hello everyone! Although I can speak and write German well, I'm an American and it's easier in EN to write this, so excuse me for it. Next time I'll try it in deutsch ...
This is my observing report from last night (22.07.2020):
Telescope: 18 inch Spacewalk Telescopes f/4 Infinity+ Dobson (1800 mm focal length) made in 2015 (the last 18 incher Christian Busch made!). Love it!
Oculars: 27 mm Televue Panoptic (67x), 14 mm Meade series 4000 (the old, better one) (128x), 8 mm Televue Ethos (225x), 6 mm Televue Ethos (300x)
Observing Location: 520 meters from Bremricherhof near Bayerfeld-Steckweiler on a field path. The farmer had recently mowed it so there was no high grass to interfere with pivoting the scope.
Other "tools": Deep Sky Atlas (field edition) from Oculum. Red dot finder. 8x50 right angle finder.
Observations from 22:30 - 01:30
Objects (and impressions of each object with ocular used):
1. 22:30 started observing. 1st object - the thin sliver of the moon. Very nice in 27mm
2. Mizar. Nice double star with 14mm
3. Polaris. Another nice (wide) double star with 14mm. Nice contrast between the bright and dim stars.
4. eta Casseiopea. Nice contrast of a white and yellow star.
5. eta Lyrae. Very nice bright double-double star. Using 14mm to split them. More magnification not needed.
6. It's still not dark but let's try M57. OK, it's easily visible with the 14mm. Makes a nice looking whitish-grey donut.
7. M27. Yeah, it too is visible although its not yet really dark. Shows up nice in the 14mm as well. No filter yet.
8. M5. Oh a very nice and concentrated GC in the 14 & 8mm oculars. Spectacular!
9. M3. Another nice GC in the 8mm.
10. Comet Neowise. Its now 23:03 and I can just see it with naked eye. The core and tail are really good in the 27 & 8mm
11. M82. Gotta use the 6mm at 300x. Lots of bright knots in it.
12. ok, its 23:13 and I can see the Milky Way with the naked eye. It's finally starting to get dark, but slowly.
13. NGC 6946 in Cepheus. Very nice large smudge like a thumbprint with the 14mm. I can just detect a hint of a clockwise(?) spiral or is it my imagination?
14. NGC 7008 in Cepheus. Now this is a very very nice PN with a lot of detail in it once you jack up the magnification. 8 & 6mm great! To me it's obvious why they named this the "foetus nebula". It DOES look like a little foetus. Neat.
15. Its 23:30 and the ISS is passing overhead. Switch to 27mm and follow it for a good while (about 45°) Really bright in the middle with two wings on it.
16. NGC 7331 on the way to Stephan's Quintett. Nice medium small oval in the 14mm.
17. NGC 7320 / Stephan's Quintett. I always like to pick this out when it's visible. Can clearly see all 5 members in the 14mm and it takes the 8mm as well. 6mm is too much right now. It's MUCH better in La Palma! Going there in October. Can't wait.
18. NGC 5746 in Virgo. Nice edge on GX. "Mini Sombrero" Best using the 14 & 8mm. Bright core and nice fuzzy oval halo.
19. M5 (again). Why not? It's now dark and M5 is really spectacular in the 8 mm at 225x
20. M51. Very very nice spiral in the 14 & 8 mm. Shows the two arms really well but it needs to be darker than it gets here to really bring out more structure.
21. NGC 4485/4490. Very nice GX pair. One of my favorite interacting pair. Best in 14mm.
22. NGC 4449. "The rectangle". Another favorite. Pretty large in the 8 mm and showing a lot of detail.
23. It's now 24:00 and Comet Neowise looks like it has a 8° long tail but I might be exaggerating a bit. Whatever. It's really nice with the naked eye.
24. NGC 281. OK, time to start chasing GN's (galactic nebula) with the OIII filter. Need the 27mm for this one since it's so large. Shows up well.
25. NGC 896. Again with the 27 mm and OIII. Nice double lobe but not as bright as I expected and I can't see if they are really connected although the two lobes are shown that way on the chart.
26. NGC 7538. Another GN although it's round like a PN. Easy in the 14mm and it starts to fade with higher magnifications.
27. NGC 7635. "Bubble" nebula. OK, I haven't observed this very often. It's kinda small and it does show up round like I expected with uneven structure. Bright star on one edge of it interferes with the observation but if it wasn't there then the nebula wouldn't be visible I suppose. Had to crank up the mag to 300x to really see any detail.
28. M106. Nice large oval GX. Using the 14mm. Looks a bit like M31.
29. NGC 4217. While I'm right here by M106, I decided to sweep this up as well. Nice small thin oval near a bright star in the 14mm.
30. NGC 6118. "The blinking GX" in Ophiuchus. Had to look for it for a bit before I found it since I was expecting a smaller object but once I stumbled over it I managed to focus on it rather well with the 14mm. Nice medium small oval smudge that has a visibility like NGC 4236 in Draco. If you know it's there, and you know how to look, you can find it easy.
31. NGC 4236. Since I'm already thinking about it, I'll swing over to have a look. Yup, still there. Nice large GX but faint with two bright spots at each "end".
32. NGC 5907. A very nice long thin GX ("knife edge GX"). Looks real good in the 14mm and I get a lot of structure when I put in the 8 & 6mm's Very nice.
33. NGC 5985. The "Draco Triplett". Can't leave Draco w/o viewing this group. Very nice in 8mm. A spiral, an elliptical and a thin edge-on GX all in a line. Always great. Wonder how many people live there?
34. NGC 6015. Since it's "right there", let's have a look. Med small oval with a bit of a fuzzy halo but not much. Using 14mm.
35. M76. Very nice PN with a lot of detail. No filter necessary and it takes magnification well. Jacked it up to 300x and let the object drift through the ocular a few times to admire it.
36. OK, since I'm already there but getting a bit tired, M31 with the 27mm. Nice but it's not dark enough here in DE to see as much as I'd like. One dust band ...
37. M110. Very nice in the 27mm. In a C11 it's much fainter. This GX is the reason I bought a dobson after seeing it in a 16 incher. Extraterrestrials live there?
38. NGC 147. Fuzzy blob in 27mm but nice.
39. NGC 185. A fainter fuzzy blob int the 27mm but nice as well.
40. NGC 287. Nice small round oval. Not much to see but had to sweep it up since it's in the same "row" as the other two.
41. Jones 1 in Pegasus. Oh what a faint PN. Large and hard to spot but looks pretty good in the 27mm and 14mm. Have to use the OIII filter on it. Last object for the night ?
42. OK, one more. NGC 6781 in Aquila. Nice large PN in the 14mm without filter. Wonder why Messier missed this? Maybe it's too dim in smaller scopes. Last object. Good night.
01:30 pack up and head home. Was a good night.
Clear skies you all!
Perry
