A night with a 12” Explore Scientific ultralight dob

[Nicola Fletcher]

Last night had a pretty good forecast here in Wicklow, so I set up my 12” truss dob on my family farm, which has dark skies (Bortle 4, but I think only because of Dublin to the north). I’ve had the dob out a few times since I got it in December but this was its first proper session. It has a new shroud, from Shrouds by Heather, and I was also looking forward to trying out my new Astronomik UHC filter.

The scope is very easy to set up and collimate using a laser collimator and the supplied tool that lets me collimate it from the eyepiece. It took me about 30 minutes to set up and collimate it. Here it is waiting for sunset:

I really need to get a fancier surface to set it up on - an empty sheep feed bag has been serving me well so far!

First up at about 7.30pm was Jupiter, looking really beautiful with quite a bit of detail in the equatorial belts. I moved on quite quickly as I was keen to try it on DSOs which I haven’t had much chance to do due to the presence of the moon every other time I have set it up.

First up was M31, the Andromeda galaxy, with M32 and M110. They were so bright and M110 was a lovely sight in the same field of view as M31, with a very obvious core. M81 and M82 were unbelievable, far more beautiful and detailed than I imagined they would be, just fitting in the same field of view with a 22mm Nagler. It was difficult to move away from them, and they were my favourite objects of the night, but I was keen to see M42 so I eventually moved to it, initially without the filter and then with the UHC. Wow, what a sight it was! With the filter there was so much structure and detail, and for pure aesthetic appeal, I liked the unfiltered view. It was difficult to take it all in. I really must attempt to sketch it next time - I find M42 challenging to sketch. Lastly, I had a quick look at the double cluster in Perseus, but by this stage I was so cold I was starting to drop things so I packed up everything into the car for the short drive home.

it was a very memorable night with this really nice telescope.

 

Edited February 12 by Nicola Fletcher

[Captain Scarlet]

Fantastic @Nicola Fletcher. Sounds as if you had similar darkness and transparency as I did further west last night. I’d been out for pizza in the local village but did afterwards manage to drag out my easiest kit (105 frac) for a couple of hours until I too got driven in by the cold. I agree 12” aperture on M42 in your sort of dark is something else! 3-D. Have you thought of getting an SQM-L?

Magnus

Edited February 12 by Captain Scarlet

[Mr Spock]

Sounds like you have a nice scope there Nicola. It's amazing though what a difference dark skies make. For those of us who spend most of our time with severe LP it can be jaw dropping.

[cajen2]

A 12" truss dob AND living in Co. Wicklow? Does it get any better than that? Also envious of @Captain Scarlet who's on the West Coast.

[NGC 1502]

12” and Bortle 4?

I am not envious.

I am VERY envious indeed😁

[Nicola Fletcher]

Thank you! 
The skies are still great, but they were even better when I was younger. I don’t know how anyone could have failed to be interested in the night sky If they saw the skies here about 20 years ago. 
I know I’m very lucky to live here and have such a great observing site. I imagine @Captain Scarlet’s sky is even better in Cork! I have never used a SQM Magnus, but the skies here, especially to the south, are so dark and full of stars at new moon (on the occasional evenings that the sky is clear)!

Thats a good description of M42, it was 3D. I still can’t stop thinking about it and Bode’s galaxies.

[Elp]

Amazing area to be in for visual. Funnily enough whenever I've gone to a dark site I've always imaged other than the odd time I had binos. But just looking up there's so much more you can see, you can also see clearly the effect the moon has, I've often been and half the sky is blotted out with moon glow and thus the milky way retreats from view.

[Epick Crom]

Hi Nicola, you are very blessed indeed to be living under bortle 4 skies with a 12"! Enjoy

 

Clear Skies

Joe

[Nicola Fletcher]

13 hours ago, Elp said:

Amazing area to be in for visual. Funnily enough whenever I've gone to a dark site I've always imaged other than the odd time I had binos. But just looking up there's so much more you can see, you can also see clearly the effect the moon has, I've often been and half the sky is blotted out with moon glow and thus the milky way retreats from view.

I know what you mean - when the moon is full here it’s so different - you can see right down through the fields which can be nice as wildlife is much more visible. I have never been overly interested in observing the moon before I got this scope, but I must say I’m getting very interested in it because the moon is so amazing through the dob. But moonless nights are fantastic - just standing looking up at the sky full of stars can be as good as using the scope (especially when I take a break from fruitlessly searching for an object!). And now that galaxies are not just little smudges of grey will make observing at this site even better. 

[Mr Spock]

I don't have the luxury of dark skies. The moon is really amazing though with 12", especially when you get good seeing conditions.

[Nicola Fletcher]

11 minutes ago, Mr Spock said:

I don't have the luxury of dark skies. The moon is really amazing though with 12", especially when you get good seeing conditions.

@Mr Spock, I also chose this scope as it fits easily in the boot of my car. Last month, I drove it 5 hours to the Dark Sky Reserve in Kerry, looked at fog and cloud for 4 days and then drove it home again! But if you have the opportunity to take yours on holiday (I plan holidays around dark skies and new moon these days!) it would be wonderful.

[Mr Spock]

Mine is sort of portable - I can move it from the shed to the patio