16th October 2010 - Report

Today was my lucky day. A spell of dry sunny weather with a good clear night forecast. I did not expect to get using my new scope so soon! I was able to have first light from the night before but that was only to be sure that I could set it up and to check the optics.
I arrived at Bragan nice an early, around 18:50, so I could take my time in setting up and try to get some photos taken of my new setup.
Firstly, the scope itself. I am really impressed with the optical quality of the scope, it has already provided me with some of the best views I've ever had so I can feel many years of rewarding nights and a good relationship developing.
The bad news, where is the bad new? Sadly there is plenty. GOTO doesn't seem to work and Auto tracking gave up on my half way through the observing session but I think this is my mistake than anything because when I got home I took the manual out again and read through it and (because of my dyslexia I did not see how obvious this was) saw that there are two ways of aligning this mount, while so far I've been setting it up very similar to how I would with the EQ6 Pro. Sadly that means waiting for another clear night to try all this out again.

Apart from the mounts troubles it was a fantastic night with a nice turn out of other club members. Including myself, my brother and some other guy who came up to do some astrophotography there was 9 of us there. The crack was excellent and the observing was equally as good despite a very bright moon.

I took a look around the moon before I began my session and the views were extremely crisp and clean with sharp focus all the way down to 323x. One of the members is highly knowledgeable of the moon so he was able to guide me to places I normally wouldn't have taken much notice of - it was a long time since I enjoyed observing the moon like that.

One thing I haven't mentioned yet is that my mount got christened. While setting up the base I walked back to the car to get some more equipment when a big black Labrador dog came walking past, went over to my scope, cocked its leg and took a leak on it! Luckily it wasn't much and I had a window cleaning scrim to clean it off. What a start for a new scope though. No wonder the GOTO didn't work.

Equipment = Skyliner 14"

Location = Bragan

Seeing = 3\4
Trans = 2

Start Time = 20:07

M57 = The finest structure I've seen in a long time. Even the central star was making an appearance through moments of steady seeing.

M13 = A breathtaking view. I never seen so many stars resolved so clearly in the eye piece before.

Juipter = A mind blowing view. I never seen Jupiter look this good. The GRS was so plainly obvious and rich in a red colour. The details in the bands were beyond 'wow', small white ovals, streaks and gaps all along the northern band. There was also a lovely shadow transit from one of the outer moons and then later a fresh shadow transit from Ganymede, which was really strong and showing up on everyone scopes. I could also see Ganymede itself moving across the disc of Jupiter. I could also see several other spots along the southern region and I lost count of all the details between the bands and zones.
If these are the kind of views I can expect from this scope then I am going to have some fantastic observing days ahead of me.

M76 = Lovely structure, displaying a strong dumbbell shape with nice dark features in the centre region.

M103 = Very pleasing and nice varying star colours through out the cluster.

M27 = The moon light really washed this nebula out but the shape of the dumbbell was still strong and easy to make out.

Eta Cas = A sublime view! The intensity of colour from the secondary star was nothing I had seen before, the most vibrant shade of dark blood red/brown I have ever seen. A truly unique star and double system.

NGC 891 = Barely visible. Averted vision allowed me to see a ghostly shape of the galaxy but the moon light was too much.

Finish = 00:00

So, overall an excellent night - GOTO issues aside - with some views being the best I've ever had. I really pray for clear nights during the new moon phase next month. I am itching so badly to get some galaxy observing done.

Below are a few photos taken:

New telescope ordered

After years of saving up for a new scope I finally made the deal. I had pre-ordered a Skywatcher Skylinker 350P GO-TO at Firstlightoptics.com and Steve phoned me yesterday to say they are in stock.
All I could do was whip out the plastic card and make the payment!

I am really looking forward to this scope and it will be nice to get to see it and, hopefully, get to use it before I go away on holidays at the end of the month.

I'll take photos and videos and upload them a few days after it arrives.

10th October 2010 - Report

Dry weather at last but the air quality is very poor with a thick haze and a muggy feel when outside. Still though, it was a clear night, warm and I was in the mood for observing so I got all set up and got stuck into double stars once again.
It's all I could do with the terrible sky quality but double stars never get boring to me so I was happy enough. Especially so when the night was very mild. In fact I spent the whole session observing in my bed clothes. So a light fleece, a pair of cotton sports bottoms and my comfy slippers was more than enough to keep me warm.

Seeing - 2
Trans - 1

Equipment = EQ6 Pro, 10" Newt and laptop.

Location = Home

Start Time = 20:50

M57 = I choose this to start with so I could determine the observing conditions and make final decision on what I will observe. The view was better than I expected.

NGC 7331 = Again a test object to see how galaxies would hold up under the conditions. The result, very badly. A very poor view with only the bright core to be seen. So it was back to double star observing for sure now.

Matar = The star itself is yellowish with the secondary a pale white/blue shade with a large separation.

M15 = This was really showing up well in the muggy sky. Stars resolved well, only the overall brightness was affected.

32 Pegasi = A white coloured primary star with a rather faint secondary star, I could not pick up any hints of colour.

33 Pegasi = The primary star is orange/red in colour with the secondary nicely seperated, about a magnitude fainter and displaying a pale white/blue colour.

HIP108119 = A nice double. Very much like a smaller version of Albireo in Cygnus, colours were very much the same.

HIP114183 = Not much to look at with this double. The secondary star was very hard to see due to the conditions.

HIP115417 = This is a nice beauty of a double. Both stars a deep reddish shade with the secondary very close and very faint but a very fun and challenging to see.

HIP116961 = Another lovely pair with the primary being a deep red with the secondary nice separated and appearing very faint and blue in colour.

HIP115800 = A delightful little pair. So small and so close together it would be easy to mistake this pair as one star under low or medium power. I found that 175x gave the most pleasing view.

Comet Hartley (130R) I am not much of a comet observer or fan but of all the comets I've looked at over the last 10 years this feels as the most disappointing. I think most of the disappointment comes purely from the silly hype it is getting on Sky at Night and other astro websites.
All I could see was the bright core surrounding the nebulous and a hazy cloud around it. You'd think it was a faint galaxy if you didn't know there was a comet there.

Finish Time = 22:07