I had not been out to my 40 inch f5 Dob for about six weeks. Earlier this week I was out in the predawn hours. I looked at a lot of old favorites; M51, M101, Ghost of Jupiter, NGC 4565, M81, M82, Twin Quasar Ursa Major, and after the moon came up M3 and M13. For the first time since last spring I looked at the Coma Galaxy Cluster with a wide field eyepiece (31 Nagler.) There are single eyepiece fields around NGC 4824 in which the sky reminds me of poorly prepared cream of wheat (one lump after another.) I counted 45 tiny galaxies in a single eyepiece field. There were so many galaxies that I wondered if I had missed some, or counted some twice. After spending perhaps too much of my available observing time at my house squinting at Mars in the last months I was reminded that deep sky observing is what I get the biggest charge from. I am very fortunate to live (at least for now) where I can drive to a spot with skies dark enough to see such sights. I certaily am fortunate to have the opportunity to observe through such a large aperture. When I compare the image of NGC 4565 through the 40 inch using a 20mm Nagler (fills the eyepiece from one edge to the other, 250X, very dark prominent dust lane, looks like an exotic spaceship) to the more "suburban" view I get of it from my house (20 inch Starmaster) 22 miles closer to the metropolitan light dome that is fifty miles east of my house and 70 miles east of my dark sky site, there is no comparison. I can see NGC 4565 and its dust lane from my house in the 20 inch, but if you have looked at it through twice as much aperture at a darker site two days before, it looks kinda bland.
I am also noticing how much greater my enjoyment of the TeleVue eyepieces that produce large exit pupils is since the attachment of the Dioptrix to correct for my astigmatism. I wonder sometimes if my tendency to gravitate toward higher magnifications and smaller exit pupils was in part due to the imperfect appearance of stars in wider field eyepieces due to my astigmatism. The Dioptrix has made me appreciate my 31 Nag, 41 Panoptic, and 26 Nag even more than I did previously.
I attempted my annual "Ozark pet trick" of climbing the 17 foot ladder so I can see over the top of the trees to the south of my observatory to try and spot Omega Centauri with binos 4 degrees above the southern horizon as Spica culminates at about 0600. No luck, too much low lying haze. I will get it sometime in the coming weeks.
If you have dark skies and are up early in the morning, give the Coma galaxy cluster a try.
I am also noticing how much greater my enjoyment of the TeleVue eyepieces that produce large exit pupils is since the attachment of the Dioptrix to correct for my astigmatism. I wonder sometimes if my tendency to gravitate toward higher magnifications and smaller exit pupils was in part due to the imperfect appearance of stars in wider field eyepieces due to my astigmatism. The Dioptrix has made me appreciate my 31 Nag, 41 Panoptic, and 26 Nag even more than I did previously.
I attempted my annual "Ozark pet trick" of climbing the 17 foot ladder so I can see over the top of the trees to the south of my observatory to try and spot Omega Centauri with binos 4 degrees above the southern horizon as Spica culminates at about 0600. No luck, too much low lying haze. I will get it sometime in the coming weeks.
If you have dark skies and are up early in the morning, give the Coma galaxy cluster a try.
