u/Vatonee

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Hello. I recently returned to the hobby and spent 4 great nights observing the summer sky with my trusty 15" reflector. Below is the report with most of the objects I saw. I estimate that I spent about 12 hours at the eyepiece in total.

Equipment: Taurus 15" f/4.3, ES 24mm 82* (70x), LVW 14mm 68*, (120x) ES 8.8mm 82* (180x), TeleVue 2x Barlow, svbony UHC and Astronomik OIII filters, and 10x50 binoculars.
Cedar e-finder is a new addition to my kit - allowing to reduce frustration when star-hopping to find the faintest objects, especially small planetary nebulae.

Location: central Poland, family home; one session was in a field nearby due to Sagittarius not being visible from my property (obstructed view due to the trees). The conditions were great, overall, although seeing was poor especially lower over the horizon. But it was warm and I was very comfortable in just my hoodie, which is important during those long sessions.

Sky: suburban - Bortle 5, perhaps closer to Bortle 4 when I was in the field. The Milky Way is clearly visible all the way down to Scutum, but lacking detail, except perhaps at the very zenith. 10 or 15 years ago it was Bortle 4 here. It's sad to see the LP taking over the sky. The comfort of observing from the backyard of your own home, without the need to drive back, is great, though.

Observation recording technique: voice recorder on my phone - I describe what I see as I go, and then write it down the next day. I try not to look at the pictures of the objects too much beforehand not to influence the view (although I know how many of the objects look), I simply make a list of targets and spend as much or little time as I find fitting.

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Planetary nebulae:
NGC 6886 - a tiny planetary - at 380x magnification, it still looks like a star. Just slightly fuzzy. Blinking with OIII filter confirms it.

NGC 6891 - a haze I described as similar to a globular cluster seen through binoculars, but without the graininess. It has a bright center and a distinct halo (especially visible with averted vision), which gradually fades in brightness.

NGC 6852 - visible at 180x with an OIII filter, as a circular haze. No detail. Visible also in UHC, but fainter.

NGC 6543 (Cat's Eye) - oblate, somewhat reminiscent of Saturn. Bright, slightly bluish.

NGC 7027 - beautiful one. With a 8.8mm and Barlow (~360x), very bright, distinctly non-stellar, slightly bluish, and elongated. A faint halo is visible with averted vision. One end seemed sharper to me, while the other was a bit blurrier. A dark streak cuts into one side along the longer edge.

NGC 6781 - a very interesting planetary, quite fuzzy, similar in size to M57 or slightly larger, with blurred edges, and a slightly irregular shape when viewed with averted vision. It's much more visible in 8.8mm (180x) with a UHC filter, standing out nicely from the background. The center is darker, especially visible with averted vision. It's truly stunning in OIII - very high contrast, and the nebula stands out beautifully from the background. The 14mm and OIII offer perhaps the best view - a distinct difference in edge brightness between the two sides of the nebula.

NGC 6803 - confirmed using the "blinking" technique with an OIII filter, but remains stellar even at very high magnification.

NGC 6804 - in UHC, it stands out well from the background, with a slight irregularity in the nebula's brightness and a star in the background. In OIII, the view is too dark at 8.8mm.

NGC 6905 - has clearly very visible, jagged, inhomogeneous structure in the center. One of the more interesting planetary nebulae observed today, because of this. I also noticed that it appears slightly stretched toward the two stars nearby. I could see the central star with averted vision at times.

NGC 40 - better in UHC than OIII, where the image is too dark. Sometimes I felt like I was looking at a spiral galaxy. Clearly inhomogeneous. A very interesting planetary nebula.

M76 - after experimenting with filters, I can't decide whether OIII or UHC is better. In OIII and 180x, the image is darker, but has more contrast. You can see that one pole of the nebula is noticeably brighter. In the UHC, however, despite the lower contrast, the image is probably more interesting, if only because of the greater presence of stars around it.

M27 - needless to say, a classic viewed dozens of times still impresses. Filters add incredible contrast; the nebula's side "wings" are so distinct that at times the Dumbbell almost cease to be Dumbbell.

