An evening with the BSD (big strut dob)

[Kanadalainen]

May 23, 2022

An evening with the Big Scope.

I made it up to the cabin two weeks ago and had recently moved my big strut Dob up there as a kind of dedicated galaxy killer. The scope has got an interesting background. The main goodness comes via its 14.5” main optic (ground by Zambuto in CA) and was made by Jim Kendrick (the astro device guy) in Toronto as his personal scope in 2006 – I bought it from him about two years ago.

I had an idea from member kt4hx (Alan) to keep this bigger scope at the dark site on a more or less permanent basis.

This evening promised to be very beautiful, and almost windless. The seeing was good too.

Platform with the dob.

I decided to spend some time in Canes Venatici, Ursa Major, Virgo, Leo and Coma -viewing some of the more prominent Messiers to refresh my visual memories of these DSO’s and then to seek out some of the lesser viewed galaxies in those regions.

My views were limited by nearby forest.

Below is my list of observations.. I began around midnight and went through targets until about 2:30 am. I used a number of EP’s from 13mm to 28mm.

Thats a lot of nice targets but ->

The real standouts for me were:

M63 – very sunflower like, tried to find the small riffles of flocculent detail in the core, I think I didn’t gain the contrast needed – too early in the evening.
NGC 4449 – an irregular galaxy in CV. Boxy and torn – up in appearance… spent about 30 minutes on this one as my eyes adapted. I would like to image this one with my C8.
NGC 4169 – Oh OK, now I get it. Galaxies caught in a box configuration. Cool!
M101 – Big, brooding, dim. It’s an old favourite, I can’t help myself.
M92 – almost as huge as M13 (visually) and splattered with a smattering of tiny faint fuzzy galaxies as a backdrop.
M97 – the Owl. As the night darkened this Messier became better and better, and very much lending a visual explanation of its interesting namesake.
Markarian’s chain – a cornucopia of cool items.. I spent quite a while shaking hands with this bunch.

Thanks for reading to the bottom..

[kt4hx]

That is an outstanding report Ian. Glad to see you moved this scope to your dark site cabin. It will serve you well there, and you will be able to reap its benefits to the max. That Zambuto mirror should be a true work of art.

I last observed NGC 4449 about nine years ago at home with the 12 inch, so your views there would have been better, though I found it very bright and irregular, as its nature.

Regarding NGC 4169, I presume you also observed the other three galaxies that it forms a box with? I last observed this group, known as "The Box" and more formally as Hickson 61, on the evening of 30 May 2022. You can see my experience with them here:

viewtopic.php?t=25080

You did very good my friend and nice to see you doing some visual observing. I encourage you to image both NGC 4449 and Hickson 61 if possible. I would love to see the results.

[Bigzmey]

Nice session Ian! And great view from your patio. Did you navigate to targets using Nexus?

[Kanadalainen]

That is an outstanding report Ian. Glad to see you moved this scope to your dark site cabin. It will serve you well there, and you will be able to reap its benefits to the max. That Zambuto mirror should be a true work of art.

I last observed NGC 4449 about nine years ago at home with the 12 inch, so your views there would have been better, though I found it very bright and irregular, as its nature.

Regarding NGC 4169, I presume you also observed the other three galaxies that it forms a box with? I last observed this group, known as "The Box" and more formally as Hickson 61, on the evening of 30 May 2022. You can see my experience with them here:

viewtopic.php?t=25080

You did very good my friend and nice to see you doing some visual observing. I encourage you to image both NGC 4449 and Hickson 61 if possible. I would love to see the results.

Thanks Alan,
I greatly appreciate the depth of your reports and especially that they are so accessible as a source for the rest of us.
I will make it a point to do both Hickson 61 and 4449. The C8 at native focal length can reach so many Arps, Hicksons etc.
Kind regards,

[Kanadalainen]

Nice session Ian! And great view from your patio. Did you navigate to targets using Nexus?

Thanks Andrey -> Yes indeed I did use the Nexus! Its such an incredibly simple and powerful device. About 10 of the early targets were limited to my own wits and the laser site, just for old times sake (ca. 2017 ha ha).

The nexus is one of the best and least expensive pieces of astro hardware purchased to date. The bang for the buck is outrageous.

All the best,

[turboscrew]

Sounded like a good session. Was that first light at the cabin?

