Your most memorable Visual Deep Sky Observations

[Quark (Trevor)]

It is so difficult to list just one deep sky object.

For me the Humunculus with my 16" is right up there but also The Dumbell in Vulpecula. The Swan in Sagittarius. With my OIII The Veil in Cygnus and Herschel's Ray or The Pencil in Vela.

However the most memorable things for me have been much closer to the Earth, The 2001 Leonids Storm is the most stunning thing I have witnessed in the night sky, there were two peaks, the first at 2000 per hr and the second 20 minutes later at 4 per second. I recorded data for Rob McNaught for this event in a spreadsheet using a talking countdown timer set to 5 mins. At it's best the whole sky was covered with meteor trails, a most memorable sight.

However a look at Saturn through current IIS member Steve Brownes hand built 8" Newt made a very great impression on me, but obviously does not rank as a deep sky object.

Probably another good thread title would be "Your most memorable astro observation".

Regards
Trevor

[Ziggy]

Some interesting observations in here. Would be amazing to have the opportunity to look through one of those big scopes! Most of my observing has been done under heavily light polluted skies, but in the last few months have found a place close by with mag 4 - 4.5 skies. Not great I know, but a big improvement over what I was used to.

About two months ago we had a nice clear night, and was without doubt my most memorable night of observing. And my favourite from that night was the Dumbbell Nebula (M27), an object I've seen lots of times, and never found that remarkable.

As I said, most viewing from light polluted skies, so normally only see the dumbbell shape, but this night could see the nebulosity down both sides & around it, making it look almost oval shaped. It was just so bright, and as I said, there was nebulosity there I'd never seen before. And this was without the use of any filters. This extra nebulosity is probably the norm for most people observing this object, but it was a sight to behold and a standout for me.

It was very striking, and I wish I'd spent more time on it, and tried my UHC & OIII filters, but when I saw how clear the night was, went over to NGC 253 & NGC 55.

The detail and size of these galaxies is fantastic, won't go into too much detail, but spent a lot of time on them. After that came NGC 1365 in Fornax. From the mag 4 skies I can always see the two arms, and they are quite clear with averted vision, but this night they stood out very clearly, and extended quite a long way. I really couldn't put those three galaxies in an order - I love observing them all - but I think NGC 1365 might have just taken the prize.

Looked at lots of other stuff that night too, but as someone who enjoys observing nebulae & has just discovered the beauty of galaxies, they were the standouts! Should also mention that 47 Tuc looked great as always, and though I was almost alseep on my feet, the Tarantula Nebula was amazing too, (it was still fairly low in the sky when I observed it though).

Unfortunately the northern wet season will be taking hold soon, so clear nights won't be so common. But can't wait to take my scope out to even darker skies in the new year.

By the way, my observations were in a 12" scope using a 13mm Ethos, mag 130x. Used a few different mags, but this is undoubtedly my favourite,

[Ric]

For me it was rediscovering all my old favourites and a lot of new ones through the 12" and a 18mm UWA Meade eyepiece, 82 degree FOV sure makes a difference. Just saving up now for a 12mm & 9.8mm for galaxy hunting.

Cheers

[wavelandscott (Scott)]

Hard question...I reckon Eta Carina for the first time with a filter, Omega Centaurus, 47 Tuc and the lowly Jewel Box Cluster...still get a buzz from them all. Growing up in the Northern Hemisphere seems to make these southern views more special to me...

[Rob_K]

For me, two stand out. The best was the central regions of the Milky Way through 12x50 binoculars from the darkest, clearest skies I have ever experienced, deep in the mountains of Gippsland, Vic. 3-D, colourful, intricate dust lanes.... Second was before I was astro-obsessed, and was a naked eye view of the whole sky at an incredibly dark site, on the beach at the 'Big Island' of Savaii, Samoa. Sat there for hours, gazing at a wheeling sky jam-packed with stars from horizon to horizon.

Best object was probably first view ever of Omega Centauri, from a dark site through 4.5" reflector. Sparkling pin-cushion, awesome & awe-inspiring!

Cheers -

[Outbackmanyep]

Hi guys!
My first memorable moment would have to be seeing Halley's comet in April 1986, from a dark sky at Yarramundi, near Richmond, NSW. Awesome! I can still picture it in my mind!

