Last Nights Observing

A pretty good clear night last night, just a few intermittent clouds to spoil the view.

I started out with a Satellite hunt with the youngest during the early evening. I'd checked on Heavens Above looking for Satellites brighter than Mag 3.5 I found a list of 8. I compiled the list together including name, direction, what constellations they would pass through and the timings for each pass and printed it out. First up the Cosmos 1154 Rocket but we were unable to view this due to clouds. About 25 minutes later, Cosmos 1939 Rocket was due through. We spotted this one and whilst it was passing, through Gemini, spotted another moving across it's track, both in Gemini. I think this is Cosmos 1356 Rocket (shown on HA at up to Mag 4). The pair looked like they were on diverging rails.

Then we found the Clapham Junction of the skies. Three came along all at once, through Auriga.

Cosmos 1697 Rocket
Genesis I
Cosmos 1005 Rocket.

This was quite astonishing to see and impossible to keep an eye on all of them as they were separating fast but it was quite a sight to see them all in close (ish) proximity to each other.

The next one Lacrosse 3 I couldn't get outside to see. The other 2, Cosmos 1980 Rocket and MetOp-A the cloud pixies conspired to ensure that I didn't see these. The clouds were thick around the track these satellites were due to take. Astonishingly with very little cloud elsewhere. Of the 8 on my original list we spotted 4 and one extra one that we hadn't even been looking for.

I had to go back indoors at this point, jobs to be done and all that. Some time later, about an hour and a half (new I'd forgotten something, I didn't note the time I got back outside, damn!). Anyway, I got back outside, and set up the camera. As Leo was climbing all over the top of the house, I figured he'd make a good target to test the RAW mode firmware hack for my Z2. Also, given that Saturn is still under the claws of the sickle asterism this made Leo an even better target.

I adjusted the camera to Econ+RAW, turned off the noise reduction, set to full manual control, set the focus point to infinity, the exposure time to T (or 30 seconds as it really is), and started snapping. Then I realised I'd left the lens cap on. Damn. Oh well thought I, I'll take some dark frames now instead. So took a couple more. Then I removed the lens cap, and got on with the job of snapping Leo. After the alignment shot, I snapped a further 30 frames at 30 seconds each ISO400. I took 6 flats. One thing I did find with the RAW mode and no noise reduction, the actual on camera shot time was significantly reduced. I'm still using the self timer mode, as I don't have a remote release cable yet so that adds 15 seconds, 10 seconds for the timer, and 5 seconds to set it on per shot. In all, I think each 30 second frame probably took 45 seconds to capture. This compares with nearly 90 seconds for my previous attempts. So much better.

Here is the result. I stacked in DSS, tweaked levels and curves in Photoshop Elements and used noiseware to remove the image noise. I think there's some clouds in some of the frames which show as the blobs.



Whilst I was snapping away, I set up the scope for a quick look around. I decided that as I was snapping Leo, I'd take a good look at Saturn. I grabbed the Barlow and 5mm Hyperion (giving me 160x) and there she was. Small, yet perfect. I could make out the gap between the rings and the planet, and I thought briefly, before I decided I must be suffering from wishful vision that I could make out a little banding on the surface. I think this might be too much to expect from my little scope, but it would be nice to thing that I might have done. At 160x in the Hyperion, I could make out 1 moon, which I think was Tethys. Then, thinking that there might be more moons to see I removed the barlow and used the 5mm Hyperion (80x), and yes, I picked up a second one which I think was Rhea.

Now, you have to bear in mind, that whilst I was doing this I kept popping back to the camera and setting up the next shot, so I wasn't doing my night vision any favours as the LCD on the camera is quite bright, but I had to keep looking at it to change the settings. This is making the remote release even more critical. Ah well.

Next I swung around to take a look at M42. This is the first time I've managed to use the 5mm Hyperion properly, previously I'd only managed a brief comparison test between the Hyperion and the Ortho. I had one of those wow moments, as using the 5mm Hyperion, the wings of M42 spread through the eyepiece, and I could see 4 stars at the core in the Trapesium. I was able to make out some milkiness of M43 at the same time.

I love these eyepieces.

Then I swung back around to look at M44 - The Beehive. I really like looking at this cluster and I was able to see the core of it clearly in the 5mm. This wasn't wide enough though, so I swapped to the 17mm and the view was much better. The view looked like a deep dark pool full of fireflies and I felt tempted to dive in, bit cold though last night, so I settled on just looking for some time.

I swung back again, just before The Sisters were about to go into hiding behind some trees and had a long look at them. The view is spectacular but the shape doesn't give that look of a pool. After spending some time looking at M45, I swung the scope around to the stellar disco ball. Took a long look at Sirius with it's dazzling light display, just need to find the right beat to go with the changing colours. I then moved on down to look at the small and delicate M41. This looked really nice in the 17mm Hyperion. I decided a little experiment was in order and grabbed the 5mm Hyperion. The extra magnification bought M41 to the fore, the Hyperion FOV meant that M41 filled the view but I wasn't in too close so could still see the edges, and oh what an impressive view that was. Again, I love these eyepieces. A number of tiny delicate points clustered together almost like a shoal of fish...

And then, just as I was fully appreciating M41 up close and personal, my view was washed with a bucket of cold hard light from the kitchen. That really spoiled things. Anyway by this time, I'd been outside for quite some time and as I'd been using the camera controls hadn't put gloves on, I can't operate the camera properly with gloves, and my fingers were beginning to feel quite numb, or is that not feel much at all ? Once the kitchen light was off, I snapped a couple more frames of Leo, and tried a quick experiment on The Beehive just to see what the camera would show. I snapped a couple of fully zoomed 30 second shots in RAW. The image showed the pattern of the stars nicely if somewhat trailed. This was a pleasant surprise and I will have a go at capturing the Hive at some point. Gotta work our the most appropriate zoom and shutter speeds.

I had a great evening, viewing 5 Satellites, taking a passable image of Leo, and seeing some objects as if for the first time thanks to these Hyperions, did I mention, I love these eyepieces ?