M57 - another highlight. Here, like in M27, the addition of an OIII filter creates such contrast that the Ring almost blinds you and reveals the beautiful, subtle brightness irregularities of its outer shell.

It's so great to take a look at those 2 huge nebulae at the end, after all the fainties and fuzzies!

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The Veil Complex

The Veil - at 24mm, you can't see a thing without filters. I put on an OIII filter and it's jaw-dropping. A HUGE increase in contrast; the nebula is not only obvious, but spectacular. I spent well over an hour viewing this complex throughout the 4 nights.

The Western Veil (near 52 Cygni) - the sharply pointed part with a clearly visible brightening at the edges and a darker center. The undulating shape of the Broom is beautifully visible. The part near 52 Cygni is noticeably darker, later intensifying, and the nebula's split in the tail is super visible. At 24mm, the entire nebula fits within the field of view; the view is brilliant, literally jaw-dropping. Peering through the lens, you can see an incredible, undulating nebula, sharp and bright on one side, and split on the other. Something beautiful, fantastic.

From the sharp end of the Broom, I head east. Before I even reach the Triangle, I see additional, detached shreds of nebula, one of which is quite bright.

I reach the Triangle – initially, I see something like another Broom, only fainter and pointing in the opposite direction. After a while, from side closer to 52 Cygni, the missing part appears, fainter, and the name Triangle is finally justified. It's a very interesting sight when the tip of the western veil and the Triangle are in the same field of view; you can see how the nebula "flows" and you can feel that it's a single complex.

Now the eastern veil – the view is brilliant. A beautiful structure, an arc that fills the entire field of view, with visible jaggedness. You can see wisps of nebula connecting to the main body from the inside and outside. On the other end of the nebula. clearly visible, are two large filaments extending at right angles, which merge again on the inner side of the complex.

I've described the entire complex as a "feast for the eyes" – you could spend hours here, because the view is literally photographic, only without the color. Every time I looked at the eastern part of the nebula, I thought it was the better part, but then, when I moved the telescope to the western part, I immediately changed my mind. This just goes to show how incredibly much this object has to offer. I also think that if the Triangle itself was moved to a different spot in the sky, it would be a phenomenal object in its own right – here, it fades slightly compared to its two "friends."

I tried even higher magnifications here, but the exit pupil does its job, and while there may be slightly more detail with averted vision, it's not as striking as with a wide field of view.

Interestingly, when I place a filter in front of the objective lens of 10x50 binoculars and observe with one eye, both parts of the nebula are easily visible.

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Other Nebulae

NGC 6888 - The Crescent is much less spectacular than the Veil, but still very interesting. Of course, it's only visible with an OIII filter. The outer edge of the Medusa is clearly visible (much brighter on one side), as well as a "rib" cutting into its interior. With averted vision, the entire nebula appears as an oval, brighter than the background. No visible structure.

NGC 7000 - with an OIII filter and a 24mm eyepiece, the view is beautiful - although there are no filaments here, the view of the Gulf of Mexico is quite impressive in a wide field and is the best part of this nebula, offering excellent contrast. Toward the north, the nebula is still clearly visible as a strong background brightening. With an OIII filter held in front of the eye, the nebula is a naked eye object.

The Pelican nearby is also visible through a telescope, as an egg-shaped, elongated background brightening.

IC1318 - with both an OIII filter and a UHC filter and 24mm, this is quite an interesting object. The wing of the nebula, located further from the star Sadr, is slightly brighter. In images, you can clearly see a dark band passing over the gas clouds, but visually, the nebula appears as two distinct background brightenings – as mentioned, one is clearly brighter.

IC1795 - with an OIII filter and 24mm, visible as an hourglass-shaped background brightening. Quite clear with averted vision.

Sharpless 101 - with an OIII filter only, and only with averted vision, it shows a brightening around a loose cluster of several stars.

Sharpless 132 - a brightening against the background of a loose open cluster, visible only through an OIII filter. With averted vision, you can see the "bipolar" nature of the region – two brighter patches separated by a darker band.