Then..... i would have to say my first telescopic view of a waning moon on the morning of 25th December 1986, through a 40mm Tasco refractor with the push/pull focuser, it came with a Rand McNally Moon map!

That morning i was hooked! Unbelieveable experience.......... I was 6.

As for deep sky objects.....it was probably the Jewel Box cluster through the 8" Grubb Telescope at Tebbutt's Observatory in May 1990! A fellow by the name of Steve Williams did the tour that night, i even have the paper clipping of the ad in the paper, i wanted to see Comet Austin but for some reason we didn't get to see it, from memory.

[Crusader]

For me there are three that really stand out. I only got my first scope the Orion XT10 in March this year so everything was pretty new to me. My first ever view of M42 just blew me away - that fuzzy patch suddenly looked like something and the detail was amazing. That's closely followed by Omega Centauri. Another jaw-drop object.

The last would be my first look at the Tarantula nebula using a O-III filter. You can get lost for hours trying to make out all the details, and I was able to see nebulosity where I couldn't before.

[§AB]

Eta Carina with the 12" + OIII filter. Bloody unreal from my backyard, cant begin to imagine how great it would look from a proper dark sky site. Lots of 'bays' and inlets, dark patches in the neb, texture, undulating brightness.

Seeing the Tarantula Neb with an 18" obsession from a dark site, that view is still burnt into my memory.

[Dave47tuc (David)]

Many great moments viewing DSO.

More recently the Horse head nebula in a friends 18" with H beta filter.
I was supprised how easy it was to see the horse head shape, and it was bigger than I thought. Nice supprise at the eyepiece.

[mozzie (Peter)]

the first time through my scoop and looking at saturn went and grabed the misses showed her she lifted her head looked at the front of the telescope went back around looked in eyepiecs again lifted her head again said dont be stupid stop dangling that in front she couldnt get over what she was seeing that was a unforgetable

[tornado33]

I too like Andrew saw the plume from the Comet SL9 fragment G hitting Jupiter, it was as he described. We had an impromptu viewing night at my place, half dozen scopes shoehorned into my backyard. As the explosion plume grew, we could see it in progressively smaller scopes till finally it was visible in a 4 inch reflector. Later, as the impact site rotated into view it looked as if a huge chunk of the planet was missing. Totally amazing.

Another memorable one was seeing for the first time, Comet Mcnaught, at midday. I aligned the argo navis on the Sun, then moved my 10 inch scope to where it indicated the comet to be. Sky was so bright I used sunglasses, but tere it was a hazy spot with a slight elongation. Seeing it from Lostock was excellent too

Another was at one of the earlier SPSP,s where I saw the "bright" part of CG4 with my own eyes through Peter Brobroff's 20 inch scope .

Another was Comet Hyakutake, from the dark skies of Gloucester, at 3 am. Its tail was twice as long as Mcnaughts. but much thinner.


Finally, recovering Comet Halley after perihelion on the same morning as it was first officialy recovered. It looked just like venus, but with a hazy mist about it. I was using 8x56 Binocs

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Deep sky: Seeing the clear Horsehead shape and associated straight nebulous curtain through a clearly excellent (and recently refigured) 20" F4.5 using a Hb filter at SPSP in 2005, it was like a photograph, I couldn't believe it! I could still clearly see it without the Hb filter too.

All time observation: Comet McNaught from Lostock Jan 2007 was an almost religious experience and easily the most awinspiring thing I have ever seen in the sky, I could well understand how the ancients worshipped such things not knowing what they were.

ED. Yes the Jupiter impacts in 94 were incredible too. I watched the first of them happen live from the Canberra Observatory - I was rostered on that night as the public explainer and I was hogging the 7" Starfire...just blown away by the realisation of what I was seeing, although some were a bit excited...most of the public were fairly unphased though

Mike

[ausastronomer (John Bambury)]

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

All time observation: Comet McNaught from Lostock Jan 2007 was an almost religious experience and easily the most awinspiring thing I have ever seen in the sky, I could well understand how the ancients worshipped such things not knowing what they were.

