|
Finally got around to attempting some of Bob’s extensive list of objects from Norma, Scorpius, Rho Ophiuchus and Serpens (tap the brakes there, Bob!) A 90% moon blasting down the tube in moderately light-polluted skies (Bortle 5) didn’t really help matters, but I wasn’t going to wait another week or so before the moon rises a bit later. Used the 8” dob with a 8-24mm Baader Zoom and 4.7mm ES. A few highlights:
NGC6153 – mag 10 planetary nebula. Not visually exciting, other than the fact I could actually see it at all. It was small and faint with a DGM NPB filter, and virtually invisible without it.
Xi Scorpii – double star easily split at 50x, there is another double next to it, both stars having about the same magnitude to my eyes. These two seemed orange and blue, but oddly seemed to swap colour as I zoomed in and out. Quite a nice looking set of doubles. I didn’t have Bob’s notes in front of me so didn’t recall that it’s actually a triple system – will need to reinvestigate.
Beta Scorpii – double star, easily split at 50x, both appeared white.
Antares – finally split this for the first time! Bob’s comment on the use of a green filter did the trick. Although I didn’t have a normal green planetary filter, I tried my OIII filter at 255x, and sure enough there was the faint companion. Needed 255x magnification to resolve it. Thanks Bob!
NGC 6572 – mag 8 planetary nebula in Oph. Quite bright but very small – almost starlike. Again, not visually awe-inspiring, but I like my PN’s and I was glad to see it, given the conditions.
Eta Normae – double star in Norma. The main star appeared bright white, the companion appeared a dusky lavender colour.
Menzel 2 / Wray 16-210 – Mag 12 planetary nebula in Norma. With the lousy conditions, this was JUST visible using averted vision and a DGM NPB filter.
In general, the globular clusters were very washed out, almost to the point of invisibility.
|