The Horsehead has been Vanquished

[stephen-jones]

Between my observational skills, Mark Ferraz's 18" telescope, and an H-Beta filter, we managed to view the Horsehead visually from the dark site last night. Talk about a thrill. It's quite a bit bigger than I expected... I had heard people, including my dad, call it a small object in the past. Who else here has seen the Horsehead visually?

And how in the heck did we get through the whole year 2014 without any posts in the deep sky forum?

[steve-fung]

That's my white whale - wait, I don't have an 18" telescope, which is my second white whale...

[stephen-jones]

My dad once said he saw it from the site in his 10"... that was on an exceptional night though, and it was also back in the '80s when the site was darker than it is now.

[steve-fung]

This reminds me of the fun and informative article written by Barbara Wilson, "Magic Horse Head Eyepiece":

http://home.ix.netcom.com/~bwilson2/barbarasweb/MEyepiece.htm

For best contrast with visual observing according to Barbara, the key is to use an eyepiece with a H-beta filter that will produce an exit pupil of approximately 5 mm.

Eyepiece (mm) = exit pupil (mm) x f-ratio

Therefore, to get an exit pupil of 5 mm with a f/5 telescope, you will need a 25 mm eyepiece.

Exit pupil specifications for different filters (and their uses) are specified on Lumicon's website:

http://www.lumicon.com/store/pg/15-LUMICON-Nebula-Filters.aspx

Here's a nice overview of the Horsehead Nebula region with observing hints:

http://www.nightsky.at/Photo/Neb/B33_WN.html

I don't have a H-beta filter, but I do have a Baader UHC-S filter that band passes H-alpha, H-beta, and O-III, which I will try next time to observe at the Dark Site. Hopefully, that will also work with the formula above...

[mark-ferraz]

Gonna need that h-beta I think., and we were using a 13mm ethos at the time


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[stephen-jones]

Don't discourage him Mark. It can be done without the H-Beta... it's just harder

[rene-gedaly]

I know. Maybe the time has come for the HAS forums. Cloudy nights is my next add to tapatalk...like this app

[stephen-jones]

I know. Maybe the time has come for the HAS forums. Cloudy nights is my next add to tapatalk...like this app

Hehe... you might want to practice a bit more with it though. I'm not sure this was the thread you meant to reply to LOL

[rene-gedaly]

Oh, yeah? Check the last paragraph of your original post, hehe. Okay, I'll give you that no one is going to expect a reply to the original message.

[stephen-jones]

Oh... sorry. My perception of context had moved far beyond my original post. In any case, that question was mainly rhetorical. What I really wanted out of this thread was people's visual Horsehead experiences. Tell us about yours, Rene.