Norman
February 9th, 2019, 11:13 AM
Hey folks,
anybody inhere?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joAcr3T9CNM
;-))
Recently i spent a night at 4500ft. Finally some starlight in my 12"-Dobsonian after appr. 3 months or somethin.
So i´d like to share some impressions of that night.
3427
3428
Seeing was quite good (2) so that magnifications around 400x have been possible throughout the night. I am on the way to chase the pulsar in the crab nebula - so my first attempt last night looked that way trying to see any stars within the nebula for about an hour. Having a pic in my hands with the designated pulsar marked i was able to see a pinpoint flashing elusivley at the right position of the TWO stars, one of which is the pulsar. for the pulsar is the weaker one i strongly assume having seen just the nearby brighter star. In some fleeting moments i had the impression that there could be two stars but i cannot differ it from a possible illusion created by the condensed nebula around. So pulsar not seen up to now - but definately at least the nearby compagnion.
My main intention was to have a look at some galaxies at the western side of orion that i selected from surfing in wikisky.
To make it short - here is a collection of the galaxies i visited:
3432
My results are as follows:
UGC 3181 (Bmag 14m5): imediately longish patch visible
UGC 3184(BMag 16m0) not really visible for nearby bright star disturbs very much. I didn´t try that hard yet. At least the weak star the galaxy is sticked on has been visible.
UGC 3221 (BMag 15m5), a small lingish galaxy that lies within an atractive starfield and has i tiny star at one end. It apeared as i fine silverstreak emerging from the small star - very nice, at best using 170x.
UGC 3214(BMag 13m5), small version of NGC 4565, immediately visible as fine long streak, both using 13mm (104x) and 8mm eyepiece (170x).
UGC 3294(BMag 14m5), 6-7 mag-star nearby, again longish oval appearance visible at first glance.
Slightly step aside of unknown galaxies i tried IC 412/413 because that duo was on the path between all those UGC´s . It turned out to be the object of the night among the visited galaxies. Really cute a duo and for IC-objects surprising easy via direct vision. and a12(?) mag star directly nearby. Truly a gem!
Now i was exited. Time for my favorite wikisky-find : UGC 3303 (BMag 16m0) Sitting in a small star chain similar to the northern crown it is easy to find. It has a foreground star of 11th magnitude and i expected quite hard work to see the galaxy. Yet immediately an easy smudge round the star occured, at best in my 13mm Eyepiece. In my 8mm seeing the nebula was quite a struggle and in my 17mm it was slightly harder to see too.
Wow, that has been i cool session - far easier than expected. Transparency byt the way was good but not perfect. I´ll estimate something around NELM 6m7. During most of the night the lights of illuminated slopes have been disturbing.
Having spend already 10 hours at top of the mountain i got tired. I made a walk and let my eyes roam around.
3429 3430
Having made that and having eaten something i felt a bit refreshed. These conditions have to be used! So i decided for the quasar QSO B1422+2309 in Bootes.
To make long story short - it was visible without trying hard. The designated 16m3 might be wrong - it rather has something half magnitude brighter. Using 290x it was no problem to see a star at the right position with averted vision. To hold over 80% of the time approximately.
Wow. An object of a distance of 11,8 Bio ly, z= 3,6! My personal record in distance and deepness.
This is the scene right after having catched the quasar. Venus is ascending at the top of a mountain at the horizon, Jupiter is already higher in the sky.
3431
3433
That was quite a night - finally!
CS
Norman
anybody inhere?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joAcr3T9CNM
;-))
Recently i spent a night at 4500ft. Finally some starlight in my 12"-Dobsonian after appr. 3 months or somethin.
So i´d like to share some impressions of that night.
3427
3428
Seeing was quite good (2) so that magnifications around 400x have been possible throughout the night. I am on the way to chase the pulsar in the crab nebula - so my first attempt last night looked that way trying to see any stars within the nebula for about an hour. Having a pic in my hands with the designated pulsar marked i was able to see a pinpoint flashing elusivley at the right position of the TWO stars, one of which is the pulsar. for the pulsar is the weaker one i strongly assume having seen just the nearby brighter star. In some fleeting moments i had the impression that there could be two stars but i cannot differ it from a possible illusion created by the condensed nebula around. So pulsar not seen up to now - but definately at least the nearby compagnion.
My main intention was to have a look at some galaxies at the western side of orion that i selected from surfing in wikisky.
To make it short - here is a collection of the galaxies i visited:
3432
My results are as follows:
UGC 3181 (Bmag 14m5): imediately longish patch visible
UGC 3184(BMag 16m0) not really visible for nearby bright star disturbs very much. I didn´t try that hard yet. At least the weak star the galaxy is sticked on has been visible.
UGC 3221 (BMag 15m5), a small lingish galaxy that lies within an atractive starfield and has i tiny star at one end. It apeared as i fine silverstreak emerging from the small star - very nice, at best using 170x.
UGC 3214(BMag 13m5), small version of NGC 4565, immediately visible as fine long streak, both using 13mm (104x) and 8mm eyepiece (170x).
UGC 3294(BMag 14m5), 6-7 mag-star nearby, again longish oval appearance visible at first glance.
Slightly step aside of unknown galaxies i tried IC 412/413 because that duo was on the path between all those UGC´s . It turned out to be the object of the night among the visited galaxies. Really cute a duo and for IC-objects surprising easy via direct vision. and a12(?) mag star directly nearby. Truly a gem!
Now i was exited. Time for my favorite wikisky-find : UGC 3303 (BMag 16m0) Sitting in a small star chain similar to the northern crown it is easy to find. It has a foreground star of 11th magnitude and i expected quite hard work to see the galaxy. Yet immediately an easy smudge round the star occured, at best in my 13mm Eyepiece. In my 8mm seeing the nebula was quite a struggle and in my 17mm it was slightly harder to see too.
Wow, that has been i cool session - far easier than expected. Transparency byt the way was good but not perfect. I´ll estimate something around NELM 6m7. During most of the night the lights of illuminated slopes have been disturbing.
Having spend already 10 hours at top of the mountain i got tired. I made a walk and let my eyes roam around.
3429 3430
Having made that and having eaten something i felt a bit refreshed. These conditions have to be used! So i decided for the quasar QSO B1422+2309 in Bootes.
To make long story short - it was visible without trying hard. The designated 16m3 might be wrong - it rather has something half magnitude brighter. Using 290x it was no problem to see a star at the right position with averted vision. To hold over 80% of the time approximately.
Wow. An object of a distance of 11,8 Bio ly, z= 3,6! My personal record in distance and deepness.
This is the scene right after having catched the quasar. Venus is ascending at the top of a mountain at the horizon, Jupiter is already higher in the sky.
3431
3433
That was quite a night - finally!
CS
Norman