A summer all-nighter

[josefk]

Other than a few binocular sessions while on holiday this is my first time out ‘proper’ since May and boy oh boy was it a cracker. It turned into a 7hr “all you can eat” special. Sorry i go on a bit below. TLDR - Jupiter was ace in the end.

The location for this session was Fineshade Woods in Northamptonshire. The sky was clear and dark after the moon had set. I don’t know the precise sky quality or Bortle but it should be SQ21.04 and Bortle 4 according to “Clear Outside”. For what it’s worth in the middle of the session i could see about 10…15 degrees width of Milky Way stretching about 90 degrees eastwards from the western (leading) edge of the summer triangle so very favourable I think. It did get a little damp in the atmosphere after 03:00 and this affected lower altitude targets.

Nominal targets for the session were to have a look at Jupiter and Saturn with my new eyepiece giving 200x/0.9 exit pupil/21’ TFOV and to try and catch the Europa shadow transit on Jupiter. Other eyepieces used gave 80x/2.4mm exit pupil/60’ TFOV and 140x/1.something exit pupil/31’ TFOV. I have an 8" Cassegrain and use a Nexus DSC.

 

First up after alignment - a quick look around Lyra. Split all four in the Double Double and Zeta 1 & 2. I didn’t find Epsilon 1 any easier to split at 200x than at 140x (my highest mag on this scope to date). Maybe my kit wasn’t cool enough?

First proper target was the North America Nebula to see if i could see nebulosity here. i have never really satisfactorily observed nebulosity of this type (without really knowingg i was really seeing an optical artefact like damp or glare). I had no better success on this topic here tonight so will need to read up what kind of aperture i would need (or filter). I did ‘trip over’ NGC 6996 in my 80x/60’ eyepiece while here.

Next M11 the Wild Duck cluster. A wow at all three magnifications though most aesthetic at the lowest mag of 80x. I drew this twice it was that nice.

Nearby M26 wasn’t quite so robust. The sky was too light at my lowest mag and the cluster too ‘exploded’ at the higher 200x mag.

M11 the Eagle Nebula. Another lovely view and again best at 140x/31’. No hint of nebulosity so what i was really looking at here was the star field.

M17 the Omega Nebula. Hah. i drew it before realising what i was really looking at (or what i should have been looking for). I didn’t draw the horse Head Nebula nor imagine i could see it after finding out where i really was but i had at least drawn a nice clean ‘wall’ of the nebula against the blank space so my eyes aren’t completely rubbish.

Next up M25. Pretty at 80x but not so much at 140x.

A change of pace and with Saturn on the cards later i wanted to take a look at NGC 7009 Saturn Nebula. It needed loads of mag and a little bit of imagination to see why it was named such but i don’t think i was kidding myself too much. It was an object where i was fiddling with the focus constantly - it didn’t want to be in focus. I realised i had crept a bit low down towards the horizon though and so will come back on a night when this is higher.

Messier 73 was next and my notes last night are a “a pretty subtle thing rather than a pretty thing”. Again best a middling 140x magnification. The same notes would apply to nearby M72.

No such messing about on M2 next up. Delightful on a first look at 140x and got better at 200x. Never properly resolved but a lovely smoky ball of mist with edge stars beginning to peep through. Lovely.

This brought me round to the planets and the principle reason for being out tonight. First up Saturn.

i was impressed and disappointed and then impressed. Impressed first at the image scale (i've been limited to bino's for a while). Saturn itself was pale and without any change in tone anywhere even into and onto the rings. I only observed intermittent “flashes’ of a partial Cassini Division on the Eastern (11:00 in my EP) side. This was the disappointment - i expected a little more sharply etched detail. The second wow though was the moons - four resolved as discs. I drew the moons i could see before checking (keeping myself honest) and found i had observed Lapetus, Titan, Dione, & Tethys (actually when checking my eye piece drawings again 09/08/2022 it had really been Rhea paired with Dione to the east of Saturn not Tethys). Even after checking where the others where (or should be) i couldn’t see them so will have a read up on what is achievable in my 8” aperture.

