I’m glad lots of people find my e-mail address on this site and use it to tell me their thoughts and stories about Hanny’s Voorwerp. There was this boy who did his show-and-tell about it for instance. And this week I received an e-mail from Dragan Nikin and Jimi Lowrey from Fort Davis, Texas, USA. How cool is that?!
“Last night we both observed your object visually and were wondering something. Do you know if your object has ever been observed visually using a telescope and eyepiece? We can’t find anything about it and assumed we may be the first to have seen it visually, with it being so faint. Can you confirm?” Is what Dragan asked me.
Earlier he had posted this on their ‘cloudynights’ website: “It was a great sighting! We both were exceptionally pleased with it! There was no detail of any kind, you can forget about seeing the monster shape. But all in all, we’re both confident in what we saw. […] Going to bed early this morning, whether I’m right or wrong, it sure felt good believing that Jimi and I were the first two people on this earth to have seen this object through an eyepiece!”
I loved their enthusiasm. But since I have two pictures on this site, taken by amateur astronomers, I thought they weren’t the first. Little did I know about taking pictures like that and the difference in really seeing it! You still shouldn’t ask me how it works, but apparently it’s really something if you’re able to actually see it! You learn something new every day eh.
And indeed nobody else beat them to e-mailing me that they have seen Hanny’s Voorwerp, so to my knowledge these guys are the first! After that conclusion we exchanged some e-mails and he gave me this information for my website, in case someone else wants to try. (Don’t hold me responsible for any of the words in the next paragraph – I have no idea what it says – but doesn’t it look interesting?!)
“The telescope is a 48″ f/4 Newtonian. The focal length is 4881mm. We used an 8mm eyepiece to observe your object and that gave us 610x magnification. Jimi observed it first and I observed it secondly, confirming each other’s observations. I’m from Chicago Illinois visiting Jimi and his telescope in Fort Davis Texas, which is also the home of the McDonald observatory as well as the Texas Star Party.” – Just so you know.
I hope that’s helpful and others will find it too. If you have and you want to share it with me, send me an e-mail using the address on the contact page. Clear skies!
Dragan, Jimi and their telescope, taken by Connie Lowrey.
14 Comments
How cool is that, great work guys and thank for sharing that HH
I was absolutely gobsmacked to read that Jimi & Dragan (& how cool are those names!) had actually eyeballed the Voorwerp through an optical telescope; I didn’t think it was possible… and then I scrolled down the page and saw the photograph of the telescope in question… now that is a serious piece of hardware!
p.s. Somewhat of topic H, but I did raise an eyebrow when I read you were to be in Playboy magazine!
Absolutely amazing. I thought eyepieces in scopes like that were a thing of the past. What an amazing feeling to be the first to actually see the Voorwerp ‘live’.
I think it’s great, too, that you get so much email from people who are inspired by your discovery.
How I wish I had saved up for my dream scope all those years ago
I did not tell you the 48 inch scope has a name I call her BARBARELLA!
Barbarella is an impressive piece of hardware. I own a 30″ Starmaster and a 22″ f/4 reflector and I’ve many scopes up to 36″ in aperture. This 48″ is something else, another level.
BTW, Jimi told me that I’m the 7th person to see the Voorwerp. There is a total of nine so far as far as I know it. All nine of us seen it through Barabella.
Hey Alvin, thanks for sharing that!
Hanny,
No problem. I’ll ask our observing group to try at GSSP, a very dark star party. My observing group in the west coast in the US likes to observe objects at the very limit of our scopes. I’ll use my 30″ and my 28″ (if the construction is completed.)
I think it is worth a try.
And Thanks to you for your contribution!
Sounds cool!
Hey, I just spotted this:
http://darkskiesapparel.webplus.net/page9.html
Hi Hanny,
I noticed you found our new site! Well, you’ve probably also noticed no product is listed as of yet. Check back often. We’re hoping to have a full line of clothing and gear by the end of March 2010.
Also. I hope you didn’t mind my adding a link to your site. I thought people would get a kick of seeing your site.
Take care,
Dragan
Not at all Dragan, thanks!
So cool. I have always dreamed of building a large scope…but those things you folks are using are spectacular. What great awe you must feel gazing back in time, and how humbling.
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[...] a short time ago, it’s received all sorts of messages from all around the world. Some cool, like Dragen and Jimi’s observation of Hanny’s Voorwerp, some spam (of course) and others that are worth sharing with you [...]
[...] very nearby, and I did get to visit his observatory…” Below’s the picture of Bill at the amazingly huge telescope, with which you indeed can see the Voorwerp (although it was too cloudy for Bill that night). Jimi [...]