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BEHOLD: the mighty small aperture!
Hi all,
On the spur of the moment my kids and I jumped in the car and headed out bush to a mate’s place in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney. We were lucky with the sky conditions with this start of the New Year. The kids had been wanting to see the Milky Way, shooting stars, satellites and galaxies. It was wonderful to be able to tick off all of these with them. We were also fortunate to have a great flyover of the ISS too! The kids also got to hear the chirping clicks of the tiny local insectivorous bats, the hooting of an owl. And I aged 10 years when a blasted 10” long stick insect crash landed on my sketch pad!
Only once the kids were asleep did I do any observing for my own. This time around I took my latest acquisition, and smallest scope, a 4” f/5 refractor. Packed only one eyepiece too, my new ES 30mm 82°. This combo gives me a TFOV of a full 5°!
The target I settled on was one I’ve done several times before in larger scopes, Eta Carina. One thing I’ve learnt with observing is it is all very well to examine a large extended DSO with a big scope, but so much is lost with the resulting small TFOV. Go down in aperture size, and be under dark sky conditions, and you will be rewarded with the full extent of the DSO.
So, here it is - the Goliath that is Eta Carina as seen with small aperture under cracker jack conditions.
Object: Eta Carina, NGC 3372
Scope: 4” f/5 achro refractor
Gear: ES 30mm 82°, 17X (5° TFOV) & OIII filter
Location: Blue Mountains, NSW, Oz
Date: 3rd January, 2014
Media: White soft pastel, charcoal and white ink on A4 size black paper.
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