March 30th - Hunt for Panstarrs

[Guest Eddy]

First report so go easy on me, it's gonna be basic

 

Location - Snetterton Race Circuit, Norfolk. Literally no Light Pollution at all

 

Started off the night with 15 x 70 Visionary HD bins at 6.30pm scanning for panstarrs, couldn't find it so kept going in and out checking my app for where it was, until i started seeing a few stars then did some star hopping and bang, there it was, looking really stunning, tail was bright, long and easily visible, so I decided i'd show my parents so stuck bins on my alt/az and showed them and they were both amazed.

 

Next step, NEQ6 and Megrez 72, 3rd time(I think, maybe 4th) using it, managed to PA using the results it gave me from setup and it seemed to work well, got it all aligned and sent it off M42, right in the middle, plenty of detail even in the little meg, cranked up the zoom to 8mm, giving me about 53x mag, looked great.

 

Next was on to Jupiter as it was nearby and my Mum asked me what 'that star' is, so I sent it off to find Jupiter and let her have a look, at 53x mag you could make out about 4 or 5 bands and 4 moons, but I cant get any more mag as I didnt bring a barlow.

 

Then I remembered you can put custom coords into the NEQ6, so opened up skysafari on my tablet and got the RA/DEC and it slewed bang on, Left the mag at 53 and looked even better than in the bins, simply awesome, tail beautifully long.

 

After seeing Panstarrs, and it looking so good I thought I'd test the sky quality and the scope, so I sent it to M1, which in my opinion is a faint object if you are trying to view it visually, especially in a 72mm scope, but it slewed up and there it was, slight amount of detail visible with averted vision, I was really impressed with the scope and skies.

 

I was then just admiring the skies and spotted a fuzzy blob high up in the sky and thought to myself it must be the beehive as the first time I saw it was at SGL7 and it was a similar time of the year, so I sent the scope to it and there were plenty of stars crammed into the eyepiece at 18x, spent a few minutes looking at that, mesmerized by all the stars.

 

I then decided to go back across the sky and really high up to Bodes, both looked brilliant at 53x and both showing probably the most detail I've seen in them ever.

 

Next target was M33, but too low at this time of the year and couldn't see anything in the murk.

 

Then I thought i'd see what was in the guided tour on the handset, so first object I picked was M41, turned out to be a nice little open cluster which i spent a few minutes looking at to bring it out better as it wasn't the brightest cluster i'd seen.

 

After that I picked M39, another open cluster that looked very similar to M41 and I did the same, spending a few minutes to brighten it up to enjoy it more.

 

After looking at those clusters, it reminded me I'd missed what is probably one of the best clusters in the sky, M45, so i slewed across to that and it almost fits in at 18x but this is where the hyperion zoom is let down, with the low FOV at 24mm, so I put in my celestron 32mm and it looked much better.

 

Now that I had cluster fever I popped over to another awesome cluster, but this time a glob, M3, stunning, bright and thousands of stars but I could have done with higher magnification as at 53x I was only just making out gaps in the stars, but still enjoyable nonetheless.

 

And last but not least, another object I found in the Guided tour and I think someone took a picture of it recently as when I saw it on the menu I recognized the number so thought i'd take a look, M92, another glob which again would have looked nicer with a higher magnification.

 

Kind of longer than I thought it'd be, given the notes I made were only about 30 words

 

What i've learnt from this session is, always bring kit you may want to use even if the forecast looks rubbish, as today I've missed a really good chance to image panstarrs, i've also learnt I need smaller FL eyepieces to get some more magnification for stuff like the globs.

 

Hope you enjoyed reading my first report

[Tweedledee]

Sounds like you had a great time Eddie.

[Guest mickymoo]

Sounds like you had a swell time

Mick

[catman161]

Great report eddy. Congrats on PANSTARRS. Still haven't seen it myself. I am hoping to see it some time this coming week, perhaps Sunday or Monday evening.

[Tweedledee]

Felix, can't wait to see what you think to it in those 25x100s. And nice and easy on the back being just above the horizon .

[Brantuk]

Smashing report Eddy - keep it up you're a natural.

 

And congrats on Panstarrs - welcome to the club - I saw it for the first time tonight too.

[T A WOW]

Nice report thanks for sharing.

[Daz Type-R]

Fantastic report Eddy, congratulations.

I just love globular clusters, M3 and M13 being my favourites.