24th January 2015 - First Report for 18 Months (Sorry!)

[Double Kick Drum]

I used to be a very regular poster of observing reports but seventeen months ago I became a dad and this has led to a bit (well more than a bit) of a hiatus.... until now.

I did have the scope out last week but this was simply to get my eye back in with views of Jupiter, M81 and M82, the Pleiades... you know, the old favourites. I didn't think to write up as it was a bit of a revision session.

To show how out of touch I had become, comet C/2014 Q2 Lovejoy had almost passed me by. Thanks to a quick catch up with some observing posts at SGL, this ended tonight.

I set the scope up around half seven and while it cooled down had a quick 15x70 binocular tour, firstly at a few winter open clusters In Casseopeia including my personal favourite NGC 7789 (Caroline's Rose). Then, panning across to the North East of Aries, I couldn't believe how bright Comet Lovejoy looked. I would suggest better than magnitude 4, making it target my number one for the scope.

By eight o'clock I was lined up and the view through the 25mm eyepiece (25x) was superb. I could pick up a feint tail pointing North-ish and the nucleus gave away a hint of blue-green that I was not expecting.

Jupiter was below par as I was only able to see the two equatorial belts, so I revisited NGC 2392 (the Eskimo nebula). This appeared at its best in the 8mm eyepiece though took longer than usual to find. This is a good one for beginners as it is quite easy to find and has a high surface brightness and so can take a bit of light pollution.

Some recent investigations into Asteroid viewing opportunities led me to my two final targets of the night. 10 - Hygeia was beautifully placed close by to 10, 11 and 12 Geminorum and was easy to identify, given it is currently of magnitude 10.6.

3 - Juno was very close to the South West of the head of Hydra. Sadly the position of the telescope meant that my house just obscured it (by less than a degree, I reckon) and so I had to revert to binoculars. Despite this the magnitude 8.2 Asteroid was still possible to identify.

A new comet and two additions to the asteroid list. it is good to be back.

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Observing Session: Saturday 24th January 2015, 20:00 hrs to 21:50 hrs GMT

VLM at Zenith: 4.9 (quite poor transparency, back garden site maximum VLM is 5.4)

New - Revisited - Failed          

[David Smith]

Congrats on becoming a Dad, will tend to put a spanner in the works of most "normal" activities! Good to see you back.

[cotterless45]

Congratulations ! You'll be very busy ! Good to have your clear reports back. Couple of my favourites there. The comet had been wonderful.

Have you caught " Hagrid's Dragon " ,NGC 2301 in Monoceros ? This area is packed full, hurrah !

Early morning wake ups will provide Cygnus, Lyra and Hercules back again,

Nick.

[estwing]

Great report and welcome back!

[Double Kick Drum]

Congratulations ! You'll be very busy ! Good to have your clear reports back. Couple of my favourites there. The comet had been wonderful.

Have you caught " Hagrid's Dragon " ,NGC 2301 in Monoceros ? This area is packed full, hurrah !

Early morning wake ups will provide Cygnus, Lyra and Hercules back again,

Nick.

Cygnus, Lyra.... fells like summer is here already and we've only just got Christmas out the way.

I don't think I've looked at NGC 2301 yet. Thanks for the tip.

[Astro Imp]

Congrats on the new(ish) arrival and welcome back.

Always a pleasure to read your reports in the past and enjoyed your latest offering.

Glad you didn't miss out on Lovejoy, I've had some good views but haven't managed to see a tail though I suspect your skies are a lot better than mine.

[FenlandPaul]

Congratulations! And welcome back to observing and posting. A great first "proper" session back. I saw the Eskimo for the first time last night, and it's definitely one I'll return to. Lovely nebula - just like a snorkel parka from back in the day!

Paul

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Paul73]

Congratulations. And thanks for the report.

Like the colour coding of the targets.

Looking forward to more.

Paul

[niallk]

Congrats on being a Dad! I only got my scope after becoming a father --- I never had any time to myself during daylight hours and so got the scope as something to do late at night - never looked back. Many's the time I've had to pack away in a hurry to look after a crying child

Nice report!

[stevetynant]

Welcome back dkd great report