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June 10 report:
As noted in my June 7 report I have been conducting a little experiment using my two scopes.
My 8”/203 mm reflector scope gathers about 6 times as much light as my 80 mm refractor. Let’s see what that means to me in my sky.
In my June 1 report, using my XT8i, I found M57, the Ring Nebula in Lyra, by star hopping and hunting. It was faint but I found it, definitely. I wondered if I could find it with the ETX 80, now that I knew about where to look.
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June 7 – ETX 80 – looking for the Ring Nebulae in the constellation Lyre about half way between Sheliak and Sulafat. These two stars are about 2 degrees apart. My 25 mm Plossl gives me 15X and 3.4 degree so I can see them both in that eyepiece. No sign of the ring nebulae.
Went to a 9.7 mm Plossl eyepiece which gives me about 41X or about 1.2 degrees. So I can have either of the guide stars in the FOV and the ring nebulae should be near the other side of the FOV. No joy.
Moved to my ES 82 6.7 mm – this gives me about 60X and about 1.3 degrees FOV so I could use the same approach at the 9.7 mm. No joy.
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6/9, try it again. Perhaps a little better conditions. I set up the ETX 80 behind some bushes to block more of the house and street lights so my eyes could better dark adapt Since I was focused on one spot the lack of view in other directions did not matter.
Following the same procedures as on June 7.
No luck with the 25 mm. BUT, when using the 9.7 mm I spotted a faint white fuzz ball, a smudge that was right where the ring nebulae should be. Going to the 6.7 mm I again could see it but it was a faint fuzz ball though I could detect, with averted vision, a donut kind of shape though I could not make out the hole.
Going to the 4.5, mm, 89X, only degraded the image
OK, success, I found it. Not much to look at but I found it.
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6/10, Orion XT8i 10:35 pm My usual spot on the sidewalk.
About 60 degrees with no wind. 65% humidity
Orion XT8i used manually. 38, 25, 8-24 zoom, 6.7 and 4.5 mm. GSO 2” 2X barlow -
Using the 2” 70 degree 38 mm I found the ring nebulae immediately. The greater aperture of the XT8i clearly made a big difference.
Went to the 25 mm – getting better.
Added 2X barlow – faint but you can see the donut shape with averted vision
With the 6.7 mm, 180X, it was very faint and fuzzy but I could see the donut shape.
4.5 mm/266X image was too degraded.
So, that 6X light gathering advantage really made a difference on this task.
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Turned my attention to The Northern Cross - Deneb is the top of the cross and Sadr is the center of the cross beam.
About 1/2 a degree from Sadr is M29, a somewhat unremarkable open cluster. I found it.
Found a few other interesting groups of stars that probably don’t have names but I liked them. Drew one which was kinda like a soup ladel looking thing. Using Stellarium I located it. Star HIP 97307 was in the middle of it.
Saturn – quick drive by on Staurn. Could see the rings at 31X. Looked good at 180X could see some cloud bands and about 5 moons I think.
Mars – At about 96X it looked pretty good and I could see some surface color variation. took it up to about 266 but it looked best between 90 and 130X.
11:45 and I started to pack up.
Overall a very satisfying evening. I would have stayed out later but I wanted to get this report written and I have an RC glider flying contest in the morning so I can’t sleep too late.
Clear Skies to everyone.
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