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A couple of globulars 16/10/2009

ashenlight

By ashenlight
in Observing - Reports

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ashenlight

ashenlight

Posted
Posted

Hello all,

I think quite a few of us had a good night out under the stars last night. The seeing was fantastic, never 'seen' (no pun intended) it as good before... very still, very chilly, no Moon. Can't get much better ;)

I set the scope up on the lawn, for a change. I usually set it up on the patio... just because it's closer to the conservatory and means I don't have to carry the scope so far. But, I wanted to have a look at the north-west horizon tonight (among other things) so I had to head down to the grass. Being on the grass made such a massive difference. I noticed the view was alot steadier through the scope - perhaps the patio had been giving off heat in the past. Vibrations were to a minimum, I suppose that is the grass soaking everything up.

I started with M31. I struggled for ten minutes and then worked out I was looking at the wrong 'square' - decidedly lopsided and when I realised what I was doing wrong... boy did I feel silly :| you live, you learn :) Through both the 25 and 10mm EPs the view was brilliant. Very clearly defined bright central core with wispy trails leading out. No sign of any arms but it was good enough for me to just see a distinctly 'galaxy shaped' object :) No sign of the nearby galaxies.

In Cassiopeia I had a look at the double and M52 - beautiful sights as always. Probably one of my favourite areas of the sky. Easy to point out to people with plenty of impressive sights to show off :hello2:

Next came two new Messier objects for me. First up was M15, a globular cluster just off Epsilon Pegasi - you can see the location here. It was in a very rich star field and was really easy to find. Just use Epsilon as a starting point. Very compact looking with an easy to see, obvious core. I was so pleased :( I always start with 25mm EP for the obvious wide FOV but even stepping up to a 10mm EP the view just got better ... the light wasn't too far stretched as it can be with other objects I've looked at. Still a tight core, with a bit of a grainy texture at higher mag.

Next was M2, in a fairly 'empty' part of the sky (for me anyway), you can see its location on this map. It was a little harder to find because there isn't a 'straight line' you can follow from a lead star to get there... the stars that are nearby were just too faint for me. I just had to use trial and error to get my RDF in the right place. It was just as lovely as M15 and responded well to higher mag. Very noticeable core, very grainy, with grainy 'trails' of dusty stuff coming away from it (with averted vision). Very much worth the search :D

Next up I moved over to Jupiter. The best view was with my 10mm EP giving me 65x mag. Jove was a perfect, slightly squashed sphere. No hint of 'boiling' that I've had to contend with in the past. He was very bright but with sustained observation and some help from my Moon filter I could easily see the 2 bands and some border detail. The 4 moon were trailing to the left of him - Europa and Ganymede were very close together.

Next I decided to have a go at locating Neptune. You could use this map to give it a go yourself, I was surprised how easy it was to find, a little 'x' marks the spot:

post-16040-133877404988_thumb.jpg

It does appear just like a star... but it shines steadily and has a blue hue. Give it a while and observe for aslong as you can, it becomes more obvious as time goes on. I couldn't resolve it into anything more than a point of light, need a bigger scope for that I think:)

So there we are, 2 new Messiers onto my signature count :)

Clear skies

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mike.brightmore

mike.brightmore

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You've just got to make the best of nights like that, and you obviously did. Lovely read. Like to hear how you get on with Uranus. It is closer to us and higher in the sky than Neptune so it is a bit easier to magnify into a disc. In fact this week it is possible to see all the planets - Jupiter, Neptune and Uranus in the evening, Mars in the wee small hours and Saturn, Venus and Mercury just before sunrise. Something very special about seeing all our siblings in the same night I think.

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iamjulian

iamjulian

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Thanks for sharing Amanda. You two new objects were new for me last night too. Did you find M15 had a much brighter core than M2? I had a quick look a Jupiter but I was viewing it over a flat roof and wondered whether the central heating now being on was messing up the view - it wasn't good.

Well done on Neptune! Impressive find.

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kniclander

kniclander

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Amanda,

Welldone! I failed to find M52 and Neptune last year.Do you know if M52, M15 and Neptune are visible with a 90mm refractor?

Alan

M52 can (I've found) be tricky to see in LP'd skies even though, in theory it should be pretty easy and is easy to locate. Neptune is certainly visible in a 90mm frac but the difficulty is distinguishing it from a star - you need to know exactly where it is - printing a star map form cartes du ciel or something like it may be your best bet (becauue it moves a little each night). M15 should be pretty easy unless your skies are very LP'd. That is my experience - others may differ.

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ashenlight

ashenlight

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Alan, I didn't know that, thank you for sharing ;) I'm always impressed by what can actually be seen with smaller telescopes. I was really surprised, though, to see how faint M52 was through my 5". It was more of a 'fuzzy' patch at low mag, but at higher mag some stars can be resolved. Just hang in there with it if you can, if you KNOW you are in the right place have a scout around and use plenty of averted vision.

Thanks Julian :) Yes, M15.. the core just seemed 'bigger.' It was so pretty as I stepped up the mag. I chop and change every time I go out to observe but, as it stands, globs are my fav :)

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crepitis

crepitis

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Thanks for that report Amanda, the seeing up here on Thursday and Friday nights was also exceptional, and to go from what seemed a record number of cloudy nights to two of the best nights I can remember was a real treat ;)

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