Beautiful clear night ....

[ZeroID (Brent)]

The cloud gods love me. Must do, they gave me a stunning night to test the new 15mm GSO SV EP on.

Late Sunday afternoon a southerly change swept the clouds up north, dropped the temperature and cleared up the turbulence. Rolled the scope out onto the driveway in the early evening. I've reorganised my EP/Utility case with it's own Red light so I can see what I'm grabbing. I'll put up a pic cos it works well for a portable setup.

First up, waiting for Orion to rise, 47 Tuc, sky is still pale but track her down then load the 15mm. Nice fill the view pic. Still too light to see clearly, seeing about a 2, very stable. Sweep around the area and find NGC 330 & 346 then drop down onto 371 which I haven't viewed closely. Very open diamond star filled area.
Hunted for Tarantula but I can't seem to find a distinguishing star group that confirms viewing. Stellarium puts up an arc of 4 stars ( spider eyes ?) central to the group but no luck so far. I'll do a better base alignment next time and use the setting circles.

Darker by now, back to 47 Tuc and spend 20 mins on this finally viewing with the 6mm it is so good. I can see the granularity of the core and individual stars. the cluster looks like an explosion in stop motion. Seeing is excellent for city, transparency is making it hard to navigate though. 10" mirror is proving it's worth over the 8" I originally planned to use. The granular structure of the individual stars is quite apparent even in the 20 mm SV, the 15mm is excellent and I can just about count them, except there are just way too many.

Orion is now above the eastern treeline. Line it up in the 20mm and then try the 15 mm. Excellent. Enough mag to show greater detail but wide enough to encompass the major features. 12mm Plossl is good too, throw in the 6mm Plossl. Dust clouds fill the FOV, I have lanes within the dust, almost streamer like effects where the dust expands away from the central region. Colour is bluish tinged white. Biggiest problem with the 6mm ?? I have to keep jogging the scope to keep it in feild. I need to have a go at my azimuth bearings, too much 'stichion' at present making it hard to get fine adjustments. I have some large thin section bearings I may have a look at fitting from copier fuser bearings.
I've done a sketch of Orions Neb but having some scanning problems. Put it up when I resolve that.

Bed about 11.00 pm, not a bad night at all.

[ZeroID (Brent)]

EDIT: Sketch attached.

[supernova1965 (Warren)]

Originally Posted by ZeroID

The cloud gods love me. Must do, they gave me a stunning night to test the new 15mm GSO SV EP on.

Late Sunday afternoon a southerly change swept the clouds up north, dropped the temperature and cleared up the turbulence. Rolled the scope out onto the driveway in the early evening. I've reorganised my EP/Utility case with it's own Red light so I can see what I'm grabbing. I'll put up a pic cos it works well for a portable setup.

First up, waiting for Orion to rise, 47 Tuc, sky is still pale but track her down then load the 15mm. Nice fill the view pic. Still too light to see clearly, seeing about a 2, very stable. Sweep around the area and find NGC 330 & 346 then drop down onto 371 which I haven't viewed closely. Very open diamond star filled area.
Hunted for Tarantula but I can't seem to find a distinguishing star group that confirms viewing. Stellarium puts up an arc of 4 stars ( spider eyes ?) central to the group but no luck so far. I'll do a better base alignment next time and use the setting circles.

Darker by now, back to 47 Tuc and spend 20 mins on this finally viewing with the 6mm it is so good. I can see the granularity of the core and individual stars. the cluster looks like an explosion in stop motion. Seeing is excellent for city, transparency is making it hard to navigate though. 10" mirror is proving it's worth over the 8" I originally planned to use. The granular structure of the individual stars is quite apparent even in the 20 mm SV, the 15mm is excellent and I can just about count them, except there are just way too many.

