Observing Report - Meade LB-16

[albedo0.39]

Excuse the unstructured nature of the report, but I thought I'd drop a few lines about last night. - I'm still learning all this - here goes.

I set up last night for the first "real" observing session I have ever had in my life. All was well:- the 'scope collimated easy as pie and it just sat there for a couple of hours getting itself ready. Mrs Steve was sleeping in anticipation of the observing session to come, whearas I was just reading endless amounts of astronomy magazines wondering what on earth I would eventually see in my new machine.

Would I be disapointed with it ? Have I got the right EP's (no)... Would it perform as well as I epxected ? Would I want to ditch it and go for a bigger scope.??

All these questions were to be answered tonight..

Gulp

Hat on, LED rear light from one of my bikes in hand, I ventured onto the lawn and kicked off at ~ 22:30 and couldn't believe how light it was ! I now understand the term "astronimical darkness" (or the lack of it) and just could not wait for it to get dark

Started with an easy one ! - Saturn in the 9mm EP, (203x) glorious, saw at least 3 moons (I think) and watched this for a few moments before swiching to 26mm EP (70x) to take in a much wider view . Simply stunning - such a jewel.. can it be real ?

I then went into full "EP faff" trying all of the lenses I had including the recently acquired 9mm Ortho - frankly, It wasn't so bad and gave a very different view to the 9mm meade 5000 I purchased a month back.

Now onto some tough stuff - but where to point the scope ?

First up - M51 in CVN and I had to get this as it has always eluded me in my earlier life.. using only the RDF, I managed to find this in about 20s or so and was really pleased to spot 2 bright smudges with just a trace of "something" happening - of course, it's not yet dark.

Staying in CVN, I pushed on and went hunting for M94 which I found in no time at all (close to Cor Caroli) - again a faint fuzzy but not a lot of detail.

Moving out, I then tried for 5 mins to locate M81 and M81 and after some effort got them both (just) into the EP of the 26mm - they looked superb and you could really see the difference in the size thickness and brightness of the 2 galaxies with M82 looking stunning edge on. I upped the EP for a 17mm plossl (cooking variety - nothing fancy) and it just leapt out ! - wow...

I carried on...until I found M108 and this was relatively easy in the 26mm and again, the shape was becoming easy to see.

A short hop onto M97 the Owl nebula (by this time my assistant had arrived with tea !) and we both stared hard to see if we could see the eyes but alas, no. Is my scope working well ? Haven't I seen someone sketching eyes in this on an 8" 'scope ? HELP !!

Anyhow, I carried on. I was at this point getting a little despondant as all the galaxies were visible, but not strikingly so - and of course - nothing like pictures you see, but I wasn't expecting that anyway...

I could hardly make out shapes looking direct on, but using averted vision it became a lot easier. I head over to M13 in Hercules and just could not take in what I saw as this pretty globular exploded in front of my eyes !. I upped the EP to the 9mm and just got lost in the wondrous sight. Does it get any better ?

On a roll, I hopped further over to M92 and found this globular looking very different to M13 but just as pleasing - more compact. We both took turns at the EP - just stared and could not believe that every single point was "another sun" - what would life be like on a world in that cluster ?

By now Vega had started to rise and I settled on a good long look @ M57 and it didn't dissapoint with it's ghostly ring looking like a fat tyre. Whatever the EP, it looked spooky just hanging there. No sign of the central star.

Over to Albireo in CYG and this stunning double with it's Blue / Yellow colour scheme just leapt out and said "watch me" so I did.

Back over to CVN and a quick hunt for M63, which surprisingly I found almost instantly with the RDF - again it was getting a lot darker now, so this galaxy looked really organge to my eyes (perhaps I was tired)

Now for my first disappointment (it had to happen). I knew there was a "double double" in Lyra - and I knew it was called Epsilon Lyra so I found a double but saw no sign of a double double. However, I was on the 26mm EP so perhaps I was asking much to split at x70 but I couldn;t

:-(

Staying in CYG I tried to see the famous NA Nebula NGC 7000 - but nothing. Not a Sausage.. (do I need a UHC filter ?)

It was about this time, 1:00am, I began to notice dew o=beginning to form a light mist on the seconday and the outside of the scope was dripping wet. I'm now getting worried ! - Is this supposed to happen ? What do I do now ? I carry on !

