Meade Lightbridge Observing report as of 10.12.2009

[Doc]

10.12.2009

Meade lightbridge 16" f4.5 fl1829mm

No Moon

Very cold with a ground frost

Seeing mag 4.2

Started observing 20.00.

First of tonights objects is a planetary nebula in Orion called Ngc2022, with a magnitude of 9.2 and a size of 0.3'x0.47' it's a rather difficult object to locate. I would say the magnitude is much more like mag 12. Invisible in my 28 Uwan and only just detectable in the 16 Uwan. Appears as a small round and faint ball, no structure or colour is detected. Even by placing the 7 Uwan in giving me x261 no structure becomes visible. On my last observations of this object I could not detect it without the use of a O111 filter this time I could, but tonight the sky was alot better so maybe this has a lot to do with it.

Over to Gemini next and another little planetary nebula called Ngc2372, it appears that Herschel gave the nebula two separate numbers Ngc2371 and Ngc2372 but as far as I could see there is only one nebula at this location. This is a very dim nebula at mag 13 and is 0.9'x1.3' in size. It takes magnification very well and I was allowed to detect two very faint lobes when using the 7 Uwan at x261. Best view was with the 16 Uwan at x114 where I could make out a clear oval smudge, no colour was detected and no central star was seen.

I have been doing this hobby for some time now but have never seen the Owl Nebula M97 in Ursa Major. This planetary nebula got its name from the two round dark regions, which resemble the eyes of an owl. It is one of the fainter objects in the Messier catalog with a magnitude of only 9.9. The structure of M97 is unusually complex for a planetary nebula. It is illuminated by a 16th-magnitude star at its center. As with most planetary nebulae, its distance is not certain. Best guesses place it at about 2,600 light-years from Earth. With my 16 Uwan inserted I was at last able to see this elusive nebula at 3.4' in diameter it's quite large and through the 16 Uwan I could detect a circular shape with a darker internal section towards one side, I persume this being the owl's eye. I swapped back to the 28 Uwan at x65 and could now make the nebula out in this eyepiece as well. The O111 filter enhanced the shape but gave no more visible structure. A great nebula to observe and at last I'm able to tick this one of my list.

Cancer was getting higher by now so has a great view of the M44, this famous cluster is also known as Praesepe, and more recently, the Beehive Cluster. The Beehive was given this name because to some it resembles a swarm of bees. It is one of the few deep-sky objects visible to the naked eye and has been known since ancient times. M44 consists of about 350 stars, 40 of which are bright enough to be seen in a small telescope. This cluster is about 577 light-years from Earth and is believed to be approximately 400 million years old. Through my 28 Uwan I can fit the entire cluster in and it makes one hell of an awesome sight.

Decided to mop up a few open clusters from the Herschel 400 firstly in Monoceros was Ngc 2301, also called Hagrid's Dragon a very bright, pretty large open cluster which resembles a cross, I counted at least 30 bright stars but also detected lots of much dimmer ones.

Next was very hard to distinguish from the Milky Way and that is Ngc2311 a very dim and sparse cluster in Monoceros, I only counted about 10 stars and had to llook up a photo on the web to make sure I saw it, even now I'm not 100% sure I did.

Staying in Monoceros I headed for Ngc2324, this is a very rich open cluster with alot of stars, in the 28 Uwan I counted at least 40. Very pretty rich but dim cluster and one I enjoyed viewing.

Back up to Gemini and J900 or Pk194+2.1 a extremmely small planetary nebula at only 0.2' in diameter and a magnitude of 12.4. I chose this one as it is meant to have a surface mag of 7.7 and thought it would be pretty easy. How wrong could I have been, I spent at least 45 minutes trying every possible eyepiece and O111 combination with no joy. This is one very elusive object and I will have to wait for another day to see it.

By now the scope was iced up, but the optics were still clear thanks to the dew heaters, but the temperature must have been in the minus figures so I could it a night.

[russ]

Great report Mick......as always! It's great that you put so much effort into your observations. They are always so detailed and should prove a real help to others.

You have a few planetaries there i won't bother trying for with my 8" dob and LP skies. Beyond the limits of my combo.

I'm amazed you have tracked down all these faint objects but never seen M97...until now. Did you spot M108 in the same field when using the 28mm UWAN? It's an edge on galaxy and a stunning contrast with M97. It's one of my best memories from when i had the 12.5" Meade dob. I've seen them together with the 8" but only once and it was hard work to see M108.

Regards

[Doc]

My skies Russ are pretty light polluted and try as I might I find it really hard to see galaxies. Planetaries on the other hand are rather small and the light is gathered in a smaller place so this makes them easier to spot even though their magnitude is dimmer then a galaxy.

From a dark sky I can see these galaxies but I don't often get the oppertunity to travel to these.

Anyway to answer your question I have yet to see M108, but I will keep trying.

