Posts Made By: Inge Skauvik

Dmitri,

I think you were lucky meeting a lady who had any idea about astronomy. Maybe it's a bit better outside the towns. Try asking urban people in Norway. The chances of meeting someone knowing a single constellation are slim.

Inge S

Kim,

This must have been an incredible experience. How do spirals like M99 and M100 look in your scope? What about the obscuring clouds in M64, M82 and M108?

Inge S

Thank you all for feedback. There is absolutely no urgent need for me to acquire a second scope, but now I have an idea about why we see the enormous price differences of 4-inch scopes, and also have a fair chance of telling what is a good deal and what is not.
One of the reasons why I'm thinking about a second scope is that I sometimes could make good use of a grab-and-go scope. With my previous scope (an 8-inch Portaball) this wasn't an issue since I kept it fully assembled all the time, and could carry it out and start observing in a minute or two. With the 12.5-inch Portaball it isn't that easy. I have to disassemble it for car transport, and it is heavier to carry around than the 8-inch. For a 2 hour observing session, my choice would always be the 12.5-inch, but for a quick look at Saturn and some open clusters and double stars a smaller scope might do the job.
At my age ergonomics becomes more and more important. I don't like to strain my back, and I find it difficult to see optimum detail while viewing from an inconvenient position. Once again the Portaball is superb. With the 8-inch I always was sitting while observing, with the 12.5-inch I stand, but still always in a relaxed position. Therefore I figured out that if I'm going to use a refractor, it should be a short one where the eyepiece position doesn't vary much depending on the location of the target. Unfortunately, nobody seem to make Coude-refractors any more. Ergonomically this would be the perfect scope, the drawback being a heavy setup, and long focal ratio limiting the maximum field of view.
I once owned an 102mm Vixen achromat(f/9.8). Next to the Portaballs it was the best scope I ever owned. I was never annoyed by colour fringing, and I still can't forgive myself for trading it for a Monday product with higher aperture. But even the Vixen was a bit large. A shorter scope f/6.5 - f/8 seems as a very good choice.

Inge S

Galaxies come in different sizes and shapes. The galaxies of the NGC3190 group in Leo are so small that they can be overlooked at low magnification (40 - 60x). As Dmitri points out, it is a good idea to play with different magnifications to see what gives the best view. For the 3190 group, it will alomst certainly pay off to increase to 100x or more depending on aperture.
Even for the larger galaxies, like M101 and M33 increased magnification will be beneficial. I'm often amazed when I see how much darker the sky background becomes. But I prefer to keep the magnification low enough to keep the whole galaxy within the field of view.
For galaxies with high surface brightness and obscuring clouds, like M82 and M108, I sometimes use the highest magnification I have. And even for a galaxy with a relatively low surface brightness like NGC891 in Andromeda, the equatorial dust band is difficult to see with 63x magnification (12.5-inch scope), but becomes easy with direct vision at 167x.

Inge S

Guys,

Please note that this is a forum for Deep-sky observation. For cosmology, philosophy and assessment of experts' statements there are other forums.

Inge S

Don't worry Dmitri, I'll not delete your post. (So far the only post I've deleted was one of my own).
Your report increases my motivation for my own trip which is still 6 - 7 weeks ahead. I'll make sure that I don't leave any filters behind. In fact we are going to be very well equipped. In addition to my Portaball we will have an almost complete series of Naglers, some Radians and Panoptics and both O-III and UHC filters. My friend Eckart will also bring along a pair of mounted 20x80 binoculars (with triplet objective lenses), and there are a couple of scopes (8-inch SCT and Dob) permanently available at the cottage where we are going to stay.

I hope that Antares will be a good object in the 12.5-inch too. I'm also very keen about the multiple systems, Nu and Xi Scorpii, and all the globulars, planetaries and diffuse nebulae in Scorpius and the surrounding constellations. Since we'll not have to think about work during the days we plan to observe many hours each night.

I assume that M6 and M7 are a bit large and coarse for the Portaball, but probably very beautiful in the 20x80 binoculars. I also hope that the binoculars will provide good views on M24, the Pipe Nebula and other extended objects in the region. I'll also sweep along the southern horizon with the binoculars, hoping to get a glimpse of the Jewel Box in Crux, perhaps split Alpha Centauri and, with some luck, even seing a part of the Eta Carinae nebula complex. I'm however, a bit uncertain about the chances of spotting Barnards galaxy with the binoculars.

Inge S

Hm, several good ideas here. I think I go for the cooling down instead of moving to Iran. Probably the cooling will also reduce the amount of humidity carried up with the Gulf stream. This winter has been the coldest in Norway for many years, and, indeed, we had more good nights for observing than we normally have.

Inge S

I had my last session for the season (except for my planned trip to the Canaries in three weeks) Friday night. I started at about twelwe (midnight), and observed until 02:15. During much of this time the light in the north disturbed a bit, but the air was very transparent, and therefore I was able to make out a lot of detail in many galaxies.

Just a few highlights:

The three galaxies, M49, NGC4526 and NGC4535 coldn't be viewed in the same field of view, but they are so close to each other that it is easy to pan back and forth between them, and compare their relative brightness and appearance. NGC4526 and 4535 are almost equally bright, but the 4535 is much larger, and probably more difficult to detect in a smaller telescope. It shouldn't be too difficult in a 4-inch, though.
Accidentally I noticed that M49 had three satellite galaxies. I idenitfied them afterwards by looking at the map as NGC4464, 4470 and 4492. There are even a couple of still fainter galaxies in the field, but I didn't see any of them.

A couple of degrees wast of Vindemiatrix I located a very nice galaxy pair (NGC4754 amd 4762) which was new to me. Although these galaxies are only moderately bright, their contrasting size and orientation make them a very appealing sight. The edge-on, 4762, had a prominent central bulge, and a hint of an equatorial dust lane.

I spent some time very near the southern horizon, and was finally able to locate the famous interacting duo, NGC4038/39. It was too far south, and the sky was too bright to give me any detail, but I'll return to it during my astro-trip.

M51 and M101, both near zenith, were awesome this evening. Also M101 has several satelite galaxies, six of which are easily seen in the 12.5-inch.

I spent most of the session with galaxies, since seeing was less than perfect. But I also observed M13 and the globulars, M53 and NGC5053.
5053 is much fainter than M53, and is very easy to overlook. To me it appears larger than M53, but this may be because the central part is so bright that it diverts the attention from the outer parts of the cluster. Some 20 - 30 individual stars can be seen in NGC5053, most easy with magnifications in the 100 - 200x range.

Since I have, at last, aquired a 13mm Nagler, I experimented a bit with different magnification on the galaxies. Going from 62x to 115x magnification generally had a tremendous effect on the darkness of the background sky. Whether 115x or 167x is the best choice depends on the size and brightness of the object. 115x was excellent for both M101 and M51.

Inge S

Hello everybody,
I'm already in Oslo. There was a risk of an airport security strike at our local airport, therefore we decided to leave yesterday evening.
For your information: One of my travel mates, Tore, posesses more knowledge about computers and internet than I. He has made a blog for this trip, and we'll try to keep it updated every day. The link is http://roasabel.blogspot.com

Today's weather forecast for the Canary Islands is very good: Clear sky and +24 Centigrade.

Inge S

Well, about 16 of them can be seen from my latitude, and I have seen 12 of them from home.

There are even quite a few Messier objects that can't be viewed from here. Going much lower than -20 degrees is difficult from here, and in the Scorpius/Sagittarius region the limiting declination is even higher (-17) because it is always within the twilight or daylight zone at meridian passage.

Inge S