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The best one night stand ever!

whiplash — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 22:36:37

I now know what truly great skies looks like. Saturday just gone was my long-awaited trip to the autumn star party at Kelling Heath. I can't honestly remember a great deal but I'll do my best...

So I woke up far too early saturday morning (excited, moi?) knowing that I had a bit of a day of it, what with plasterers coming round between 8-9 in the morning, my mother in law coming over later on and I had to sort out my stuff by lunchtime. TBH it was a chaotic morning and when Phil (my brother in law who was coming along) came over, I was well glad to be getting out of the madhouse :). Fortunately, Kelling is only a couple of hours away by car so we arrived by mid-afternoon and had ourselves sorted, ready for the night ahead. There was a fair few people I had met before at the StarGazers Lounge star party earlier this year and a few new faces, all good people and no sad faces amongst us. As we were fed by the crack team of SGL chefs and waited for the sun to go down a couple of us decided to have a tour round the place as the event was taking place on two fields, many many serious setups around, some costing tens of thousands of pounds. Not exactly Grab & Go most of them!

Light cloud above but nothing serious and just as the sun went down it magically disappeared! When things like that happen, you just know you're in for a treat! Got the mount aligned and even when it wasn't fully dark I could see far more stars than what I could normally see from my back garden. Gradually, as the light faded, the glory of a truly dark sky was there to be seen. I could have quite happily sat back in my chair and looked up, marvelling at the bright Milky Way and picking out constellations I'd normally never see. But as the scope was there... Way too many objects to remember specifically but all the favourites I've seen before but much, much better! Martin from SGL VERY kindly lent me his 17mm Nagler eyepiece for a while and you can see why these things cost way into three figures! Super wide field of views with no distortion whatsoever and clear as day, marvellous stuff. I managed to wander over to the other field and had a look through a 12" Takahashi cassegrain scope which was amazing. Jaw-dropping views that only a big scope like that could provide. Another moment to remember.

After quite a long day, I couldn't literally stand no more and I gave up at 1.30 and turned in. I didn't get much sleep at all and I had to relieve myself at 5am and to my surprise there was 3 guys still up capturing images! That's dedication for you. I've seen some of the results and they were certainly worth it, no question. Sunday morning came and most people were pretty hazy from the night before, tired but happy. A superb breakfast from Cafe' SGL supplied us with the fuel we needed to get us through the day and after saying out goodbyes, it was time to leave.

I consider myself to be pretty lucky as to go there for one night and see skies like that. I've only ever seen close to that when I've been on holiday up in the highlands of Scotland. A great night and something to be put in the memory bank and fondly remembered when things aren't going so well. What got me was even though the event was fully booked and the site itself was pretty busy, then atmosphere was laid back and EVERYONE was friendly and happy to help out one another. You'd consider stargazing to be a fairly solitary pastime (and it could quite easily be like that) but forums like SGL and star parties like this shatter that image. In fact, I would say that as a communal thing, stargazing can be a great way to meet new people and share the love of something.

I'm off to Kielder Forest in just under a month for a long weekend for another star party. If it's as good as this, then I'll be one happy bunny. I'm not expecting it to be as warm though!

Clear skies all,

Tony..

Sometimes it's nice to go au naturel.

whiplash — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 22:20:44

2 clear nights in less than a week? This must be some kind of record for this year! The Kelling Star Party is only a couple of days away and it seems like almost the entire astro community is going! The site is fully booked, people are chatting excitedly on forums and you just know the weather is going to play up. No matter though, half the fun is meeting like-minded people and generally having a good time. So it's a bit of result that a clear night a few days before I'm due to go has come up so I can get my eye in and get ready..

So after the usual setting up with the WO ZS110, I thought it'd be nice to do a mix of some new objects and a couple of the old favourites and compare them to what I remember how they looked in my C8N. I'm a bit tired so it's not going to be a marathon session, just a few and off to bed.

First up, the coathanger. Not seen this before for some reason. It's an easy object to see but I've got a bit of a cluster thing going on (I know it's an asterism and not a true cluster!). Hm, it would appear that even with my lowest power EP (Meade 4000 series 40mm), I can't get it all in. Almost all of it, but not quite. Another good reason to get a wide angle low power eyepiece..... Looked good from what I did see though!

I thought it'd be good to see Rasalgethi before disappears until next year. Lo and behold, the red and green beastie looks cracking in the WO scope. The colours look definately more vivid in it and obviously being a refractor, the contrast makes a difference too.