Also I don't have great views North and of course thats where Ursa Major is

[Mark at Beaufort]

Well done Mick. I tried last night to observe with the 10" Dob NGC 246 and NGC 247 in Cetus but failed mainly because of high cloud and mist coming in. I decided to choose some higher placed objects - NGC 584, 596 and 615 all grouped together in Cetus but again the sky was not transparent enough. Clearly you were more lucky with your sky and hence an enjoyable observing log to read.

Regards

mark

[pvaz]

Another great report. Always a good read!

In a couple of months M108 will be higher at a decent hour, so you should give it a try. It looks slightly brighter then M97 to me, like a bright stripe in the sky, but I have no problems with light pollution.

I actually took a peek at the 2 last night on my 4:30 hours session. Tonight, weather permitting, I'll try M44 and the clown nebula.

[russ]

Hi Mick,

Perhaps my skies are not as bad as i thought. But that said, M108 is a real hard find. They are separated by less than a degree. Just done some calcs and using your 28mm UWAN you should get a true FOV of 1.15deg. So placing M97 at the edge of the field, you should be able to pick up M108. The write i just read says that both M97 and M108 are small (4") scope targets. Hmm....perhaps from Kelling. From my garden the 8" is really struggling on M108.

But i agree, galaxies are a real problem if your skies are poor.

[DarkerSky]

Excellent stuff Mick . I'm taking some of my observing cues from your list of objects you target

Can I ask, what sort of heater do you have on your secondary? I was dewed out last night

[Pollux]

Another corker Mick:icon_salut:

Thanks for taking the time to share it with us...

...hope (really hope) someday I may start to be able to flit from one to another, seem to spend all my time 'hopping' just to know where I am:o and then targetting 'known' objects!

...still, SUPERB read - thanks again

kindest,

Mark

[Doc]

Excellent stuff Mick . I'm taking some of my observing cues from your list of objects you target

Can I ask, what sort of heater do you have on your secondary? I was dewed out last night

It is a homemade one. I got two mouse mats and cut them to shape so they fir the secondary mirror stalk I then stuck a length of nichrome wire between them and sealed the mousemats together. Wrapped them around the stalk and connected the wires to a dew controller bought from Flo's. The Telrad has a ready made heater from Bern astronomy.

Works very well and is adjustable via the controller.

This is Mark 2 as Mark 1 caught fire while testing it, I used the wrong nichrome wire

[Talitha]

Great report and congratulations on bagging M97, that list is getting smaller and smaller.

I'm confused about the PK neb in GEM. How can a mag 12.4 object have a surface brightness of 7.7? The mag is (i thought) condensed to a point-source brightness, and any amount of size (even that of a small planetary nebula) would lessen it, not brighten it.

Sky Tools lists the nebula as having the same magnitude you supplied, but lists the SBr as 16.9. Would that make sense as to why you couldn't pull it in?

[dark knight]

Yet another fantastic report Mick,,can't wait for the next instalment..

[Doc]

Great report and congratulations on bagging M97, that list is getting smaller and smaller.

I'm confused about the PK neb in GEM. How can a mag 12.4 object have a surface brightness of 7.7? The mag is (i thought) condensed to a point-source brightness, and any amount of size (even that of a small planetary nebula) would lessen it, not brighten it.

Sky Tools lists the nebula as having the same magnitude you supplied, but lists the SBr as 16.9. Would that make sense as to why you couldn't pull it in?

It must be a mistake on CduC Carol as it states SBr 7.7 your figure sounds much more accurate as I know I was in the right location as Doc's Doofer was reading very accurate indeed.

[DarkerSky]

It is a homemade one. I got two mouse mats and cut them to shape so they fir the secondary mirror stalk I then stuck a length of nichrome wire between them and sealed the mousemats together. Wrapped them around the stalk and connected the wires to a dew controller bought from Flo's. The Telrad has a ready made heater from Bern astronomy.

Works very well and is adjustable via the controller.

This is Mark 2 as Mark 1 caught fire while testing it, I used the wrong nichrome wire

Ingenious !! Glad you tested it first..!

I have a pile of mousemats in my office somewhere that I was given once upon a time. I might be tempted to give that a go

[Doc]

Ingenious !! Glad you tested it first..!

I have a pile of mousemats in my office somewhere that I was given once upon a time. I might be tempted to give that a go

Just be careful and get the right guage nichrome.

[Guest]

10.12.2009

Meade lightbridge 16" f4.5 fl1829mm

No Moon

Very cold with a ground frost

Seeing mag 4.2

Started observing 20.00.

First of tonights objects is a planetary nebula in Orion called Ngc2022, with a magnitude of 9.2 and a size of 0.3'x0.47' it's a rather difficult object to locate. I would say the magnitude is much more like mag 12. Invisible in my 28 Uwan and only just detectable in the 16 Uwan. Appears as a small round and faint ball, no structure or colour is detected. Even by placing the 7 Uwan in giving me x261 no structure becomes visible. On my last observations of this object I could not detect it without the use of a O111 filter this time I could, but tonight the sky was alot better so maybe this has a lot to do with it.

