Wide and Ultra Wide Field Session

[PeterC65]

Following several recent narrow field EAA sessions with the new 8” Newtonian, last night I went wide field, pairing the 72mm refractor with the FMA135 instead. I fitted the FMA135 to the secondary saddle using an L-bracket which allowed me to align the two scopes, giving me an ultra widefield 4.8° view alongside the 1.5° of the 72mm refractor.

The new 10m long active USB cable is making a huge difference, allowing me to observe from the office desk, well away from the slightly ajar patio door, but the major innovation last night was using streaming to focus. I don’t have an electronics focuser so previously I had been balancing the laptop on a garden chair, trying not to trip over the 10m USB cable, hoping I could see the screen while trying to focus. Last night, thanks to @Richard N, I tried streaming the laptop screen to the tablet via Google Meet, then outside I could focus with the tablet in one hand and the focus knob in the other. Genius!

M31 was not orientated favourable for the 72mm refractor but easily fitted into the field of view of the FMA135.

M33 was a better fit for the 72mm refractor. I’m favouring longer 15s exposures these days as they bring out much more detail than do 4s exposures with the same overall stacking time. Winding up the saturation control on SharpCap also brought out the colours in M33, making it the best I’ve seen.

M45 was nicely framed by the FMA135, with plenty of open space around, but I still struggle to see much detail in reflection nebulae. Same with IC2167 and its neighbours.

Most of the session was spent observing emission nebulae, NGC281 (Pac-Man) and IC417 & NGC1931 (Spider and Fly) looked good with the 72mm refractor. With the FMA135 I could see the Spider and Fly, together with NGC1893 (Letter Y Cluster), IC405 (Flaming Star Nebula), and M38, all in the same field of view and showing some detail.

I keep trying for SNR G116.9+00.1 (Medulla Nebula) but its just too faint for EAA. More of an AP target perhaps.

The FMA135 still astonishes me, only 30mm of aperture but it’s pin sharp, wide and yet detailed. I observed two of the nights highlights using it.

The first was the California Nebula (NGC1499) which is big and often quite faint, but the FMA135 framed it well and picked up plenty of detail.

The second was Orion’s Belt stars (Cr70), very bright but all within the field of view, and next to Alnitak I could clearly see the Flame Nebula (NGC2024), the Horsehead Nebula (IC434), and even the Lump Star (NGC2023).

M42 looked good as ever. This was the first time I’d pointed the FMA135 at it and it was nice to see the familiar nebula in its surrounding context. Unfortunateley thin cloud had rolled in and so the sky looked noisy and the brighter stars ringed with light.

The final highlight was observing Vesta pass by M1. They were close enough to fit into the field of view of the 72mm refractor and that also allowed me to see some detail in M1. I’ve only seen Vesta once before and then didn’t realise I’d seen it until I was checking the live stack snapshots the following day. This time I knew what I was looking for (Vesta is marked with an arrow).

 

[RobertI]

Excellent session and some lovely captures there. I really love your take on Orion’s Belt with the Flame and Horsehead, you don’t often see it like this and I think it nicely demonstrates the faintness of the nebulae compared to the stars. I have to confess, I had to google the Lump Star - I’ve learned something there.

42 minutes ago, PeterC65 said:

The new 10m long active USB cable is making a huge difference, allowing me to observe from the office desk, well away from the slightly ajar patio door, but the major innovation last night was using streaming to focus. I don’t have an electronics focuser so previously I had been balancing the laptop on a garden chair, trying not to trip over the 10m USB cable, hoping I could see the screen while trying to focus. Last night, thanks to @Richard N, I tried streaming the laptop screen to the tablet via Google Meet, then outside I could focus with the tablet in one hand and the focus knob in the other. Genius!

I’ve been through exactly the same problem and came up with exactly the same solution. 🙂

It’s been a while since my last EAA session and I hope to have a few sessions during galaxy season. I’ve been motivated a bit by ever increasingly bright skies which is spoiling visual a bit. I upgraded from a Lodestar to an ASI290M (I like mono!) and now have an old ASI V1 - had a promising test run with the 66mm but not used them in anger yet. Would eventually like to get back to the RC6 to get some image scale on those smaller galaxies.

[PeterC65]

I'm hoping my new 8" Newtonian will bring new galaxies in to view this galaxy season.

 

[RobertI]

23 minutes ago, PeterC65 said:

I'm hoping my new 8" Newtonian will bring new galaxies in to view this galaxy season.

 

I shall look forward to the results. 🙂

[Xio1996]

Hi Peter,

Those images are impressive. Your Orion belt image is stunning. 

Pete

[bosun21]

Lovely captures Peter. I particularly like the M1 image as despite the short exposures you are really starting to draw out some nice details. As soon as Jupiter is gone I will make a start on deep sky targets 🤞.