Meade Lightbridge Observing report as of 3.5.2010

[Doc]

3.5.2010

Meade Lightbridge 16" F4.5 FL1829mm

No Moon

Strong breeze

Cold

Just as I was starting to observe at 21.50 I saw the ISS coming over from the West, it was very bright, maybe the brightest I have ever seen it, I swung the dob over and placed the telrad in front of where I thought it would head, I already had the 28 Uwan inserted and I looked into my eyepiece and saw the ISS shoot through the field of view, amazing sight, I could actually detect the shape and the wings really clearly. I managed to do the same procedure two more times before it was to low in the East.

First object was the huge open cluster Melotte 111 in Coma Berenices, this open cluster is so big even the 1.26° FOV of my 28 Uwan does not fit it all in. There are loads of lovely bright stars amoung loads of very dim stars, it made it a fantastic sight and one I spent quite a while just roaming around within it. Melotte 111 is estimated to be 288 light years away so this makes it the third nearest open cluster to Earth. The cluster is approximately 400 million years old.

Next over to Corona Borealis and the galaxy cluster Abel 2065. This 0.5° patch of sky contains 6 galaxies that shine at mag 15.5 and another 40 galaxies that shine at mag 17, and what a surprise I spotted none. But then I didn't expect to, but what I did detect was a mottling of the background, I knew something was there but with my light pollution this makes it very hard, from a dark site I bet I would be able to see the brightest galaxies, but at least I can say I have observed Abel 2065 even though I spotted nothing.

Next up was M13, perhaps the finest and most well known globular cluster in the Northern hemisphere. It originally was discovered by Edmond Halley in 1714. Halley noted that the cluster could easily be seen with the naked eye on dark, moonless nights. As its common name would imply, M13 lies in the constellation Hercules. It is about 25,000 light-years from us, and has an impressive diameter of about 150 light-years. Through my 16 Uwan it was just an amazing sight at x114 I could detect chains of stars swirling out from the centre, by placing in the 7 Uwan at x 261 I could resolve the core into little pinpricks of light, at this magnification M13 filled up most of the field of view, this must be one of the best objects in the universe to view, simply amazing.

Lying just 27' away from M13 is a little galaxy called Ngc6207, it took me a little while to find this and I had to match my view through the eyepiece to that of my planetarium software Sky6 so I could see where Ngc6207 should be. I first saw the elongated oval smudge with my 16 Uwan inserted, it appeared more brighter at the edge of my FOV and I could detect the shape quite easy then. Once seen it was obvious and I could detect it with direct vision, no core was visible. The galaxy is pretty small at 3.0' x 1.2' and shing at 11.6 mag.

Staying in Hercules I went hunting for a planetary nebula called Ngc 6058, it is very small at 0.4' x 0.3' and with a Sbr of mag 10.8. The only way I spotted this was star hopping to it, this didn't prove that hard as it's in the middle of a equilateral triangle asterism. Once i was in the right area , I blinked my O111 filter and I could just glimpse a brightened non stellar shape through the O111 filter. I then observed the said planetary with the 16 Uwan unfiltered and I could just make out a very small non stellar glow which looked slightly elongated, but had no colour. The O111 filtered view made the planetary stand out a little more but the actual view was degraded slightly. This is one very hard object to view and it amazes me how these astronomers managed to find it hundred's of years ago. To see the sketch click here: http://stargazerslounge.com/imaging-sketches-unconventional/103451-ngc-6058-hercules.html

Also staying in Hercules I next found a lovely little globular cluster called Ngc 6229, this is beautifully grouped in a triangle with two mag 6 stars. The cluster is pretty small at 3.8' in diameter and shining at mag 9.4. It was very easy to spot in my 16 Uwan but at this magnification no stars could be resolved, it took at least x261 to resolve just a few outer stars. To see the sketch click here: http://stargazerslounge.com/imaging-sketches-unconventional/103452-ngc-6229-hercules.html#post1428631

By now it was approaching midnight so I called it a night.

[Psychobilly]

Nicely written report as always Mick

Peter..

[Doc]

Cheers Peter, I'm hoping one day by reading all my reports it turns you into a visual type of guy

[Psychobilly]

Cheers Peter, I'm hoping one day by reading all my reports it turns you into a visual type of guy

Well if it can happen to RobH it can happen to anybody

In the meantime they provide so ideas for targets...

Peter...

[mdstuart]

..at this magnification M13 filled up most of the field of view, this must be one of the best objects in the universe to view, simply amazing.

Absolutely...

I wanted to go out last night, charts ready.. but we had a lot of cloud!!

You really love those Uwans...its as if you know all the TFOV's by heart!

Mark

[DarkerSky]

That's a super report Mick...what a night!!

I was in awe of the ISS too at the same pass. Never seen it as bright either. I estimate mag -5 as it seemed to brighten for a time as it drew eastwards. My scope was the 12" that evening but was set up to maximise my western horizon and Mars, so no chance of tracking it in the EP.

In fact I've only ever attempted to get the ISS in the EP once - and failed miserably!! You did really very well. To be able to see the station's form is very exciting. I can imagine the buzz you got from that!

And when you mentioned Abel 2065 my jaw started to drop....until I read that you didn't see them To detect a mottling to the background though is just as exciting to be honest. I may give that a go in the next couple of weeks as I seem to have slightly darker skies than you.

Quite a coincidence that we were both on M13 and NGC 6207 the same night. The other objects you got in Hercules are all on my list...so much to see so little time !!!

[Pete Presland]

very nice report mick,like the sketches too, its nice to see what you see,rather than photo's

i have always wondered what the view would be like through a very large aperture scope,especially something twice the size of my newtonian.

i can feel aperture fever again

[johnkirkpatrick]

sounds great doc, cant wait to get my 10"dob and my 4 wo uwans so i too can have some great nights looking up