15x70 Observing Report 20/07/09 - Awesome!

[JamesK]

First true clear skies of the month last night as the sky cleared of high, wispy, clouds. I've never hit more objects that I have never seen before in one night, nor spent so long outside at night, while everybody else in the house finished of watching Big Brother () and went to bed.

As the sky darkened, I kicked off by looking for my favorite double stars, Albeiro, Cor Coreli, and the Double-Double (for me a single double, but they're very well matched. Albeiro was showing it's colours again, and the spectacular starry background was starting to emerge. I also watched the ISS pass over at around 10:40, it was very bright, HA said Magnitude -1.5.

By 11:30, I had 5th Magnitude skies, very good for my area, it got slightly darker later on, maybe 5.5 at it's peek? The seeing also seemed very good, especially to the north (Does that make any sense at all or is it just me?), altough it is harder to judge using lower-power optics.

I then made a move for M3, a glob I have not looked for before, in Bootes. After considerable effort, I found the rather nice-looking but (dare I say it) fairly boring (IMO) cluster, which was well placed for me - it was rather bright for a glob, and the central area was distinctly brighter, however, it did not show the exciting hint of graininess that M13 shows - which was my next object.

M13 was even better placed and altough I have seen it before it put on a great showing tonight, the abformentioned hint of graininess, clear extention, and brightness setting this glob apart from all others seen through binoculars, in my humble opinon.

After this I moved onto yet another new object for me, the Open Cluster in Cygnus (M39). This was eaisily found due to it's close proximity to bright naked-eye stars. I found it to be a rather tight open cluster, and also exceptionally bright. This may be the point to admit that I am very fond of bright open clusters, they are among my favorite things in the universe - quite literally! But what, to me, was so incredible about M39 was the partially resolved milky way background. You couldn't really tell wear the cluster ended, as it (rather artistically) faded out into the star clouds. It seemed less of a solitary object and more part of the rich field of the milky way, like a stunning meeting of brighter stars amongst the background of dim-partially resovled stars. It's no wounder the ancients understood the sky as a "celestial sphere", it's a work of art!

Next up was a pair of objects that I have struggled with for weeks M81/M82. So I pointed my binos in the rough direction of the dipper's last star, looked through the binos to get my bearings, at against all of Murphey's famous laws, two whisps of light were dead-centred in my field.

They are definatly best described as two well matched whisps of nebulosity, M81 much bigger and more impressive (some would say) but I think that M82 makes up for the size difference in it's interesting shape. It's weird, for two massive burning powerhouses of Hydrogen and Helium millions of light years away, they look so delicate hanging there in Ursa Major, as if they would dissipate at any moment.

At this point the skies were fully dark, the bats flying overhead, and one of the locally famous fighting cats watching me from the other end of the garden. I don't know whether the success had gone to my head, but next I tried for M57, the Ring Nebula. I found it easily as a faint wispy star. With averted vision I could see it was brighter round the edges, and definatly non-stellar. Suddenly, in what must of been a moment of good seeing or inspiration I made out the very tiny smoke ring I have heard a lot about. Then it was gone, as I blinked.

At this point I decided to pack up. I packed away my books and chair and then spotted a bright "star" rising over the houses to the south as I was dessembling the mount. I immediatly about-turned and marched back out - altough I was tired and of course Jupiter would be visible for months yet, I said to myself. "Are you an astronomer or a mouse? Get out there and look at interesting sky-things that no one else in their right mind would forsake a warm and comfy bed for!"

Jupiter was very bright, and high wispy clouds in that direction meant the planet was not at it's best. But still, I could make out lighter and darker bands on the planet, and it's slightly squashed disk shape. Ganymede and Castillo were off to the far left of the planet, while Europa tight to planet. No sign of Io. I obsevered it for falf an hour or more. Finally, at 2:00, Io started to slowly emerge from the left of Jupiter. This was the most facinating astronomical event I had ever watched - those moons were clearly moving!

I learned 3 things about myself last night:

1. Astronomy is the hobby for me.
   
2. I really like DSO's and watching moons orbit Jupiter.
   
3. I really want a massive Dob. And a stepladder.
   

[Doc]

One of the most entertaining and well written reports I have ever read and I've read a few

I've seen Lo emerging from behind Jupiter before in my 16" dob and that for me was a WOW moment so I can fully appreciate your excitement. To see this is just amazing and awe inspiring.

Well done on seeing the smoke ring of M57 as well, I would have thought it was pretty hard to see in bins so you have really done well.

Thanks for posting.

[ashenlight]

I agree with Mick - one of the most entertaining reports I have ever read. Makes me more adamant that my next astro purchase is going to be a pair of 15x70s! Really can't wait to get out there now and well done on bagging so many beautiful objects. I really do agree with you on M81 and M82 - they look so delicate hanging there... one gust of wind and they'd be gone!

[JamesK]

Thanks for the comments. I must say, the ring nebula was very, very tiny, and the smoke-ring was only visible for a moment. Think my favorite object of the night had to be Io and Jupiter, and M39. Amanda, I am very glad I chose mounted 15x70 over handheld 10x50, the extra arpeture and reduced wobble is great for picking out fainter objects, and bright open clusters look fantastic in them. Even with the mount, the whole thing is still relativly portable.

[bish]

Great report. I've got a pair of 15x70's that I use all the time. My naked eye magnitude is not much over 3.5 where I live (may be max of 4 overhead on a good night), but still see alot of DSO's with them (Can't see M57, just about M81/M82 on a really good night). Have you tried a tripod too. I used them at Kielder with my camera tripod and spent ages just looking at M81/82 under the dark skies.

[albedo0.39]

Hi James and many thanks for such an enthusiastic and appealling report. You've captured well, what this hobby is all about. A decent sky, desire to point and sweep the skies, and a sense of wonder. I love binoculars for the floating feeling you get looking at the stars.

Good luck with your hunt for a big dob. However, you'll find the stepladder an easier choice to make in the first instance

[Talitha]

Sooo excellent, James.. thank you!

81/82 are beautiful little 'smudgies' in the 11x70s, and their little neighbor ngc3077 even comes out to play when i'm using the 22x100s. I've read that there's an increase in the eye-brain coordination when using two eyes, which enables Amateurs to see slightly dimmer objects through binos and binoviewers. Can't recall exactly how much of an advantage two eyes gives, but an increase of 2/10 of a magnitude seems to ring a bell. .. might even be more, i can't remember.

[JamesK]

Thanks.

Bish, I use I tripod for anything more than a quick sweep, I bought them as part of a package deal with the binos on advice from some more experienced binocular users on this site.

Steve, there's no way on earth I could afford a big dob for a while yet, but a stepladder is an all-over useful tool. Including talking to my post-massive-growth-spurt friends.

Carol, I'm not sure about magnitude, but I seem to remember a figure of 1.4x light gathering capacity over a single objective.

[mdstuart]

Lovely review, I also have a pair of 15 by 70's....You certainly say many objects.

Have you tried M27, this should be possible and I would suggest the coathanger cluster near by.

I have a big dob and I would recommend it even without a step ladder. Mine was £195 second hand but you could get a 6 inch for about £90 second hand first and work up as I did.

You have about the same sky as me, I can get about mag 5 and see the milky way when the moon is in.

I made about mag 10 as the limit on my bins but checking out the stars in Pleides which of course only rises late in the night at the moment.

Really good report...

Mark