Over to Gemini next and another little planetary nebula called Ngc2372, it appears that Herschel gave the nebula two separate numbers Ngc2371 and Ngc2372 but as far as I could see there is only one nebula at this location. This is a very dim nebula at mag 13 and is 0.9'x1.3' in size. It takes magnification very well and I was allowed to detect two very faint lobes when using the 7 Uwan at x261. Best view was with the 16 Uwan at x114 where I could make out a clear oval smudge, no colour was detected and no central star was seen.

I have been doing this hobby for some time now but have never seen the Owl Nebula M97 in Ursa Major. This planetary nebula got its name from the two round dark regions, which resemble the eyes of an owl. It is one of the fainter objects in the Messier catalog with a magnitude of only 9.9. The structure of M97 is unusually complex for a planetary nebula. It is illuminated by a 16th-magnitude star at its center. As with most planetary nebulae, its distance is not certain. Best guesses place it at about 2,600 light-years from Earth. With my 16 Uwan inserted I was at last able to see this elusive nebula at 3.4' in diameter it's quite large and through the 16 Uwan I could detect a circular shape with a darker internal section towards one side, I persume this being the owl's eye. I swapped back to the 28 Uwan at x65 and could now make the nebula out in this eyepiece as well. The O111 filter enhanced the shape but gave no more visible structure. A great nebula to observe and at last I'm able to tick this one of my list.

Cancer was getting higher by now so has a great view of the M44, this famous cluster is also known as Praesepe, and more recently, the Beehive Cluster. The Beehive was given this name because to some it resembles a swarm of bees. It is one of the few deep-sky objects visible to the naked eye and has been known since ancient times. M44 consists of about 350 stars, 40 of which are bright enough to be seen in a small telescope. This cluster is about 577 light-years from Earth and is believed to be approximately 400 million years old. Through my 28 Uwan I can fit the entire cluster in and it makes one hell of an awesome sight.

Decided to mop up a few open clusters from the Herschel 400 firstly in Monoceros was Ngc 2301, also called Hagrid's Dragon a very bright, pretty large open cluster which resembles a cross, I counted at least 30 bright stars but also detected lots of much dimmer ones.

Next was very hard to distinguish from the Milky Way and that is Ngc2311 a very dim and sparse cluster in Monoceros, I only counted about 10 stars and had to llook up a photo on the web to make sure I saw it, even now I'm not 100% sure I did.

Staying in Monoceros I headed for Ngc2324, this is a very rich open cluster with alot of stars, in the 28 Uwan I counted at least 40. Very pretty rich but dim cluster and one I enjoyed viewing.

Back up to Gemini and J900 or Pk194+2.1 a extremmely small planetary nebula at only 0.2' in diameter and a magnitude of 12.4. I chose this one as it is meant to have a surface mag of 7.7 and thought it would be pretty easy. How wrong could I have been, I spent at least 45 minutes trying every possible eyepiece and O111 combination with no joy. This is one very elusive object and I will have to wait for another day to see it.

By now the scope was iced up, but the optics were still clear thanks to the dew heaters, but the temperature must have been in the minus figures so I could it a night.

what a wonderful stargazing. what kind of weather was it for this stargazing? and what about the scope? I know the lightbridge but i never use it i use a meade newtonian reflector 114/900 who are 5 years now but i use when the weather is good.

Arnaud

[Doc]

Thanks Arnaud it was very cold and I suffered alot of dew earlier on, luckily the dew heater kept it off the secondary and Telrad. later on all the dew turned to ice so I decided to call it a night.

The scope is a Meade lightbridge with a 16" primary mirror, a very large scope which is extremely heavy.

This scope will go deeper in magnitude from a darker site, but unfortunately my site is pretty light polluted so will go down to about mag 12/13

[Guest]

Thanks Arnaud it was very cold and I suffered alot of dew earlier on, luckily the dew heater kept it off the secondary and Telrad. later on all the dew turned to ice so I decided to call it a night.

The scope is a Meade lightbridge with a 16" primary mirror, a very large scope which is extremely heavy.

This scope will go deeper in magnitude from a darker site, but unfortunately my site is pretty light polluted so will go down to about mag 12/13

in fact , the light pollution is a world problem, it the same in belgium, where i go for a stargazing. whne the weather is cold, it's difficult to observe, i made experiment with my newtonian reflector, and it's very difficult because a lack of heating resistance but where is the best place to put the heating resistance on the newtonian reflector? that's the problem.

Arnaud

[Doc]

I wrapped mine around the secondary mirror stalk, so in theory the heater stalk gets warm and the warmth works it's way into the mirror. Seems to work very well.