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Something of a mega session 27/09/2022

bomberbaz

By bomberbaz
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bomberbaz

bomberbaz

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Report from last nights (27/09/2022) foray into the deep dark night sky. I did something different last night and I won’t be doing it again because although it was enjoyable, it was awkward.

Ok all I did was not make a viewing list. I like to do this because I can also pre input this into sky safari for use with the scope DSC system. Also means the paper version of the same list can form a viewing reference but I am sure many of you do similar.

Actually I also forgot my contacts so rather than fight with glasses misting, I went viewing commando style. Because of my astigmatism this meant less than perfect stars but to be totally honest, it wasn't that bad and I may yet learn to live without either glasses or contacts when observing.

Anyway, got to my close by darkish site (30 mins drive), forgot to measure my skies but seemed remarkably light last night around my observing spot or maybe my eyes are just getting better. I could easily see details around me and find either my observing chair or footstool without needing the torch. I am changing the footstool by the way, it’s single height isn’t working well for me, I need something with dual height.  Back to lists, I need to prepare a list with objects high up but preferably not at zenith. My back is stiff this morning through stooping to view at the eyepiece from aforementioned footstool.

Early on tried I planetary but it wasn’t settled enough, so decided to leave that until later.

Tested the scope performance on a few doubles to see how things were in that aspect and a little fuzzy but not awful. A quick peep at the dumbbell showed this to be very clear and bright so seeing appeared good. Excellent, onto nebula it was.

I did my usual nebula favourites (Eyepiece 24mm APM UFF and astronomic OII/UHC – exit pupil 4.95mm), experimenting with UHC and OIII on objects the veil, crescent, M27 already mentioned, N.Am neb plus some new ones and this part made the night more interesting. I managed for the first time to get the soul nebula, nothing dramatic, but I was happy enough with what I did see to call it in. I also bagged vdB 1 nebula just off Caph which is a reflection nebula and was incredibly hard to see. IC 59 Gamma Cassiopeiae was also a faint detection but my favourite new target from last night, the Pacman nebula also in Cassiopeiae. A little beauty visual and very much along the lines of the crescent (This could be my new favourite nebula). I tried both UHC and OIII and although both worked, the OIII gave the best view to my eyes with good structure and shape very much as per it’s name. I find this (OIII filter best) slightly surprising as it is listed as being an HII region although reports I have read point towards it being sensitive to OIII spectrum. I am not sure exactly how this works and warrants further investigation.

Time for some galaxy bashing now (Eyepiece Nikon Nav 12.5mm x140). Started round at M101 which was just visible. Despite its apparent opacity it did yield some fairly strong hints of spiral structure using averted and blinking vision techniques. From here I moved to the right for my old favourites of M81,82 and the garland, M82 being the best out of these three with some excellent structure around the middle section. (I may sketch this next time out, it really is a lovely object to view) I stayed in this area to see how deep I could go. Moving through a range of NGC galaxy above bodes to see how deep I could get. I moved through objects going as deep as circa 130-140M LY and brightness stated up to 12.1 on SS6 plus, but as 13.2 on stellarium. More investigation needed here on which is true and a further reminder of the need for the pre prepared lists.  However I seem to be reminded that someone told me on a visit to dunsop bridge that stellarium magnitudes tend to be lower than they should be. Was it you @Uplooker?

Finishing off galaxy hunting with a swing around to M33 which was there but difficult, not really yielding any detail to speak of. And a night wouldn’t be complete without saying hello to Andromeda. I then dropped down to M45 to see if the higher magnification/darker background would help with seeing some of it’s reflection and boom! as good as I can recall seeing it. Lots of bright nebulosity with hints of swirl that we often see in the images of this beautiful DSO. Very satisfying and this warranted a little time so got comfy and drank in the views. I have to say the Nikon eyepiece performed impeccably here and really does hit the sweet spot for galaxy viewing although that said, I must try further experimenting and differing magnification.

It was getting later now so did a quick doubles bash hitting Rasalgethi, 95 Herc, Mizar, Albireo, Omicron1 and 53 Cygni. Splits were lovely down to x215 which was needed on 53 Cyg, first time splitting that and very satisfactory and wouldn't mind getting this with the frac. Slight problems occuring when doing the doubles in that whilst doing this I noticed the Baader zoom kept suffering from misting, has anyone else suffered with this, do I need an eyepiece heater?  Strange as it didn't occur with anything else I used.

Finishing off time I took in Nepture, Uranus (no moons seen) then Saturn was next, easily getting the cassini division and hitting Iapetus, titan and rhea although it took me a good whilst at the eyepiece to confirm these and needed averted vision. Then onto Jupiter. Have to say it was a bit of a disappointment after all the other great objects before it.

