Meade Lightbridge Observing report as of 21.8.2009 Salisbury Star Party

[Doc]

Meade Lightbridge 16" F4.5 Fl 1829mm

Friday 21st August 2009

Salisbury Star Party

No moon

Mag 5 skies.

Started observing at 23.00 due to cloud cover.

I started off with Kemble’s Cascade, the astrism in Camelopardalis. This object looks better in scopes with wide angle of view and luckily I had borrowed from First Light Optics a mighty impressice 28mm Nirvana with a FOV of 82°. Kembles Cascade goes by the designation of Ngc 1502 and is a very pretty cluster of bright stars that resmeble a triangle shape.. It is dominated by two bright stars which look like a double star which I would estimate to be roughly the same magnitude and size. The cascade description is due to a waterfall shape of stars that seem to fall into the triangle. With the 82° Skywatcher I was nearly able to fit the whole astrism and cluster into the same field of view. The Nirvana was a pleasure to look through and all stars were pinpoints of light with hardly any coma.

By this time dew had started to cover the telrad and secondary mirror so I tried to keep it at bay with the hairdryer.

Next was the M57 the Ring Nebula, I have seen this so many times before but with the Nirvana it was an amazing sight. It seemed to sit so pretty in the 1.26° it produced at x65 mag. A little detail in the ring structure could be seen, but the central star was not visible.

Another quick blast of the hairdryer and onto a little Globular Cluster called Ngc6712 in Scutum. It was very easy to find and shines at a magnitude of 8 and has a size of approx 7' in diameter. Easily resolved almost to the core using my 8mm hyperion at x228.

By now another bank of cloud and dew had rolled in and I decided to go for a walk around the campsite and visit a few friends.

When the cloud had gone I placed the 28mm Nirvana back into the focuser and found the M11, the Wild Duck Cluster. With a FOV of 1.26° the cluster easily fitted in the entire field. All I can say is this was one hell of an awesome sight. The cluster shone with such clarity and sharpness that i tried my Hyperion to see the difference and I agree when I say that the William Optics clone really does wonders so much so I wonder if the original UWAN would be better.

After this cloud rolled in again but I was nearly to the end of my bottle of wine and the night was still young so went for a bit of socialising.

[albedo0.39]

After this cloud rolled in again but I was nearly to the end of my bottle of wine and the night was still young so went for a bit of socialising.

Allow me to decode:-

"I had just finished off my 7th tin of lager, was hammered on red wine, couldn't see straight to observe, so fell around the field until 4 am when the church bell reminded me to go to sleep...".

[Doc]

Allow me to decode:-

"I had just finished off my 7th tin of lager, was hammered on red wine, couldn't see straight to observe, so fell around the field until 4 am when the church bell reminded me to go to sleep...".

If it wasn't for those church bells it could have been 5 o'clock

I blame Paul, I don't normally drink

[dark knight]

Don't normally drink,,,,well you sure made up for it hehehehe stumbling around in the dark' with Paul, it must have been like the blind leading the blind, I'm just surprised you made it at all....... it must have been like Paul trying to find M27 all over again lol,,,,,so funny the thought still makes me chuckle...

[Talitha]

Starlight, wine and Friends.. can't get any better than that, Mick.

[drummerp]

Hi mick,

M11 was definately a wonderfull site over the weekend, I to was very shocked to see it fit entirely into the eyepiece so clear and so bright at a reasonable mag. I culd almost count every individual star within that duck pond.

Cheers

Neil