August Challenge Object - M55

[iceman]

Hi all.

We'd love you to take part in the August Observing and Imaging Challenge (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/index.php?id=69,224,0,0,1,0). Please post your reports, sketches and deep-space images of M55 in this thread. Discussions about the images can also be in this thread.

Please ensure the images obey the posting guidelines when you attach them.

While it would be nice if the report, sketch or image were taken in the month of August, it's not essential so feel free to post older reports and images if you're unable to take some new ones.

We look forward to seeing your contributions!

[dhumpie]

One of the nicer globs for small scopes, M55 is a rather loose globular much like Omega Centauri. From memory it is also a Class III like Omega. Using high powers (100x and above) the glob looks more like an open cluster in my C6 (6"f/5) than a globular. Numerous stars are also resolvable in my Orion 80ST at moderate magnifications. And I can distinctly detect granularity in my tripod mounted 15x70 binocs. As it is so "loose", the globular does not have a condensed core and therefore appears dimmer than other "more concentrated" globs. Only problem with this one is that it does not have very distinct signpost stars to guide you to it. see my sketch at:

http://www.geocities.com/dhumpie/dastro/m55.jpg

Darren

[atalas]

Very well portrayed Darren,here's an image I took of It .

ED80 f/7.5 , 120sec

Louie

[iceman]

Very nice image Louie! That camera is starting to get a ncie workout.

[atalas]

Thanks Mike,I'll get better with It with time I'm sure.

Louie

[seeker372011]

Nice pic Louie, you've got that ED80 smokin'

[ving]

looks tight darren, I souldnt have any probs finding it :)

v/nice louie! :)

[atalas]

Thanks Narayan, the ED80 are proving to be a very capable scope for imaging and visual.
Now for $600.00 I don't think you can do better.
Louie :thumbsup:

[dhumpie]

Very nice Louie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Keep up the good work...

Darren

[gaa_ian]

An easy find with a 10x finderscope, I was surprized by its dimness through the eyepiece & found it a bit hard to resolve at 180x with a 7mm widefield on my 10" dob.
Dropping back to 100x with a 12.5mm possol gave a better image & i can see where the comparrison to a compact open cluster comes from, an interesting object certainly.
Good to be able to get out before moonrise !

[dhumpie]

Nice report!!!!!!!!!! Where are the rest of the people :)

Darren

[seeker372011]

I imaged it with my ETX70 from Kulnura and seem to have lost the avi :ashamed: :doh:

[asimov]

Saw it about an hour ago (8.15 24th aug) using the binos & 6" refractor. Not a bad view in the 15X70 binos. Unfortunately their screaming out to be collimated. No stars resolved, just a fuzzy blob. Much better views using the refractor @ 50X A lot of stars resolved.

Update: Saw it again this time using the 12.5" reflector...WOW! :thumbsup: Resolved really well, nice bright stars.:D I must say I didn't expect to by stunned by the sight of this open cluster, but I was! Very nice! :)

[atalas]

Interesting reports guy's on the Glob M55,I too have always found my self dropping back to medium power with a lot of the Globs. Tend to enjoy them better that way I guess, even in large aperture instruments. John E, I don't think that 70mm bino's could resolve It even If collimated well anyway mate. You would need a least 100mm I would think,then again I could be wrong . Do I smell a challenge to resolve in the smallest aperture coming !

Louie :thumbsup:

[atalas]

Narayan , there's a rumour going around that your loosing your avi's ! :P

I wouldn't have a bar of It ! :lol: yes I know this isn't a joke thread !

Louie :D

[asimov]

Hi Atalas. Your post got me off my behind! Just made a quick aperture mask of 70mm for the refractor..."to resolve or not to resolve" THAT is the question..

[atalas]

Good one John ! let us know how you go and to what aperture you had to use to resolve M55 . :D


ps. I have that affect on people :lol:

Louie :thumbsup:

[asimov]

I'm back with my results. Stars resolved at 70mm is 1! only JUST too. (with 10 mins dark adaption) :D

Easily resolvable at 150mm. At 120mm easily resolvable with only a couple of mins dark adaption. Good call Atalas! :thumbsup: Judging by all that, I'd guess a 4" aperture minimum to resolve it. Now I need a variable aperture mask rather than making a dozen of them at different sizes. :doh:

[atalas]

Nice work John, at what mag are your skies ?

Louie :thumbsup:

[asimov]

Between 5.5-6 Louie.

[atalas]

I would love to live in skies that that again ! where I am I'm stuck in mag 4 If im lucky nights . Very depressing I tell you ,even makes imaging difficult John.

