Obs Report 28/12 - what an awesome night!

[§AB]

Ok, ok, okaayyy the clear sky made for an oppurtune time for observing. Set up the 10" Dob just after sundown and let it cool for 2 hours with the fan on. The collimation barely moved since the start of my previous session! Anyhoo I did tweak it abit, which re-payed in volumes as you're about to find out. Seeing was better this time round. Clouds often intervened which was irritating at best.

Began at around 11pm (27/12).

TIme: 11pm-4am
Scope: 10" GSO Dob
Seeing: 5-7/10


47 Tuc
Started at 250x, and it was wonderful. Resolved, nice packed core, you know the usual brilliance. Pumped it up to 500x and mmmmmmmmmm it was sick! The core - a delicate haze peppered with tiny tiny little pinpricks, with the whole thing surrounded by streamers of stars and apparent dark lanes. So good. Just out of curiosity, I threw at my scope all I had - 3.5mm LVW barlowed - to get 714x.......and I kid you not, the view had NOT degraded at all! The hazy core was there, the delicate points of light scattered all over it, and it's like little diamonds spilling beyond the FOV. Just awesome. :D

Tarantula Nebula
714x - bloody hell! MASSSIVE spider like core - with the clump of stars at the center fully resolved.

Sirius
Too bright at 714x, spotted the pup again :thumbsup:

Orion Nebula
At 156x, could see all 6 stars of the trapezium with ease. Some mottling evident in the core. Now I threw in the 3.5mm LVW and the barlow for 714x and damn the core is blown out across the entire FOV and beyond. The detail visible in the core is staggering - shading, mottling, the whole deal. I also saw a few faint stars within the core that I don't think I picked up before. The trapezium was huge, the 6 stars seemed to be seperated by miles. But yeah the Orion Nebula at this mag is just outragous - it's as if your right there :eyepop:

NGC 1999
By now, the moon was up. NGC 1999 appeared as a smudge with a star involved at all magnifications.

52 Orionis
Split this 1.2" double at 250x. Much easier at 500x and at 714x the gap is actually wide!

NGC 362
Got a peak at 714x, outer stars resolved and obvious granulation towards the bright core. Best view I had of this cluster to date. I then slipped in da Meade 5.5 plossl and barlow for a 454x view and wondered why it was so fuzzy and ill-defined. Then as I pull my head away from the eyepiece I see a beautiful deck of crap. Ba-buuuummm

M46-NCG 2438
After about 2 hours of waiting for lame Melbourne cloud to clear, I decided to pass the time by checking out this neat combo. At 56x, several dozen bright and faint stars were visible, and the planetary NGC 2438 showed up with averted vision.

Ghost of Jupiter
Now quite high up, I gave this one a crack. Despite moonlight, at 250x its distintive eye shape was obvious, with a central fuzzy dot (central star?) and a faint outer shell. At 500x, the view was basically the same although the outer shell was perhaps slightly better defined.

Saturn
Using 250x, I was able to see the crepe ring and cassini division at the rings tips during moments of good seeing, with 2 obvious brownish cloud bands. If only Saturn was a bit higher up.

Yep a bloody fantastic night! I'm amazed that my scope could handle extreme magnification so well - thats 71x per inch of aperture (or almost 50% more than the theoretical limit) - in typical seeing! I was expecting a blur to be honest when going that high, but it is perfectly usable mag in good conditions :thumbsup:

[goober]

I have to stop reading your reports. I was all set up and had the scope out for a couple of hours. I was ready to run through the Messier open clusters from Auriga up to Canis Major. Went out at 11am and there was a huge band of cirrus over everything. I used it as a filter on Sirius for a while - no little doggy.

When you talk about the "core" of M42, are you inside the trapezium? You didn't pick out the G star, did you (mag. 16)?

[Dave47tuc]

Hi Sab,
Well mate you never cease to amaze me :whistle: Your reports of high mag, and pushing my old scope to it's limits thrills me really.
Well done on your observing and lets hope we get a clear night next week for you to come and have a look through some big glass;)

I see you like the LVW's as well:D

I was out last night also with my little scope and a friends 5" apo. Seeing in our area was poor most of the night. So our views of Mars where no good.
Could make out some detail but it was mushy at best.
Mind you we could see the 6 Trap stars in the 5" ok.:D

Catch you soon my friend and keep up the great observing :thumbsup:

Dave.

[SkySearcher]

Nice report!!:thumbsup:

I can't wait to get in a good session at a dark site.

Like Goober I was also looking at Sirius through the clouds, using them as a sort of filter. I noticed earlier on that the seeing was pretty good as I was able to split some of the doubles in Orion I previously struggled with. Although this may be a combination of my two Christmas presents (a laser collimator and a 24mm Panoptic (which I was barlowing)).

Sab, are you saying you are able to split Sirius? If so what Magnification do I need and what would it look like? Looking at it last night it looked a bit like Rigel but sideways. I think the 'second component' was just an internal reflection or possibly my collimation was off.

Cheers

[§AB]

^^ Yep I split Sirius. I was using 714x and the pup is a very tiny, miniscule speck about 7" away from the primary, at position angle 90º. In other words, as Sirius drifts across the field, the pup is trailing it. I successfully spotted it at 156x but use as high power as the seeing allows in order to increase the gap between the two.

[Rob_K]

Another great report §AB! :thumbsup: I can't begin to imagine what this stuff looks like under extreme magnification - literally!! :lol: Although your descriptions do help!

On a dark night, you might be able to see the tiny triangular dark nebula overlaying the reflection nebula NGC1999 - good visual challenge anyway!

Cheers -

Rob

[§AB]

Cool as!

After the success I had with 52 Orionis (and other stuff) at this ridiculous mag, I've decided to get a TV 2.5x powermate and upgrade my existing Barlow to a TV 2x model. My current barlow is a cheap no name model with a single layer coated lens which is covered in dust! That way I'll have a max power of 892x for extreme double star work and will also have 625x which'll nicely fill the gap between the 500x and 714x.

Doubt 892x would be useful on anything except tight doubles but you nerver know you could be in for a shock when that night of perfect seeing finally rolls around....




great lenses for sure. Having the 3.5mm pipe bomb sitting atop the comparatively tiny barlow sticking about 20cm out of the focuser is quite hair-raising!


I had one of the better nights of seeing (for once!) It must all be pretty localised then. Mars is always so so from here aswell thanks to its worst possible position stuck on the butt cheeks of the twins.

[SkySearcher]

That's fantastic!!!
I now have a new challenge then.
:stargaze:

[erick]

Dang! You guys go for the tough ones first! :)

[Alchemy]

nice report..... im nowhere near a scope at the moment .... grrrrrrr

[§AB]

You should certainly be able to catch it in the 12". Use about 500x.

[ballaratdragons]

Onya Sab :thumbsup:

Push your equipment to the Max!!!! Only way to see what it can do :)

Many people miss out on some great sights by NOT pushing their gear.

[SkySearcher]

Thanks Sab!

I will give it a go. I might make up a dew shield to block out the street light and moon.