27th/28th August

Hi all

The seeing last evening wasn't the greatest, anything close to the hoizon was almost impossible to see, M2 was the lowest thing I could spot.

Got a few sketches in and I hope you like them.

The Veil Nebula.



I used an O-III filter to bring out this beautiful object, due to it's high elevation it was less affected by the seeing.

M2



With averted vision there were hints of many more stars and I feel if I return to this globular on a night of better seeing I will record more of them.

NGC 7243



High in Lacerta this cluster is huge with hundreds of stars with a lovely double sitting at it's heart. I could definitely see that this cluster is split in two with a dark rift running down the centre.

Thanks for your time.

Paul

Hi Paul,

They are very nice sketches. The seeing was pretty crap all right. Again well done on the drawings

Carl O'Beirnes,
Balbriggan Observatory (MPC #J09)
www.webtreatz.com

Great Veil sketch, Paul. Very etherial.

BTW: when things closer to the horizon are hard to see, that's usually bad transparency (too much dust, water, etc. in the atmosphere) rather than bad seeing (too much turbulence in the atmosphere).

Both get worse near the horizon (as you're looking through more atmosphere), but bad seeing mostly* just makes targets blurry, rather than dimmer.

Cheers,
-- Jeff.

* At the very edge of perception blurring can reduce the signal-to-noise ratio such that your retina stops picking up the target at all -- but that's not the dominant effect of bad seeing.

Wow Paul, You're sketching like a Lunartic lately

Speaking of Globs. They're the one DSO type I found were most affected by seeing. Even Mighty M13 with those 12inches of apeture could be mostly unresolved in bad seeing but on a night of good seeing....Diamond Dust resolved to the core :woohoo:

Lovely work Paul.
Donal

Excellent Veil sketch Paul!

A jump in aperture + a UHC filter and you'll be drawing the fine detail within the Veil.

Michael.