2013-08-03, a little of this and that.

[TractionMan]

Had a very nice session with a bit of a mix of this and that last night. Although it didn't look like I'd be able to see anything when it started to get dark due to a massive cloud cover. Luckily the clouds dipersed and by 23.30 (UT) the sky was clear. The scope had been outside to cool down for about half an hour prior to this, just in case. While I waited for my to get adapted to the slowly increasing darkness, I saw three Perseids, of which one of them were very bright. Slowly, the arc of the Milky Way began to become more and more visible so I just sat there for a while and enjoyed the naked eye view. Quite a few satellites whizzed by as well. By now it was time to use telescope and go for a bit of DSO hunting. Made a list a few days ago based on the Sky at Night Deep-Sky Tour from the July issue, with some more objects added to it with.

First target was Albireo (didn't take the tour in the "right" order), nice pair to see as always. Next I went for the Rocking Horse Cluster (NGC 6910), easy enough to find but it didn't really get me excited. Still nice to have seen it though. Then it was time to try to find the Crescent Nebula (NGC 6888), but no matter how I tried, I just didn't detect any nebulosity even though I'm quite sure I was in the right region. Spent a while trying but I finally gave up and moved along. So I chose to hop to M56 (bagged it some night ago), very faint to my eyes, no way near the brightness of M13 or M92. Didn't really spend much time on this particular object. Now I decided to go for another part of the sky for a while. I wanted to take a peek at M31 for a while. I know many think that it's a bit underwhelming, but I always enjoy looking at it. While looking at it, I noticed that M110 was rather easy to see at the same time, very faint of course. Can't recall that it's been this easy to see before. But the main reason to going to this part of the sky was to see and bag M32 which has eluded me for quite some time now. I spent a good while trying to see it and was just about to give up when I thought I saw a fuzzy star farther away from M31 than I thought. Tried to look straight at it but then it just disappeared. Concentrated on M31 again and after awhile that fuzzy star emerged again. Once again I tried to look straight at it and the same thing happened, it disappeared. Repeated this a few more times with the same result every time and it led me to believe that it was indeed M32 that I'd seen. Wasn't 100% sure so I ticked the box and added a question mark to it in order to verify it later on using Stellarium.

Next I headed back to Cygnus for a while. Target this time was M29, but somehow I managed to forget that it was an open cluster instead of a globular which made me a bit frustrated since I couldn't find it. I knew I was in the right spot but all I could see was a small box shaped pattern of start and thought it can't be it. But then it dawned on me, it was an OPEN cluster! Swapped EP to up the magnification. Ahhh this must be it, silly me (was tempted to slap myself in the forehead at this point). Just to be sure I added a question mark to verify it later. Time for another target that I've visited before, M27. Didn't take long to find but I spent quite some time on it, changing EP's as well as trying with and without a UHC filter. Very slight difference but I managed to tease out more detail after a while, mostly with the help of averted vision.

NGC 6885 was my next target but I wasn't sure what I was looking for so this one was a failure. Looked at my list and saw that I had added M33. Sure, why not? After all I did see M110 quite easily so with a bit of luck I'd be able to see this one as well. It was easy to go from Andromeda to Triangulum and from there to where M33 should be located. Now it got alot more difficult. I did spent about half an hour or so and was about to give up on this target as well when I finally spotted a faint fuzzy patch of barely visible light. Oh yes, there it was! Spurred by the success I thought I'd try to bag a couple of Messiers more. M2 was my target of choice this time. Had to spend a while star jumping (naked eye) to find the spot where it should be, but unfortunately the clouds started to roll in again and I started to pack my gear and end the session. Too bad as I had planned to stay up until Jupiter and Mars got up high enough to take a peek at.

When I was done packing the stuff I noticed a gap in the clouds and M45 visible in that gap. Quickly got my binos out and managed to enjoy the view for a few minutes before the clouds closed the show.

Oh right forgot to mention ISS. Not sure when during the session, but when I spotted it, I mad a couple of silly attempts to track it with the scope. It proved to be a some futile attempts so I just enjoyed it with my pair of Eyes instead until it disapperad.

So to sum things up, objects viewed this session:

Albireo

Rocking Horse Cluster

M27

M29 (New to me)

M31

M32 (confirmed this when I got back inside) (New to me)

M33 (New to me)

M45

M110

Bounus: ISS and three Perseids (plus various other satellites).

Had a blast this night and with three Messier's bagged, I fell asleep a happy man.

I apologize for possible typos and grammatical errors as well as this wall of text. Hope you don't mind.

[cotterless45]

Lovely report, Cygnus definately gives plenty to look at. Love the rocking horse cluster, 61 Cygni ( Piazzi's flying double) and the nebulae.

Have a shot at NGC6995 on the Eastern Veil, it's been glowing, better still with even a cheapo UHC .

