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Date: 20 Aug 2006 05:11:03
From: Richard Adams
Subject: 19 August Night Viewing
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Clear skies :-)
Early set up, about 1930 and caught early Jupiter with 3 moons. A bit
later someone reported seeing 4th. I was quickly polishing off my
take-away dinner, but took a brief run out to catch the ISS going over.
After finally sorting out the drive issues on my LXD75 (Used reset and
entered new owener location, prior was a few thousand miles distant,
which explained the erratic behaviour.) Set up on Altair, Aldearmin and
Arcturus.
Started with Albieo double, very distinct and move on to M57 (Ring
Nebula) which was a bit too hazy to make out the the center star. Left
scope alone for a few minutes to check trakcing, which remained spot on. :-)
Moved over to M13 for a bit, which was quite strong, before returning to
Lyra for the double-double (which inclued Lyra Epsilon.)
Sought M92 for a while, but couldn't locate it. Picked out M31
(Andromeda Glaxy) and M110 easily enough before heading down to
Sagittarius and M8. Tried my new Oxygen III filter on Pentax XL-14
(14mm) and was quite impressed how it brought out the nebula. Then
tried the O-III filter on XL-21 and found the view was quite stunning.
A new club member was having difficulty trying to locate Messier objects
with binos so I helped. Found M4, which was quite compact and then
located M80 after making an obtuse triangle, tricky but readily resolved.
Moved back to Sagittarius and worked counter-clockwise around the "tea
kettle" Globular clusters M54, M70 and M69 wear easily found, though
rather small and difficult to find in the spotting scope (used Telrad to
get the general vicinity) At least one of these popped up within field
of view on the 14mm eyepiece on first try. M28 was a bit stronger and
easily found, even in the spotter. M22 was brilliant, almost M13's twin.
By this time it was sufficiently dark I could pick out things visually
and moved up to M17 (Horse shoe/Swan/Omega nebula) which stood out quite
strongly with O-III filter in 14 and 21 mm eyepieces. M16 I wasn't
certain what I was looking at until I got home. It resolved in normal
eyepiece as an open cluster, but displayed a strong nebula with O-III in
place. Ah, the Eagle Nebula.
Trained the scope back on the M31 and M110 for a last look, Andromeda
had enough contrast to plainly make out part of the surrounding dust cloud.
Packed it in about 0030. A pretty good night viewing, including the
first time I had the tracking working and good use of O-III filter. I'm
certainly pleased.
Checking the area found some parts off a fellow club members bino
tripod. Good thing I check around where I was set up for bits left.
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Date: 20 Aug 2006 15:40:51
From: Stephen Paul
Subject: Re: 19 August Night Viewing
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Richard Adams wrote:
> Started with Albieo double, very distinct and move on to M57 (Ring
> Nebula) which was a bit too hazy to make out the the center star. Left
> scope alone for a few minutes to check trakcing, which remained spot on.
> :-)
>
> Moved over to M13 for a bit, which was quite strong, before returning to
> Lyra for the double-double (which inclued Lyra Epsilon.)
>
> Sought M92 for a while, but couldn't locate it.
This is a great part of the sky for those quick tours from the driveway.
I usually start with M13, head up to M92, and then do the line from the
Double Double east to M15, which includes M57, M56, Albireo, M27, and
M71 in between.
If I'm out back in the yard, I also include M11, M26, M14, M10, M12, and
M5. Up, and north to M3, and then hard left (south) and down into
Sagittarius to pick up M22, M28, and then right (west)to M7 just at the
treetop level. I then finish with M8, M20, and M17, all three for which
I pop in the UHC filter.
There's more of course to see, but these are the objects that I know
pretty well by heart and can find with a simple finder.
Keep at it, and enjoy!
-Stephen Paul
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Date: 20 Aug 2006 17:01:00
From: Richard Adams
Subject: Re: 19 August Night Viewing
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Stephen Paul wrote:
> Richard Adams wrote:
>
>> Started with Albieo double, very distinct and move on to M57 (Ring
>> Nebula) which was a bit too hazy to make out the the center star.
>> Left scope alone for a few minutes to check trakcing, which remained
>> spot on. :-)
>>
>> Moved over to M13 for a bit, which was quite strong, before returning
>> to Lyra for the double-double (which inclued Lyra Epsilon.)
>>
>> Sought M92 for a while, but couldn't locate it.
>
>
> This is a great part of the sky for those quick tours from the driveway.
> I usually start with M13, head up to M92, and then do the line from the
> Double Double east to M15, which includes M57, M56, Albireo, M27, and
> M71 in between.
>
> If I'm out back in the yard, I also include M11, M26, M14, M10, M12, and
> M5. Up, and north to M3, and then hard left (south) and down into
> Sagittarius to pick up M22, M28, and then right (west)to M7 just at the
> treetop level. I then finish with M8, M20, and M17, all three for which
> I pop in the UHC filter.
>
> There's more of course to see, but these are the objects that I know
> pretty well by heart and can find with a simple finder.
>
> Keep at it, and enjoy!
> -Stephen Paul
I've had a bit of a rough spring with the new scope, high clouds and fog
ending many a trip to the viewing field before it began. One trip I had
the scope half set up when the fog came in.
The past month I've been plagued by the motor randomly slewing while I
was guiding using AutoStar's directional arrows. After poring over the
AutoStar manual I believe I found the problem while taking the scope on
a weekend trip to higher country, which simply afforded me time to sit
down and read it, life being so hectic at home.
This was an experienced scope, thus had the prior owner's country, city,
etc. programmed in. A hard reset and putting in my own locale solved
much of it. I just have to remember to enter Lat. and Long. now before
alignment.
I had been a bit put off by the price of O-III filters, but after trying
out one from Orion I'm firmly in the camp of those who strongly suggest
having one if you're going to look at nebulas. It's like trading up
your eyepiece for one an order of magnitude its superiour, regardles if
you have Tele Vue, Pentax or what. Perhaps not all nebulae respond to
favourable spectrum, the few I observed last night were noticeably
stronger and I've been using the Pentax SMC XL series.
I'm still getting the knack of it, which stars are in which
constellations. Obviously this alone, more than any improvement in
equipment quality is going to have the greatest impact on how good an
observation night goes, less fiddling with charts, etc.
Clear skies!
Richard
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