Posts Made By: Inge Skauvik

Dave,

Thanks for the report! Your achievements were very good in spite of the low temperature (Observing at temperatures below -5 centigrade or so was something I was doing in my younger days, but now I stay home if it is extremely cold).

I have seen most of the objects you mention, but never the seagull and Thor's helmet. Do you recommend filters (O-III, UHC or H-beta) on these nebulae?


Inge S

I have a 12.5-inch Portaball. It serves me well, but is a bit too heavy to bring along on long trips by plane.

Presently I dream about an even larger, but still lighter scope. The best I can find is a German made telescope specially designed for travelling. It is a 16-inch weighing about half of the Portaball.

But it lacks the ease of assembly and the ergonomic advantage of the Portaball.

www.traveldob.de

Inge S

Thanks for the report!

I have also once observed NGC1049. I was actually trying to spot the Fornax dwarf galaxy with a 12.5-inch scope under excellent skies, but I could only see the globular cluster.

Inge S

Interesting report.

Like Dmitri I'll need some time to get all the details. Is seems impressive, though, what you were able to detect with the modest 5-inch aperture.

Inge S

Very nice. I assume that children who grow up in that region (far away from urban light, I assume)easily develop a facination of the night sky.

Inge S

Have a look at the nice photo of IC342 by Mark Hanson in the ATWB Customer Gallery! The photo, of course, shows more detail than what can be seen visually, but still the photo gives a better impression of the visual appearance of IC342 than most other images I have seen of it. It would be interesting to know if any of you have seen this galaxy through a big scope (20-inches and up).

Very good object, indeed! For some reason it is often neglected. A recommended galaxy for those who want so see something new.

Thank you, guys - I appreciate your response.
I started with astronomy already in the sixties. At that time imaging was for professionals and many amateurs made an excellent job observing variable stars just by comparing brightness by visual comparison with other stars. In the late sixties and early seventies the first amateur images started to appear. To me it seemed to be an activity for the exclusive club of Questar owners, although some people made their first trials with simpler set-ups. Already at an early stage I decided to stick with visual observing. The reason was partly economy, and partly the fact that the Norwegian climate is bad, and I really wanted to use the precious hours with clear sky to view the sky directly through the eyepiece.
The real boost to imaging came, of course, when the photographic film was replaced by photo-sensitive devices. I'm impressed by much of the work done by skilled imagers today. Even with modest equipment it is possible to blow the classical Palomar telecope photos away. But with the advent of the Internet, the easy way to get excellent astro images is just to download the work of people possessing equipment and experience far better than what I can even afford to dream about.
The bottom line - to me there is still nothing comparable with a night under the stars utilising the power of good optics. Even for the visual observer there is some development, both when comes to telescopes, eyepieces, tracking devices and observation guides and comprehensive tables of objects.
I hope that I can contribute to keeping this forum alive. During some periods I had problems limiting myself, also being active on Norwegian, German and even Russian forums.
Besides having an interest in deep-sky observations I'm very fond of double star observation. Therefore I hope that you will forgive me if I sometimes mix up different types of objects in the same post.
Inge S

My greatest experience behind the eyepiece must have been NGC253 through my 12.5-inch from La Palma on the Canary Islands. The galaxy was so huge and bright and with an enormous amount of intricate detail.

Thinking back I also have many fine memories from earlier times with much smaller telescopes. My first view of NGC7662 with its incredible blue colour, my first split of Gamma Arietis and even the first view of Saturn with very modest equipment.

I should also mention the view of the Veil nebula with O-III filter. At 115x power in my Portaball it is just awesome.

Inge S

I find many planetary nebulae greenish of bluish. The "blue snowball" is definitely blue. NGC6543 is clearly green and contrasts beautifully with the central star which appears orange to me - possibly due to contrast.

Most other diffuse nebulae appear neutral to me. The Orion nebula is an exception. Much of this nebula looks distinclty green and under the best conditions I have a clear impression that the outer parts are pinkish. I doubt, however, that this is anything but an illusion. These parts of the nebula are probably less green than the rest, fooling my eyes to see pink colour.

Have anybody seen Campbells hydrogen star in Cygnus? It is claimed to be clearly red in colour when viewed with very large aperture.

Inge S