NGC 281 - the nebula is invisible without a filter; in UHC it begins to show, while the view through an OIII filter is described as a "poorer version of M42" due to the indented dark lane extending into the cluster of stars within the nebula.

NGC 7635 - visible as a distinct haze around one of the stars near M52. Nothing is visible without a filter.

NGC 7023 (Iris) - visible as if the eyepiece were fogged up - haze around the star. It responds poorly to filters.

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Sagittarius Nebulae - they were the target of one of the observing sessions. Unfortunately, from my latitude, they are always quite low over the horizon (with Lagoon no higher than 13*), and that is also where the LP haze picks up, so observing is difficult. It is my dream to observe them through a big telescope from a latitude that allows them to rise high overhead.

Lagoon (M8) and Trifid (M20) Nebulae - at 24mm without filters, the view is simply poor. With UHC, the view is better - darker streaks are becoming visible in the Clover. A dark lane appears in the Lagoon, separating the brightest part of the nebula from the cluster and curving higher. Only the OIII lens delivers the wow factor – a significantly enhanced contrast, and everything that appeared in the UHC is now beautiful and clear. The subtle changes in the nebula's brightness and the undulations of the dark highlights are brilliantly visible.

In the Trifid, the OIII filter doesn't do as much; in fact, it's better in the UHC, where at 14mm the dark streaks are clearly visible.

The Omega (M17) and the Eagle (M16) Nebulae – in 24mm, the Cygnus is visible as a bright band with a dark, intervening element visible with averted vision, while the Eagle is invisible.

In the UHC, M17 offers a nice contrast improvement; everything stands out more beautifully from the background. The second part of the nebula, in the form of an arc, begins to become visible, opposite the brightest part. The Eagle begins to become visible, not super bright, but still.

In OIII, Cygnus is brilliant, with a huge improvement in contrast. The arc mentioned above is now really bright, the nebula is clearly expanding, and a second dark lane is beginning to become visible near the bright part of the nebula, while the first lane is already visible as a detached dark cloud, still behind which the nebula remains.

In OIII, Eagle is also the best. The dark lane at the edge of the nebula is clearly visible, and a second lane in the center of the nebula is beginning to become visible.

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Star Clusters

I also viewed quite a few globular clusters: M13 (the view is breathtaking, of course, with stars spilling out from the center as clearly as sugar spilled on a countertop), M92 (similarly beautiful, though smaller), M15 with a very interesting, condensed nucleus, M2, M71**,** which, especially at higher magnifications, clearly shows the origin of the nickname "Angelfish," but seeing it as a globular cluster is difficult. M56, very faint. NGC 6934 is very pleasant (best viewed at 360x, resolved right to the center, nicely "scattered" with rays from the center, making it somewhat reminiscent of M13), as well as its fainter neighbor NGC 7006 (a clearly spherical haze, but with traces of graininess, especially when tapping the telescope). NGC 6712 is also quite pretty, though a bit patchy, but you can tell it's globular.

M22 deserves attention – a huge cluster that, despite its very low position above the horizon, is magnificent. In several places, you can see something rarely seen in other globulars, which I described as a "cluster within a cluster," a distinct concentration of stars in a smaller area of the globule. I'd love to see this globular several dozen degrees above the horizon. Considering it's impressive so low, it would definitely be a bombshell.

As for the other globulars in Sagittarius, I visited: M54 ("it's there, and that's it. A haze against the milky background, you can't tell it's a cluster at all"), M70 (even fainter, the stars around it are like pancakes), I didn't pick out M69. Then M28(something was happening here; despite ultra-low contrast, graininess was visible. The cluster is clearly larger than the others. I naively tried to boost the contrast with a UHC filter, but it didn't help). NGC 6638, which is higher up, is also faint, but you can tell it's a cluster. I described the entire Sagittarius globular project as a "a bit pointless" halfway through, because there were very few visual impressions, except for M22, which I returned to at the end. It literally blew me away at how bright and large this cluster is, despite its poor location.