M27 - The dumbell is one of the few nebulas that doesn't disappoint when observing it visually. With my C8N, a fairly high power EP and a UHC filter I'm able to make out a fair bit of detail there. In the WO it's there, no problems but the smaller aperture makes a big difference. You do lose quite a lot of detail and some of the basic shape and using the UHC filter does more harm than good. Still, I'm using a scope with just over half of the aperture of the my newt and it still looks pretty good so I'm happy with it's performance.

Then it all goes pear shaped. I don't normally use my laptop while I'm out observing but I did tonight and something electrical goes. That's not good but it's no biggie as long as the scope is ok. Then the scope starts playing up, bugger. I'm not in the mood to faff about so I turn everything off, sit down in the chair and just look up. Even though the seeing isn't great, I can still make out the Milky Way, plenty of constellations and whatnot. As the title says, it's nice just to sit down and drink it in without any optical aids.

Anyways, clear skies all, especially over the weekend!

Tony.

It's been a while, but it was worth it!!

whiplash — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 22:41:16

Well my first observing session without giving first lights to new gear in what seems like eons. So without further ado, this was done with my WO ZS110 on my CG5GT mount.

Most of these objects form part of the September Sky Guide that can be found on the SGL forum here: http://stargazerslounge.com/index.php?topic=16655.0. I'm not saying for one minute my observations are right, like the rest of this blog, I'm writing how I see it :). Anyhoo...

First up, M52. I didn't find this to be an overly bright open cluster, but I found this was best viewed through my 8mm Hyperion EP where I found I resolved about 40-50 stars at least.

M103. Smaller, but brighter than M52. Again, the Hyperion was best for viewing it where I resolved about 15-20 stars in the cluster.

NGC 457. I like this one! I found it to be in a 'Y' shape which was best viewed in my 12.4 Meade series 4000 plossl. I believe there is a double star in the foreground of this cluster. I did see two bright stars 'in front' of the cluster, was this the split double? Maybe, maybe not... Resolved at least 50-60 stars.

Eta Cas. Nice double star. One of the few objects that I've managed to find without the aid of GOTO (not too hard admittedly as it's viewable with the naked eye, but a RDF does make life easier!). A White/Yellow primary with a Red/Orange secondary. I split it with the 12.4, but the 8mm made it look better.

Flushed with my success with finding Eta, I looked for Iota Cas. and found it! This is a triple star which I split with (I think) my 8mm again (it does get used a lot!) with all three stars looking white to me.

Unfortunately, Perseus was stuck behind a tree so I could view anything from that constellation, shame, but it'll get higher up in the sky as the year draws to a close.

Also had looks at Almach (colour contrast double star in Andromeda), M29 (open cluster in Cygnus(?)), Cor. Caroli (Double star in Canes Vanaciti) and the Ring Nebula. I have to say that this WO 110mm scope really does make viewing a pleasure, simply a joy to use and I've got no complaints at all about it.

All in all, tonight has made up for the lack of scope time I've had recently. Roll on Kelling and Kielder!

Clear skies all :)

Tony.

Breath is life.....

whiplash — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 08:51:11

...or so the hypnosis track is telling me. I'm stopping smoking. Easilty the toughest thing I've had to stop doing and it's been over 2 days and while I'm not snapping at everyone and generally being a real stress-pot, it's certainly no walk in the park. So, for the last three nights before I hit the hay, I've been playing some self-hypnosis CD... Breath if life, you are at calm and peace etc etc. It might work but my sleeping has gone to the dogs and I've had little sleep since I stopped and that doesn't help....

Fortunately, the skies cleared last night and so instead of sitting around the house grinding my teeth and frantically chewing gum, I thought it'd be nice to do it in the garden instead. What's surprised me is how well my 8" newtonian holds it's collimation. The last time I had to adjust it was quite some time ago, I keep checking it and it's still pretty much on point, nothing like my old 10" dob. You only had to go near it and it went AWOL...

So all set up and aligned and I thought it'd be nice to re-observe some objects I tried a while back but clearly weren't great for various reasons. So the first target was M27, the Dumbell Nebula. Much, much better than the last time I tried it. After trying various combinations of EP's and filters, it turns out that my Meade 4000 12.4mm (x80) with my UHC filter gave the best view. Plenty of structure and shape to make out. I was beginning to wonder if any of the filter I bought would make any difference to viewing, but I can say without hesitation a UHC filter does help a lot with nebulas!

