Telescope Reviews: NGC 6781 tonight

I had a clear night tonight and with the moon below the horizon I decided to view tonight. I set my scope out with the fan on and came in to surf CN until it got dark.

I wanted to look at something besides the usual summer highlights. My best views from my backyard are to the east and south east as that direction is away from the city lights of nearby Seattle. I selected Aquila tonight as my area to view.

But what to view in Aquila? To help decide I opened up Steve Coe's What's Up Aquila article from August '07. I'm not big on open clusters so I selected Barnard's 'E', NGC 6781 and NGC 6751 as tonight's targets.

When I came out to the scope the first thing I noticed was that my observing table was already sopping wet.

Heavy dew tonight. I wasn't too concerned by it because I was only planning a short session anyway. I just knew I'd have to keep my eyepieces covered when they weren't in the focuser.

I viewed a few summer highlights while waiting to dark adapt. I went from M13 to the Ring to the double double. The doubles were nicely split at 136x but even better at 200x. At 200x I noted that the seeing was pretty good, Pickering 7-8.

About this time one of my neighbors, two doors down, turned on the backyard light.

The bright white light came thru the lattice on the fence and hit me right in the eyes. Then I remembered that I had saved a couple of sheets of plywood form a recent project so I grabbed one and put it up against the fence to block the light. There was still some ambient light entering my yard but at least I didn't have that bright light in my eyes any more.

I sat back down at the scope. Looking up at Ursa Minor I noted that I still couldn't see the Mag 5 star in the Little Dipper. I probably could have before the neighbor's light but now I'd need to re-dark adapt. I turned the scope down toward M27 and fiddled with some different eyepieces and filters. Maybe 5-10 minutes later the Mag 5 star in the Dipper was finally visible at least with averted vision. I decided I was well enough dark adapted to try tonights objects.

I started with Barnard's 'E' (B142 & 143). I've viewed it before with my 8" dob from a dark site but I'd never tried it from home before. Using my 35 Pan at 34x it was easy to detect the lack of stars in the area blackened by B 142 & 143 but with all the local sky glow the blackness just wasn't as spectacular as it had been from a dark site.

I moved on to look for NGC 6781. Using my Pocket Star Atlas and my Rigel Quikfinder I turned my scope where I thought it should be and had a look. Nothing!

I panned around a bit. Still Nothing. I switched from my 35 Pan to a 14 UWA and re-centered on the area. Nothing.

Was I in the right place? I thought so but their weren't many guide stars in the Pocket Star Atlas to match up with my field of view.

I needed a deeper atlas. I went in the house to find my Herald-Bobroff. I don't use this enough to be really familiar with it. I sat down at my desk with a faint light on and flipped thru the different scale charts until I found what I needed in the 'C' charts. For those unfamiliar with the H-B Atlas it has A, B, C & D charts with each letter going deeper than the previous. Confident that I had the guide stars I needed I headed back out to the scope with my H-B.

I swung my scope back into the field using the Rigel and then switched to my RACI. The background stars looked dimmer than I remember from earlier. Then I checked and sure enough my Rigel and my RACI were both covered with dew. I went back into the house for my 12v hair dryer and a power supply and came back out to deal with the dew. Wouldn't you know that power supply gave out after just about 10 seconds.

I went back in and grabbed a different power supply. This one was charged and in a few moments my Rigel and RACI were clear again. I re-centered in the Rigel and went back to the RACI. There were the guide stars I had noted in the H-B!

Over to my 35 Pan and........nothing.

Then I pulled out a UHC filter and fitted it on the end of my Paracorr. Re-center in the Rigel again. Follow my guide stars in the RACI again. Switch to the 35 Pan. What's that? Do I detect a faint fuzzy? I wiggle the scope a little to allow my peripheral vision to go to work on it. Yes indeed, I found it!

I studied it some in the Pan. Hard to make out any detail because it's so faint. I try switching to my 14mm UWA. The the light is even more diffuse and the object has dimmed. I stepped up to a 20mm Nag. This was my best view at 60x with a UHC filter. It was a steady object with direct vision, though faint.

I checked my charts to move on to NGC 6751 but discovered that it had slipped behind my maple tree already. I decided to call it quits and go inside and dry things out. Not a bad night, some frustrations but at least a found a couple of my target objects for the night.

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Tom (Pegster)
DSH-8 (GSO Dob)
15x70 Oberwerks
SVP/ED80
WO 66 Petzval
Sears Discoverer EQ 60/900
8x42 Regals

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