Friday we got an evenings break in the cloud cover/rain we've had for the last 3-4 weeks so I put the 4.5" out to cool. Went out into the backyard about 9:30 after doing some familiarisation on Stellarium. The sky was quite clear but some turbulence up high so transparency was ok for Auckland but seeing not so good. Not so much image shifting but distortion.
I haven't positively identified Lagoon and Trifid since I got hooked on this affliction so the aim was to sink those and get familair with that region. Used the binocs to get the area pinpointed and was coming down from Kaus Borealis when I spotted a 'fuzz ball' using the 20mm wideview. Checked with the binocs and sure enough there was an elongated fuzzy hiding up there. My first thoughts were I've managed to get a Galaxy,.. in poor conditions,.. in a 4.5" ! Put in the 12mm Plossl and relocated the object ( no goto or eq drive here ) Still very fuzzy and elongated but there it was. Added the 2 x Barlow to the 12mm, really pushing the optics now, and relocated it, a very dim and dark elogated fuzz ball, no defintion at all. Heart racing, check Stellarium, nah, M28 Globular at Mag 6.9. A very dense little group. A nice find IMO for my puny hardware in the conditions and quite exciting.
So then went down and found both Trifid and Lagoon. Getting used to this look in the binocs, look in the scope and invert mentally to recognise the groups. Not much to see other than shimmering stars in Trifid but I'm sure I could see some gas/dust cloud structure in Lagoon. No colour but definitely some detail in moments of clarity. Spent some time scanning the region to get more detail and checked to see M7 hadn't moved and everybody up there was behaving themselves.
It was a good night despite the conditions for the little 4.5" and it was good to take the time and search the area. Can't wait to finish the 10" and see what it reveals. More structure and maybe some colour.
The 10" build is about 80% done. It's the small things that slow you down. When it is functional I have plans to build a compact dob mount for the 4.5" OTA. We are doing a 2 week trip down around the South Island in February taking one of our fast cars instead of some sluggy rental. We'll be stopping for a few days down in Wanaka region, Mt Cook, the best dark site are in NZ and taking our own car across the Cook Strait means I can add the small scope to the luggage ensemble no problem. The tripod and EQM head are just too bulky.
btw: Saturday morning and it was raining again ......
