The first of a few installments of my blast from the past articles. All fond memories shared with close observing buddies. I really miss those times shared under the dark skies at Leyburn with my good friend Andrew Durick and David Rigley. In the old days most scopes on the field were visual instruments (and big ones at that like Kevin Dixon's 16" and Peter Robbins 30"). I witnessed the transition from visual to imaging on the fields of Leyburn with the mushrooming of home built observatories. Anyways that is a story for another time. Without further ado here is the first installment of many over the course of next few weekends.........
5/6th of October 2002
Viewing
conditions: Average transparency
magnitude 7 skies ; Telescope
6" Synta Catadioptric Newtonian (1400mm f/l), 15x70mm binocs and on
occasion a 10" DOB, 4” ST Refractor
Observing notes:
Boy
has it been a while since I have been out to a dark sky site. Winter has been
too cold and when spring came round so did the rains. Well today we were taking
a risk. Weather report had rains in the south and the western parts of the Darling
Downs and Granite Belt districts. It was a good thing that Leyburn was in the
east. This time only Andrew and I were going as Dave had to work. When we got
there the weather looked ok (for the first time there were no clouds in the sky
at all!). There was a fair bit of dust and humidity though and, according to
Kev, they did not have a very good night on the previous night. As it turned
out tonight was a tad better but still not excellent. Transparency was poor at
best, but many more stars were showing through in comparison to light polluted
Brisbane. The very fact that the milky way looked mottled with Andrew’s car
light on (we were having dinner while enjoying the milky way…an excellent way
to spend one time!) is testament enough!
As
soon as we had finished our dinner we started what would become a rather
pleasant night. First look was of Venus with Dave’s 10”. Nice little wavy
cresent (due to tube currents)! As soon as that was over I grabbed my new toy,
the 15x70’s. Boy was I impressed with the views I had with these from a dark
sky site. It was evident that the views in my binocs were indeed almost up
there with Andrew’s all new 4”ST refractor. The clusters and nebulae around
Sagittarius and Scorpius were breathtaking. I particularly noted the nice
colors of the stars and the gorgeous dark background.
As
soon as I had finished gawking at the gorgeous wide angle views I was getting
with my binocs, I decided that it was time for some serious work. First off my
list (after looking at M8 and M20 in Andrew’s 4”…nice wide angle views with the
32mm Plossl and the UHC in place…its amazing how large an area of the sky M8
covers from a dark sky with low mag and a UHC!) was the Veil Nebula in Cygnus.
Training the scope on 52 Cygni I immediately saw the ghostly wisp of the Veil
Nebula (6960). Scanning around I could trace its tendrils all around the
region. As I wanted a better view I popped the 32mm Plossl and UHC combo into
Dave’s 10” and was astounded. The views were surreal…like in a photograph only
now I was seeing it with my own eyes. Sheesh and this was not the best of
nights for DSO’s. I can’t wait to revisit the Veil again on a better night!
What a way to start the night.
I
spent the next two hours (at least I think) revisiting some old friends. Most of
them were globs. Started off with M4 in Scorpius. Nicely resolved even in the
20mm Plossl at 70x but I have had better views of M4. This was probably due to
the fact that it was not very high in the sky at the time of viewing. Several
globs looked really excellent with nice resolution, some to the core. M22, the
crackerjack cluster was brilliant with its spidery arms radiating from the
core, 47 Tucana was a nice tight ball of suns with a rather concentrated core,
6397 in Ara was a mass of stars appearing more like a tight open cluster than
an glob with full resolution, and my fave 6752, the starfish glob (my nickname
for it as it does resemble a star fish) also fully resolved. Cool! Also had a
look at M11 the Wild Duck cluster in Scutum. Nice resolution even at 56x with
the 25mm Kellner. Excellent.
Other
revisits included M17, the swan. Nice nebulosity surrounding the main “body”. I
especially like this nebula as its mottling looks rather feathery, definitely
befitting of its title the swan! The tarantula with its tentacles outstretched.
This one is weird because it is not very much enhanced by the UHC filter in
place. M57 the ring was also brilliant in my 9mm wide angle at 156x. I actually
like the views better without the UHC in place with this ep! M27 the dumbbell
in Vulpecula was spectacular at 70x with the 20mm Plossl and the UHC (filtered
view was wayyyy more detailed!). M33 was very disappointing. Just a blob with
no hint of its spiral arms. Both 253 and 55 were pretty ok in Dave’s 10” and in
my 6”. No mottling was seen in 253
which was a bit of a shame. I have seen them looking way better. 7293 the Helix
Nebula in Aquarius was a big disappointment as well in the 6”. I think I got a
better view of it in my binocs! As usually M42 was spectacular with its
outstretched arms (no color visible this time round due to the crummy
transparency). One miss for me this night was the bubble planetary 246 in Cetus.
Now
for the new stuff. Managed to track down most of the galaxies on my list.
Caught 247 in Cetus in my binocs prior to getting it smack bang in my scope. I
actually got a much better view of this galaxy in my 15x70’s due to its sheer
size. The same thing applied for 300 in Sculptor, looking way better in my
15x70’s than in my scope at 43x with the 32mm Plossl. The old saying that FOV
is very important for extended objects ring true! Also bagged M74 in Pisces.
Pretty dim with no detail visible. I was just happy to bag this big face on!
7331 in Pegasus appeared as a nice tight spindle in the 6”. The highlight of
the night for me (and for Andrew) was stumbling on a rather large cluster of
faint galaxies (elliptical’s, spirals, etc.) while hunting down the great
barren spiral 1365 in Fornax. Nice views in Andrew’s 4” ST (all galaxies were
seen with a little difficulty), in the 6” an the 10”. Also saw an IC planetary
in Andrew’s 6”.
No comments:
Post a Comment