Went out last night with the 120mm skywatcher short tube for a bit of wide field viewing. Also was my first real night out with the 120ST. One thing I noticed, navigating with a refractor is a pain! THe view is completely reversed to what's on the charts, now being a newtonian bloke all me life, I found it awkward to navigate! I gotta get used to that.
Now, I bought the 120ST purely for wide field viewing. For that purpose, it is excellent. Its large aperture gives nice bright images and resolution of DSOs even at low power while still allowing glorious vistas of large bright open clusters and nebulae. At powers around 100x or so, things start to go a bit soft as the effects of chromatic abberation take hold, but I didn't get this scope for high mag scrutiny of tiny PNe's and planets
The scope sits on the Stellarvue M1 mount, which IMO is probably at the very limit of what the mount can handle, but balances well at all tube orientations. The only snag is that I have to tighten the alt clutch whenever I change EPs or filters, which becomes a chore, but I guess is unavoidable due to the lever arm the tube creates.
Time: 9:15pm-midnight
Scope: 120mm ST refractor
Started off with a sweep of the Carina Milkyway with the 22mm LVW giving 27x and a TFOV of 2.4º. The
Eta Carina Nebula was fantastic in the 22mm with the OIII filter. The entire cloud spread across approx 2/3rds of the field, with fainter tendrils stretching out further. Dark lanes appeared to cut the nebula into 5 distinct sections. The brightest region showed some texture and its southern edge was ruffled, and also the keyhole was clearly defined.
Sweeping down towards
IC 2944 (Running Chicken Nebula) bought into view a whole host of little knots and clusters. Looking at the map, these were the giant HII regions of NGC 3576/79 and 3603, which in the 120ST at 27x appeared as tiny knots. IC 2944 itself was very obvious through the 22mm EP and OIII filter, appearing as a broad C-shaped ring cradling the line of bright stars stretching southwards from Lamda Centauri.
While in the area, I stumpled upon a tiny fuzzy patch, which took me only 20 minutes to identify due to the reversed FOV! Turns out this patch is the tight open cluster
Melotte 105.
Next I swept up
NGC 2516, which is an excellent cluster located just SE of the false cross on an extended centreline of its long axis. At 27x, approx 90 stars could be seen in the region. I got the impression that this cluster looks like a man standing upright with outstretched arms, although upside down! A bright red star marks his right toe and another fainter and paler orange star neatly marks his right nipple!
Next up I went for a cruise in the Canis Major region, and apart from some familiar sights, have found other objects which I otherwise probably would've never tried to hunt down.
NGC 2362 has always been a favourite of mine, and with the 22mm LVW at 27x, I could see around 20 or so stars packed around Tau CMA, arranged in a triangular mass with tau slightly off-centre. Averted vision brings out even more stars, making for quite a striking sight.
Further sweeping of the area bought me to
NGC 2467, a HII region in Puppis. At 27x, I could see a faint, oval haze with the northern side "squished". The southern side appeared more diffuse than the north, suggesting a dark lane. Using the OIII, a dark lane could be seen cutting across the nebula's northern edge, with much fainter haze beyond. A dark patch was also seen inside the main body, adjacent the mag 7.5 star it surrounds.
Further sweeping of this rich Milky Way field turned up a surprise.
NGC 2477. Extremely rich open cluster, infact it reminded me of a low power view of Omega Centauri. At 27x, a dense ball of faint stars could be seen, arranged in chains and streamers. Using the 8mm LVW at 75x, the ball of pinpricks was resolved into a carpet of stars, which could be mistaken for a rich although non-condensed globular cluster. A chain of 5 brighter stars curves away to the north and a mag 4 star lies immediately to the cluster's south.
Nearby is
NGC 2451, only 1.5º to the WNW. Very pretty in the 22mm LVW. Huge, loose gathering of 4-7 stars, numbering around 20 in total with another 2 dozen fainter stars scattered around the cluster. The brightest members are arranged in a square with a small triangle in the middle, with a bright red star marking the cluster's centre. What a contrast to NGC 2477!
Also swept up numerous other little groupings and clusters in the area which I didn't identify, but a very nice rich area of the sky. Also took a look at
Omega Centauri which was showing good resolution in the 13mm LVW at 46x and had a look at
NGC 5128, with the dust lane visible.
Now for the best part....it only took 10 minutes from calling it quits until my head was on the pillow!
Grab n go rules! Think about that all you big dob pushers and faint galaxy hunters
