Saturday night session in the back garden - open clusters, planetaries and galaxies

[FenlandPaul]

I'd been looking forward to a good session this evening all day; the high cloud that started to gather just before dusk seemed to disperse during the childrens' bedtime shenanigans and shortly after 8 I got outside to be greeted by a lovely setting crescent moon with an inky blue "dark" side and a sky that had definitely cleared.

Started with Lovejoy, which I managed to find without a finder chart, being the only fuzzy thing to the right and up from the Pleiades. It now seems to be in the eastern part of Aries near 41, 35 and 9 Ari. I found the core to be not quite stellar - a bit like a bright planetary at very low power, surrounded by an area of fuzzy diffuseness. There seemed to be a hint of a tail going eastwards (to the right through the eyepiece); I've no idea if this was real, and I'd be interested to know from people who've imaged the tail. It could be be because my averted vision side is to the lower left, so I'm more sensitive to fuzziness to the upper right. Who knows. I was looking for a green tinge, as reported by others, but to me it was mainly white.

I attempted a sketch, which was passable but I think my ability is still rather lacking. But it will be a nice thing to look back on in my notebook in years to come!

Next I took a look at NGC2392, the Eskimo Nebula. It was a straightforward starhop from Delta Gem and looked like an out-of-focus star (or the nucleus of Lovejoy!!) at my lowest power, x47 in the 32mm eyepiece. At x125 in the 12mm it looked really quite bright with a stellar core (is it a central star? If so it's quite a bright one) surrounded by a bright disc that faded towards the edges. With averted vision there was a brighter inner disc surrounded by a concentric fainter outer disc. This is a nebula that seemed to respond really well to magnification, I suppose due to its high surface brightness. I don't think I've ever seen it before but I have to say I was thrilled - it was beautiful. I even attempted a sketch (two in one night!!!) at x167.

Jupiter had now cleared the house so I spent a quarter of an hour examining it. Seeing generally wasn't too bad this evening, but I think there was a bit of shimmer over the house that didn't seem to pause in the way that "normal" turbulence seems to, usually just as you're scratching your nose or re-adjusting your seat. So it still looked great with the 4 moons bright and glorious and the NEB and SEB prominent, but detail was a bit lacking. This might also be down to collimation; I did attempt a primary collimation during the afternoon but I know it's not perfect yet and I need more practice. In the 12" it's really rather bright; I considered trying out a couple of filters but I was eager to get on with hunting out some other DSOs and so will leave that for another night.

On to NGC2420, an open cluster in Gemini. At low power it appeared as a dusting of fine silver dust against a scattering of brighter field stars. 12-15 stars were resolvable with direct vision and maybe double that number with averted vision. At low power it was a challenge to tease any shape out of the cluster; maybe it was slightly triangular, with the apex pointing to the south. Maybe. Higher power (x100) revealed many more stars with direct vision and with averted vision the fine silver dusting seemed to be criss-crossed with a few dark lanes. A subtle but beautiful cluster that warrants returning to and sketching.

NGC2395, an open cluster in Gemini, was next. I hopped there from Procyon and it was reasonably straightforward. This really was quite a faint cluster and to start with I wasn't sure if I'd captured it or I was just imagining it. But the fuzziness held its shape at different magnifications and orientations so I knew I'd found it. There were about 15 or 20 stars with direct vision and with the faint glow of the unresolved stars it seemed to have the shape of a potted Christmas tree. I've subsequently looked at a couple of photographs and if you squint this shape is real. It was a subtle but pleasing cluster.

On to M67, the open cluster in Cancer south of Praesepe. This was a lovely sight in the 2" superview eyepiece at x50; I love the 2" for the immersive field it gives, reminding me of how much fun I've had with the 20x80 bins over the last few months. There's one particularly bright orange star within the cluster - not sure if it's actually part of it or just a line-of sight effect. In fact, a lot of the stars seem quite orange and compared to, say, the Pleiades the cluster seemed a little more aged.

