Patience Pays Off - M13

[rubbertoebooks]

I posted a quick post this evening titled 'Connector Problemss'

http://stargazerslounge.com/equipment-help/82296-connector-problems.html#post1240222

Just a few beginner problems, nothing major, but enough to start and get me a bit frustrated with this hobby. Problem 2 from the post was my main annoyance. Getting lost whilst star hopping etc because I keep losing myself whilst trying to locate DSO's. To the point where I have not seen any as yet .So I purchased a erecting prism to try and help the problem.

Anyway... you can read about the prism problem in the other thread. Needless to say yesterday evening I had packed up everything and headed back in around 11.00 pm a bit disappointed that my new purchase had not worked or fitted the way I expected.

Back inside I picked up TLAO, opened up Stellarium and located M13 and decided enough was enough, I'm going to spot this before I go to bed tonight!!!. Headed back out again armed with only binos and grabbed a deck chair out of the garage and started again.

After a while the skies darkened further... (surely this hasn't been my problem all along.... cringe ) and I slowly but surely moved from Arcturus , located Gemma at the Corona Borealis , located the Keystone and Zeta , Eta. Moved South of Eta and trained myself on the area for a good 30mins or so. Convinced I was seeing my target through the binos (maybe I was hoping I'd seen it) I dragged the scope out for the second time that evening. Shortly after 12am I was positioning my finderscope on Eta, ..."let's get this right.... view is inverted in scope so if I'm looking to go South it's actually North in the scope..."

After about 10mins of slowly moving about , through my 25x eyepiece , it suddenly appeared, YES!, never have I got so much pleasure from a tiny blur in the view, yes I'm a genius - Patrick Moore eat your heart out!!!! Stunned , viewed it for about 45 mins or so, the view just got better, especially when using averted vision, the general shape of the cluster got a lot better and i'm sure I could see points of light.

As time was closing in on 1.30am and thinking of work in a few hrs I decided that I should pack up for the second time when I noticed an extremely bright object in the SE sky, surley it was'nt Jupiter at this time. I had previously had to set the alarm for 3.15 am for my last glimpse a couple of weeks ago. But sure enough, Jupiter and 4 moons in tow looked even better than before, maybe the darker skies helped but at times the banding was clear and Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto , were clear , defnite points of light.

A real bonus and an excellant way to finish off my evenings viewing.

Definitely my best nights viewing since I took up this hobby.

Patience has paid off at last!!!!!

Sorry for the long post, but had to tell someone!!!

RTB

[Beyond_Vision]

I'm glad you managed to view it in the end it was just what you needed to kick start youre interest again. As you have probably realised you were packing up to early this time of year it doesn't get truly dark and the best viewing time would be around 1.00am

Regards

Kevin

[rubbertoebooks]

My interest has never really waned , was just getting more frustrated as time passed not getting any DSO's. Light Pollution, time of year, time of night etc I'm sure have all made their contribution to the frustration.

I have spent some nights right up to 2.30 , 3am and still not spotted anything. But thankfully, my patience has paid off!!

M81 & M82 are two targets which I've had trouble locating, I'm in the right area , I know that, but they remain elusive!!

RTB

[Psychobilly]

Nice report...

Things donbt always work out as expected and it can be frustrating even more so when there are only a few hours of darkness... but its really great when they finally come together and you start to make progress...

Peter...

[ashenlight]

Brilliant report RTB, so glad you managed to find your target and with Jupiter chucked in for good measure sounds like one heck of a night!! You will make fantastic progress now. Have you managed to locate M57 yet? I got that for the first time 2 nights ago, blew me away

Using the binos is a great way to get acquainted with an area of sky. Even though I use my telescope most of the time these days, if I am going into 'unchartered territory' I always use my binoculars to have a scan of the area for half an hour or so before. Just sweeping Cygnus with 10x50s is amazing

[rubbertoebooks]

Was glad to finally get off the mark with DSO's !!! For a while there I thought I was doing something wrong!! M57 along with M81 & M82 are next in line!!!

After that? , gonna try for a few prime focus pics of the moon over the next couple of weeks, weather permitting.

RTB

[ashenlight]

Sounds like a plan RTB prepare yourself for M81 and M82... blew me away can't wait for decent dark skies later on in the year, they are going to be fantastic under better conditions. If you have any trouble locating M57 have a read of this thread that I started - it helped me to locate the little jewel

[Mutley]

I've been reading 'Deep Sky Wonders' this week (great little book btw). There is a bit in there about a technique the Herschels used for locating faint objects - but it needs a bit of patience. Roughly goes like this - pick a bright object west of the object you are trying to locate - but at roughly the same DEC as your target. Lock you telescope in this position, all drives off. Wait for the earth to rotate a bit and your target will drift into your field of view.

e.g. for M13, fix your telescope on 16 Tau in Corona Borealis - a mag 4.8 star so should be visible. Go inside. Make a cup of tea. Do the Ironing. Come out about 30 minutes later and M13 will be in your field of view. You can work out how long it will take from the difference in RA between the two objects. In this case M13 is at RA 16h41, 16 Tau at RA 16h09 - 32 minutes to wait.

I guess they had a lot more time on their hands in the 19th Century.