Obs report 4 June 2011

michaellxv (Michael) · #1 05-06-2011, 01:08 PM

Despite the clouds closing in at home, the promise of clear skies north at Stockport sent me out. It looked to be clearing as I drove north but when I arrived some cloud came over, fortunately this cleared shortly after.

Moon. On the way up I enjoyed some nice views of the new moon. By the time I arrived it was too low in the west to see. Does this count as an observation http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/....estionicon.gif

T Pyx. Finally got back to this after my initial look in April. I had trouble again just locating the constellation in the sky, but eventually got there. This chart from AAVSO helped enormously locating the star. Last time I reported it not as bright as HIP44538 mag7.75, last night it was brighter than this but not as bright as nearby HIP44415 mag6.9

Saturn 15mm 3xBarlow 240x
Saturn was almost at its highest by now. Seeing was not that good the planet was swimming around quite a bit but still a pleasure to look at. I could see the moons Titan, Tethys and Dione. Some banding across the planet was visible but I couldn't get Cassini div.

Now onto Suzy's May/June challenge.

NGC3242 Ghost of Jupiter. 10mm 120x
It was indeed a relatively easy find

although I could not see any of the colour promised. I tried upping the mag to pick out some of the details but that made the view worse, just a big blurr. I will have to go back to this on a better night.

M83 26mm & 15mm
This was directly overhead and had me doing all sorts of contortions to locate it. When I did WOW

what a beauty. The bright core and some of the arms were clearly visible. I put the 15mm in for a closer view but was a bit disappointed, so went back to the 26mm and saw nothing. Then I looked at the secondary mirror and found out why

.

The dreaded dew put an end to what had started out so well.

It had been so long that I stayed a while and enjoyed the view of the Milky Way overhead and scanned around with the binos until they dewed up too.

As I drove home I could see it was still completely cloudy there so it was worth the drive.

pgc hunter · #2 11-06-2011, 11:56 AM

Nice report Michael. Loved your description of M83, further cements the fact that my skies are sub par

Ghost of Jupiter should take a fair bit of magnification owing to it's high surface brightness. Perhaps increasing the image size gave an illusion of blurryness, as opposed to a small tight image, when in fact you were still seeing the same amount of detail, if not more, but "spread out' rather than "tightly packed", if that makes sense lol

cheers

Paddy (Patrick) · #3 11-06-2011, 12:43 PM

Nice report Micheal. M83 is indeed a stunner. I hope you get a good look at the Ghost of Jupiter soon - it is really a great PN.

barx1963 (Malcolm) · #4 11-06-2011, 01:55 PM

Thanks for the report Michael. Sounds like you need to invest in some dew controls bits and pieces. I really only had my first good look at M83 at Snake Valley earlier this year, looks fantastic in Paddy's scope, and have observed it every night out since then. Wonderful object.
NGC 3242 requires patience to tease out some details, but is definaitely worth the wait.

Malcolm

michaellxv (Michael) · #5 11-06-2011, 06:20 PM

Thanks for the comments guys. I've been looking into some dew control. I started looking at designs for home made heaters but then though I should do something more basic like get a shroud first.

As a quick and dirty I am waiting to try out a camping mat wrapped around. As it is stored rolled up it has a natural curl and holds iteslf on. Not sure how effective this will be, but if it works could be a cheap option to cut one to fit properly.

I was out today hunting for a 12v hair dryer but can't find any.

mental4astro (Alexander) · #6 11-06-2011, 08:23 PM

Hi Michael,

Nice report mate. You're every bit the photon junkie alright,

.

I too have struggled with M83, having only twice managed a clear view of its bar & arms. Have you managed to pin M33? It is magnificent in an RFT! & twice the diameter of the full Moon.

Here are a couple of 12V hair dryers. Just be mindful that they are power hungry buggers, and might be best served with their own car battery power supply, not your car's, and a "booster pack" will shut down when the power gets too low. I've got one, and only keep it as a back up incase I forget a dew cable or two. They do a nice job though.

Paddy (Patrick) · #7 14-06-2011, 11:53 AM

Regarding dew, a shroud will make a big difference as will putting a baffle over the end of the scope behind the primary as per Scott Tannehills article http://www.iceinspace.com.au/63-400-0-0-1-0.html You won't need to remount the fan as he suggests, but the little baffle around the inside circumference of the OTA just above the primary works well. When I did this with my 12" GSO, dew became a thing of the past and the primary mirror cooled much more rapidly. You'll need a shroud for it to work for the secondary though.

kitsuna (Adam) · #8 14-06-2011, 01:04 PM

Nice report Michael. I was out there that night as well. Where you the guy with the lightbridge or the Skywatcher 12 incher?

I have to say that the dew was absolutely awful as the night went on.

I intend to post my very own first obs report for that night in the near future.

michaellxv (Michael) · #9 14-06-2011, 03:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kitsuna

Nice report Michael. I was out there that night as well. Where you the guy with the lightbridge or the Skywatcher 12 incher?

I have to say that the dew was absolutely awful as the night went on.

I intend to post my very own first obs report for that night in the near future.

I had the lightbridge (check my sig). I don't go out that way often as I'm on the other side of town.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paddy

Regarding dew, a shroud will make a big difference as will putting a baffle over the end of the scope behind the primary as per Scott Tannehills article http://www.iceinspace.com.au/63-400-0-0-1-0.html You won't need to remount the fan as he suggests, but the little baffle around the inside circumference of the OTA just above the primary works well. When I did this with my 12" GSO, dew became a thing of the past and the primary mirror cooled much more rapidly. You'll need a shroud for it to work for the secondary though.

Thanks Patrick, I saw that article and wondered how well it would work. Up until now I hadn't bothered with the fan but I guess I should. Just one thing, it seems to be blowing away from the mirror, I would have thought it should blow onto the mirror

Paddy (Patrick) · #10 14-06-2011, 05:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by michaellxv

I had the lightbridge (check my sig). I don't go out that way often as I'm on the other side of town.

Thanks Patrick, I saw that article and wondered how well it would work. Up until now I hadn't bothered with the fan but I guess I should. Just one thing, it seems to be blowing away from the mirror, I would have thought it should blow onto the mirror

If its anything like the GSO fan the air is directed to the primary mirror's rear and bounces back which is why you need a cover over it to force it up the tube (with a hole over the fan for an inlet)