California dreaming

[RobertI]

Finding myself under a beautiful transparent sky with a 4” Apo, I had to decide my plan for the next couple hours. On a whim I got out the 38mm 2” Panaview to get some super-wide views of my favourite object, the Veil nebula. Surprisingly I couldn’t find it but when I applied the 2” UHC filter it popped into view, the East and West easily seen with Pickering’s wisp area also visible. On another whim I thought I would try my new 32mm Plossl with the OIII filter - the improvement was very noticeable with both sides of the nebula just shining brightly - the extra contrast provided by the OIII and extra magnification to darken the sky really paid dividends. The 32mm is not a particularly comfortable eyepiece to use so I put in the 17mm Morpheus with the OIII and got a much more comfortable and immersive experience, and although the nebula became a ghostly grey, the tendrils of the Eastern Veil were easier to see. Under a really dark sky, this would be my choice of eyepiece for the Veil with this scope I think.

Impressed with the performance of the 32mm Plossl and OIII filter at brightening the Veil, I thought I’d have a go at my nemesis, the Crescent Nebula, a target whose full shape has so far eluded me. I quickly found the faint glow of the nebula in star-field I now know so well, and over the course of the next half hour I got closer to seeing what seems like an oval cloud, but I could never see anything that resembled a Crescent.  I feel under a really dark sky, I could crack this one using the 32mm Plossl and an OIII, potentially even with the C8 - hopefully I will find out at Kelling in a few weeks.

Scanning up through the Milky Way with the 32mm and OIII still in, past Sadir, revealed a strange world of light a dark clouds suffused with thousands of stars. Up past Deneb and I came upon the North America nebula and, oh boy, what a sight! I have never seen the Gulf of Mexico so clear and well defined and scanning around the huge nebula it was easy to see the shape of much of it, but the Gulf of Mexico was a standout and should be a target object in its own right. Definitely my best ever view of this object.

Finally, I remembered I had bought an Hb filter last year and the California nebula in Perseus is a good target, an object I have never seen before. So switching the filter wheel to the Hb, staying with the 32mm Plossl I slewed across. A well defined glow was immediately apparent, sausage shaped and slightly larger than the field of view. The top portion (west?) was very easy to see and scanning down the length the edges were still easy to see but not quite so obvious. No detail or structure was visible, but this was a very pleasing catch and a first. I switched to the OIII and UHC (the manual filter wheel makes this easy to do) but the nebula was completely invisible. So the Hb does work - highly recommended.

So a great evening. The 32mm Plossl was very good at revealing dim objects but I do not find it terribly comfortable to use - perhaps a 2” eyepiece at this focal length might be something to consider, but that would mean getting a 2” OIII as well! 

 

Edited August 28, 2023 by RobertI

[John]

Great report Rob 🙂

Good narrowband and line filters really enhance the nebula viewing experience don't they ?

Discovering what an O-III can do, even in smaller scopes, was a revelation to me a few years back. I find from my back yard that eyepieces around 20mm are even better than those around 30mm for this. 

[PeterC65]

A very interesting read. I have a UHC filter and 32mm Baader Plossl and have wondered about adding OIII and / or Hb filters to my filter wheel for observing the larger nebulae. I've also been thinking about getting a 2" 30mm widefield eyepiece, but that would mean not using filters (I'm stuck with 1.25" too) so it would just be for wide star fields.

 

[RobertI]

52 minutes ago, John said:

Great report Rob 🙂

Good narrowband and line filters really enhance the nebula viewing experience don't they ?

Discovering what an O-III can do, even in smaller scopes, was a revelation to me a few years back. I find from my back yard that eyepieces around 20mm are even better than those around 30mm for this. 

Totally agree John. I enjoy using filters so much I have a manual filter wheel semi-permanently attached between the diagonal and the eyepiece. It has an OIII, UHC, UHCE and now Hb attached. It’s fun to swap between them, although the UHCE rarely wins - it can act as a mild light pollution filter sometimes. 

[RobertI]

40 minutes ago, PeterC65 said:

A very interesting read. I have a UHC filter and 32mm Baader Plossl and have wondered about adding OIII and / or Hb filters to my filter wheel for observing the larger nebulae. I've also been thinking about getting a 2" 30mm widefield eyepiece, but that would mean not using filters (I'm stuck with 1.25" too) so it would just be for wide star fields.

 

Thanks Peter, I would definitely invest in an OIII filter, it’s worth it for the Veil alone, but works like magic on so many other nebulae, including those tiny planetaries. On the Veil, the OIII will show more structure and detail than a UHC.

When I got my 2” Panaview, it was for the express purpose of fitting the whole veil complex into the entire FOV, so I also bought a 2” UHC, kinda wish I’d gone for a 2” OIII instead! I can see the whole complex with this setup - it’s fascinating but I wouldn’t say it’s worth the hassle of digging out the massive 2” eyepiece and rebalancing the scope! But I might need to experiment more with longer focal length 2” eyepieces and the larger exist pupils they provide. 

[josefk]

Nice report Rob and great targets. I always enjoy reading these because other than the brighter side of the Veil i have zero luck detecting them where i live. I think i need to make a well timed trip to darker skies in nearby North Norfolk. There's a nice piece about Williamina Fleming in Augusts Sky & Telescope re. Fleming's Triangular Wisp. Fleming discovered it examining glass plates in Pickerings massive spectroscopic survey programme. Pickering correctly gave her discovery credit but his name stuck to it. 

[RobertI]

16 minutes ago, josefk said:

Nice report Rob and great targets. I always enjoy reading these because other than the brighter side of the Veil i have zero luck detecting them where i live. I think i need to make a well timed trip to darker skies in nearby North Norfolk. There's a nice piece about Williamina Fleming in Augusts Sky & Telescope re. Fleming's Triangular Wisp. Fleming discovered it examining glass plates in Pickerings massive spectroscopic survey programme. Pickering correctly gave her discovery credit but his name stuck to it. 

I did not know that about the discovery of Pickering’s wisp, interesting info, thank you. If you do ever end up at Kelling, let me know. 🙂

[josefk]

I didn’t know till August either 😚

[John]

I think Wilhelmina Fleming discovered the Horsehead Nebula as well as the first White Dwarf star. Remarkable person 🙂

Edited August 28, 2023 by John

[Saganite]

Fine report Rob and it certainly has fired me up for the next chance to observe, though I must get an OIII filter.