"Hagrid's Dragon " rides again !

[cotterless45]

Out into the darkness at 1.20, slight breeze and chill . What a cracking scene, both Cassiopeia and Ursa Major standing upright with Sirius and M41 up in the south.

After the busy buzzing M44,M67 is a lovely sight , try it at x150 so that it fills the fov. Then over to Hydra and the sparkling M48.

Monoceros provided a super view of the triple β, the clusters of NGC 2264 and NGC 2244.Some slight nebulosity here with a UHC filter.

M50 showed a whirling spiral of stars. Once again NGC 2301 "Hagrid's Dragon" showed an elegant elongated chain. This is worth finding.

Up to Leo and the bright NGC 2903 showed brighter than the triplet. This could have been a fine Messier.

I caught the fine triple of sigma Orionis, look for the clean double nearby. The scope also picked up the F and G stars in the Trapezium, with a little patience.

Adding a UHC filter showed the fine tendrils and darker regions at higher magnification.

I had a look at M94 appearing very bright and Bode's.

Jupiter, Mars and a gibbous Venus appeared strung out in a line in the east. Later , the bright ISS passed through Regulus to Denebola along the base of Leo.

That's it ! Waiting for

Clear skies !

Nick.

[bingevader]

My goodness Nick!

You've been a busy bee!

Great report as always.

[Size9Hex]

Excellent stuff. Sounds like a cracking session. I would have liked to get out for when the sky cleared here around 3am, but all the caffeine in the world wouldn't have helped me get through the next day at work...

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Great report of a great session, Nick

[laudropb]

Another great report and some lovely sketches. Still no sign of clear skies here and storm Abigail on the way, so prospects are not good.

[rockystar]

Any chance you can start doing these the day before, so that I can copy your targets? Another great report and fantastic sketches.

I must start printing some of your reports off for the next clear night (some time in December, by the looks of things)

[cotterless45]

Get down to Middle Earth ! Looks like another early morning session !

http://clearoutside.com/forecast/52.77/-1.55

Nick.

[John]

Excellent and entertaining as ever Nick

It looks as though there might be a similar clear patch here late Friday night / early hours of Saturday.

[Piero]

A pleasure to read! Lot's of interesting targets!

Thanks for sharing,

Piero

[Dave In Vermont]

Very good report, Nick! But I wonder where the asterism(?) got the moniker: "Hagrid's Dragon."

I actually read the full series of Harry Potter books a few years back. I thought it was going to be a silly kid's book. I ended up classifying those on the same level as Tolkein. Read: Duly impressed. But if the name "Hagrid's Dragon" is referring to such - wow! It's like old J.R.R. is still among the living!

Think I'll try to find Gandalf's Rotting Arm.....

evaD

[triton1]

Great report as ever Nick it seems you must have bought one of Dr Zarkov,s cloud guns.