My personal happy place........Malibu 27th of September 2013

"M71 in Sagitta"

Where do I go to to chillax, to unwind and to just have a good time? This is a very easy question to answer. My version of a good time is spending quality time under dark skies, or semi dark skies with great company and of course my scopes :) The weather has been very cooperative of late, and we have been blessed with a string of good dark sky weekends (touch wood). I guess it is that time of the year when skies get darker faster, and remain clear. Since replacing my 10" f/5 GS dob with a C8 OTA, I have been itching to get back to visual stargazing. Imaging is fun, but visual observation has its own rewards. For one there is less gear to carry around, and overall less fumbling in the dark and trying to put things together. All one needs to do is to attach the OTA to the mount and away you go. No messing around with leveling the scope, two star alignments, etc etc. For that very reason I decided to pack my Orion SkyScanner 100 and my Paragon HD F2 photo tripod for this trip.

"Setting up my visual scope for the night: Orion SkyScanner 100 mini dob on my Orion Paragon HD F2 mount. Photo: Terry Nakazono"

The other reasons for wanting to get back to visual stargazing is that I have imaged most of the brighter objects I have on my list and don't feel compelled to image as much (kinda like hunting faint fuzzies to add to my list when I got back to stargazing in 2001). I am at a point when I can take my own sweet time and observe and image as and when I see fit. This is part of the fun of stargazing, going at your own pace. On a side note though I have been considering getting a lightweight IOptron Smart EQ portable GOTO mount for extended imaging sessions. The NexStar is great, but due to it being an alt-az GOTO mount, it has its limitations. I can only expose my subs for so long (max I can go is about 30 seconds with the 102GT OTA, and up to 45 seconds with the Travelscope 70 OTA...but most times I stick between 15 and 21 seconds as this gives the best balance between obtaining round stars and detail). Also since the NexStar mount was not really built for long exposure astrophotography, I find myself not taking as many subs as I would like since the tracking goes all wonky after a while (Which usually averages 5 or 6. Have to do some experimenting, maybe under suburban skies to see how far I can push this without trailing!) . So will I be sliding down the money sucking EQ GOTO mount slope for astroimaging? Only time will tell.....

"M56 in Lyra"

Anyways, back to the topic of this blog. I tend to drift off when writing so bear with me ;) This trip came out of an e mail discussion I had with Terry, my observing buddy about going to Malibu for stargazing. I love Mount Pinos for visual deep sky observing, but Malibu is heaps better for imaging as the site we use is partially surrounded by canyon walls, and therefore we are pretty much sheltered from blustery winds that are all so prevalent at Pinos. Also the drive is a whole heap shorter. I find myself getting lazy everytime I think of the drive up to Pinos as I don't do over-nighters anymore, as I used to back in oz. Round trip with traffic takes easily takes about 2 hours. So Malibu it was! My plan for the night was to do some easy going visual stargazing with my Orion SkyScanner 100 on Paragon HD F2 photo-tripod, and to image some of the objects I missed out on my last trip to Malibu. The plan was also to try out the Travelscope 70 OTA on the NexStar mount for wider field imaging. I got some good shots from my light polluted skies with such a setup so I was keen to see what it could do under darker skies.

"M30 in Capricornus"

I started off with the SkyScanner 100. Have not used my mini dob in a while and was really anxious to use it again. This has to be one of the best grab and go scopes out there. Small in stature,  cheap in price and big on bright wide field views. And did I mention that this scope can go deep too? Due to its short focal length, I found myself using the 13T6 Nagler in it exclusively, hitting popular bright targets such as M57, M27, M2, M15, M31 and companions, M33, M74, M71, and later on in the evening, big open clusters M45,the Perseus Double Cluster, the smaller Auriga clusters, M36, M37 and M38 and finally M42, the great nebula in Orion. It was so relaxing just drinking in the faint starlight in such a wide field scope. Sure the detail was not as good as if I had been using my C6 or C8. But the views were pretty nonetheless...and bright too.

"M15 in Pegasus"

With imaging, my plan for the night was, as mentioned to re-image some of the objects that did not turn out too well on my last field outing to Malibu, as well as some of those I had missed when the laptop battery died. Also was going to try wide field imaging with the Travelscope 70 OTA on the NexStar mount. As it turns out  Envisage misbehaved once again and I had to reboot the system twice. Also I stupidly chose an object too close to zenith, and the OTA came to a grinding halt on one of the tripod legs whilst I was using the Travelscope 70, which does not have a finder on it. Tried to realign the GOTO with Nexalign (have never been able to get the blasted thing to work in this mode...and guess what...still no joy. I can always only get it to work in two star alignment mode).  But I did get globulars M15 in Pegasus, M71 in Sagitta, M30 in Capricornus and M56 in Lyra. Also imaged my fave southern galaxy, NGC 253, the silver coin galaxy in Sculptor. Again the DSI impressed me. 15 second subs revealed the clumpy nature of the galaxy, as well as dark lanes. What I got was reminiscent of the views I get of this galaxy in my 10" dob at medium magnification, with color though. NICEEEEE.

"NGC 253, The Silver Coin Galaxy in Sculptor"

Finished off the night with some wide field panning with my Skyscanner. Got to love them dobs, even if I don't have my big gun anymore. Got some really outstanding views of the double cluster in Perseus, M45, the Pleiades in Taurus as well as M42. I never get tired of looking at the Orion Nebula. Just wish I was still downunder. I am sure the Eta Carina Nebula and its associated clusters would be spectacular in this lil scope that could! Till the next time we meet!

"Getting the NexStar 102GT aligned for a night of imaging. Photo: Terry Nakazono"