Diving into the Deep sky

[toml42]

Had my first true observing session with my new f5 explorer 200p last night, and after having a quick peek at venus and later saturn before they were obscured by a bush , i moved on to the deep sky.

The seeing was quite good, stars fairly steady. Light pollution washes out my northern and eastern sky, but looking south and west is actually pretty good. a few small clouds, some haze.

First off, M57. I surprised myself by being able to locate this last year in my cheap 3" reflector, however, it was just a tiny smudge at low mag and not visible at high mag.

I was blown away by the improvement here! I could comfortably push the magnification up to 200x and still have a bright, detailed view. The 'smoke ring' appearance was fantastic.

Next up, M13. Again, i'd spotted this in the past in old cheapo scope, and it was just a faint smudge. I got a better view of this in my 9x50 finder than i'd seen before! Popped in my 25mm and i was instantly floored. Remarkable sight! Clearly composed of thousands of stars rather than dull mist! averted vision really made some of the brighter core stars pop out of the eyepiece. barlowing the 25mm to give 80x i felt gave the best balance between brightness and image scale, and framed the globular nicely.

Finally, M11. Imaged this one at university last year as part of a project on stellar classification, but my home skies are significantly darker, and nothing quite prepared me for the immediacy and beauty of countless bright stars filling my eypiece like diamond dust.

I'd intended to bag a few more Messiers that night, but i just ended up alternating between these three beauties, utterly delighted! My new scope has exceeded my expectations, and i'm psyched for more

[Doc]

Some fantastic objects there, the difference in aperture must have knocked your socks off

[toml42]

It really did, although i was a little disappointed with saturn at first, after seeing some spectacular views of it at a star party in may. I think it has more to do with its low height and early setting than my scope though.

Stupid atmosphere, why do we even need the damn thing?

[eyespy]

Im also like you tom just getting used to my 200p and have found its all down to the atmosphere tubulance but i also found the ring neb 2 nights ago and split the double near vega ,so really pleased! It can be a struggle to put the ota on the mount sometimes and pinched my finger a few times in the dark lol:D

[mdstuart]

Sounds like you had a really great session well done. I managed three new galaxies last night with my 10 inch scope. NGC 6015, NGC6340 and NGC 6643. These three are mere hints of glow though and not as spectacular as M57 / M13..

Mark

[toml42]

Sounds like you had a really great session well done. I managed three new galaxies last night with my 10 inch scope. NGC 6015, NGC6340 and NGC 6643. These three are mere hints of glow though and not as spectacular as M57 / M13..

Mark

The only one i managed in my old scope was andromeda, but just knowing that faint smudge in your eyepiece is an entire galaxy is thrilling! I'll certainly be hunting for some galaxies over the next few nights, clear skies permitting...

[yeti monster]

Good show on your deep sky wanderings Toml, I'm really missing my aperture here in the tropics, the clear skies are just full of globs, OCs and those wonderfully tantelising fuzzies.

Keep up the good work now.

[Talitha]

.... and i was instantly floored. Remarkable sight! Clearly composed of thousands of stars rather than dull mist! averted vision really made some of the brighter core stars pop out of the eyepiece.

Fantastic! That's the same reaction i had when finally getting a proper view of M13. Thanks for a great report Tom, and here's to many more wonderful nights.

[toml42]

Despite being distracted by my affair with the binaries last night, i jumped at the chance to have another shot at M13, and also sneaked a quick peak at M27. I found the classic dumbbell shape clearly defined at 100x, and thought i could just detect some wispy filaments emanating from the edges with averted vision. Whilst my southern skies are fairly dark, I would relish the chance to observe some of these fuzzies at a true dark site!