-=CROMAN=- Tenured Chicago Astronomer member is offline
Joined: Jan 2011 Gender: Male Posts: 626 Location: South Elgin
M13 is not my friend « Thread Started on Jul 7, 2011, 10:22pm »
Good Evening all....
I had a chance to take advantage of the night skies out in south elgin this evening. I compiled a list of messier objects I wanted to view with M13 being at the top of the list. As usual I could not find it! I tried everything I could think of besides offering up a goat to hercules himself.
Other than that it was a pretty good night. I was able to see the following with no problem.
Question: When objects are associated with nebulosity is it best to have the proper filter in order to view it? I can pick up very faint nebulosity with a 30mm and averted vision but nothing dead on.
Besides Hercules being mean to me it was a good night. Lots of folks walking up and taking a gander at Saturn and Luna between 9 and 10pm. Lots of questions from the neighbors left hanging as I am not quite up to the level that you guys are at.... one day, maybe. But as Joe say's chicks dig Astronomers and even bring you beer. I should have done this years ago!
Joined: Nov 2009 Gender: Male Posts: 1,744 Location: Valparaiso, Indiana
Re: M13 is not my friend « Reply #1 on Jul 8, 2011, 7:16am »
M13. It's bad luck.
As for nebulosity, filtering might work, but it might not. I haven't done much filtering with nebulae yet. For fainties, you're starting out with a limited number of photons, and filtering will reduce those quite a bit. I'd say the Z10 should be able to handle filtering nebulae, but I don't really know.
Joined: Nov 2009 Gender: Male Posts: 1,744 Location: Valparaiso, Indiana
Re: M13 is not my friend « Reply #5 on Jul 8, 2011, 2:07pm »
I checked the Iridium flare. Nothing visible in Indiana. We have an astronomy presentation for the Dunes National Lakeshore tonight, so I can't make it to Adler to see it. There will be others.
"Just a boy, just an ordinary boy, but he was looking to the sky." -Vanessa Carlton
Calumet Astronomical Society Vice President & Observing Director
2013 NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador
-=CROMAN=- Tenured Chicago Astronomer member is offline
Joined: Jan 2011 Gender: Male Posts: 626 Location: South Elgin
Re: M13 is not my friend « Reply #6 on Jul 9, 2011, 1:33pm »
finally saw it! i taught the girls how to use the setting circles with stellarium last night and boom.... there it was. i got a big... "thats it?" from the kids. they were expecting the hubble image i guess. all i know is after whitling down my messier list i am having aperture fever once again. what i wouldnt give to get my hands on an 18" obsession to make these guys pop out better.
Joined: May 2010 Gender: Male Posts: 1,552 Location: chi.il.us
M13 is not my friend « Reply #7 on Jul 9, 2011, 2:06pm via the ProBoards Mobile App »
Oh thank goodness! Glad you saw it! Hopefully now that you know what you're looking for, it will be easier to nail from now on.
Cheaper than a big telescope is a darker sky! Drive 45 mins and see if they don't pop better just by doing that. A lot cheaper and more convenient than an 18" scope! I've seen galaxy after galaxy in small binos at dark sky locations. M13 would look amazing under a darker sky.
Still, congrats on getting the monkey off your back.
In my short observing time, I've found that DSOs are better appreciated when discussing what they are, how big they are, and mostly how freaking far away they are and how long the light took to travel here BEFORE you look at it. That seems to help make up for the "that's it?" factor.
Joined: Nov 2009 Gender: Male Posts: 1,744 Location: Valparaiso, Indiana
Re: M13 is not my friend « Reply #8 on Jul 9, 2011, 2:41pm »
If you want a "that's it?", try M107. It's a globular, but very faint. Found it last night starhopping through Ophiuchus. Was sure several times that my starhop was correct, but saw nothing.
On the bright side, there is an interesting indirect starhop to it involving eight dim stars, nearly equal in magnitude. The first three are like an Orion's Belt, pointing the way to the next three, which arc not to Arcturus, but to the last pair of stars. M107 is just off the last of this pair. The starhop was worth the effort; M107 was not.
Joined: May 2010 Gender: Male Posts: 1,552 Location: chi.il.us
M13 is not my friend « Reply #9 on Jul 10, 2011, 4:53am via the ProBoards Mobile App »
Adding 107 to my list...
From SkySafari: Messier 107, NGC 6171 Messier 107 is a very loose globular cluster in the constellation Ophiuchus.
This 9th magnitude cluster was discovered by Pierre Mechain in April of 1782, and independently by William Herschel in 1793. However, M 107 wasn't formally added to the Messier list until 1947, by Helen Sawyer Hogg.
Visually, M 107 is about 3' across, while in photos it extends to a diameter of about 13'. M 107 has a very open, loose star distribution; it also apparently contains some dark, obscured regions, which is unusual for a globular cluster.
M 107 has a diameter of about 80 light-years, and approximately 21,000 light-years away. It contains at least 50,000 stars, of which 25 are known variables. M 107 is approaching us at 147 km/sec.
Joined: May 2010 Gender: Male Posts: 1,552 Location: chi.il.us
M13 is not my friend « Reply #12 on Jul 10, 2011, 12:30pm via the ProBoards Mobile App »
I think it means that a photo can capture more of the faint outlier stars than our pathetic optic retina. Like with Andromeda, we can only see the central bulge visually, but a camera will show the detail in the spiral arms. That's how I interpret that, anyway...
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