Finally I had a few minutes on each of M2 and M15 (love a globular) as I had the right eyepiece in the scope before calling it a night. Tired but satisfied it had been an excellent session.

In closing I took both eyepiece case instead of my usual specific dob eyepiece case. Having the added flexibility of zooms, shorter fixed eyepiece and a tele extender from my other eyepiece case made the evening that much more enjoyable although the levels to which I experiment are dropping these days. One other thing I did notice was neither the TS 28mm or the Nikon 17mm saw any use during the night although these do see more action on clusters and I purposely steered clear of these on a moonless night.

Looking forward to another clear night, now where is my sketching pad 😁

 

 

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bomberbaz

bomberbaz

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30 minutes ago, wookie1965 said:

Brilliant report were you using the Taurus for the session if so have you got a shroud for it or do you leave it open.

Both is the simple answer. If it is settled and protected from any winds, open. Any wind about and/or exposed site then put shroud on.

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ScouseSpaceCadet

ScouseSpaceCadet

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On 28/09/2022 at 12:50, bomberbaz said:

Report from last nights (27/09/2022) foray into the deep dark night sky. I did something different last night and I won’t be doing it again because although it was enjoyable, it was awkward.

Ok all I did was not make a viewing list. I like to do this because I can also pre input this into sky safari for use with the scope DSC system. Also means the paper version of the same list can form a viewing reference but I am sure many of you do similar.

Actually I also forgot my contacts so rather than fight with glasses misting, I went viewing commando style. Because of my astigmatism this meant less than perfect stars but to be totally honest, it wasn't that bad and I may yet learn to live without either glasses or contacts when observing.

Anyway, got to my close by darkish site (30 mins drive), forgot to measure my skies but seemed remarkably light last night around my observing spot or maybe my eyes are just getting better. I could easily see details around me and find either my observing chair or footstool without needing the torch. I am changing the footstool by the way, it’s single height isn’t working well for me, I need something with dual height.  Back to lists, I need to prepare a list with objects high up but preferably not at zenith. My back is stiff this morning through stooping to view at the eyepiece from aforementioned footstool.

Early on tried I planetary but it wasn’t settled enough, so decided to leave that until later.

Tested the scope performance on a few doubles to see how things were in that aspect and a little fuzzy but not awful. A quick peep at the dumbbell showed this to be very clear and bright so seeing appeared good. Excellent, onto nebula it was.

I did my usual nebula favourites (Eyepiece 24mm APM UFF and astronomic OII/UHC – exit pupil 4.95mm), experimenting with UHC and OIII on objects the veil, crescent, M27 already mentioned, N.Am neb plus some new ones and this part made the night more interesting. I managed for the first time to get the soul nebula, nothing dramatic, but I was happy enough with what I did see to call it in. I also bagged vdB 1 nebula just off Caph which is a reflection nebula and was incredibly hard to see. IC 59 Gamma Cassiopeiae was also a faint detection but my favourite new target from last night, the Pacman nebula also in Cassiopeiae. A little beauty visual and very much along the lines of the crescent (This could be my new favourite nebula). I tried both UHC and OIII and although both worked, the OIII gave the best view to my eyes with good structure and shape very much as per it’s name. I find this (OIII filter best) slightly surprising as it is listed as being an HII region although reports I have read point towards it being sensitive to OIII spectrum. I am not sure exactly how this works and warrants further investigation.

Time for some galaxy bashing now (Eyepiece Nikon Nav 12.5mm x140). Started round at M101 which was just visible. Despite its apparent opacity it did yield some fairly strong hints of spiral structure using averted and blinking vision techniques. From here I moved to the right for my old favourites of M81,82 and the garland, M82 being the best out of these three with some excellent structure around the middle section. (I may sketch this next time out, it really is a lovely object to view) I stayed in this area to see how deep I could go. Moving through a range of NGC galaxy above bodes to see how deep I could get. I moved through objects going as deep as circa 130-140M LY and brightness stated up to 12.1 on SS6 plus, but as 13.2 on stellarium. More investigation needed here on which is true and a further reminder of the need for the pre prepared lists.  However I seem to be reminded that someone told me on a visit to dunsop bridge that stellarium magnitudes tend to be lower than they should be. Was it you @Uplooker?

Finishing off galaxy hunting with a swing around to M33 which was there but difficult, not really yielding any detail to speak of. And a night wouldn’t be complete without saying hello to Andromeda. I then dropped down to M45 to see if the higher magnification/darker background would help with seeing some of it’s reflection and boom! as good as I can recall seeing it. Lots of bright nebulosity with hints of swirl that we often see in the images of this beautiful DSO. Very satisfying and this warranted a little time so got comfy and drank in the views. I have to say the Nikon eyepiece performed impeccably here and really does hit the sweet spot for galaxy viewing although that said, I must try further experimenting and differing magnification.