Time for  coffee break now but as i looked up Pleiades poked me in the eye. I have never seen it so sharp (and resolved) with the naked eye. Lovely in the bino’s and lovely (even though fragmented into jigsaw pieces) in the scope. I really need a solution for getting wider than 1 degree!

After coffee i stayed near M45 and took a quick look at Mars and Uranus. Mars was horrible and i didn’t hang about :-(. Glaring diffraction spikes and blobby - really not round. Uranus obviously better being dimmer. A little silver ball bearing.

I spent a few minutes on Melotte 20 (nearish Mars and Uranus) while waiting for the Europa shadow transit but this cluster was considerably nicer in the bino’s than in the scope as you would imagine based on its size so FOV was becoming a bit of a theme of the evening.

Anyway-  on to Jupiter. Also not nice (to start with). Hugely bright (my 200x is still nearly 1mm exit pupil) and worse - glaring diffraction spikes again! I haven’t had a scope with vanes for something like 20 years and i had kind of forgotten this effect on the planets (i don’t mind it so much on bright stars). I slowed down and i think my eye adjusted or calibrated the glare a little bit. I could only make out NEB/SEB constantly. Other bands only intermittently flickered into view - a few milliseconds in total in something like 45-minutes of total observation time. I had one very very short burst where the whole body looked like polished marble but literally “blink and you miss it’.

I couldn’t see the shadow transit and i thought i had messed up my timing/planning so i was a bit disappointed overall but because the planet was so bright on this viewing (03:15 ish for 20 minutes or so) that i came back here last thing in the session (04:15 till 04:45) while the sky was lightening and everything else in the sky was disappearing. In the second mini session the view had improved  a tiny bit (enough to linger and allow it to keep drifting through the eyepiece at 200x) and lo and behold there without looking for it was the shadow of Europa. FANTASTIC. i have never seen one before! i didn’t watch the full pass but i watched maybe 25%. From 1/4 across the face of the planet to one half. Brilliant.

In between the two Jupiter mini sessions in this session i had a quick look at Hyades and Aldebaran (it would be rude not too on a night this nice). This only emphasised i need to have a think about getting a wider field. The bino’s again best and the bino’s best for the Double Cluster and Stock 2 too. Stock 2 was an ad hoc target here because i had a feeling damp was creeping in and i wanted to check something more or less directly overhead. Overhead was clear and indeed damp had crept in lower down.

Before wrapping up after Jupiter at 04:45 i had a quick look back at Mars and now Venus as well a little to the east but i couldn’t even achieve focus (on either) - there was that much bounce in the atmosphere.

Oh well; all good things come to an end and this had been an epic super enjoyable session. I will miss these cool but not cold summer nights!

Cheers

Joe

 

Edited August 9, 2022 by josefk
Corrected Io reference for Europa

[Mr Spock]

Excellent report. Sounds like a great session 👍

[josefk]

you know its been a good one @Mr Spock when it looks like this - the dawn chorus is well underway - and you're still at it 🙂

[JeremyS]

Great report @josefk. Nice looking rig too 👍🏻

[josefk]

Thanks @JeremyS  it was definitely about maximising the clear window. “The rig” may end up with something blue and white and ~900mm fl. on the other side of the mount - I’m selling the idea to myself by looking at stuff bigger than 60’ on purpose 😉  

[JeremyS]

8 minutes ago, josefk said:

Thanks @JeremyS  it was definitely about maximising the clear window. “The rig” may end up with something blue and white and ~900mm fl. on the other side of the mount - I’m selling the idea to myself by looking at stuff bigger than 60’ on purpose 😉  

Hmmm….I wonder what that might be 🤣

[Kon]

Excellent report and the sky is looking great.

[wookie1965]

Brilliant report a cracking session really good read thank you for posting. 

Paul