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2nd light with the new dob.


oldfruit

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First light the other night was just to try the scope, though with the Moon out i was limited to what i could see.


 


Tonight (2nd light) was a better chance to test the scope as the Moon was up later. This session was from my garden which has some light pollution but is not too bad and you can see the Milky way on a good night.


 


First up was the Eskimo Nebula, nice outer shell showing tonight with gradual brightening towards an almost stellar like core, also no need for an O111 filter tonight.


 


Next up M42, lots of lovely whispy detail visible and a lot of darker patches showing in the central part of the nebula hinting at all the structure that i am sure will be visible when i devote more time to this object.


 


Jupiter looked ok tonight but was boiling a little so i moved on.


 


I swung the scope around to the double cluster, the view was incredible. I bumped up the magnification and was able to make out so many faint stars that i had not seen before.


 


I had a quick look at M33 which was quite ghostly but a couple of the brighter regions were more easily visible.


 


The ghost of Mirach was seen tonight and with much more ease than i have had before. It was even visible directly when the star was in the field of view.


 


Now we get to the real reason i bought the scope, Galaxies. I pointed the scope over to Ursa Major and placed M81 and M82 in the field of view. M81 was showing a very very faint glow around a bright core, hinting at its spiral nature though to be honest that is probably because i have seen so many pictures of it.


M82 was looking nice and showed some lighter and darker patches along its edge.


Now for something a little more challenging? I saw the following galaxies tonight in and around the "Pan" of the Big Dipper.


NGC 3642


NGC3610


NGC3613


NGC3998,  I thought i could just, but only just make out NGC 3990 but i looked it up and it is faint so i could not be 100% sure.


NGC 3982.


I also saw,


M108


M97, Very faint and ghostly.


M109


NGC 3953.


All the above galaxies were very faint but were there with direct vision from my slightly light polluted garden so i was very pleased. I am sure that if i showed a little more persistence i would be able to find more of these elusive faint fuzzies in and around Ursa Major. And it is the quest to find them that prompted me to buy the 12 inch dob.


I feel i will be spoilt for choice at our next meeting at our dark site. :)


 


 


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Try a black blanket over your head at the eyepiece to shield out all the light - after 20 mins or so you'll be fully dark adapted and see a lot more detail with fainter stuff. Smashing report - got loads in. :)


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Nice report. Ive just ordered my 250p ds so I'm looking forward to giving it and my tripod 1st light soon hopefully. :D

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Great read there Mark, the weather was rough over here, so it's nice some one got out.


That scope has done you proud, I think with a dark sky you will be spoilt for choice.


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To be honest, it was looking through Pauls (tbird) scope at Gib Point and EMS1 and also Docs (Mick) scope at EMS1 that convinced me that i wanted a larger aperture scope. The views through both of the above mentioned scopes have been amazing at times and a big thanks to Paul for his patience with me, as i have always taken a peek through his dob when the chance presented itself.


 


I had been saying for a while that i would like to have a similar size scope and i was presented with a good opportunity to fulfill this need for a larger scope and took it with both hands.


 


I only hope that i am able to use the scope well and it is also there for others to use at our meetings. I feel that the Honeymoon period with this new dob will take some time to wear off. :D


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