It was getting later now so did a quick doubles bash hitting Rasalgethi, 95 Herc, Mizar, Albireo, Omicron1 and 53 Cygni. Splits were lovely down to x215 which was needed on 53 Cyg, first time splitting that and very satisfactory and wouldn't mind getting this with the frac. Slight problems occuring when doing the doubles in that whilst doing this I noticed the Baader zoom kept suffering from misting, has anyone else suffered with this, do I need an eyepiece heater?  Strange as it didn't occur with anything else I used.

Finishing off time I took in Nepture, Uranus (no moons seen) then Saturn was next, easily getting the cassini division and hitting Iapetus, titan and rhea although it took me a good whilst at the eyepiece to confirm these and needed averted vision. Then onto Jupiter. Have to say it was a bit of a disappointment after all the other great objects before it.

Finally I had a few minutes on each of M2 and M15 (love a globular) as I had the right eyepiece in the scope before calling it a night. Tired but satisfied it had been an excellent session.

In closing I took both eyepiece case instead of my usual specific dob eyepiece case. Having the added flexibility of zooms, shorter fixed eyepiece and a tele extender from my other eyepiece case made the evening that much more enjoyable although the levels to which I experiment are dropping these days. One other thing I did notice was neither the TS 28mm or the Nikon 17mm saw any use during the night although these do see more action on clusters and I purposely steered clear of these on a moonless night.

Looking forward to another clear night, now where is my sketching pad 😁

 

 

That report was the perfect length for a toilet read... Great stuff. 😀

I'm toying with the idea of a two night solo camping trip near Bolton by Bowland around new moon this month. Weather dependent of course. Worth the 1hr 15min trip?

Edited by ScouseSpaceCadet
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bomberbaz

bomberbaz

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3 hours ago, ScouseSpaceCadet said:

That report was the perfect length for a toilet read... Great stuff. 😀

I'm toying with the idea of a two night solo camping trip near Bolton by Bowland around new moon this month. Weather dependent of course. Worth the 1hr 15min trip?

Well if my reports are only fit for your ablutions, I don't know if I care to answer that 😉

Yes definitely worth it. The deeper north you can get, the better.  Try and organise your viewing anywhere other than due south if you can as this is worst LP area although that said, it is still liveable with.

Great views into the Zenith which I know is the hardest work but worth it for the darkness.  If you do decide to go and I am free, I will come up and keep you company for one night 👍

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ScouseSpaceCadet

ScouseSpaceCadet

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23 minutes ago, bomberbaz said:

Well if my reports are only fit for your ablutions, I don't know if I care to answer that 😉

Yes definitely worth it. The deeper north you can get, the better.  Try and organise your viewing anywhere other than due south if you can as this is worst LP area although that said, it is still liveable with.

Great views into the Zenith which I know is the hardest work but worth it for the darkness.  If you do decide to go and I am free, I will come up and keep you company for one night 👍

Thanks for that. I do have four days off so I'm definitely thinking about it. The camp site I'm thinking of is open all year round and been on the radar for a couple of years but I've yet to visit. If the weather looks good then it's unlikely I'll take scopes, just the binoculars. I'll let you know. 😀

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bomberbaz

bomberbaz

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1 minute ago, ScouseSpaceCadet said:

Thanks for that. I do have four days off so I'm definitely thinking about it. The camp site I'm thinking of is open all year round and been on the radar for a couple of years but I've yet to visit. If the weather looks good then it's unlikely I'll take scopes, just the binoculars. I'll let you know. 😀

which camp site is it please, might be a better bet with my big bins rather than the dob, much easier setting up and using.  

what about your 127 mak, thats easy enough to carry around?

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ScouseSpaceCadet

ScouseSpaceCadet

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41 minutes ago, bomberbaz said:

which camp site is it please, might be a better bet with my big bins rather than the dob, much easier setting up and using.  

what about your 127 mak, thats easy enough to carry around?

I don't like using the Mak very much on a manual mount unless I'm sticking to solar system. The narrow fov also rules out many wide field targets. 15x70s (and indeed 10x50s) are smashing for camping. Simple, with no messing breaking the kit down. Just chuck them into the tent and have a kip. 😀

Organised camps I'll take the full monty but there are also security concerns on a public site.

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bomberbaz

bomberbaz

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15 minutes ago, ScouseSpaceCadet said:

I don't like using the Mak very much on a manual mount unless I'm sticking to solar system. The narrow fov also rules out many wide field targets. 15x70s (and indeed 10x50s) are smashing for camping. Simple, with no messing breaking the kit down. Just chuck them into the tent and have a kip. 😀

Organised camps I'll take the full monty but there are also security concerns on a public site.

We are in the civilised ribble valley now old chap, what what! 😉

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