An hour in Brecon Beacons

[wookie1965]

I have been in a lovely cottage since Thursday forecast for the weekend was terrible but yesterday afternoon the sun popped out and the forecast said clear between 11pm and 12am.

Come 10pm the sky was fabulous so quickly set up aligned the Telrad and put starsense on thought I would just do the highlights

As many of you know I have wanted to view the Leo trio and M51 through my own scope since I got my first scope in 2012.

M3 first wow and not the last found with 25mm then upped to the 15mm and what a view. 

M5 same again but with a few of the outer stars resolved. 

Double cluster with the 25mm outstanding. 

M44 Beehive I've never seen it so good. 

Melotte 111 a first for me but so beautiful. 

M13 the best I have seen it could easily make out outer lying stars. 

M92 again a superb view. 

M36, M37, M38 stunning in the 25mm.

The Leo trio unfortunately I could not see NGC 3628 but M65 and M66 where easily seen with shape and a the bright cores where brilliant. 

M81 and M82 the best I have ever seen them structure so distinctive between the two. 

M51 to finish waited for the darkest I could get and wow spiral structure and both cores clearly visible. 

Absolutely fantastic night I am over the moon. 

Paul 

[Knighty2112]

Nice haul Paul. Some spectacular views there. 👍🏻

[Carpy]

Sounds like you managed  to get some great sights 😃

[Franklin]

Amazing skies out there. I thought the same on the single clear night at the recent Astrocamp. Best views I've had of numerous Messier objects, M51 and M13 were fantastic and even the Owl nebula M97 was easy. The Ring and Dumbbell were very pronounced and the galaxies in Leo were stunning and in Virgo there were so many I got lost. 

[wookie1965]

29 minutes ago, Franklin said:

Amazing skies out there. I thought the same on the single clear night at the recent Astrocamp. Best views I've had of numerous Messier objects, M51 and M13 were fantastic and even the Owl nebula M97 was easy. The Ring and Dumbbell were very pronounced and the galaxies in Leo were stunning and in Virgo there were so many I got lost. 

I was going to look at virgo but it was behind the trees, Starsense never even give me the owl or M97 as it started to cloud over I never had a chance to search for other objects. 

[wesdon1]

37 minutes ago, Franklin said:

Amazing skies out there. I thought the same on the single clear night at the recent Astrocamp. Best views I've had of numerous Messier objects, M51 and M13 were fantastic and even the Owl nebula M97 was easy. The Ring and Dumbbell were very pronounced and the galaxies in Leo were stunning and in Virgo there were so many I got lost. 

@Franklin May I ask Frank, what size aperture 'scope did you view the Virgo Super Cluster through? Normally at Star Parties, there's usually atleast one person with a +20inch aperture behemoth, and that is my dream, to be at a dark sky site one day and look through a very large aperture 'scope, +20inches, and see DSO's like Galaxies and Nebula etc

[Franklin]

38 minutes ago, wesdon1 said:

May I ask Frank, what size aperture 'scope did you view the Virgo Super Cluster through? Normally at Star Parties, there's usually atleast one person with a +20inch aperture behemoth, and that is my dream, to be at a dark sky site one day and look through a very large aperture 'scope, +20inches, and see DSO's like Galaxies and Nebula etc

I agree, that would be awesome but the largest scope I own is a tiddly 41/2" refractor, the Vixen SD115s and it was this scope that I took along to the Astrocamp. The difference in views under a truly dark sky and my light polluted back garden is completely "chalk and cheese". I only viewed some of the "showpiece" Messier objects and they definitely were "showpieces" that night. I'm thinking of doing some basic EAA to try and combat my poor skies.

[wesdon1]

14 minutes ago, Franklin said:

I agree, that would be awesome but the largest scope I own is a tiddly 41/2" refractor, the Vixen SD115s and it was this scope that I took along to the Astrocamp. The difference in views under a truly dark sky and my light polluted back garden is completely "chalk and cheese". I only viewed some of the "showpiece" Messier objects and they definitely were "showpieces" that night. I'm thinking of doing some basic EAA to try and combat my poor skies.

Oh right I understand! So that really proves that a dark sky is so important for resolving/seeing faint DSO's. Wouldn't it be wonderful if the council would turn out all street lights for a couple of hours every evening, say from around 12midnight to 3am? Most folk are fast asleep in bed at that time anyway!? I doubt they ever would though because they're too afraid of someone being attacked in darkness and council getting blamed for turning out street lights!? Impo though, if someone is sick and twisted enough to attack someone else, then a silly street light isn't going to stop them!? LOL

[wookie1965]

5 minutes ago, wesdon1 said:

Oh right I understand! So that really proves that a dark sky is so important for resolving/seeing faint DSO's. Wouldn't it be wonderful if the council would turn out all street lights for a couple of hours every evening, say from around 12midnight to 3am? Most folk are fast asleep in bed at that time anyway!? I doubt they ever would though because they're too afraid of someone being attacked in darkness and council getting blamed for turning out street lights!? Impo though, if someone is sick and twisted enough to attack someone else, then a silly street light isn't going to stop them!? LOL

I have never seen M51 or the Leo trio from home but here in really dark skies with my 10" I could see the easily see them dark skies makes a hell of a difference. 

[wesdon1]

10 minutes ago, wookie1965 said:

I have never seen M51 or the Leo trio from home but here in really dark skies with my 10" I could see the easily see them dark skies makes a hell of a difference. 

I've seen the core of Andromeda Galaxy from home. And even then I was having to use the averted vision technique to really brighten the core up. It says I live in a Bortle 7 location, but that Bortle scale doesn't count for anything if you have white LED street lights shining down your telescopes OTA! LOL

[Captain Scarlet]

Paul so pleased for you to see that sort of detail in M51 and 81/2. If you could see spiral structure in M51 you should easily have been able to see the third part of the Leo Triplet. Is it possible you panned in the wrong direction from M65 & 66? I have done that before more than once.

Having myself seen M51 from a dark place, I subsequently found myself able to see it from London albeit as a faint smudge, by knowing exactly what to look for and where to look relative to the two bottom “saucepan handle” stars of the plough.

I did feel your joy from your report.

Cheers, Magnus

[Epick Crom]

Nice report Paul!

I'm glad you got to see some fantastic sights. M51 sounds great!

[wookie1965]

9 hours ago, Captain Scarlet said:

Paul so pleased for you to see that sort of detail in M51 and 81/2. If you could see spiral structure in M51 you should easily have been able to see the third part of the Leo Triplet. Is it possible you panned in the wrong direction from M65 & 66? I have done that before more than once.

Having myself seen M51 from a dark place, I subsequently found myself able to see it from London albeit as a faint smudge, by knowing exactly what to look for and where to look relative to the two bottom “saucepan handle” stars of the plough.

I did feel your joy from your report.

Cheers, Magnus

You maybe right about the 3rd component of the trio I am more used to Refractors saying that it was earlier in the night so may not have been as dark as when I looked at M51. 

Paul 

[Pixies]

1 hour ago, wookie1965 said:

You maybe right about the 3rd component of the trio I am more used to Refractors saying that it was earlier in the night so may not have been as dark as when I looked at M51. 

Paul 

I've been to a couple of Spring Astrocamps and have tried the Leo Triplet from there. Last year, the hamburger was as clear as anything  but this year it was a lot harder to see. Leo is quite low now we're later into Spring and you might suffer from poor transparency. M51 is near the zenth and the sky will be a lot clearer.