Under ideal viewing conditions with 6.1 to 6.5 mag skies Thanksgiving night, I tried and failed again to see the Cone nebula with my 8" dobsonian mounted scope.
My previous attempt was last February at the same location with slightly less than ideal conditions . Both attempts were done with the object at least 45 degrees above the southern horizon.
The scope was calibrated, my eyes were dark adapted, and I used eyepieces of 30x (Pentax XL 40mm with narrowband filter) and 43x (Ultrascopic/Ultima 25mm with 0III filter.) I observed the Christmas Tree cluster for about 45 minutes trying to catch the Cone, with direct and averted vision. The conditions let me easily see the E and F stars in M42 earlier in the evening, and 5 moons around Jupiter later in the night. The scope has an Orion factory primary and an upgraded pyrex secondary and curved secondary mount from Protostar.
In Sue French's Sky and Telescope article, March 2005, she said that she can see the cone without a filter in her 10' dob at 44x. She said a filter brings out slightly more detail.
I thought this object would be possible for me to see with filters, but I guess I needed slightly darker skies.
Has anybody seen this nebula with an 8", or could I have spent my time better observing brighter objects? If you have observed it, what were the conditions and what type of scope did you use?
My previous attempt was last February at the same location with slightly less than ideal conditions . Both attempts were done with the object at least 45 degrees above the southern horizon.
The scope was calibrated, my eyes were dark adapted, and I used eyepieces of 30x (Pentax XL 40mm with narrowband filter) and 43x (Ultrascopic/Ultima 25mm with 0III filter.) I observed the Christmas Tree cluster for about 45 minutes trying to catch the Cone, with direct and averted vision. The conditions let me easily see the E and F stars in M42 earlier in the evening, and 5 moons around Jupiter later in the night. The scope has an Orion factory primary and an upgraded pyrex secondary and curved secondary mount from Protostar.
In Sue French's Sky and Telescope article, March 2005, she said that she can see the cone without a filter in her 10' dob at 44x. She said a filter brings out slightly more detail.
I thought this object would be possible for me to see with filters, but I guess I needed slightly darker skies.
Has anybody seen this nebula with an 8", or could I have spent my time better observing brighter objects? If you have observed it, what were the conditions and what type of scope did you use?
