Observation reports - Fernilee reservoir ...

Reading about other people's experiences at the eyepiece of a telescope often inspires us to view the glory of the night sky. Go forth and explore ...!

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03/05/11 - Car seat astronomy

We have all heard of armchair astronomy but what about car seat astronomy?  Spring 2011 was awash with clear nights but a strong easterly wind made astronomy sometimes uncomfortable.  Setting up a telescope and observing in the wind can leave you very cold, so on the last good night of a clear spell I decided to observe from the comfort of my car.  

After the May workshop I parked in a quiet dark spot in the Goyt valley with the open drivers side window facing south.  The sunroof was open as well.  With my 8x50 Opticrons binocular I went hunting for the host of galaxies that are best seen in the spring.  Starting with Ursa Major through the sunroof I could easily spot M81 and M82 at right angles to each other.  M51 looked like a pale disk through the binoculars and M101 was also visible as a larger but fainter glowing disk.  However M108 and M97 (the owl nebula) could not be seen.  

The globular clusters M3, M13 and M53 were easy to spot and a fine sight.  I could also see M64 (the black eye galaxy) clearly.  The Leo triplet (M66, M65 and NGC3628) could just be made out with M66 being easiest to spot.  The Virgo cluster was a bit trickier. While M100 and M85 could be made out I could not pin down M98 or M99.  In the area around M84 and M86 I could not make out any individual galaxies but the sky took on a mottled appearance.  

I find that galaxies look quite different through binoculars than the usual view that you get through a telescope.  The core of a galaxy stands out in a telescope eyepiece but the faint outer regions can be elusive.  Through binoculars the core can be hard to spot while the outer parts stand out.  The best view of M31 (the Andromeda galaxy) that I have had was through binoculars.  

The sky was quite good with a limiting magnitude of 5.5 but there was some dust in the atmosphere.  Perhaps on another night more could have been seen but I was surprised how much could be observed from a car seat.

Christopher Hill

04/06/10 - The Spring dark sky at Fernilee reservoir

Down a bumpy track and across the dam there is a quiet spot ideal for a bit of deep sky watching.  The place is Fernilee Reservoir in the Goyt valley. The bumpy track keeps the boy racers away and there are no lights to ruin your night vision.  If you look South and South-East over the water you can see the low down constellations that you can never see from home.

On Wednesday 2nd of June three of us gathered to try out this new dark sly site. I arrived too late to look at Saturn which was a shame because the seeing was good.  I was able to split the ‘double double’ in Lyra with ease through my 6” Maksutov telescope that I had mounted on my HEQ5 GOTO mount. I also split the double star Cor Caroli. The ‘double cluster’ looked good as always. Despite the late spring sky not getting fully dark the Milky Way could be seen through Cygnus.  Low down to the South the tail of Scorpius with the red star Antares was peeping through the murk.  Parts of Ophiuchus and Sagittarius were also visible. The globular clusters M3, M10, M12, M13 and M14 were all impressive as was M11, the wild duck cluster, which actually does look like a formation of flying ducks.

We returned on Thursday 3rd of June. There were five of us this time and I arrived early enough to have a look at Saturn.  The seeing was bad and Saturn looked like a fuzzy blob, however for the first time in months the transparency was good. More stars and more Milky Way were visible. I went looking for nebulas. The ring nebula (M57) and the dumbbell nebula (M27) were both very impressive. As were the blue snowball and the cats eye nebula. Low down in the south I saw M17 (swan or omega nebula), M8 (lagoon nebula) and I could just about see M20 (trifid nebula). I was amazed that my 6” telescope could pick out these nebulas, M8 looked like a misty patch and M17 did look a bit like a swan.

I will be back there soon with a bigger telescope to have another look at those low down nebulas.

Christopher Hill

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