Revisiting Old Friends.........

[Beulah]

Observation report, 9/9/9

10:30 - 11:30pm

8" Skywatcher Skyliner Dob

9 wide angle, 10, 17 & 26mm plossl EPs

Seeing: Pretty carp!!!

Well, beggars can't be choosers, when it's a rare clear night, you can't be fussy about atmospheric conditions... and Jupiter was the first target. That baby glimmered like heatwave in the desert - it was easy to tell just by looking with the naked eye at the planet - it was glimmering like a star.

Because it has been many weeks since the last session, I decided to hunt out some old pals to see if I still "got the chops" for this - funny that I say "old", as I have only had this telescope since April this year.

M57 was bright as always, unaffected by the "seeing", although the central hole was slightly less clear tonight.

M56 was fuzzy with no resolved stars in the 26 & 10mm plossls; surprising for a glob - either the scope isn't powerful enough in terms of light collecting, or I need to wait for stable skies and use averted vision.

Not much luck either with globular M71 in Sagitta. Again, a fuzzy shape I mistook for a galaxy.

M27 however, was a real treat tonight. In the 26mm EP, the dumbbell shape was blatantly obvious - and the whole nebula looked blueish - such a refreshing sight from seeing "faint fuzzies"! I don't know how this beauty looks in larger apertures, if any other colour is picked up, but it was beautiful.

M31 was washed out a bit from the rising moon in the east. I've been trying to find NGC7662 and there was no chance I was going to try tonight, normally M31 can be clearly seen from my garden with the eyes, and usually that's my test for training the scope in that direction.

Still in the mood for something colourful, I decided to hunt for Albeiro - all I can say is - WOW!!!!

This is the first time I have seen this binary - the orange and blue was more apparent in smaller EPs - surrounded by the icy twinke of other stars, this was a sight to remember.

Saw M11 in Scutum for the first time tonight, too. I thought I had seen it another time and even boasted about it on here, LOL - but mistook it for the Lagoon nebula, silly me. What a lovely cluster this is! As first, it looks like a five-pointed star containing equally spaced bright pinpricks of equal size (almost in an orderly fashion!!), but after a few minutes' gazing, you can see why it is called the "Wild Duck Cluster" - you begin to notice the flying formation.

Finally, the moon rose higher in the sky - at it's slightly gibbous stage, craters were respendant in sharp contrast...but the shimmering-desert-at-midday analogy could be applied here even at low powers....and decided to call it a night because one has to be relatively presentable for work the next day.....

[Doc]

Some great targets there Sam.

Ngc7662 should be pretty easy to find especially in darker skies. It looks very stellar like at first glimpse but the blue colour really stands out.

As you say you have to grab those chances when you can.

[Talitha]

Nicely done, Sam. Was the transparency better than usual? Some of the best views i've had of M27 have been under 'cleaner' skies.

[Beulah]

Thanks Doc, I'll keep perservering.

Talitha - thanks. Yes, the transparency was pretty good - but the atmosphere was moving about so much so that planetary study was a no-go. Clean, dark sky with bad seeing. Two out of three ain't bad...

[albedo0.39]

Great report Sam and really agree with your perception of Albireo. I was stunned by M27 when I saw it at Salisbury because next to M57, I thought it was Huuuggeee..

Did you notice the increase in size ? Looking in UMa you might want to have a go at M97 the owl nebula - a tougher target now, but one for the future.

Keep posting nice to see visual observing reports !

[Beulah]

Thanks Steve! I've seen M97 several times already when Ursa Major was higher in the sky - fascinating object worth studying for a good while - with the 8 inch scope, one of those eyes are just tantalisingly visible!

[SAB]

Great report, enjoyed reading it! I love M27, lots of detail especially if you use an OIII filter. Shame about the poor seeing its kind of a turn off when Jupiter looks like a fuzzy tennis ball. I had great seeing last night on Jupiter, but by the end of the night it turned into what you describe....I went from seeing a spaghetti of festoons at nearly 300x to a boiling blob at half that power in a couple of hours!

[iamjulian]

Nice read Sam, I knew you'd be out when I saw how cloud free it turned for us on Wednesday. M27 has been added to my to do list, thank you!

[Beulah]

SAB - love the description, "spaghetti of festoons"!!

Julian, yep, I did make it outside! I also went out last night as well, but there was very high cloud. I swear the light pollution from urban areas 20 miles away in the East its getting worse...