[Unitron48]

Great session...and report! Hopefully the first of many sessions with the BSD!!

Dave

[Kanadalainen]

Sounded like a good session. Was that first light at the cabin?

Hi Juha,
No, that scope has made its way up there a few times - my kids and I did a lot of visual stuff during the pandemic. The skies are very good, not too many lights nearby (the hamlet of Gimli is 60 km to the south down the opposite coast of the lake, and well over the horizon). Its dark enough to see Zodaical light, etc. One can realize Bortle 2 skies most of the year as its far enough north of the major cities (52*N). But now I have decided to park it in the veranda and it waits at the ready at all times. My son is up there now and I encouraged him to use it this weekend.

[Juno16]

That is so cool Ian!

Man, I wish that you weren’t so far away. I would love to see what a view looks like in a a big scope like yours.
Of course, dark skies are a huge plus too!

Thanks for the nice report and have fun!

[Kanadalainen]

Great session...and report! Hopefully the first of many sessions with the BSD!!

Dave

Thanks Dave, yes I will definitely use it more and more. Its a great tool for learning (and relearning) the skies - and for scouting around for novel Hicksons and Arp galaxies (my favourites).

I'm lucky to have it up there, and am considering building an external stairway and small platform on the cabin to open up my skies a bit. That would put me over the trees and about 30 feet up!

[Kanadalainen]

That is so cool Ian!

Man, I wish that you weren’t so far away. I would love to see what a view looks like in a a big scope like yours.
Of course, dark skies are a huge plus too!

Thanks for the nice report and have fun!

What's a few hours on a plane? Yeah and then the 2 hour drive north from my city up the east side of the big lake. The cool part of this part of the world is that this is the end of the line, there are no permanent roads any further north, and nothing into the east (we are very close to the border of Northern Ontario). Its just lake after lake and granite and coniferous trees, ha ha. I would like to host any of you up here - the relative dark is really something to see - perhaps someday.

[helicon]

Wonderful report with the big Dob Ian. Nexus sounds like something very worthy of checking out.

Nice haul of galaxies and the mirror of your scope has quite a provenance, too. I hope you get more time for visual observing. As nominated by bigzmey, you are the winner of the TSS Visual Report of the day award! At 52 degrees you are pretty far north. I am at 48.7 which is much different than my old 38 degrees north.

viewtopic.php?p=205122#p205122

[Kanadalainen]

Wonderful report with the big Dob Ian. Nexus sounds like something very worthy of checking out.

Nice haul of galaxies and the mirror of your scope has quite a provenance, too. I hope you get more time for visual observing. As nominated by bigzmey, you are the winner of the TSS Visual Report of the day award! At 52 degrees you are pretty far north. I am at 48.7 which is much different than my old 38 degrees north.

viewtopic.php?p=205122#p205122

Wow, thank you Michael, I am very honoured!

52* is at the cabin, but I do most of my imaging close to the US border - 49* and change. 38*N would be a dream, Sagittarius would hang suspended like a giant grapefruit (with 4 legs and a bow). I would desperately love to image M83 but its in the soup for me, too much atmosphere.

The Nexus II can be retrofitted to almost any dob platform (and a bunch of equitorial mounts too I believe). Serge is the owner, a software engineer living in Sydney, Australia - a really nice guy, great to talk to. My encoders are not super fancy, simply US digital of 2006 vintage and relatively low resolution and low price. I inherited the encoders from Mr. Kendrick - he had an older digital system on it that I couldn't figure out, but got the Nexus II, connected it to my cell phone and boom, done. Its really simple to set up - I may have paid him about $200 CAD for the system. Plug and play.

[turboscrew]

Congrats on the VROD!

[turboscrew]

Wonderful report with the big Dob Ian. Nexus sounds like something very worthy of checking out.

Nice haul of galaxies and the mirror of your scope has quite a provenance, too. I hope you get more time for visual observing. As nominated by bigzmey, you are the winner of the TSS Visual Report of the day award! At 52 degrees you are pretty far north. I am at 48.7 which is much different than my old 38 degrees north.

viewtopic.php?p=205122#p205122

It's a blessing now, that you are not located much more to the north.
At my latitude (about the same as Anchorage's), you don't see any stars, until the end of July.

