Fantastic clear night ... but soooo cold!

[kev100]

Hiya,

FLO's Clear outside had been promising a good, clear night last night, and I've been looking forward to it for a few days (spend Saturday afternoon checking collimation and making a few mods to the scope). Last night, though, it exceeded my wildest expectations. The sky was crystal clear here in Dorset, contrast was fantastic, and the sky just seemed to be sparkling overhead ... a proper winter night sky.

Started with the three clusters in Auriga, and then moved down to M35 in Gemini. Picked up all four clusters easily enough, despite my finder scope misting up almost immediately, the stars sparkling and bright. Even spotted NGC 2158 to the right of M35.

In no particular order: M81 & M82 were familiar and easy targets, as was the double cluster in Perseus. M33 was faint, but with definite detail visible, and the Pleiades were spectacular. Incidentally, my main EP for the night was my 16mm 68-degree MaxVision. Really loving it, even tho magnification on larger objects like the Pleiades is a little high.

Individual stars seemed almost too bright to look at directly. Almach was beautifully resolved, the colours of the two component stars very obvious, Mirach (and it's ghost), Betelgeuse and Sirius all very bright.

The highlight of the night was the Orion neb. This was a first for the 10-inch dob (I've seen it before in binoculars and in my 5-inch), and what a treat. The trapezium was clearly visible, and there was so much detail in the dust clouds (even without a filter) ... Throughout the evening, all told, I must have spent the best part of an hour just looking at it!

Picked up a couple of new (to me) Messier objects: M78 and M50. As I mentioned, the finder scope kept misting up really badly, so I was struggling to find things. Also, my eyes have been watering a bit lately (ironically called 'dry eye') and, by midnight, the extra moisture seemed to be causing the EPs to mist up quite badly, so I had to keep swapping them.

Had a look at Jupiter, but as it was still low in the sky (even at midnight), it was very 'shimmery' ...

By the time I packed up there was ice on the scope and the car, and I was freezing, but what a cracking evening!

Cheers,

Kev.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Great report of a session well spent!

[Paul73]

At last! Decent observing reports!! The sky was clear!!!

Good write up. It was a cold one last night.

M35 is lovely on the right night. It is a great start the the run of M35, M37, M38 & M36 Open Clusters into Auriga.

Glad that the MV 16mm is working out well.

Paul

[MAN or ASTROMAN]

Great report Kev.Your descriptions seem to bring the cold clearness of the starry skies to life!

[kev100]

Great report Kev.Your descriptions seem to bring the cold clearness of the starry skies to life!

Why, thank you!