While near Sagittarius, I looked (just to check it off) at the open cluster M7. A dozen bright stars were visible, but unfortunately, nothing fancy – too low, zero contrast. The cluster is just 3 degrees over the horizon. For contrast after all these faints, I also looked at the magnificent M11, with a super interesting bright reddish star on the side of the cluster. M26 is also pleasant – not very dense, but has a nice shape. I also observed other open clusters in the area, but I didn't spend as much time on them and, due to fatigue, I didn't record any more impressions.

I attempted to observe the Palomar 10 and 11 clusters, but unfortunately, I was unsuccessful.

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Galaxies

The time for these will come later, although I did glance at NGC 7331 – a beautiful elongated needle, and Stephan's Quintet – unfortunately, a disappointment, with only one component visible. The most interesting thing about M33 wasn't the galaxy itself, but NGC 604, which responded beautifully to an OIII filter. NGC 185 – fuzzy but easy. NGC 278 – more compact, brighter, with a slight texture. M31 was best in binoculars.

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I also saw many Perseids when looking up from the telescope, they were a great addition to the observations. I glanced at Saturn on the end of each session, however, it was still quite low and the image was not very stable. I was still able to spot the Cassini Division, and the view of Saturn took me back to the times of my first telescope, a 70/700 refractor, more than 20 years ago. I vividly remember being blown away by view of the rings of Saturn the first time I saw them. It is still a joy to see them to this day.

Summary

I'm determined to observe more often from now on! However, I desperately need a filter slide or wheel, because screwing the filters in and out to compare images is a pain. That's a DIY topic for the next few weeks.

Overall, I've had a great return to the hobby after many years – the e-finder reduces frustration, and filters (especially OIII) are a lifesaver when observing nebulae. I am happy that I saw many new objects and returned to the classics.

I have a 15” reflector, however the sky where I live is not that great - Bortle 5-4 at best. I finally had some spare money to spend on the hobby and decided to go with an OIII filter from Astronomik.

In a 24mm eyepiece, the Veil Nebula is completely invisible without the filter. I screwed the filter in, and… holy moly, this was insane. The nebula is not only visible, but just spectacular. There was detail everywhere, with the nebula splitting, waving and branching. Best views with 24mm due to the big exit pupil - although 14mm allowed more detail to be seen in some places, the image was quite dim - and UHC filter does not make the nebula pop as OIII does, although the image is brighter.

I actually went ahead and looked at the area with 10x50 binoculars, one eye closed, the filter held in front of the lens - and the Veil was still clearly visible. Wow.

Crescent Nebula - not visible without the filter, easy with the filter. Not so much detail but the shell and central spine visible well.

NGC7000 was a naked eye object (as a clear cloud near Deneb) when I held the filter in front of my eye.

NGC281 was very interesting, I’ve never seen it before - I described it as „M42’s little cousin” due to visible straight cut-off and a dark region entering the nebula in the middle to join a star cluster. Again, only in OIII (although UHC provided some detail as well).

I am really amazed at what this filter can do - today I’m going to try and observe in Sagittarius - although it is very low and I need to drive to get a good view of the southern horizon.

I’ve recently finished playing GoW: Ragnarök. What immediately irritated me is Atreus (and Mimir) spoiling the puzzles before I even had a chance to have a proper look. I found an option to reduce this behavior but it barely helps. It was not so bad in the first game.

Then I played Horizon Zero Dawn and now I’m playing Forbidden West. And it’s even worse, to the point I don’t even want to continue to play. Why even have the puzzles if you’re giving me the solution before I even saw the puzzle? Either let me disable the hints or make the hints „on demand” with some key on the pad.

Yeah, no shit I need to climb that ladder Aloy, I’ve been shown a tower in the cutscene and you said we need to go there multiple times, but can you let me find the way on my own please?

Does anyone else find this trend extremely annoying?

I visited Reynisfjara last week. Windy and rainy conditions, quite big waves. Yet some people seemed completely OK with letting their children run and play very, very close to the water. I decided to quickly approach the parents and tell them that it's very dangerous and they just ignored me.