So, revisting M81, M82, M51 and M57, I round off the evening with a look at Vega. Of course, it's very bright and you may wonder why I did this, but the intensity of this blue / white star sitting amidst a field on much fainter stars looked almost like a poster from a science fiction novel

So what did I learn ?

1) Well, I need some more EP's (thanks to SGL, I now have shopping list).

2) I also learned that with a RDF, finding deep sky objects can be tricky.

3) I couldn't see some of the things as well as I expected - was I being too ambitious ?

4) It didn't seem to get dark for ages

5) I got dew on the secondary

6) I need to keep a better log. !

and..

just meandering amongst the stars was a joy in itself.

Thanks for reading this far and any tips on how to avoid a dewed up secondary would be great - 12v hairdryer ?

PS - when I put the 'scope back into the garage what is the best advice for covering / leaving the mirror uncovered ?

Thanks

Steve

[Doc]

WOW what a first light report. I feel like I'm there with you Steve.

You done better then me as I've never seen M108 & M97. Like yourself I've never seen the central star in M57 but it is Mag13 so pretty dim.

What surprised me is you couldn't make out the double double. I'll check my notes but I've split this with the 16" easy if I recall.

When you put the scope back in the garage leave the optics clear to dry by themselve if not mildew might begin to form. I leave mine overnight and cover the next day.

These scopes have loads of potential what is needed are good eyepieces and dark skies. Alas I have none so are going to save up for some ethos's.

[calibos]

Fab report Steve. One of these days I'll get mine finished and out under the stars and I can join our little LB16 observing report club

[albedo0.39]

Top idea calibos - you know that's where it's supposed to be... However, I'm not sure if my reports need to be pruned somewhat compared to "the reference standard" (AKA Doc).

;-)

[Sam]

Excellent write up Steve.

You should be able to split the double double in lyra but you'll need to really crank up the mag, a 9mm or 5mm eyepiece should do it easy enough. For the faint stuff like galaxies dark skies are very important and at this time of year that's gets a bit tricky depending how far north you are.

Sam

[Psychobilly]

Very nice report Steve... your a natural

Peter...

[Talitha]

Excellent report, Steve.. thanks!

Regarding the NA nebula, a UHC or O-III would do equally well but remember to give yourself a huge fov or you won't see the forest for the trees, lol.

I saw the nebula quite easily last night with the 80ST using a 32mm ep (12x, 4.16 degree fov). The entire 'continent' fit comfortably into that size fov, but was invisible till the O-III filter was added. Hope this helps.

[JCJC]

Thanks Steve...a great report..real easy to read.

Jordan

[albedo0.39]

Thanks for the thanks.

Carol - that was a great link to the Road Test of filters - one for the bookmarks. As you might imagine, I'm pondering OIII (needed for just a few objects ?) or UHC (perhaps more general purpose).

I think however, you are on the nail. I was at a much higher magnification and without doubt, my skies are not ultra black (are anybodies this time of year ?)

Good call. I'll try with a 40mm EP - just as soon as I can decide who's to purchase

[Doc]

Steve I wouldn't buy a 40mm eyepiece to use in your dob as it will give you an exit pupill of 8.25 mm. I've always understood to keep this no highr then 6mm.

[kniclander]

I then went into full "EP faff" trying all of the lenses I had including the recently acquired 9mm Ortho - frankly, It wasn't so bad and gave a very different view to the 9mm meade 5000 I purchased a month back.

Steve, great report. Can I ask you a question? How was the view of saturn through the ortho different to the meade 5000? reason I ask is that I am thinking of getting an ortho and the comparison would be really helpful.

Thanks

Dan

[albedo0.39]

Hi Dan. Now you've done it...

Last night, I was well into (85% complete in fact) typing up a pretty detailed observing report. It looked a peach right up until I accidentally closed down Explorer...

I was so mad with myself, I just switched off and went to bed in anger at myself. In that report I reviewed both lenses.

I'm going to try and complete the report tonight so if you look under observing reports you might well see my post (If I don't do it again)

[kniclander]

Hi Dan. Now you've done it...

Last night, I was well into (85% complete in fact) typing up a pretty detailed observing report. It looked a peach right up until I accidentally closed down Explorer...

I was so mad with myself, I just switched off and went to bed in anger at myself. In that report I reviewed both lenses.

I'm going to try and complete the report tonight so if you look under observing reports you might well see my post (If I don't do it again)

I read it . cheers.