minutes! The Mrs has asked me a few times, "how do you sit out there for so long, do you not get bored?", "Surely you're not just looking through a telescope the whole time?", but the truth is, yes, I do. There's something so relaxing, so peaceful about looking up into the universe. I find it very good for my mental wellbeing (having suffered terribly for around 10 years). ANYWAY, I couldn't sit on this chain all night so I took a short hop to M87. It had a bright, star-like core and extended nebulousity, mostly a uniformly round shape. I spent a good while here, again, my mind wandering into the incomprehensible mass and energy of the SMBH at its heart, humanity's technological advances, cooperation and pure scientific will to actually directly image this thing. It was a very humbling thought. It was then South to take a look at the Sombrero. At this point this one had moved into less favourable sky, where there was quite a glow from LP, so not expecting much. I was very wrong though, as with averted vision I could still make out a tight, bright core suspended above a darkening of a disk. There was actually a reasonably good amount of contrast. I tried to get in a bit closer here with the 15mm SuperView to see if I could eke out some more detail, but it didn't really improve the image - 30mm is probably my best galaxy EP at the moment.

I wanted to see how the 127 performed against the 200P, and on these targets it was fair to say the extra aperture won hands down. The 127 still put up a fight though, faintly showing M84, 86 and NGC4438, M87 and the Sombrero, just with less brightness and contrast and overall detail. With Leo and Virgo edging further into the glow, and without much more of a plan, I turned my attention more toward the East where the sky was much more transparent.

I decided to check back to a few targets in Coma Berenices. M53 through the 200P was a grainy ball with the 15mm, with a single brighter star clearly visible directly, whilst a number were resolved further into the ball using averted vision. The view through the 127 was very similar, if a little dimmer, through the same 15mm eyepiece, with only a few stars resolved right at the edges of the cluster. M64 in the 200P was a lovely sight, with a subtle darkening revealing the dust that bares it's name "the black eye". The 127 only picked this up as a faint smudge, 40mm through to 15mm. I sat back for a bit in my chair again, taking it all in. The transparency and seeing was still very good, Arcturus was like a spotlight dominating the sky, lazily twinkling if at all. I moved to take on M13 and make the most of the best sky I've had this year.... You know those moments where you're speechless, but at the same time you ramble over and over "oh my god"? It was one of those! 30mm EP in the 200P, M13 was a bright tight orb, framed nicely by foreground stars with the wide fov. I'd never been able to push the magnification on this yet, but felt good about tonight, so I dropped in the 15mm. With an image equally as bright, dozens of stars were resolved far into orb. So far so good. With a hold of a breath, I put the 9mm in for 133x... Stars resolved right to the core! Actual, pin point stars! M13 was no longer an orb, but a tightly scattered dusting of jewels. My jaw really was wide open, I probably looked light a right lemon! I'd never seen any Glob this well before. There was no real loss of image brightness, but the contrast improved dramatically at higher magnification. I tracked for ages with the 9mm, I just couldn't get enough of it. Open clusters are cool, but they don't really do it for me like globulars, and this view was the best I've ever had. Ever. It was just incredible being able to resolve the majority of the cluster. What an absolute peach! Man I wish I'd bought that 16" flex tube at PAS! I checked back with the 127 using the 15mm for 100x, and while there was still a good amount of contrast and resolve, the image was a good bit fainter - the 200P really stole the show. I mean, for £350 and a few basic affordable eyepieces, you can see all of this. It's staggering how capable this thing is. It really is one of the best "all in one" packages out there - portable, cheap, sturdy, simple to use, not to mention it looks fantastic!

M51 presented as a figure 8 cloud, with both cores easily visible with direct vision. Averted vision revealed a very faint tidal arm, and a slightly dimmer area between the core and the outer edges of the cloud. I felt I could see a blueish tinge mixed into the grey. Not my best view of this target though, I wonder why that is? The 127 was most underwhelming - hardly a smudge at all, and that was only because I know it was there and knew where to look. The time now was around 0130, the temperature had dropped and/or the dewpoint had increased - the meniscus was very cloudy, so out came the dew heater I bought at PAS.