[Kanadalainen]

Congrats on the VROD!

Thank you Juha!

[Kanadalainen]

Wonderful report with the big Dob Ian. Nexus sounds like something very worthy of checking out.

Nice haul of galaxies and the mirror of your scope has quite a provenance, too. I hope you get more time for visual observing. As nominated by bigzmey, you are the winner of the TSS Visual Report of the day award! At 52 degrees you are pretty far north. I am at 48.7 which is much different than my old 38 degrees north.

viewtopic.php?p=205122#p205122

It's a blessing now, that you are not located much more to the north.
At my latitude (about the same as Anchorage's), you don't see any stars, until the end of July.

Every bit of southing helps us, our best dark site is near 49*.. My city is at the bleeding edge of astro fun in the summer. We don't really hit astronomical dark, and have perhaps 3 hours of time to get decent contrast. Old Sol pops up in the Northeast at 310 am or so. Weird driving home at 430 am, no headlights.

Lots of my astro friends are getting into Solar imaging.

Nevertheless our group tries to get out on the date of summer solstice in June just because we are froward grumpy stubborn fellows.

[Juno16]

That is so cool Ian!

Man, I wish that you weren’t so far away. I would love to see what a view looks like in a a big scope like yours.
Of course, dark skies are a huge plus too!

Thanks for the nice report and have fun!

What's a few hours on a plane? Yeah and then the 2 hour drive north from my city up the east side of the big lake. The cool part of this part of the world is that this is the end of the line, there are no permanent roads any further north, and nothing into the east (we are very close to the border of Northern Ontario). Its just lake after lake and granite and coniferous trees, ha ha. I would like to host any of you up here - the relative dark is really something to see - perhaps someday.

Sounds like you live in an amazing place! Doesn't get much better than that!

[Kanadalainen]

That is so cool Ian!

Man, I wish that you weren’t so far away. I would love to see what a view looks like in a a big scope like yours.
Of course, dark skies are a huge plus too!

Thanks for the nice report and have fun!

What's a few hours on a plane? Yeah and then the 2 hour drive north from my city up the east side of the big lake. The cool part of this part of the world is that this is the end of the line, there are no permanent roads any further north, and nothing into the east (we are very close to the border of Northern Ontario). Its just lake after lake and granite and coniferous trees, ha ha. I would like to host any of you up here - the relative dark is really something to see - perhaps someday.

Sounds like you live in an amazing place! Doesn't get much better than that!

Ask me again in January! The winters are tough.

[kt4hx]

That is an outstanding report Ian. Glad to see you moved this scope to your dark site cabin. It will serve you well there, and you will be able to reap its benefits to the max. That Zambuto mirror should be a true work of art.

I last observed NGC 4449 about nine years ago at home with the 12 inch, so your views there would have been better, though I found it very bright and irregular, as its nature.

Regarding NGC 4169, I presume you also observed the other three galaxies that it forms a box with? I last observed this group, known as "The Box" and more formally as Hickson 61, on the evening of 30 May 2022. You can see my experience with them here:

viewtopic.php?t=25080

You did very good my friend and nice to see you doing some visual observing. I encourage you to image both NGC 4449 and Hickson 61 if possible. I would love to see the results.

Thanks Alan,
I greatly appreciate the depth of your reports and especially that they are so accessible as a source for the rest of us.
I will make it a point to do both Hickson 61 and 4449. The C8 at native focal length can reach so many Arps, Hicksons etc.
Kind regards,

Thank you for your kind comments Ian. First off congrats on the VROD - well deserved. Pursuit of the Arps and Hicksons is certainly a worthwhile project. Capturing those kinds of objects in detail is challenging and skill building for sure.

I smiled when I read the chatter about using the NEXUS system for locating objects. It made me think about when I first got my 17.5 inch truss dob set up. Initially I had an Argo Navis system on it for that exact same purpose. I tried it a few times, and I know this sounds a bit sacrilegious, but I didn't like it! I actually found I enjoyed finding objects manually as I always had, and still do. I think I am pretty good at it too! So I removed it and sold it. But I am glad you enjoy the NEXUS and that it has worked well for you. In reality, whatever method we choose for object location - go-to, push-to or star-hopping is irrelevant. Its all about getting out under the night sky and enjoying the experience. Well done Ian.