BeanerSA
22-04-2015, 12:19 PM
What a fantastic night of observing!
Conditions were cool, cloudless and still, which made the cool temperatures much more bearable.
The evening started with all the usual, easy to find bright stuff, all looking glorious. One of my son's faves, The Tarantula Nebula was easily found and we were able to resolve much more detail than on previous obs.
I've been determined to observe the southern pinwheel galaxy, and I have in the past been able to spot it through binos, but get lost with the viewfinder. I had planned my starhop a bit better and was able to find my target area much better, but the extremely low face-on brightness and the small scope meant that I just couldn't see it. Looking through binos confirmed that it was unseeable. Undeterred, I started hunting for 2 other DSO's in our prime viewing area.
Centaurus A was fairly easily found, and using a little bit of imagination, we could see some of the brightness that can normally be seen in AP shots.
Next, I hunted around for M104 knowing that edge-on galaxies provide just a little more brightness over a smaller area. I hunted around with the binos first, and picked a couple of areas of brightness in the target area. Then I moved to the scope, and on the second attempt, there it was! I was prepared for it to be faint, but I was stunned at how small it was! I guess we were really only seeing the brightest part of it.
After the excitement had died down, we went inside for a cuppa while we waited for Saturn to come up. I didn't mind killing my dark adapted eyes, as I was happy with the results for the night.
After Saturn I went after a couple of clusters. NGC2156 in Carina, M4 and NGC6231 in Scorpius. All 3, amazing.
I've been amazed at the progress we've made with this little 150mm Dobsonian scope.
Conditions were cool, cloudless and still, which made the cool temperatures much more bearable.
The evening started with all the usual, easy to find bright stuff, all looking glorious. One of my son's faves, The Tarantula Nebula was easily found and we were able to resolve much more detail than on previous obs.
I've been determined to observe the southern pinwheel galaxy, and I have in the past been able to spot it through binos, but get lost with the viewfinder. I had planned my starhop a bit better and was able to find my target area much better, but the extremely low face-on brightness and the small scope meant that I just couldn't see it. Looking through binos confirmed that it was unseeable. Undeterred, I started hunting for 2 other DSO's in our prime viewing area.
Centaurus A was fairly easily found, and using a little bit of imagination, we could see some of the brightness that can normally be seen in AP shots.
Next, I hunted around for M104 knowing that edge-on galaxies provide just a little more brightness over a smaller area. I hunted around with the binos first, and picked a couple of areas of brightness in the target area. Then I moved to the scope, and on the second attempt, there it was! I was prepared for it to be faint, but I was stunned at how small it was! I guess we were really only seeing the brightest part of it.
After the excitement had died down, we went inside for a cuppa while we waited for Saturn to come up. I didn't mind killing my dark adapted eyes, as I was happy with the results for the night.
After Saturn I went after a couple of clusters. NGC2156 in Carina, M4 and NGC6231 in Scorpius. All 3, amazing.
I've been amazed at the progress we've made with this little 150mm Dobsonian scope.