Within around 15 minutes the dew was gone, it worked a treat. I'd moved on to the Ring, M57 by then, and gave the 127 first disposal. A view like an out of focus star was visible with 25mm EP. No real detail, but a definite object of interest. 15mm showed the general shape of a ring, with a darker inner region. Pretty good actually considering this is only a 127mm (well, 120mm!) mirror. The 200P demonstrated once again that aperture is everything on the dim objects. With the 15mm, the Ring was a ring, as much as the 127 showed but noticeably brighter. With the 9mm at 133x, the ring became more elongated, looking slightly dimmer at the elongated edges. It was a thick "smoke ring" to my eye. Obvious darkness toward the centre, obvious nebulousity out from there, but no central star. 

Getting late, tired and cold, I took a lazy and easy gaze at Alberio. Fantastic view at 9mm in the dob getting close in, however the best view for me was with the 42mm EP - Alberio was lost among dozens of other stars, standing out with the famous gold and sapphire colours. The 127 did very well but the narrower FOV just took the edge off the "feel" of this double - still a great view all the same but when pitted against the 200P it just can't keep up.

If you got this far, thank you. I like writing these reports and sharing them as much as the observing itself. Last night was my most memorable session yet, without rambling on any more - I think I've said enough! As usual, a couple of single shot snaps through the eyepiece using my phone, I can't resist - I must get myself a proper camera soon! Thanks a lot for reading guys. This is what it's all about. This is what makes this hobby so special - nights like this. Clear skies!

Edited March 26, 2022 by OK Apricot

[Davesellars]

Great report!  A nice variety of objects.  Venturing into the Virgo / Coma Berenices galaxy cluster is always exciting stuff and best to have some plan on getting around and what you're observing as it's easy lose track of where you are.

You'd need significantly larger aperture fot the central star in M57 - I thought it was around mag 15 but SkySafari has it at magnitude 15.75 so I suspect you'd need around 16".

[OK Apricot]

Thanks! Seeing the amount of smudges there, it's going to make a fine challenge during spring to see if I can identify them. 

Yeah, I didnt think at 8" there's enough mirror there, but it's just something you know is there, know to look for and report on. I get butterflies at the thought of owning a 16"+ dob 🤯

[Zermelo]

I hope you enjoyed writing up that account as much as I did reading it.  Perhaps, alongside the various SGL imaging challenge competitions, there could be an annual award for an observing session write-up.

I suspect that I operate in skies similar to the ones you describe, so I was particularly interested in your comparision between the performance of the Mak 127 (which I also have) and the 8" Dob (which I do not).  I've said previously how the Mak seems to punch above its weight (i.e. aperture), especially when resolving tight doubles. But for me, one target category that it doesn't do so well on is globulars; as you say, that extra light grasp - and resolution - of the larger instrument can be the difference between seeing just a few outliers, or resolving well in towards the core. 

[Davesellars]

Just now, OK Apricot said:

Thanks! Seeing the amount of smudges there, it's going to make a fine challenge during spring to see if I can identify them. 

 

Once you've got familiar with the position of Messier galaxies in the cluster it really helps to use those to position (don't bother using the finder...) to other galaxies rather than stars (as these are fairly sparse)

[Stu]

Excellent report @OK Apricot! Really enjoyable read, I do enjoy seeing reports like these pop up on the forum when we’ve had some good clear skies.

I have a scope out tonight but it seems the transparency is likely to be poor again but let’s see what happens! 🤞

[OK Apricot]

Thanks all for your kind words and advice. I do enjoy writing them as it helps solidify the memory for me, so I'm glad others enjoy them too! Transparency poor round here tonight so after last night I've took a night off 😉

[cajen2]

I too thoroughly enjoyed your report, OKA.

I can never understand how good observers like yourself manage to view so many targets in one night......I have enough trouble just trying to find something that is dim or invisible in my finder scope.

[OK Apricot]

Thanks cajen. It was a good 5 hour session, even on one target for half an hour you can fit loads in! You've just reminded me - I was struggling towards the end to find much in my finder, then I found this 😂