The Planetman
May 20th, 2012, 03:49 PM
Hi All!
Wanted to share an experience that my observing buddies and I had last night while observing at our club site after our meeting.
Using my 18" f/5.5, we were able to grab the central star in the Owl (M-97). I remember trying for this in my 20" Starmaster a few years ago, but was unsuccessful. Probably a combination of seeing and/or transparency at the time.
Anyhow, the overhead seeing was ~6/10 and transparency ~8/10, one of the best nights we've had in a while.
Bob Vickers, David Paessler, and I got into the discussion about the central star and gave it a try.
We didn't have to wait long to see it! Using my 8.8 UWA (288x), it was popping in and out with averted vision. Using my 6.7mm UWA (378x) is wasn't visible nearly as much, so we dropped back down to 288.
David began staring straight at the star while the eye "darkened" the surrounding field and he noted that it seemed to bring the star into view a little easier than using averted. I've never tried that technique before, but it did work.
After the success of the central star, we tried for Hickson 55. We recorded a negative observation...this time :)
Ross
Wanted to share an experience that my observing buddies and I had last night while observing at our club site after our meeting.
Using my 18" f/5.5, we were able to grab the central star in the Owl (M-97). I remember trying for this in my 20" Starmaster a few years ago, but was unsuccessful. Probably a combination of seeing and/or transparency at the time.
Anyhow, the overhead seeing was ~6/10 and transparency ~8/10, one of the best nights we've had in a while.
Bob Vickers, David Paessler, and I got into the discussion about the central star and gave it a try.
We didn't have to wait long to see it! Using my 8.8 UWA (288x), it was popping in and out with averted vision. Using my 6.7mm UWA (378x) is wasn't visible nearly as much, so we dropped back down to 288.
David began staring straight at the star while the eye "darkened" the surrounding field and he noted that it seemed to bring the star into view a little easier than using averted. I've never tried that technique before, but it did work.
After the success of the central star, we tried for Hickson 55. We recorded a negative observation...this time :)
Ross