Time to head out of the Milky Way now, and NGC2903, the galaxy in Leo, well west of the main gathering of galactic delights in that neck of the woods, which were currently behind the roofline. It was an easy hop from Gamma Leonis and in the superview at x50 it was amazingly bright, particularly for something that looked so innocuous on my Cambridge star atlas. It seemed to be a galaxy that was at a tilt to us, neither edge on nor face on, brighter at the core and extending out nicely either side. This was a lovely find; will definitely come back to spend more time and to sketch.

I was getting quite tired and chilly now but wanted to spend a little time in Ursa Major hunting out M101, which I have always found very difficult to track down. It seems to easy on the star atlas (should probably have taken the deep sky one out), a short hop from Mizar. But I've never been able to track this down and with the new 12" in tow I was determined tonight was the night. But try as I might, sweeping back and forth and then trying different hops, I found nothing at all. Frustrating, but amusing nonetheless and I'll return better armed next time and tackle it earlier in the evening.

Well I wasn't going to let failure claim the end of the night, so before packing up I swooped over to the other end of the Plough and took a quick look at M97 (the Owl) and M108, the galaxy very nearby. Wow, these two look great together at low power. The Owl looked very faint and much larger than the Eskimo from earlier in the evening, and M108 provided a lovely contrast in shape. It was late and my hands were too cold to do another eyepiece change, so I enjoyed them as they were and decided next time I'm coming back to visit and spend longer.

It was a lovely evening and my first proper back garden session with the new 12". I love it - such a simple, versatile instrument that hoovers up light (and scares off Pinwheels) but takes no more than 5 minutes to disassemble and take back to the shed. Very pleased with it, needs proper collimating, but really glad I went for it.

If you've got this far, thanks very much for reading!!

Paul

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[laudropb]

Great report . You make it sound so easy. Well done

[Double Kick Drum]

Lovely report and descriptions. Thanks for sharing.

NGC 2903 is one of my favourite galaxies. Not only is it quite large and bright, it is the forerunner to galaxy hunter heaven. The galactic "Announcer" if you will.

[cotterless45]

Great report. You're not the first to report a visual tail on Lovejoy , I just got it as being lopsided.

The Eskimo is most dramatic, higher mags showing halo details, the central white dwarf is quite visible at +10.4.

NGC 2903 is so very much brighter than the Leo galaxies, it makes a lovely edge on bright streak.

M67 is usually overlooked. There's plenty of treasures in open clusters.

M101 is elusive enough for you to be looking right through it at magnification. A real stunner from a dark site.

It's a great read and one for those thinking of manageable aperture,

Nick.

[FenlandPaul]

NGC 2903 is one of my favourite galaxies. Not only is it quite large and bright, it is the forerunner to galaxy hunter heaven. The galactic "Announcer" if you will.

That's a great name for it!

[mdstuart]

2903 is pretty special. I enjoyed looking at in in my 100mm bins the other night.

101...now that's tough...use the lowest power....its in the middle of a squashed square of field stars and looks like a very soft oval glow that is a little brighter at the centre...Its almost not there until you see it. It has no edge but if you go back and forth across the field you can see the area where the background looks more grey than black and once you have it you will be sure.

Keep trying whenever you have a dark moonless night..

Perhaps after that cold front comes through this Wednesday? Although that moon is getting fuller by the night.

Try NGC 2841 and NGC 3675 in UMA as these are a few more bright special NGC galactic announcers!

Mark

[neural]

Thanks for a great report. I was looking at the Eskimo too last night and your description is almost word for word the same as mine! 'Fried egg' appearance I thought, with the inner and outer discs. It's an amazingly bright object - I wonder why it's not as well known as the Ring, it must be just as easy (and it does the blinking thing at low mag, which I dont't recall the Ring doing). I guess it's Monsieur Messier we have to thank for that...

I will definitely try 2903. I've sort of taken a vow of no galaxies as I use a 4 inch frac under London zone 3 skies and M31 is just too sad to look at. But I saw M81 and M82 last night and may be getting the bug.

Keep the reports coming!

[Paul73]

There's nowt like a nicely written observing report to inspire the next session under the stars.

There are a few new targets for me in this thread. Duely noted.

Thanks

Paul