I thought I'd give M3 another go and I found it to be quite disappointing the last time. Hm, it's not my favourite glob but it's not without it's charms. Plenty of stars to resolve and it's pretty bright. I still prefer M92 and M13 to be honest...

M51, the Pinwheel Galaxy is another one of those elusive litle things that I've missed on several occasions. In comparison to M31 it's small and faint (most things are though!), but I did see it this time but I think I just don't have enough aparture to see anything of note.

Unlike M31! I was so tired from not sleeping properly, I thought I'd make this my last object and as it's slightly higher up in the sky now, and the nights are getting longer, I might be able to see some more of it. Not really TBH but just the scale and brightness of it makes it a very worthwhile object to observe.

And that was it really, tea, bed and another day nicotine free. Fingers crossed it stays like it.

Clear skies all!

Tony..

About time too!!

whiplash — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 09:18:37

Last night was a night under the stars for the first time in what seemed like ages. Breaking cloud from about 10ish meant the scope was put out for later and I hoped for the best and the clouds didn't close in on my location. As it turned out, lucky me.....

So after polar and GOTO alignment, my initial thoughts were 'what first?'. Most of the time, I have at least two or three objects in mind when I'm out but not today. Luckily, the 'tour' button on my handset came to rescue for my lack of imagination and flicking through the various objects it came up with the Blue Snowball, I've given this a miss before as it's a planetary nebula and it just hasn't been dark enough to view these properly recently but I thought 'what the hell' and sent the scope in that direction. Unsurprisingly. I didn't see much at all for several reasons, it's small, it wasn't properly dark and it was low down in the sky. Oh well. Just checking through a book to get some more info on it, it tells me the Snowball is in Andromeda. Hm, I've never seen the Andromeda galaxy, shall I give it a go? Too right, so after a quick re-locate, there it is. Yeah, I know it's low down and nowhere near it's best position for viewing, but it still looked pretty impressive to these virgin eyes. No detail but the outline gave me a good impression of the size of it (big!). I'm sure this will be on my list for next few months I can tell you!

Rasalgethi came next. Book will tell you that it's a good colour contrast double of one red and one green star, but I always find the red star a little washed out (most likely down to my slight red/green colour blindness). Still, it's a good double to gaze at and as it's a fairly tight double, you do need to crank up the magnification a bit. I didn't bother with Albeiro as I've seen it many times recently so where next?

The Ring Nebula of course! (haphazard moi?) The last time I looked at it was a while back and it was pretty low in the sky so it wasn't the most spectacular of sights. At the moment at roughly Midnight, it's around the Zenith so I gave it another go. Much MUCH better this time! Bringing the magnification to about x200, you can see the ring itself with a fair bit of detail but using a UHC filter did nothing to it, not dark enough I asume. As it spins slowly westwards and the skies get darker, I'm sure the filer will come into it's own, just not now while it's hasn't been that long since the equinox.

Due to the ecpliptic being low down at the moment, and my house facing south from my garden, I haven't seen Jupiter yet (but I've got a rather tasty grab & go set up on the way though!). This also goes for the constellations on there too, so unfortunately there's a few objects that'll have to wait until next year so still without any idea of what to look for, I'll give the tour button a go and see what comes next...

... the double double. Ok then. It's good! It's nice to look at if you can split both stars in the same view as you've got the milky way as a background to frame it nicely. Hm, lets check the time, blimey 1.30! The kids'll be up early (no rest for the wicked here ), I know it. I could have stayed out for ages but I can't deal with my boys without at least a half decent night's sleep. So it was with great reluctance I packed up and headed indoors for a cuppa and bed. After the rubbish weather we've been having recently, it was nice to get out and have a good session. The forecast is saying the weather is going bad again for the next few days so I'm well happy I managed to get out.

Clear skies one and all.

Tony...

Short but sweet.

whiplash — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 10:39:17

This weather is pretty depressing. Floods up north, clouds and rain virtually everywhere else. I haven't been out for what seems like ages. So it was quite surprising last night to see the clouds breaking at about 10.30 and I thought 'I'll set up and see what happens'. As luck would have it, clouds low in the south covering the moon but pretty much clear otherwise. As it was quite early, nebulas were out of the question and Jupiter is too low (behind my house), but there's plenty of globs and doubles about..

