Thursday 14 May 2020

13th/14th May 2020 - Report

Nearing the end of an arctic cold snap and a clear night was inbound before the weather got warmer again and conditions were looking good for some good observing. Temps just above 1 degree and humidity in the 70s and wind almost no existent.
The seeing started off rather poor with even mag 3 stars were twinkling like mad just after twilight but I knew to give it a chance and by 23:15 it really improved and by midnight it became good to excellent at times and by the time I finished at 2am the sky was a sight to behold with even Vega, being very steady and velvety milky way all through Cygnus and fading out into Cassiopeia, along with the great rift in Vega being very apparent. The air was still and calm, it was a night stand still, look up and just take in the moment and the feeling all around you.
Observing a mix in Draco was the objective and it got dark enough to start by 23:20 and used M51 as my test target and then moved to Hercules to M92 as my firt proper target for the session and everything was looking great for the night.


Location = Home - front garden

Equipment = Skywatcher 14" GOTO

Seeing = 2/3 ending up at 4/5 as the night went on
Trans = 2/3 spending more time in 3 as the night went on

M92 - Hercules = The sky was still not at its darkest and seeing was shaky but the view in the eyepiece was outstanding! Prolonged moments of good seeing gave excellent resolution to the cluster, pin point stars well into the heart of the core and gorgeous strands and webs of stars and clumps going all out to the edge of the FOV. I spent over 10 minutes on this.

Mu Draconis - Alrakis = Brilliant white pair, very close together. The 10mm Delos just splits them and visually they appear the same in size, brightness and colour.

17/16/ Struve 2078 Draconis = What a lovely triple system. 17/16 easily splits in the 9x50 finder scope - an easy binocular double - but it is in the scope where the splendor of this system delights. With the 10mm Delos Struve 2078 can be seen kissing 17, appearing smaller in size. All three components are a pristine white. Well worth looking at this.

NGC 6543 - Cat's Eye = An outstanding sight! Very crisp, bright and direct sight showed the tiny but pin sharp central star, peering its way into the back of your eye. AV transforms the view with a beautiful bright disk and changing eyepiece to the 4.7mm ES took this to another level, revealing areas with shape and structure to the nebula with select areas looking a bit beady in texture. Easily one of the best views.

Epsilon Draconis = A delightful double. The primary star a vibrant orange and the 4.7mm splits the pair really well with a small bluish companion. The view in the 10mm Delos barely splits the pair, giving the appearance the companion is kissing the disk of the primary. A fine sight.

NGC 6503 - Draco = Uniformly dim but well defined shape, appearing edge on and slightly irregular. Prolonged observing with AV started to show fainter structure extending out from the disk. One to go back to.

Eta Draconis = This is a very deceiving double. You see nothing but the primary star at first until you realise the double is really small, a tiny pin hole of brilliance with in the glare of its iron orange parent. A thrilling sight and highly recommend.

NGC 5981/82/85 - Draco = Not the best view I have had but with the proper dark nights gone for summer, so within that reason the view was decent. All three were easily seen but the edge on 5985 casts eye pupil like slither of a galaxy is the attention grabber here.

NGC 4236 - Draco = Very difficult to see, took me quite a while to find, I probably went over and past it several times when AV spotted something sure enough it was so faint it was really hard to spot. One to retry on a darker night.

NGC 6210 - Hercules = What a fantastic PN! Brilliant and vibrant aqua blue/green hue to the central nebula, AV helping to show faint, delicate structure surrounding the nebula. What a corker.

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