Kelling 7th and 12th September 2018

[philjay]

Kelling

7th September (Friday)

Kit - Meade 127EDT, HEQ5 mount, various Vixen LVW eyepieces from 30 to 3.2mm plus Televue 7 and 18.2mm Delite and MK1 eyeball.

 

A changeable day followed by a brief 2-3 hour spell of clear patches. Seeing good but unsteady.

21.30, whilst waiting for enough sky to get a calibration on the mount I used the mount manually to view a few of the usual suspects in between the clouds,

Saturn & Mars,  very low so not much chance of detail, even Cassini Division on Saturn was difficult. Titan was prominent but by the time I had swapped eyepieces to try for some more of Saturn's moons the cloud obscured the view.

Double Cluster,

M13

M57

M31, 110, 32

Epsilon Lyra, easy split of both pairs at 80x

22:15, sufficient sky clear to get a calibration on the mount at last.

 

I picked on the constellation of Vulpecula to have a look at some doubles listed in the Sissy Haas book.

STF2445 A close pair at 12.3" separation and 7.3, 8/6 mag.

STF2455 & 2457, now I was impressed with these 2 pairs, almost identical in mag and separation 7.4/5 & 9.4/5 with 8.8/10.2" separation. With my 18mm Delite EP they spilt comfortably with both pairs in the same fov almost in direct line. A good target these.

4Vul The brightest star in the Coathanger, 3 stars at 5.2, 10 & 11.7 mag 18 and 51" separation.

STF2523 - 6.6" separation and almost equal 8 mag components make these a good subject.

6-8 Vul a massive 464" with 4.6 and 5.9 mag makes an interesting pair. The colours make this target though Orange and white, very nice.

STF2540 - 7.5 and 9 mag with 5.2" separation.

9 Vul - Pushing the seeing with this one, 8" sep with mag 5 and 13.4 components, hmm not sure on this, averted vision maybe the faint companion was there.

STT388 - A triple, 3.9 & 29.3" separation 8.3, 7.5, 9.6 mag, all 3 in a straight line

STF48- a pair of blue/white 7 mag eyes with 42" separation staring back at me. I like these matched pairs.

h1462 - 7.6, 9.2 mags with a fine 2.9" separation. Yellow detectable in the main component but the fainter is supposed to be yellow but I couldn't make it out.

Then everything disappeared from view, the cloud crept up behind me and was in for the night.

 

 

 

12th September (Thursday). Same kit

Just me on my own on the Blue field as all the other astro folks had gone home so I had the pick of the pitches to set the scope up on.

After watching a cloud bank that was hugging the coastline all day eventually at 19:30 I had a break over the campsite. There was patchy cloud and mist everywhere but it was thin enough to get alignment stars for the mount so I set up right smack bang in the middle of the blue field with the most horizons.

As darkness fell the cloud and mist just disappeared and  I was rewarded with one of the finest skies I have seen at Kelling. Because the wind had abated seeing was much steadier than last Friday night.

As darkness fell I busied myself on spotting doubles from the Sissy Haas book again, this time I selected Hercules which was in a very favourable position so I was able to sit comfortably on my observing chair and send the scope off to the various co ordinates.

I wont list them here but I bagged 30 altogether (Ive still got as many again to tick off in the book still because this constellation is packed full of doubles and multiples).

I got so engrossed in double splitting I forgot to look up so it was about 21:45 when I did look around properly and WOW! It was excellent, so many stars. So I put the book away and did a bit of revisiting familiar objects to see what they looked like in a good dark sky.

 

Saturn - Cassini division and bands on the disc easily visible plus Titan.

Mars - Yey, Syrtis Major was putting in an appearance, it took a #21 filter to help with the contrast but it was there plus the polar cap and oragraphic cloud over the other pole.  The steadier seeing made catching low contrast detail much easier than Friday. However the contrast was very low so I suspect this may still be something to do with the dust storms maybe?

Milky Way - Gobsmacking through Cygnus and the Scutum star cloud was really prominent.

M11 - Wow! again I think this was the best view of the cluster Ive ever had with this scope, loads of stars were easily resolved.

MGC6995 Veil, yep it was there without the need for filters or even averted vision. The 2" Vixen 30mm pulled it in nicely because there was no LP for it to get lost in.

M31/110/32, Because I had to J

M51 even though this was low, both cores visible and with averted vision there was the bridge and just a bit of structure in the main spiral.

M13, M57, Cats Eye, Saturn Nebula, M15, Double Cluster, NGC 457.

By 23:30 I was chasing ever decreasing gaps in clouds so by 23:45 it was all over for the moment. I had to strike camp and go home the next day so reluctantly knowing there would be another clear spell coming over in a couple of hours I packed up and hit the sack.

This was a truly memorable few hours. Because the field was deserted, plus no cars wandering around looking for pitches and it being midweek so there were no muggles in the static caravans to leave lights on, and the blackouts were still on the bog windows, it was superbly dark. Well worth staying for the week I reckon.

 

Oh I did try for the Comet but even though my pitch was smack bang in the middle of the field, a tree was smack bang where the comet was and when it would have been clear of the tree it was cloudy Doh

Edited September 13, 2018 by philjay

[+Graham]

Sounds idyllic Phil 

 

[BAZ]

You managed more on the Thursday night than I managed all the time I was there. Great report Phil.

[Doc]

That's the way the cookie crumbles Phil but I think Thursday made up for it a bit.

 

Nice read and so many doubles bagged.

[philjay]

Ta guys, still smiling with memories of that thursday session. Forgot to mention a fireball, caught the start just above Pegasus ended on the east side of Hercules, green tint to the tail. Also Iss pass.

Edited September 17, 2018 by philjay