azure1961p
professor emeritus
Reged: 01/17/09
Posts: 731
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I mentioned seeing a detail in M57 that was more defined than any view ever [at 364x] and mysteriously, it never reappeared.
I occaisionally have this - sometimes its a dust lane that is almost just there in a flash of intense motteling - then gone. I'm psyched up - I pull out burnhams - I read up - im all pumped on a galaxy that nearly resolved the most curious detail to me.
And it never showed a mottle again.
Anyone else ever get those detail "once onlys" and its forever a game of trying to recapture it?
Pete
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star drop
Guilty as Charged
Reged: 02/02/08
Posts: 16271
Loc: Snow Plop, WNY
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Yes, on many objects over the years. One must cherish the memories.
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Ted
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Lard Greystoke
sage
Reged: 07/27/08
Posts: 377
Loc: Ohio
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Many years ago on an unsteady but extraordinarily clear night M51 would snap into view ten times as sharp and utterly different than any other time I've seen it. It was not so much the level of detail as the clear separation between the opaque-looking, warm-colored (almost tan) nucleus and the translucent, smoke-grey arms. I've seen it a number of times since as the usual smeared-out misty white with almost-seen spiral detail in the 10". I've never seen any object in this scope to rival the level of detail on what must have been a freakish few minutes that night.
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Lard Greystoke
10" Odyssey Compact
"With Tantor, the elephant, he made friends. How? Ask me not."
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rathbaster
professor emeritus
Reged: 03/21/08
Posts: 540
Loc: East Bridgewater, MA
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Yes.
Back in the early 90s there was a single night of spectacular clarity and I had a 16" Dob at my disposal. The detail I saw in the Andromeda Galaxy was greater than any I've seen since. (The mirror from that same scope sits in my office waiting to become a truss-rod dob.....I can only hope that I will have another night so clear again when its rebuilt.  )
-Joe
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Bridgewater State College Observatory
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Jack Tripper
sage
Reged: 05/10/09
Posts: 345
Loc: Canada
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Well, I'm not sure if this qualifies, but tonight I saw details I never saw before, EVER.
M13 was filled with dust-like stars. In the past, I sometimes THOUGHT that I might be seeing stars, but tonight I KNOW I saw them.
A few contributing factors: This was the first time I was able to use a reduced 17mm Ethos under a red sky (Bortle Dark-Sky Scale), and no moon. (The first time I used the Ethos there was a nearly full moon). Also M13 is higher in the sky compared to just a couple months ago.
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Celestron CPC 1100 
Denkmeier S2 Power Filter Switch Diagonal (.66x Reducer, 2x Barlow)
Ethos 17mm, Baader Scopos 30mm
Lunt 60mm Hydrogen-Alpha Solar Scope, Lunt Zoom
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azure1961p
professor emeritus
Reged: 01/17/09
Posts: 731
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I dont understand your sky conditions exactly, but clearly under even mediocre skys, sans the moon, m13 ought to look like gangbusters. M56 which isnt too far away by contrast isnt so easy a customer having more finicky sky condition requirements.
Really, you're all set with an 8" and globulars in general in terms of stellar resolution.
Pete
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dengwer
super member
Reged: 02/14/06
Posts: 154
Loc: Texas
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I saw the overlapping rings of gas in the cat's eye neb. just like a picture one time. Never got that view since. Sometimes it trys to come but never fully appears like that one time. Maybe need steady seeing.
David
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ETX125AT
Wife's ETX90RA
Orion Ultra-View 10x50
Meade 12" Lightbridge Deluxe
coronado PST
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scoping
super member
Reged: 01/05/09
Posts: 156
Loc: Jacksonville,Fl
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Pete I am so glad to hear someone say that. Yes I have had a hand full of nights over the years and it goes M31 a fuzzy oval, next minute a lime green 3D football with brown dust lanes wrapping around it. The Triffid blue and green. Omega orange. Lagoon pink. M42 bursting with colors as intense as a traffic signal at night. The summer milky way golden in color and when looking at it I felt like I was falling into it, what an intense 3D feeling. Its been over 25 years since then and thats why I go out every chance. I wish you perfect skies again soon.
Mark Kaupas
20"F5
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Starman1
Vendor - Scope City
Reged: 06/24/03
Posts: 12221
Loc: Los Angeles
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On a night of superb seeing and darkness a few years back, I saw a sprinkling of 10-20 stars across the face of NGC206 in M31. Hmm, thought I, it seems odd so many Milky Way stars just happen to be superimposed on NGC206.
I investigated what I saw a little while later and found out that the brightest 6 were indeed in the Milky Way. And all the others were supergiants in M31! I had seen individual stars in M31. How cool is that.
Since that day, I've seen them a few times, and I have a fairly long list of other extremely difficult observations that seemed fairly easy under the perfect conditions pertaining during the observations.
For example, I've seen M14 covered with stars as if it was M15. That's more difficult than the NGC206 observation and I've never seen it since.
We live for those moments of serendipity.
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Don Pensack
12.5" Truss Dob, 5" Maksutov, Fujinon Binos
Sustaining Lifetime IDA member
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kcolter
member
Reged: 06/04/03
Posts: 87
Loc: Missouri, USA
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I have certainly experienced this phenomenon several times. The M42 trapezium area at moderately high power is perhaps the place where I have experienced this most often. There are some very special nights where one sees much more detail in the nebulosity and faint 15th/16th mag stars sprinkled on the nebulosity around the trapezium that brings the phrase, "be still my heart" to mind. We live to be at the eyepiece on such nights, mais non?
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azure1961p
professor emeritus
Reged: 01/17/09
Posts: 731
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Peripheral vision and the chemicals and such in our night-eyes really can make magic happen huh? Mark and Don your blowing me away! Its amazing how some folks are more color sensitive than others. The details in the stellar accociation in M31 is one for all time. My consolation detail in that galaxy are the multitude of star clusters i can find via skiff/luginbuhls deep sky handbook. Alas, they all appear stellar, but perhaps under a better sky i can make out some extended aspect of it. They say it can be done in a ten inch.
What an amazing list, you guys are terrific!!
Pete
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HellsKitchen
sage
Reged: 09/05/08
Posts: 356
Loc: Melbourne Australia
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Once I had my 12" dob at 750x on 47Tuc and was like actually being inside it and looking towards the core, which was peppered with sparkling stardust. Never got that view again.
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S 38º 00' E 145º20'
Custom 12" F/4.6 dob
10" GSO dob
Intes M500 Mak
4.5" Meade Newtonian
Set of Vixen LVWs + TV barlows + powermates
Astronomik 0III, UHC, H-beta filters
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Ptarmigan
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 09/23/04
Posts: 2355
Loc: Arctic
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Does seeing M79 once in a light polluted sky count? I have not seen it again. The sky condition was really great. Had I stayed out late that time, I would of likely seen the Virgo Clusters.
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Ptarmigans=Cute and Cuddly
Meade Starfinder 8
Nikon 10x50
Rebel XT
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scoping
super member
Reged: 01/05/09
Posts: 156
Loc: Jacksonville,Fl
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Hi Pete,
It has nothing to do with color sensitivity. It is the skies opening up and allowing you to use the full potential of your scope. Example a well built 6" or 8" reflector on one of those perfect nights would blow away my current 20" on a good night. As I said there are only a hand full of nights where I have seen this.
Mark Kaupas
20"F5
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