Widefield wonders and clean skies

[josefk]

This is a slightly delayed write up of a wonderful session on Friday 13th October into Saturday 14th October. Friday was horribly wet until about 19:30 BST but the forecast for a clear night was correct and what a brilliant night it was. Super cold (cold stopped play in fact at 03:30) but till then it compensated (nearly) for a cloudy past 4 weeks.

I took two scopes out - an 185mm Cassegrain and an 85mm refractor but it was so damp still setting up at ~20:00 i stuck with just the small refractor as i wasn't confident to manage dew on two scopes at once. In the event it got quite breezy so my kit stayed dry anyway.

Targets were Saturn, Jupiter, the Veil and then i thought i would get back on track with the Herschel 400 on this moonless night. 

First target Saturn showed that though the sky was beautifully clear and transparent seeing was very poor. Very wobbly at x135 and x169 so it wasn't worthwhile attempting to observe Saturn itself closely. Somehow though i got stuck for a good while trying to detect Rhea and Tethys (Titan was obvious). Rhea and Tethys were very close together and i could only occasionally see one of them. I decided eventually it was Rhea i could detect. Enceladus was also close to them and quite distant from Saturn relatively speaking so favourable in that way but i couldn't tease it out at any magnification.

So over to the Veil NGC 6992, NGC 6960, and NGC 6974. This object has really caught my imagination in recent weeks. I first saw a tiny part of the Eastern Veil last year in the Cassegrain but it really was only the smallest brightest part (i can't achieve the FOV and the exit pupil it needs in that scope). In the spring of this year i caught a really good view of the full arc of the Eastern Veil in my 130mm refractor and 24mm EP with O-III (3mm exit pupil) but it was only in September of this year i saw the Western part and NGC 6974. Using the 85mm refractor and 24mm EP (w/ O-III) gets me an exit pupil of 4.5mm and this works superbly for brightness and for framing at 206'.

This is the (inaccurate) field sketch:

inaccurate because i've misplaced the eastern veil :-(.

I've taken the liberty to correct it positionally in my daytime copy:

i'll also take the liberty of posting a marked up (butchered) version of someone else's lovely picture of the complex to illustrate my fascination...

 

Everything in green i feel like i'm beginning see really well (and better on this second full attempt than earlier in September). Everything in red i'm still looking for. The yellow and blue dashes are anchor stars for putting the sketched bits in the right place and the blue ones were ones that threw me at the EP friday. Though it's lovely to see this object in this FOV actually 52 Cyg is a bit bright so the eastern part and the central part grow a little bit in contrast and extent when studied alone. It is this moving around that caused the inaccurate field sketch. Another challenge with this object is it disappears completely for a minute or two after using a red light even for a few seconds. I can't wink my viewing eye while i'm sketching so need a pirate patch i think... 

After the Veil it was a no brainer to have a look at NGC 7000 the North America Nebula. It was fabulous in the 24Pan with O-III and visible but not as contrasted in with a 31mm and UHC (nearly a 6mm exit pupil). The overall nebula was pretty big - i was seeing quite a lot of its extent i think and the Gulf of Mexico was an obvious dark bite out of the cloudy shape. This is also a Herschel and completes the Hershel's best seen in September. Yay. I couldn't detect the Pelican nebula in the immediate vicinity of NAM so i will have to travel to see that as i don't think my local skies could be any better than on this night.

Other targets were the Fireworks galaxy - a tick for me from my "repeated fails list" so very happy to get this and also M77 Cetus A - this is also a previous repeated fail but not because it's dim - mainly because i forget to look earlier enough in the night and it drops low. I will definitely come back to M77 with more aperture because even at x56 i am convinced i could see a kind of "wiry" nature to it - i wonder how it looks with more scale.

At one point i star hopped through the double cluster and wished i had stopped to properly take this in - as others have remarked over the weekend - i have never seen it better regarding density, sparkle and star colour. My only reason to not linger was because i was trying to maximise time spent on fuzzier things. 