Orion is now above the eastern treeline. Line it up in the 20mm and then try the 15 mm. Excellent. Enough mag to show greater detail but wide enough to encompass the major features. 12mm Plossl is good too, throw in the 6mm Plossl. Dust clouds fill the FOV, I have lanes within the dust, almost streamer like effects where the dust expands away from the central region. Colour is bluish tinged white. Biggiest problem with the 6mm ?? I have to keep jogging the scope to keep it in feild. I need to have a go at my azimuth bearings, too much 'stichion' at present making it hard to get fine adjustments. I have some large thin section bearings I may have a look at fitting from copier fuser bearings.
I've done a sketch of Orions Neb but having some scanning problems. Put it up when I resolve that.

Bed about 11.00 pm, not a bad night at all.

OH SHUT UP or SEND SOME UP HERE I will happily send you some rain if you would like some but I don't want to hear about all your lovely clear nights. Please disreguard that last statement I want someone to go into indepth detail so I still know that all the stars and planets are there. AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HHHHHHHHHHH

[Liz]

Woohoo, well done Brent!! Did you find the LMC? Once you do, and its easy depending on your volcanic location .... just scan the area and the Tarantula will jump out and bite ya.
Pack your scope away Warren, mine has gone in to mothballs, and you guys have had bucketloads more rain than us.

[ZeroID (Brent)]

Sorry Warren, Aus seems to be sending all the good weather over here at present. Although I confess the garden could do with some serious moisture already. The long term forecast is for a hot dry La Nina summer so some hosing required if that is any consolation for you.

Liz, I'm sure I'm skidding around in the LMC but I'm having trouble getting my bearings up there. It seems to be big and messy, heaps of stars, too many in fact. I'll pull up a photo of the region so I can get a better idea of what I am looking for, I probably swept right past it. Part of the problem is that transparency is not good so even the 10 x 50 bins struggle with the fainter areas and I'm only winning on the 10" due to aperture. A 30mm wide view EP might be the best scanning option as a starter. I nearly picked up a 32mm 2" a couple of weeks ago but someone on here beat me to it. Just got to keep looking.

Next couple of nights are not looking so good but as long as they keep popping up regular like I'll be happy.

I have a simple EQM astrophoto project started in the garage. Heath Robinson would be proud of it ... I hope ! All to be revealed soon if it works otherwise this email will self destruct in 5,..4,.. 3,..

[SkyViking (Rolf)]

Hi Brent, we've indeed had some lovely clear nights lately
Can you see the LMC with the naked eye from your location? I believe you're a bit closer to the CBD than I am, so perhaps not? (I'm a little west of Titirangi).
If you can, then the Tarantula should be clearly visible in a 50mm finder scope, it pops out at me straight away.

[ZeroID (Brent)]

Hi Rolf, some nice shots on your website. I checked them out months ago when I started getting back into this.
I cannot 'see' LMC naked eye. I'm on the Sth facing slopes of Mt Albert with quite good sth looking sky but LP seems to defeat my eyeball visuals. I'll pull out the 10 x 50 Binocs and try to get a better idea of the area. I suspect I am looking straight at it and cannot 'see' it !!

I have a dark site spot up in the Waitakere's, up by the TV Transmitter tower. Small carpark on the western side of the road. Horizon to the west and no lights and pretty good to sth and nth. I'll take the scope up there one night over summer, only 30 minutes away. The 10" can pack down quite easily, pull the struts out and put it in the wagon Just getting my act together with all the necessaries for an out of home base excursion. Scope has only been functional for about 3 months.

Cheers

[niko]

"Beautiful clear skies" ... ????

What are they????

[Terry B]

Skite.

[Shano592 (Shane)]

Wow, I had one of those last night. I thought I was being mocked, because it clouded over quite a bit at about 9:30 last night. I came back out just after 11, and all I could see were stars! Glorious stars!

So I grabbed the scope, set it up, and the stars didn't go away!

I saw the Sculptor galaxy, 47 Tuc, The Tarantula, The Great Orion and attached nebulae, a couple of the southern Caldwell objects, and quite a few more.

A great couple of hours behind the eyepiece. I'm glad I bothered to set things up.

[Suzy]

Hi Brent, thank you for that great report and I really like your sketch- it shows the long curved arm and the fish's mouth beautifully. I see you also nabbed all six stars in the trapezium. Have a go with a UHC filter on it one day- the contrast will really pop out (though your sketch shows great detail anyway).

