Image of the day

Captured by
Douglas Rollain

M20 Trifid Nebula in LRGBHa

About Astromart

My Account

New to Astromart?

Register an account...

Need Help?

Posts Made By: Dmitri Kulginov

August 31, 2005 10:12 PM Forum: Deep Sky Observing

One for Inge

Posted By Dmitri Kulginov
I've just got back from my backyard, where I saw an increadible open cluster NGC 6871 with an octuple (!) star embedded - Burnham 440 with friends. They are grouped in a quadruple, a triple, and a double. EdZ has mentioned this cluster a couple of times. I'm sure Inge will love it!

Among other things I saw a lot of detail in the Veil (the Eastern part) and a segment of the Crescent nebula (all with UHC filter).

Dmitri

September 3, 2005 09:35 PM Forum: Deep Sky Observing

Spontaneous binocular session

Posted By Dmitri Kulginov
Inspired by a thread in Equipment talk, Simple pleasures,
http://www.astromart.com/forums/viewpost.asp?forum_post_id=364287&poll_id=&news_id=&page=
I took my 10x50 binocular mounted on a photo tripod, Karkoschka (probably the smallest star atlas in the world), and my MP3 player for logging and went to my back yard - just for kicks. I was somewhat surpirsed when I logged 14 objects in 40 minutes, including 3 planetary nebulae, 3 globular clusters, 2 open clusters, 2 diffuse nebulae and 4 galaxies:
M57 - obvious, stellar
M71 - small glow
M27 - obvious
M29 - I recognized the familiar shape with averted vision
The Veil - the Easter segment NGC 6992/6995; I could see it when I moved the binocular
M101 - a tenuous glow, position angle right
M51 - pretty obvious, elongated, PA right
NGC 6940 - rather large
NGC 7000 - North America; the brightest part was Mexico
M13 - large
M92 - nicely concentrated
NGC 5866 - M102(?), easy
NGC 6503 - I saw that this galaxy was elongated, PA right
NGC 6543 - Cat's Eye nebula, stellar, bright.

One conclusion is that training and practice really help! I wouldn't have noticed a half of these objects one year ago.

Dmitri

September 29, 2005 11:53 AM Forum: Deep Sky Observing

NGC7000

Posted By Dmitri Kulginov
Yesterday evening was cloudy, but the air was so transparent that the view from my balcony looked like a painting by an old Flemish master. Before I went to bed, I checked the skies - they were clear with some clouds near the horizon. I rushed to the back yard with my ST80.

I looked at the NA nebula with my new Panoptic 24mm and the Baader UHC filter. The view was extraordinary - after a couple of minutes at the eyepiece I easily saw the whole 'continent', with a lot of mottling in the Canada part. The light pollution disturbed my dark adaptation, but not the view - thanks to the air transparency.

I think this is the best setup to view this nebula. I've never had a better view, even with 8" from a dark site. The UHC filter is optimised for 5mm exit pupil, and a higher aperture would have decreased the exit pupil and the field of view. The wide field of Panoptic had put that final touch on the aesthetic experience.

Dmitri

October 30, 2005 11:21 AM Forum: Deep Sky Observing

Structure in NGC 7006

Posted By Dmitri Kulginov
I had a proper observing night the day before yesterday - the first one in a month! So I scribbled down a quick observing plan on a piece of paper, without indicating the nature of objects, and hurried outside to my C8.

When I looked at 7006, I didn't know whether it was a globular or a galaxy. I saw a concentrated nucleus and tried to determine if there was any elongation. When I averted my eyes in different ways, I thought that sometimes I saw 'vertical' elongation (I don't know what vertical was), and sometimes 'horizontal'. In the end I decided that there was no elongation at all.

Today I looked up this globular in O'Meara's The Caldwell Objects, and his drawing shows a cross - one horizontal bar and one vertical bar! (And some more, dimmer bars.) Has anyone here seen them too?

Dmitri

October 31, 2005 12:28 PM Forum: Deep Sky Observing

How to observe dark nebulae

Posted By Dmitri Kulginov
We all know that apreture is good for galaxies, clusters and diffuse nebulae; it is also common knowledge that galaxies are best at something like 1 to 2mm exit pupil, clusters take magnification utill the Airy discs show up, and 5mm of exit pupil is most often good for dim diffuse nebulae, with or without filters.

But what about dark nebulae? What kind of aperture is required to even see them? What kind of exit pupil? Averted vision? Filters? What?

Dmitri

November 8, 2005 12:40 AM Forum: Solar System Observing

Sketch of Mars tonight

Posted By Dmitri Kulginov
Seeing was not so good, but that was the first clear night in ten days!

Dmitri

November 8, 2005 09:19 AM Forum: Eyepieces

Re: Safety undercuts

Posted By Dmitri Kulginov
I like them very much exactly as they are. Just drop a couple of expensive eyepieces and you will feel the same.

Dmitri

November 9, 2005 06:31 AM Forum: Eyepieces

Re: Why don't you

Posted By Dmitri Kulginov
Guys,

Why don't you send all your annoying undercut expensive eyepieces to me . . . I'll take on the labour of disposing them in an environmentally friendly manner. In exchange I can provide a value Plössl without safety undercuts.

Dmitri

November 10, 2005 09:47 AM Forum: Eyepieces

Burgess/TMB fix - for Mike Hosea

Posted By Dmitri Kulginov
Mike,

How did you fix the glare in your Burgess/TMB eyepeice(s)? Could you please post some pictures?

Dmitri

November 14, 2005 11:41 AM Forum: Solar System Observing

Mars sketch 13 November 2005

Posted By Dmitri Kulginov
North up. Seeing was good despite high haze and low fast running clouds. The North polar haze was very prominent.

Dmitri

Funding Member

Sponsors


View all sponsors

Search