One of the fuzzier things was Andromeda. I am never quite sure "what the fuss is about" with M31 visually. Shock horror. It is not difficult to see but "it is just a big glow". Double shock horror. Well tonight i got it. It was pretty high up at 2am (70-degrees). It was obvious (even big) in the finder and fully half the width of a 5-degree FOV in the scope in its long direction and with loads of gradient to the brightness. M110 which has been a bit of a challenge for me in a small scope was "just there" at x15 and big and relatively bright in such a way to make me wonder how on earth is it ever difficult. I spent ages under a hood trying to see if i could push my luck to see the dark lane or dark edges to M31 but i never could. Maybe that is asking too much of a 3" scope.

There were a few other bits and bobs to follow but as it got past 3am i couldn't feel my hands and feet so that was that.

Pirate patch suggestions welcome because there's more to come on the Veil i'm sure of it and i am determined to definitively see Williamina Fleming’s triangular wisp to complete the four part structure.

Cheers

Joe

Edited October 16, 2023 by josefk

[Captain Scarlet]

Great read, thanks. You’ve reminded me to put the NAN on my list, I’ve never actually looked for it despite it being mentioned to me many times.  Pelican too.

Magnus

[josefk]

 

15 minutes ago, Captain Scarlet said:

Great read, thanks. You’ve reminded me to put the NAN on my list, I’ve never actually looked for it despite it being mentioned to me many times.  Pelican too.

Magnus

I think in your skies Magnus it will positively jump out at you. i would be interested in the relative brightness between NAN and Pelican if you do take a look. 

[bosun21]

Great write up Josef and an interesting read. Your sketches are a nice addition to a great report.

[John]

Excellent report and sketches 🙂

So much to explore in and around the Veil Nebula. Here is a nice guide to stuff to look for by Bob King on the Sky & Telescope website:

Explore the Veil Nebula - Sky & Telescope - Sky & Telescope (skyandtelescope.org)

 

[Mr Spock]

I only get a hint of the veil in my B6 skies 

[josefk]

49 minutes ago, John said:

Excellent report and sketches 🙂

So much to explore in and around the Veil Nebula. Here is a nice guide to stuff to look for by Bob King on the Sky & Telescope website:

Explore the Veil Nebula - Sky & Telescope - Sky & Telescope (skyandtelescope.org)

 

That is a superb link John. Thank you, I will digest it and make some more plans. 

[josefk]

52 minutes ago, Mr Spock said:

I only get a hint of the veil in my B6 skies 

I keep promising to take my dad out in the Peak District for a stargazing night (my parents still live up there/I come from up there originally) but I guess the Sheffield and Manchester light domes nearly meet?  I remember  night walking on Kinder Scout / Featherbed Moss years ago and seeing a strong glow from both sides 😞

Edited October 16, 2023 by josefk

[Mr Spock]

Just now, josefk said:

but I guess the Sheffield and Manchester light domes nearly meet?  I remember  night walking on Kinder Scout / Featherbed Moss and seeing a strong glow from both sides

There's a thin strip of dark down the middle where you can just about make out M33 naked eye on a good night. The light domes either side are huge and horrendous.

[josefk]

I think I recall reading somewhere @Mr Spock that something like a 1/3 of the country live within an hour of the Peak park or something like that. A whole lotta streetlights. 😞

[Whistlin Bob]

Lovely report. The Veil is completely bewitching, isn't it? It's one of those objects that you can just keep going back to again and again.

I've had a few nights camping around Edale, and also further south between Buxton and Ashbourne and found the skies to be so much better than at home. Yes, the light domes are pretty awful, but that also marks the contrast with how dark the skies are looking up. If, like most of us, you're used to working around light pollution with your observing then, for me at least, it's really wonderful.

I've taken my scopes up there a few times, but they seem to attract the clouds