As a tester, first object was Albeiro. Always a nice view with the contrasting colours. I picked up a 5mm TMB/BO EP recently and this was the first opportunity to use it. Blimey! Albeiro's fairly easy to split but with the new EP, you could drive a bus through that gap! T'riffic views and sharp right across the FOV. This one's a keeper I can tell you.

Next up was Rasalgethi, another good two colour double. I'm getting quite into double stars, especially the colour contrast ones. Good for these short nights especially for me because I have to get up early with my two young boys and they don't need dark skies to enjoy them. I noticed a close double nearby and so I centred on that for a look. I didn't realise quite how close they were, it took the 5mm barlowed to get a gap in between them! In my 8", thats mag. x400! I did manage it but the seeing wasn't perfect so they were a bit wobbly. Still, I've never had my scope up to that high magnification so if nothing else, it was good to see it could do it.

M92. I think I actually prefer this to M13 as it's a bit like a smaller, stretched out but brighter version. Lovely once again. Plenty of stars resolved and a lot of detail to pick out.

By now it was about Midnight, and it was freezing! (Is it really the end of June?) So I thought I'll give it another half an hour and we'll call it quits. Then I noticed clouds rolling in from the West quickly so my decision was made for me. Whilst packing up I also saw an Iridium flare NE from me which was the cherry on the top really! A short but most definately sweet session. Just nice to get out and see some objects even if it was only for an hour or so. Fingers crossed the weather improves.

Tony..

Arf!

whiplash — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 09:04:49

Ever since my wife sold 'her' TAL 150P, I'd been missing that unique vibe that TAL 'scopes bring. As I already have an 8" reflector, I decided that a TAL 100R/S would be a nice thing to add. So after a few weeks of scanning various classifieds, I spotted one going for £80 inc. delivery. 'Nice' I thought, but it had some modifications made to it to resolve some issues that are in the TAL's design. After discussing it with a couple of guys on SGL, I duly sent the cheque off and a couple of days later it arrived. Check it over I'm thinking 'it looks a bit heath-robinson, but as long as it works who am I to complain?'. So on the first available night, I plonked it on my CG5 and as it didn't come with a diagonal, contorting my neck into posistions where I could see something was VERY uncomfortable! Still, what I saw looked good the me and a few days later a diagonal was purchased. The next available evening, I set it up again and I couldn't bring any of my eyepieces into focus. Oh, this isn't so good.

The modifications that the previous owner done was to try and resolve the baffling and focuser issues by inserting an 80mm Celestron tube inside the TAL one and using the focuser from that. I thought that it sounded a little iffy, but the guy I bought it from is apparently well known and has a good reputation.

So again, after much discussion with a SGL member who knows a bit more about these things than I, it's decided that I'm going to cut 4" off of both tubes and that should solve the focusing problem. It'll cut down the focal ratio a bit, but it still should be around f9 or so, so it's not all bad. I've taken it apart and frankly, this thing is a pup. The lenses aren't in great condition. The Celestron tube isn't fixed in at all, it slides about in the TAL tube therefore making the baffles useless and has actually marked the inner lens. The focuser wasn't properly fixed either and basically the thing is a bit of a botch job.

I did email the seller asking him how he managed to use a diagonal with it and he hasn't replied. I'm going to email him again and let him know my disappointment. You live, you learn and you move on. If I manage to get it working properly, I'll be relatively happy. If not, then I'll mark this one up to experience and needless to say, I won't be dealing with him again.

What am I doing!!!???!!

whiplash — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 20:38:28

It's coming up to the summer equinox, me being up with the kids every morning means that these long, summer (well, spring really) days and stargazing don't really mix. I could be doing other things like gardening, catching up on some video games that have missed my attention, ANYTHING! So what am I doing? Making another fair dent in the money I made from selling my record collection on more astro gear. I'm hardly going to get the chance to use it over the next 6 weeks or so. I picked up a 'well used' TAL 100R a few weeks back and now I've got a diagonal, I'm dying to have a look through it. But even with the long days, the cloud cover recently has been ridiculous. I'm prepared to get a short night's sleep to get some scope time in but the people upstairs must be having a giggle at my expense. Swines. Weather warnings for heavy rain in this part of the world over the next 24 hours just make this even better! At least SGL is keeping me (almost) sane, I feel like a thirsty man in the middle of the Sahara.

Bah.

whiplash — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 22:42:10

Looked clear at 10.30 so I thought 'bugger it, I'm going to set up, sleep is for the weak!". All sorted out and there's mottled light cloud obscuring everything. I'm off to bed. Bah once again (for good effect).