I mean, there are dozens of videos of adults getting knocked down by waves there, when they got surprised by a big one, reports of people actually dying there, and big sings with warnings about the danger when you enter the beach, and you do this? Am I overreacting or what?

Like many people, I nearly had a heart attack today when I saw an email with a bill of $219 million, and forecasted $433 million in another email, two minutes later.

I panicked, logged in and nuked everything. I can't be alone. Did AWS just initiate a massive garbage collection and cleanup event? I wonder how many people have just deleted everything they had on AWS before realizing it's a bug.

Powinien tu być chyba flair „śmiechotreść”, bo post ma charakter ironiczny, ale tak sobie przypomniałem, że z jakiś rok temu była wielka inba na cały kraj bo podobno nam Niemcy podrzucali imigrantów.

Pospolite ruszenie, patrole obywatelskie, polscy prawicowcy broniący mostów na Odrze, sprawa najwyższej wagi, filmiki na tik toku jak to w jakimś parku w Polsce siedzą czarne osoby a za Odrą jedzie furgonetka (co miało być dowodem w sprawie).

I potem Tusk wprowadził jakieś zaostrzone kontrole żeby ten proceder ukrócić.

Od dawna nic w tym temacie nie słyszałem, kompletna cisza, brak tematu, więc widzę dwie opcje:

- albo nasz rząd z Tuskiem na czele tak skutecznie się rozprawił z procederem, że wzmocnienie granicy zupełnie rozwiązało temat

- albo temat był sztucznie nakręconą przez prawicę inbą w celu podburzania nastrojów społecznych, nastawiania ludzi przeciw sobie, i propagowania rasizmu i homofobii ksenofobii

Ciekawe, które z tych dwóch jest bardziej prawdopodobne... tak czy inaczej, ciekawe, że tak skomplikowany problem, o takiej wadze i znaczeniu dla suwerenności naszego kraju, został tak sprawnie rozwiązany.

Every time I'm driving in Iceland I just love the fact that the inner lane has the right of way. I wish our roundabouts worked like that (only some do, they have arrows on the lanes and you need to be on the right lane before you enter)

In the rest of the world, including Poland where I'm from, the outer lane has the right of way, which is stupid, because you can legally drive in the outer lane when you're taking the 2nd or 3rd exit, and if there's a car wanting to exit from the inner lane, they need to let you go. This kind of negates the whole benefit of having 2 lanes, as it incentivizes people to drive in the outer lane, because, in case of any accident, it's never your fault. This makes the traffic on some roundabouts really not smooth.

Yet another reason to love Iceland.

I’m pretty sure I saw someone sprain an ankle at Strokkur today. Basically, there were 2 small eruptions, people started getting impatient, a large crowd gathered directly downwind. The next eruption was a huge one, lots of water went onto the air and fell into the people downwind. I imagine the water was still very hot, people started running, but it’s very wet and there was so much steam that they could not see.

Somebody slipped and fell down (or someone ran into them and tripped them), and was laying down for a couple of minutes with people tending for them.

So yeah, take care and maybe don’t stand directly downwind from the thing that shoots boiling water into the air.

Czy u was w miastach, na osiedlach, wspólnoty i spółdzielnie również postawiły sobie za cel regularne golenie do praktycznie zera wszelkich trawników i terenów zielonych? Jebla idzie dostać, bo jak nie jedna wspólnota to druga, i w sumie przez cały tydzień od samego rana słychać wyjące silniki kosiarek.

O tym, że przy obecnej pogodzie taka wygolona trawa zmienia się szybko w żółte, brzydkie i suche placki, wspominać raczej nie trzeba.

Czy komuś udało się wykonać taką instalację we współpracy ze wspólnotą/spółdzielnią? Mój sposób użytkowania samochodu jest taki, że idealnie pasowałby mi elektryk, mam miejsce postojowe w hali garażowej w swoim bloku. Zanim zacznę pytać u siebie wspólnoty, chciałem podpytać o wasze doświadczenia.