Mike

Hi Mike,

The view that Saturday night from the very inappropriately named "Mount Disappointment", is something I will remember forever. The mountain that night surely didn't disappoint. It rates right up there for me as one of my all time great lifetime experiences. "Religious" is an appropriate description.

Andrew Murrell, Gary Kopff, Lachlan McDonald, Tony Buckley and I were the last to leave the top of Mount Disappointment. Murrell kept taking pictures of it. I couldn't stop lookin' at it.

The sad thing is, I reckon over 70% of people that bothered to go to the top of the mountain, left and drove back to IISAC 2007 before full dark and the Comet Tail reached maximum brightness and visibility. Those that stayed to full dark were appropriately rewarded. An unforgettable experience.

Cheers,
John B

[bones]

I'd have to say it was just after I bought the CPC11 and I didn't know how the functions worked yet. I spent quite a bit of time out in the backyard and found myself slowly slewing around the sky - totally blown away by three objects which I didn't have a clue what they were so I jotted down the coordinates. Later found out two of them were Eta Carinae and Tarantula nebula. I thought 'what a find'. I was stoked the first time I saw the Crab nebula thinking "yeah it does exist!" The star gate cluster spun me out with its simpicity and symmetry.

[pgc hunter]

old thread, but an interesting one.

Saturn Nebula at 953x in the 12"...the ansae were not thin extentions, they were aircraft runways, M17 at high power with an OIII, absolutely spectacular. One of my all time favourite nebulae. M8 doesn't have a leg to stand on compared to M17.

Observing from Renmark, spectacular skies....seeing the 3D multi-layered Magellanics glistening through the trees was amazing.

[stephenb (Stephen)]

My two most memorable DSO's (one was technically not a DSO) were:

Supernova 1987a. I observed it frequently for months until it faded. Like my signature suggests, there is not too many amateur astronomers who can say they have witnessed a naked eye supernova in their lifetime. I am very satisfied I was one of them.

The second was of course Comet Halley. Again I spent many early mornings in late 1985 observing and sketching it, and then equally as many evenings in the first few months of 1986 applying the same observing skills.

With both events I feel extremely priveliged to have witnessed them. Events which many younger members here on IIS, in the hobby at large, may never get the chance to see in their lifetime.

[Varangian (John)]

Probably the Whirlpool Galaxy through the 20" Obssession at ASV's dark site. Talk about making one feel small in the universe!

The first time I see most things I'm blown away. Omega Centauri was like 'what the hell?' when I first saw it through a 200mm reflector.

Not a DSO but the first time I saw Saturn was also unforgettable.

[mbaddah (Mo)]

Few that come to mind...

M42 through Takahashi Mewlon 210: The outer nebulosity against the inky black background using a 14mm ES100 deg eyepiece is one image i'll never forget. It was like looking at a Ha image of it.

Eta Carina nebulae through a 16" dob: With a UHC filter in place and 31mm nagler, the eta carinae nebula looked like a giant leaf in the eyepiece! Visual nirvana.

[MattT]

Probably my first view of Saturn as a 10 year old in my 60mm Tasco refractor, still remember the rings...all one of them! Also M33 through the 9" Oddie refractor on Mt Stromolo in also a while ago and my first galaxy....filled the eyepiece. Finally the moon in binoviewers low on the horizon with all the turbulence etc just brilliant.
Matt

[LewisM]

1. Seeing M42 for the first time, through a 60mm Tasco cherry red refractor.
2. Seeing M31 through the same scope

Those 2 were about 30 years ago now!

More recent thrills:

1. Observing and photographing NGC 1365 just prior to the SN appearance, and being able to compare before and during SN shots. I literally had started a run on it just a few days before the SN was visible. My first SN!
2. Not only only observing but photographing M27, a few days after first buying and using an equatorial mount. Wish it was high enough now to redo it all again...patience Grasshopper!


BUT one o my biggest thrills ever was watching The Horsehead Nebula (Barnard 33) appear on my monitor after taking a 10 minute sub of it (still counts as viual, kinda ) It has been a dream target of mine for years, and I never could see it visually (and I have had some perfect seeing places/conditions). I still get a thrill looking at it, and it STILL needs about 3 hours more subs into it

Sorry to digress into photography, but I do VERY VERY little visual, so not much to compare.