Nick.

[Astro Imp]

Great report, enjoyed reading this.

I notice you use the Celestron X-Cel EPs, I assume you are happy with them as you have quite a set. I ask because my last purchase was the 7mm which I gave a brief test a couple of nights ago and was really impressed.

[AndyWB]

Nice report, sounds like a good night out.

I've seen M29 nicknamed "The Cooling Tower cluster", and the brightest stars do, to me, make that kind of a pattern! I like the rocking horse cluster too, but I can't say I can "see" a rocking horse in it.

[TractionMan]

Lovely report, Cygnus definately gives plenty to look at. Love the rocking horse cluster, 61 Cygni ( Piazzi's flying double) and the nebulae.

Have a shot at NGC6995 on the Eastern Veil, it's been glowing, better still with even a cheapo UHC .

Nick.

Thanks! I will try to find the objects you suggested. So much to see and enjoy in the sky.

Great report, enjoyed reading this.

I notice you use the Celestron X-Cel EPs, I assume you are happy with them as you have quite a set. I ask because my last purchase was the 7mm which I gave a brief test a couple of nights ago and was really impressed.

Yes I'm very happy with them. Although I can only compare with the stock Skywatcher EP's. Started with the 25, 12 and 7mm if I remember correctly. Liked them so added the other ones soon after that.

Nice report, sounds like a good night out.

I've seen M29 nicknamed "The Cooling Tower cluster", and the brightest stars do, to me, make that kind of a pattern! I like the rocking horse cluster too, but I can't say I can "see" a rocking horse in it.

Can't see the rocking horse in the Rocking Horse Cluster either. Perhaps that's why I didn't get excited about it. Still nice to see though.

[AlexB67]

Nice report, I forgot to say yesterday , good catch Possibly you made the same mistake as I did first time, and actually saw M32 already, and M110 is the one that eluded you so far. It is the bigger object, but with brightness is spread over a larger area, and much less intense. easy to do also when everything appears upside down. Only last Thursday when I had a moment of very good sky for the first time since I started in May, but darker than ever before, did I manage to see something very very faint there, so much so that I wasn't even sure enough to call it a catch, pretty sure, but with tentative assignment.

[cotterless45]

Rocking horse NGC 6910 will take a little more than x50. The brightest stars form the rocking horse as per the cooling tower M29 and nearby Coat Hanger and Jolly Rodger NGC 1502 at the end of Kemble's Cascade.

Still think the cutest is Orion's "37" NGC 2169 later on and under

clear skies,

Nick.

[TractionMan]

Nice report, I forgot to say yesterday , good catch Possibly you made the same mistake as I did first time, and actually saw M32 already, and M110 is the one that eluded you so far. It is the bigger object, but with brightness is spread over a larger area, and much less intense. easy to do also when everything appears upside down. Only last Thursday when I had a moment of very good sky for the first time since I started in May, but darker than ever before, did I manage to see something very very faint there, so much so that I wasn't even sure enough to call it a catch, pretty sure, but with tentative assignment.

I've most likely seen M32 without realizing it yes. However it's been M32 not M110 that's been eluding me, bagged it last autumn. Just surprised that it popped into view so easily the other night.

[TractionMan]

Rocking horse NGC 6910 will take a little more than x50. The brightest stars form the rocking horse as per the cooling tower M29 and nearby Coat Hanger and Jolly Rodger NGC 1502 at the end of Kemble's Cascade.

Still think the cutest is Orion's "37" NGC 2169 later on and under

clear skies,

Nick.

I have to up the magnification next time on Rocking Horse. Perhaps then the pattern will be obvious to me as well.

[Astro Imp]

Yes I'm very happy with them. Although I can only compare with the stock Skywatcher EP's. Started with the 25, 12 and 7mm if I remember correctly. Liked them so added the other ones soon after that.

Thanks, I had already decided that I would like to add to the 7mm just really wanted to hear your take on them.

[AlexB67]

I just observed the rocking horse, seeing it was mentioned I thought, I need to see that one, sky is quite good at the moment, but dewing ended it. I know when people say sometimes it is not clear why certain objects are called what they are and I wonder, but this one seemed immediately obvious to me at higher mag. First I got it in view with the 25mm, as soon as I popped in the 6mm UWA and the rocking horse pattern became apparent. Use this sketch as a reference. see it standing on its front legs tilting forward in that sketch, head could be on the left, or right for that matter depending how you want to imagine the tail. That sketch is how it looked pretty much in my view, perhaps on better nights or more stars it gets more confusing. According to some other sketches I can't see it at all, nor in Stellarium, but that sketch is pretty much very close to how I saw it just now, but just rotated around a bit.

http://www.asod.info/?p=1946

pretty cool object

[TractionMan]

When looking at that sketch, the name does indeed make sense. I really need to go up in magnification on this target it seems.