Louie :sad:

[seeker372011]

:rofl:

[dhumpie]

Looks grainy in my 15x70's tripod mounted. I think I can make out some specks in it!

Darren

[RapidEye]

I finally got a break from our normally horrid summer skies and took advantage of it by hauling my 10" Dob out into the backyard!

LM 6.0+ St 4/5
09:20 EDT 10mm Pentax XW - 120X

This is verbatum, right out of my notebook:
A dandy of a glob! It looks in the 10" the way M22 does in the 4.5". Very easy to see in the binox tonight - helps make it easy to find.
Very large and open/loose. Hazy, almost unresolvable center. With averted vision - the center explodes into stars!
Need to revist with 4.5" to see how good it is there - on a good night.

note - I've previously logged it in my 4.5" about a month ago, but under pretty poor skies. It was the last Messier I needed to complete all 110 - so even if the weather sucked, I was still going to log it that night! :)

[atalas]

Thanks for the report RapidEye ! always interesting to read other peoples reports and congrats on logging all Messier objects ! :cool: hope your skies get better so we can hear more about your Northern perspective.

Louie :thumbsup:

[asimov]

Good reporting Rapid. & well done on logging all the messiers!

[RapidEye]

Yeah, the summers here in the SE US are horrid! Hot, muggy, sticky, and bugs out the wazoo! Fall is really the nicest time around here, with October and November usually being really great.

I've got a star party scheduled for next weekend, in the SW mountains of Virginia. Its a couple of thousand feet elevation, so it will certainly be cooler than here, and so far <FINGERS crossed>the weather forcast is good!:cool:




Thanks! It took me a couple of days longer than a year to do it, from when I first got my scope and started to learn to starhop. Once I began hunting for Messiers in earnest, it was about an 8 month effort. I could have finished a month earlier, but the friggen weather wouldn't cooperate!

Anyway, what is the most interesting part is that I did it all with just a 4.5" F8 newt! Lemme tell ya - some of those spring galaxies were pretty tough, but after a couple of hard nights of working through the V-C Galaxy cluster, I new it was all downhill from there :)

If anyone is intersted, here is where I posted the highlights:
http://www.rapideye.us/astro/woohoo.htm

I've got to put a couple of updates on there - like nabbing Mars a couple of weeks ago - thus completing my efforts at all 9 planets too (8 with the 4.5" and Pluto with my 10")! #3 was the easiest - just looked at some trees down at the end of the pasture :D

[dhumpie]

Great report Rapid. How high does it get in the states????

Darren

[RapidEye]

Temperature? Humidity? Eleveation?

In the SW US, California, Arizona, Nevada, it can get over 120F (almost 50C). Its comparable to central Oz - very hot, dusty, and dry.

In the SE US, Anywhere along the southern Atlantic coast and all of the Gulf of Mexico, it regularly gets over 100F (about 40C) but the humidity is usually over 90 percent!!! Horrid. Probably comparable to Cairns.

As far as observing is concerned, in the SE US...
You can't have that much heat and humidity in the air and have it stay stable. Its a boiling churning mess of haze most of the time and we get thunderstorms most afternoons. You can litterally see the murk hanging in the air.

Elevation wise, the highest peak in the Eastern US is here in North Carolina and it is only 6,684ft (2000 meters). Not very high. But out west, in the Sierra and Rocky Mountains, there are quite a few peaks over 14,000 feet (4300 meters). I lived most of my life in Colorado anywhere between 5000 and 7000 feet. Some of the places where I used to race mountain bikes were around 10,000 feet elevation :help:

[dhumpie]

Sorry Rapid I should have been more specific. I wanted to know how high the glob gets over there in North Carolina. Over here the glob is at zenith at this time of the year. But your last post was very educational as well :)

Darren

[RapidEye]

Heh - I cast my net as wide as I thought I needed too - clearly not wide enough :doh:

At my place in central NC it gets about 24 degrees above the horizon. From someplace high and dry, like New Mexico, that would probably be OK. From here, most of the time, thats down in the murk.

Its not often that I get summer nights like I had last week where things look that great, that low. Even NGC 6231 look amazing. Easily the prettiest single OC in the sky that I've seen.

M13 is our summertime globular jewel. It passes through the zenith every night, all summer long. Lyra and Cygnus are the other nice summer ones. I suppose that is why M57 and the Veil Nebula are so often photographed by amatures around here.

I logged my first observation of the Veil complex a month or so ago and it floored me. Easily one of the most amazing sites in the heavens. :thumbsup: