One Great Night at The Observatory

[dmill1220]

Hi Everybody!
I had one of the best Visual Observing sessions that I've ever had this past Thursday night at our clubs observatory.
For those of you that dont know, my CCD camera died, so I was forced to go Visual, for the first time in about a year!
So I decided to take my light bucket out, I blew the Dust off my 12 inch Dob, loaded it up, an made the 80 mile drive out to the Observatory.

I met up with another club Member that was there for some Imaging and 4 other members doing Visual like I was.

The temperature dropped to 39 degrees by the time I had closed up the Observatory , around 4:30 am Friday morning.
Its amazing out there! I truly forgot what its like to be out at a Really dark Sky site! the Milkyway was easily visible from horizon to horizon, and the sky was a beautiful Inky black.
Andromeda, M-13 , the Double cluster and many other Messiers were easy naked eye targets! So I decided to Immerse myself in the Saggitarius region.

With amazing ease, I was able to get lost in all the NGC targets, Globs and dark nebulas, besides the common Messiers, In that particular region.
I was able to spot many NGC objecs that I have never seen before.

Saggitarius is one of my favorite constellations since its very well loaded with all kinds of objects, but last night was better that I can ever remember. Since Ive been relying on my Goto for the past year, it was fun to actually have to hit the Charts for those rarely seen NGC objects and dark nebulas, and Planetaries.

Later that evening one of the guys was targeting the Veil Nebula with an OIII filter and his 14 inch Dob, so I decided to give it a try with mine without a filter. I was amazed at how well the 12 incher showed plenty of detail, unfiltered ,of this great Nebula! there were plenty of filaments visible and the Veil as a whole looked like a twisted and curving jet contrail.

There were so many stars that It was actually difficult for me to distinguish the constellations amongst the rich background of stars.
I felt like a kid in a candy shop all over again!

After a year of CCD, and GOTO Astronomy, it was awsome to get back to the Old ways again, I'm kind of glad my camera had to be sent back for repair.
I had an Astronomical Buffet that I soon wont forget!
Its amazing how much you can forget, and all those stars made starhopping an awsome challenge again, it seems that Im out of practice doing the mental flipping of objects thru my finder, and star charts, so I cheated! I grabbed my Dentists Mirror, and used that over my charts to flip the fields to match my finder scope views, but there was just so many stars in my field of view, that my Sky Atlas 2000, the field version, just didn't go faint enough to make it easy, especially with a 32mm Eyepiece.

So, Here is the bottom line. I will make it a point to take a break from CCD imaging at my rural Home location, and get back to our remote Observatory, with my 12 inch Dob, and charts.

It felt good not to rely on a goto mount, and sit there wasting time on setup, and just looking at my laptop screen, only to image 3 or 4 objects. this time I saw hundreds of objects in one night!

Dennis

[Dragon Star]

You make me want pictures!

[Blue Fire]

You Go, dmill1220! Nothing like getting back to basics, eh? Of course I've been back to basics for a very long time now with just binocs to use mostly since my nephew sold his telescope. I have to admit a burning desire to get a decent telescope of my own, but I can still spend hours outside at night just scanning with my eyes and binocs, and I never consider it wasted time at all having to consult star charts, etc. There's something about the "joy of the hunt" that keeps me looking. Now that I think about it, it can be sort of like fishing: you don't have to actually catch all your elusive "prey" - it's fun just to be out there casting about.

[dmill1220]

Hi Blue Fire!
IT actually takes me quite a long time to get my Computerized GOTO Mount Properly Polar aligned.
Not to mention ,waiting for my Camera to achieve thermal equilibrium, take dark frames, then light frames, along with realigning the Mount so that the computer slews the image perfectly centered on my CCD cameras live window, by then its been an hour or better, before I even start imaging .
Once I start an image sequence its about 50-30 second frames of each L,R,G,B so you dont get to bounce around. your'e stuck watching an image build up on your Screen, and constantly checking the tracking and focus, its a boring lengthy Sequence, but it also gives you Satisfaction in the end, when everything goes right.
So, I will see no more than 3 or 4 objects,Versus flying around with the Dob and Charts.
I definitely, can see many more objects with my Dob, rather than CCD Imaging.
And youre right the thrill, is in the hunt! Without realizing it , I was slowly being automated and computerized, and I had forgotten my roots, so to speak!
I will be making a once month, 89 miles, each way trip, to and from the Observatory from now on! it was Awsome to resort to the charts again!
I will try to also do some Imaging When my camera gets back from the Manufacturer.
Dennis