Double Kick Drum

I have a 127mm scope and on a good semi-rural night could see it convincingly with a UHC filter. Two points: 1. It is large. I was surprised how big it appeared and like M101 and M33 it is very easy to look straight through it. 2. In my view, the contrast in the centre is much easier to pick than the ever more diffuse edge.

Fantastic and thorough. Top marks for gratuitous use of the 'Dark Side of the Moon' album cover!

Hi. I wouldn't rule out M51 (the Whirlpool galaxy) so quickly. So long as your sky isn't too washed out and depending on what you are using, it is one of the easiest galaxies to view. If you can find them, M81 and M82 make a nice pair of galaxies and are brighter than the above. I have never seen the flame nebula. There are many nebulae that are easier IMO, including M1 (the Crab). To pick targets, I use a combination of magnitude and surface brightness (all laid out in a gigantic spread-sheet) but this is only indicative as 'fuzzies' are not consistently bright. For example, galaxies tend to

A monster night's viewing. Love NGC 4631 (the Whale galaxy). One of the best non-Messier objects to view. Great write up!

A great night's viewing, sketching and report. It reminds me to pre-draw some scope-view circles so I am ready to do more sketches myself.

A rich area of sky washed out by a bit of haze and light pollution (and I am semi-rural). Thanks for sharing.

So, with the Moon not rising until just after 10pm and the littl'un in bed soon after 7pm, a window of opportunity. I was ready with cooled scope soon after 8pm and began the evening with M1 (The Crab Nebula). A fine sight in the 15mm eyepiece. Quite a large nebula, which appeared rectangular and slightly grainy when UHC filtered. This was the first time I had seen it for over two years. M35 was a lovely sight, with companion NGC 2158 a misty patch to the South of a group of stars South West of the main group. The use of averted vision was not necessary for this but was needed for IC 2157, a

Comprehensive stats. My prediction for what it is worth is 37.76%. I need a weather station! Hours of fun for cloudy nights... of which I predict 62.24% in 2015. Call me Nostradamus but... I also predict South Wales will get more rain than North Kent during 2015. Best wishes.

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.

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.

A planet and four moons. What's your set up?

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 se

Congratulations on completing the M-list. Those last few are not easy from Northern latitudes. Still have a handful to go myself!

Ahhhh, some great finds and nice report. I must get back out there with the scope. It's been a while!