Actually, I just had a thought...
I have this book which is a favourite of mine and used a lot, seeing as you are a serious visual observer, it will help you lots. It's by Stephen O'Meara called, "Deep Sky Companions". http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/book...essier-Objects
It's an observing book and tells you all the little details to go look for, and also a little black & white pic (for every object) of what to expect to see out of your telescope. From memory I think he observed with something around 6 inches, so everything he says is within reach for most of us. Some astro physics are given on each object too, and basically its about a page per object. It is a hard working companion of mine.

I had to have a good laugh at Warren , I've never seen him exert himself in that way before ... poor guy! We're not losing you are we Warren? Stay with us man... We have to stick together.

[ZeroID (Brent)]

Hi Suzy, he does seem a bit upset doesn't he ? Must be deprivation of something, I wonder what?
Thanks for the book recommendation, I'll check it out on Amazon, I've got 'Turn Left at Orion' in my basket for next order although I gather it is more northern skies appropriate. Yours might be more for us 'Southerners' maybe.

Looking for a UHC, a Hydrogen Alpha and an OIII filter in 1.25" but local supplier says early next year. He seems to stock pretty colours but not much else. I keep just missing out on the For Sale section here and have to watch the $$$ for a while. I've spent quite a bit on this lately with EP's and Crayfords and I don't want to get in the bad books at home. I'm lucky in that I can roll the scopes out of the garage about 5 meters and I'm viewing so time away from home is minimal.

And an update for tonight. Scored me Tarantula finally !!! Plus about a gadzillion other wee nebs in the LMC. Sky had scattered fine clouds, seeing was quite good but transparency the usual poor but I pulled out the little 4.5" to look at a nice setting moon crescent. New 15mm does an excellent job on that. Checked Orion Neb, not bad over the city then swung up to LMC in between the clouds. Hunted around unsuccessfully, pull out binocs. There it is !! Line up Canopus, swing up to a couple of stars about the same altitude as Tarantula and sweep across,.. bingo ! Not very bright in the 4.5, no detail hardly so I wheeled out the 10". Repeated the find procedure ( no base leveling or nth/sth alignment ) and bingo again. The place is a mess, stars and small clusters everywhere. Tarantula a whitish smear in a bit of a space of it's own with several smaller smudges of clusters nearby. I've figured with Stellarium that it doesn't always give you a true picture of what you will see. It's not that well ppulated with photos of the real thing. Had a bit more of a sweep around the locality, it is just saturated with stars and clusters, hurry up Paddy with those LMC charts of yours.

No sketch tonight sorry, wasn't quite prepared for the clouds to actually give me some space so I just stared at it all.

And a big added bonus, huge 'satellite' flew overhead at 9.40-47 pm, SW to NE. Must be ISS methinks, confirmed on Stellarium. That thing is humungous !! Had the binocs on it but very bright and couldn't make out the panels. Way too hard to track on the scope but a big bonus in my log.
Do we get extra points for that ??

[ZeroID (Brent)]

Hey Suzy, just checked out Amazon and there are 4 Deep Sky Companions by that author, Caldwell Objects, Messier Objects, Hidden Treasures and I can't remember the other one, dang. Which one have you got ?
I wonder if it's available as an e-book ?

[Suzy]

Hi Brent,
It is the Messier Book that I have. I 've got a link to it in my post, where you can also google preview it. It's an American book, and covers all of the Messier 110 objects. The Hidden Treasures book is next on my list to get .

Congratulations on getting the Tarrantula! And yes, you get points for nabbing the ISS, I haven't even nabbed that one yet.

I'll keep an eye out for you in the IIS classifieds regarding the filters your after, or perhaps you may like to place an ad in the "wanted" section, it has been of use to me in the past when I've been after something.

[barx1963 (Malcolm)]

The other book by O'Meara is his guide to the Herschel 400. I have the other 3 (Messier, Caldwell and Hidden Traesures) and refer to them a lot. Usually have at least 1 on the table next to the scope when I am observing.

Malcolm