Trapezium Find

[Freff]

Last night I thought I'd give our SW127 MAK GoTo a viewing before the snow rolled in. We decided to look in the Orion Nebula area for the first time.

We could not see much except for the stars that are normally seen in the sword.

What kept standing out the most was the (unknown then) Trapezium Cluster, but we couldn't recognise anything to identify that we were looking at the Nebula.

We made a quick sketch of what we could see, a line of three stars and a cluster of what my lad discribed as "the alien lazer gun sight" stars, Bless him .

Anyway, after consulting Turn Left at Orion, we confirmed that we were in fact in the Nebula.

After struggling for a while with the kit EP's, we could actually see the grey faint shape of the Nebula.

Unfortunately, it was a bit disappointing seeing no detail at all. Perhaps we were expecting to much from this scope with only the kit EP's and 2x Barlow.

Any tips or suggestions would be greatful. The EP's we have are 10 & 25mm with a 15mm Televue coming next week.

Many thanks

Tony

[barkis]

Hi Tony,

The Mak is f11, and the field of view would perhaps be too be small.

The trapezium stars will be well defined, but the nebula itself is quite large in area, and you would not see it in it's entirety in your Mak. unless using low power.

An f5 instrument for example will reveal the splendour of M42 much better than the MAK, which is designed to be suitable for lunar and planetary observing.

The moon would also be interfering with you view, as it would wash out the nebula somewhat.

Ron.

[John]

If there was any moonlight or light pollution in the sky it would have washed out much of the detail of the nebula. Use your lowest power eyepiece (ie: 25mm and no barlow lens) for viewing the nebula, as Ron says, and try averted vision, that is looking to one side of the object - that can bring out a bit more contrast. You can then use higher powers to examine the trapezium.

On a dark night when your eyes have dark adapted, you will see more detail be it takes practice and patience.

You won't see colours or the sort of details that you see in photos of course.

[Freff]

Thanks both.

Yes the moon was a killer last night, and I live in a high polluted area as well.

What was good that the kids are still really interested, and keen to progress. Next year we would love to get a really good scope and mount. They have taken a shine to the SW 190MN + EQ6 Pro, and are happy to spend their saving towards one.

Lets see what Santa brings.

Tony

[John]

.... They have taken a shine to the SW 190MN + EQ6 Pro, and are happy to spend their saving towards one.....

They or you ?

[Freff]

They or you ?

Yeh I wish. I'm a pro photographer and I know what I'd spend my money on.

But I think I know where they get it from.

[davy999]

You could try a focal reducer, I bought an astro engineering one and it gave my F10 a much wider field of view.

[Freff]

Thanks Dave.