Last night our club held a star party at Sunset Field, a meadow on the Blue Ridge Parkway at an elevation of about 3500 feet. It was about a 45 minute drive from my house, and the sky looked cloudy enough that I almost turned around and came home. Once I got there, however, I found that all the haze & fog settled into the valleys below and gave us the most beautiful, clear, dark sky that I have ever seen.
I set up both my TV-102 on its little EQ mount, plus my Oracle on a Telepod/Bogen mount. I was really interested in seeing what the 102 could do on DSOs, since most of my time with it so far has been spent on Mars. In addition to my two scopes, there were about 30 people with about 15 scopes in total, ranging from a 5" Orion Mak up to a monstrous C-14.
As the sky darkened, I realized what a treat I was in for! We had a full panoramic view, with only a hint of light pollution at the southwestern horizon from the small town of Bedford, VA. Constellations I've never even seen before were plainly evident, and the Milky Way looked like cotton candy strung from horizon to horizon. Satellites were everywhere for the first hour or so; later, they were replaced with a number of bright meteors. I didn't make a careful check of the limiting magnitude, but I'm sure that it was 6+ in almost all directions. Wow!
Faced with this sort of sky, two great refractors, my 8x56 binoculars, and lots of big scopes to visit, I was like a kid in a candy store. I didn't know where to start! I had intended to spend the evening viewing the southern Milky Way, which is somewhat washed out from my house. However, there were simply too many great choices. I decided to maximize my time my not fiddling with lots of eyepieces, etc. Unless otherwise noted, I used a 16mm Nagler in my 102 and a 32mm Plossl in my Oracle, and never once took out my nebula filter. Since we observed for several hours (from dusk until 1:00 a.m., EDT), I'll just hit the highlights here:
I started by panning around Scorpius and Sagittarius with the Oracle and my 32mm Plossl (my widest-field eyepiece, for now; a 27 or 35 Pan is high on my wish list, though.) This is the type of viewing where the Telepod simply excels! Then I moved to the 102 with my 16mm Nagler (55x) and panned around the same area, stopping to study the best objects. The sky is littered with DSOs in this area, and it is hard to choose a favorite. The ones that really made me say "wow," though, were the globular clusters M4 and M22. M22 surprised me, since I did not remember it as being all that impressive from my yard. Both globs were thick with stars, and showed more extension and granularity than I have ever seen in the globs I've viewed from home. I also tried my 7mm Nagler, which improved the resolution of individual stars, but reduced the overall visual impact of the globs as my FOV decreased. M8 was visible to the naked eye, and telescopic views of it along with M16 and M17 were spectacular as well.
Panning around the Cygnus Milky Way with the Oracle was quite different than panning in Sagittarius. While Sagittarius is littered with knots of light, the Cygnus region looked more like one continuous open cluster. I have never seen so many stars!
Next I decided to find my old nemesis, M51, which I have never managed to see from my yard. It was immediately obvious in the Oracle at 18x, looking like two tiny globulars sitting next to each other. I moved to the 102 and was treated to a real show. In the 16mm, the entire extent of the galaxies was visible, with hints of spiral structure. I compared the view to that in both a 10" LX200 and the C-14, and was very impressed with what I could see in only 4" Sure, the view was a bit brighter in the big scopes--especially the 14"--but overall, I got 90% of the detail they were seeing in my much lighter, simpler scope. (Several other observers, who don't suffer from my "TeleVue bias," made similar comments. I think the excellent contrast of the 102 helps make up for some of the difference in aperture.)
A friend showed me M81 & M82 in his XT8, so of course we had to point my scopes that way next. The view in the Oracle was a familiar one, although under these skies the Oracle performed more like my 6" newt does back home. With the 102, M81 and M82 were amazing, showing more extension, definition, and granularity than I have ever seen. The view in my 102 was actually fairly comparable to that in the XT8 in terms of apparent detail, although (as you would expect), not quite as bright.
Next I went to visit M27, a recommendation from a friend who had recently viewed it in his own 102. This was one of the best views of the night! In the Oracle, M27 was plainly evident as a neat little hourglass. (All night, I used the Oracle the way I normally would use my binoculars; my 8x56s never left their case. Everyone really enjoyed panning around with it.) In the 102 with both 16 & 7mm Naglers, M27 was a magnificent sight. The "apple core" in the center was huge and sharply defined, brighter at the ends. The fainter "football" shape was also plainly visible, brightening with averted vision. I stayed at M27 for quite some time, not even bothering with my nebula filter (which is probably a shame, but you can't do it all in one night!). M57, in the same celestial neighborhood, was nice, but didn't surprise me the way M27 did.
About this time another guy called us over to view the Veil nebula in his 10" SCT with an O-III filter. Very, very nice! This was my first view of the Veil. The braided filaments were clearly defined, and it looked like a photograph. I was impressed! (And no, I didn't go looking for the Veil in my wide-field refractors. I should have, but there was simply too much to see.)
Late in the evening, I pointed my scopes up at M13, and was truly stunned by the view in the 102. It looked like an O'Meara drawing, or some of the best CCD images I've seen! This is the first time I've truly seen why people refer to it as the Great Globular in Hercules. Stars were resolved across the core, and the glob was surrounded by the trailing "arms" of stars which sweep out in various directions like the tentacles of some sea creature. What a gorgeous sight!
It was getting late, and I was thinking of packing up when Mars came over the treetops around midnight. A number of people asked to see Mars in the 102, so I agreed to stay around for a bit. I popped in the 4mm Radian (220x) and was immediately impressed. Even at only 18 degrees above the horizon, Mars was showing a LOT of detail. Adding a #23 (light red) filter improved the view even more. I didn't have my sketch pad, because I had planned on using the dark skies for DSO work, but I really regret not taking the time to record last night's view! Syrtis Major, Sinus Sabaeus, and Hellas were obvious, as were a number of other smaller features. I also noticed how much wider the variation of colors has become across the planet's surface: Instead of simply light/dark contrasts, I'm seeing variations in tones of orange, yellow, peach, gray, and white. It goes without saying that this is the best view of Mars I've ever had!
Of course, we compared the views of Mars in all of the scopes present. In the 10", the resolution was improved, but we struggled more with seeing and with vibration due to the wind, which started picking up after midnight. In the 14", Mars was amazing when the air was steady and the breeze slowed down. On the whole, though, I left satisfied that I can see 90% of what the big scopes see, for a lot less weight and setup hassle. I love my new 102, and the little Oracle as well.
Last night gave me a renewed appreciation for deep-sky observing. With Saturn and Jupiter so prominent last winter, and Mars so close this summer, I've been neglecting the deep sky for far too long. With such dark skies only 45 minutes from my house, there's no excuse not to see it all! I think I'll be doing a lot more DSO work in the near future (once we get past this opposition thing :-).
In the end, I didn't leave until 1:15 a.m., and even then it was very reluctantly. After packing up, I savored the naked-eye view for several long minutes, watched one last meteor shoot overhead, and drove home with visions of the heavens dancing in my mind. It was an unforgettable night!
Clear, dark skies,
Neil