An Hour with NGC6231 False Comet Nebula

[Rod-AR127 (Rod)]

Firstly, who needs rain when you have dew this bad?
Dew heaters on the telescopes set to high, none for the spotting scopes which were rendered useless very quickly at both ends.

Had both the 127mm achro and the 72ED set up, chose NGC6231 as it was in a good part of the sky to view.
Moon was bright enough to read a book by.
Got both telescopes locked on and played with different EPs for the best view from each.
Had 1.25" EPs on the 72ED and 2" on the 127, with and without barlows. 40 to 70 mag on the 72ED, 40 to 80 on the 127, then 200x
Both showed lots of nebulosity. Had a play with a cheap light pollution filter, save that for the moon really. It worked, gave a little better contrast but was far to dark.
Put the 1.25" 15mm GSO superview with 2.5x barlow (=6mm) on the 127mm for 200x mag and had a closer look at a few of the stars, very nice. Background was inky black and seeing was good. This was not planned so next time l will give myself a few specific stars to observe in that area to learn distances.
So much to learn but alas l feel it's almost cloud season here.
Really enjoyed reading the sticky thread about observing techniques today, always learning.

[EpickCrom (Joe)]

G'Day Rod!

Nice catch re false comet region of Scorpius. This is one of my favourite parts of the night sky, topped off by the stunning cluster NGC 6231. It must look great through your refractor!

Cheers
Joe

[Rod-AR127 (Rod)]

Was great viewing last night, tonight however is exceptional!
But being a Friday night for me and after a 9 hour day and a few hundred kilometres of train driving, l got the 10x50's out for about 1 minutes and said screw it.
There's a lot of galaxies up there l so desperately want to test my frac on, but not tonight.
I'm off for the next two nights.

[gaseous (Patrick)]

Nice report Rod, such a rich and busy area of the sky, even through binoculars.

[Rod-AR127 (Rod)]

Back at it again tonight.
Just the 5" with two dew heaters.
I was slightly disappointed/concerned after l bought thus OTA because of the CA, but looking at anything but planets and our moon, it's working great.
It has a crayford style 2" focuser with custom attachment to OTA (l broke the original) and some GSO EP's, 2" + 1.25".
I think my brother has the bits to make a motor drive for one axis and the electronics to drive it from a laptop, need to revisit that space. ie. Pull my finger out.
The moon is at -11.9 magnitude, not going to help me find faint fuzzies. Probably not going to happen with a bright moon and 5" aperture but 10-14 magnitude is what I'll be chasing in the SE sky.
The new tripod pier is a doG send, makes observing so much easier.
Enough for now, let's get out there and start looking up.

[Rod-AR127 (Rod)]

Nice clear night, no dew but with a 91% illuminated moon the sky was anything but dark. More of a greyish blue. I'm not experienced on how to describe seeing conditions but l was getting CA of brighter stars so it must have been quite good.
Certainly wasn't going to see any faint fuzzies.
I revisited NGC6231, nowhere as nice as it was two nights ago. Only the main stars visible, less than 40% of what l first saw. No nebulosity.
I really should sketch it to see if I'm even looking at the right thing
Was a bit of a yoga class looking straight up with a long frac, even with the pier.
Another short night done, let's wait for that pesky moon to go away.

[EpickCrom (Joe)]

Hi Rod, nice reports!

Keep at it, visual observing requires a lot of practice and patience, but the rewards are tremendous as you start to learn and see more! Once the "stars align" in our schedules and the moon and clouds disappear, we will hook up at my place for an observing session

All The Best
Joe

[Rod-AR127 (Rod)]

Looking forward to observing through your dob, see if l 'need' one or not.
I have three weekends off in a row from next weekend, I'll text you.