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Summer Triangle Challenge

July 1/2nd Report - 0 LP :D

Kain

By Kain
in Imaging - Deep Sky

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Kain

Kain

Posted
Posted

I was to tired to post this last night when I got home, so sorry for the lateness of it all.

Last night we had a drive up to the top of Long Mynd (Mountainous ride in south Shropshire) to so abit of observing..WOW! Total darkness, it was amazing how much you could see with the naked eye, never mind a scope. The funniest part of the evening was when a mate of mine asked if you can see stars because the Sun's light reflected off them..made me smile that!

Anyway we started at Ursa Major - The Mizar system, I don't really know why, but I really like looking at that. From there I tried to find M81/2..guess what, I still couldn't find them in a dark spot...I'm thinking my scope must just not be powerful enough now, as I'm sure I was looking at the correct spot. No worries though, that will change next Saturday...10" Dobs :)

Oddly enough, I did see M97 - Own Nebula using my 4mm EP, it was just a round smudged patch, but I can say I have seen it now.

From Ursa Major we hopped over to Cassiopeia. It looked amazing though the scope as it's nestled neatly into the backdrop of the Milky Way, I spent a while just having a nose around at all the stars, then went for the DSO. Firstly ticked off the list was M52. the S shaped cluster looked pretty cool. no sign of NGC7635 however..

I found M103 with ease with a 6.5mm EP, I have seen it before, so I pretty much know where I'm looking. Finally I had a look at my fist double cluser..NGC457 - I thing thats the number anyway.

From Cassiopeia to Cygnus - One of my favourite constellations at the moment. M29 was in the sights, knew exactly where it was :) At this point my mate was getting abit bored about it all and went for a walk, his loss :) I had a look at Albireo as suggested in S@N mag, you really can see that the double is blue and gold! First time I have really seen colours of stars other than Betelgeuse. NGC 7000 was bagged, once again and a wedged shaped misty patch. It stands out better there than it does in Bridgnorth, but even still it's nothing really to see, just a smudge.. I had a look for NGC 6826..couldn't find it, I don't hear many on hear talk about the Blinking Nebula, so perhaps it's hard to see even though a big scope? Anyway..

From there I went to Lyra..Guess what, I couldn't see that damn ring tonight, I spent a good 30 mins looking for it too! The ring must really hate me lol! I had a look at the Double Double and moved on to Hercules.

M13 was bagged straight away. one of my mates wanted to know why you could see it in the scope, but not with your eyes? I don't really know the answer to that, so I guessed the telescope can gather more light than your eye, and magnify things. I didn't have a clue what I was talking about, but he seemed happy with the answer lol. M92 was also seen, but it's abit dimmer than M13.

By this time, the mist was coming down on the mountain so it obscured our viewing..but what a night!!

While up there I decided I will get the 10" Dob rather than the 8. The base maybe heavy, just how heavy is the ultimate question lol!

Cheers

Kain

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geppetto

geppetto

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Kain

I'm amazed at how quickly you've learned your star hopping skills.

As you have found on nights like that, its a useful skill 8)

Great report and pleased you enjoyed the dark skies.

Get a tall stool for first light with your new 10" dob so your sat down when

you first look through it, otherwise, you may well fall over with surprise :shock: :)

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Kain

Kain

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Kain

I'm amazed at how quickly you've learned your star hopping skills.

As you have found on nights like that, its a useful skill 8)

Great report and pleased you enjoyed the dark skies.

Get a tall stool for first light with your new 10" dob so your sat down when

you first look through it, otherwise, you may well fall over with surprise :shock: :)

To be fair, as far as star hopping goes, I have always been interested in space so I already knew quite a few of the constellations. I've cheated abit on that score :)

Kain

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Astroman

Astroman

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I love Mizar/Alcore! It's really an amazing multiple star system. I pointed it out a lot at the canyon this year. The two close stars are in orbit around each other, (Mizar), as well as being in orbit around the bright one, (Alcore). In addition to this, there are stars in orbit around each of them, that you can not see. Thus, there are actually 6 stars in a stable orbit around the center of mass of the system. I told people, "If you can come up with the math to describe these orbits, there's a Nobel Prize waiting for you!" :sunny:

The Blinking nebula is a great target. You may have seen it and not known it. The whole idea behind it is, the central star is so bright, it drowns out the nebula when you look directly at it. If you look away, using averted vision, you see the nebula. Try it agian with this in mind, and you'll be pleasantly suprised, I'm sure. :)

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anthony

anthony

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Hey Kain,

Keep at it. Very impressed with you r star hopping. You are putting Goto people like me to shame. These reports are excellent. You think that you are looking forward to that 10" arriving? Not as much as we are!

Regards, (and desperately hoping for clear skies up Shropshire when the 10"arrives)

Anthony

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