Observing report 12-10-10 (Galway)

[cathalferris]

I set up the 6" newt on the LXD75 at sunset, to try to let the scope cool properly. Once Polaris was visible, I polar-aligned with the Kochab Clock trick, 3-star aligned and was told "<5' from pole", so off to a good start.

Air temp was about 16 degrees at sunset, and that dropped to about 5 degrees by 10pm. Transparency was fantastic, and there was very little local haze to show the light pollution from Galway, ~5 km to the SW.

My first target once things had cooled and stabilised (and after bit of dinner) was to get a few video runs of Jupiter, and I have mediocre results from the stacks, I recorded ~7,000 frames or 11gb with the Logitech quickcam, and using K3CCDTools for the capture. Exposures ranged between 1/60 sec to 1/40 sec, at 10fps, at 640x480, with the 2x TV to allow the cam to reach focus and to get a bit of a better image scale.

Seeing was *terrible*. The .avis show Jupiter as if it were at the bottom of a stream, and visually the diffraction rings around stars were rarely visible.

Here are some results:

3500 frames, in Avistack. Histogram stretched, no other processing. Wavelet sharpening did not improve anything.

and

1500 frames, AviStack again, histogram stretching again.

After the video runs on Jupiter, I took a look at some other visual sights, taking advantage of the transparency

I know that some consider that I am 'cheating' a bit with the use of Goto as much as I do but. However, after spending years starhopping in my teens and getting to know how and where, I relish the fact that I can spend time trying to actually observe an object instead of spending 10-15 minutes searching for an object. It just means more eye time on the wonders. Having a driven mount is such a luxury for me as well. I'm mostly using a 24mm meade 5000 SWA and an 8.8mm meade 5000 UWA, with a 2x TV barlow. Covers most of the visual needs I have.

Anyway, sights seen and observations thereof...

Jupiter, NEB quite visible, but the poor seeing got in the way of making anything useful out. I could see the GRS just making its way around the following limb, but it was not easy to see.

Uranus, resolved as a definite disk. Tried looking for satellites, to no avail.

M76, stood out quite clearly, and I could easily enough see the double-lobed shape.

NGC404, (Mirach's Ghost) surprisingly visible for a mag 12 galaxy. Noticed it when using Mirach as an alignment star.

M15, beautiful looking globular, nicely resolved for me.

Cat's Eye nebula (ngc6543). Bright, obviously non-stellar. No structure though.

NGC7331, identified, quite easily visible, and the overall shape was seen. No real detail noted though.

MCG7009 Saturn Nebula, First time seeing it, looked quite similar to Uranus if a lot less surface brightness.

103P/Hartley2 - Easily seen, strong condensation to the nucleus, and possible hints of a tail. Coma is getting larger each night.

I thought that given the night was transparent, I might as well have a go at some hard objects

NGC 7293, I used the OIII filter, and I could justabout make out the circular-ish haze through the background haze of the city lights nearby. It was not easy to see, but it was definitely there.

The Veil: Around 52 Cygni, with the UHC filter in, I could clearly make out that portion of the Veil (NGC6960). I took the filter out, and I could still say that yes, I could identify the nebula. Putting the OIII filter in means that it appeared as clear as cirrus cloud illuminated by a quarter-moon. Really clear to see, and I could make out the kinks in the nebula. I scanned to the east, and I picked up the other side of the Veil (ngc6992) without filters. Putting the filters in made it stand out very clearly. Scanning through the centre and slightly north I thought that I could make out the central portion of the Veil using the OIII but that is not a certainty.

The North America Nebula. I kept the OIII filter in, and that made it easy to see the texas/florida 'coastline'. Bigger than I was expecting.

The next hard object was NGC 891, and I can say that I did not identify that. The scope was on the right place, and I thought that I could see something but that may have been using averted imagination instead..

I had to pack up and go inside by 10pm, happy and relaxed, and thinking of putting the 8" mirror for the briefcase dob project back in the tube I got it in to use on the lxd75....

That's a plan for next week!

[russ]

Excellent report and that's a really good haul of objects you got there. I've not seen the Saturn Nebula, must track that down. And the Veil is wonderful isn't it? The OIII filter and dark sky make it.

Your view of Jupiter sounds a lot like most of us have seen it lately.....a boiling mess.

Nice read!

[Keiran]

I seem to be missing the rest of the post?

[cathalferris]

Edited to change the ellipsis ending - I forgot that having that at the end of a posting implies more that is being cut off.