Epick Crom

Thank you @glafnazur, glad you enjoyed it!

Thank you Kostas. A Merry Christmas to you too mate!

Hi my fellow stargazers! I took the opportunity last night to take a grand tour of Orion and neighbouring constellations Lepus and Canis Major. This is a fantastic area of the night sky! All observations carried out using my 10 inch dobsonian: ORION M42: It would be criminal to not start an observing session in Orion without starting first with the mighty Orion Nebula. What a beauty 😍. Trapezium looked great with all 6 stars visible. M42 seemed to have a more bluish colour than its usual green. Meissa (Lambda Orionis): Delightful double star, with a line of stars running below and a bit above it. NGC 2022: My first time observing this planetary nebula. Situated not too far from Meissa, this planetary appeared faint in my 10 inch but distinctive non the less. Showed surprising detail at 343x. I could just make out what appeared to be a brighter lump on one end. NGC 1999: Another first for me, I was delighted to pick out this faint nebula. Just detected it at 171x using my new 82 degree eyepiece. LEPUS R Leporis: This a a beautiful carbon star! Deep red like a celestial drop of blood! M79: Nice globular cluster, I started to see some resolution of its outlying stars at 200x. Arneb(Alpha Leporis): Interesting double star in that the primary is mag.2.5 and the secondary is mag 11.2 at 35.4" seperation. A nice sight. IC 418: The Spirograph Nebula. Bright and distinctive, this planetary is also known as the Raspberry Nebula, I could not see the raspberry colour though, just a vivid greenish hue. This a a great target to observe! CANIS MAJOR M 41: Large and bright Messier open cluster. I saw a few striking red and orange stars mixed in. NGC 2362: What a beauty! This open cluster never fails to take my breath away, a sprinkling of glorious blue gems surrounding Tau Canis Majoris which as an additional treat is a nice double. It's objects like this which make me wonder why not everyone is practicing astronomy?! A real gem. NGC 2360: Fairly rich open cluster. Looks good at medium magnifications. This cluster was famously discovered by Caroline Herschel Sirius: Our night skies brightest star. I love the five faint stars below it that form a "W" shape. I tried my hardest to split it and glimpse the Pup, but no luck on this night. I completed the night by just looking up and admiring the view naked eye. Not as spectacular as my dark site view but I appreciate it non the less. Light pollution or not we must take what we can get! Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and keep looking up! Joe

Good report Rob. I must try for NGC 2158, have not seen it yet. Clear skies to you 👍

Nice work Kostas! I love the photos you took 👍. Congrats with the Rosette, not an easy target at all. Hopefully your weather situation will improve 🤞

Nice setup @bomberbaz👍

Too true @ScouseSpaceCadet. Now when I look at my skies I feel underwhelmed ☹️ +1 regarding binoculars, I need to buy a pair soon. If I'm ever blessed to go back I will certainly take a massive supply of coffee 😁

Hi Magnus, it sure was was an amazing sight, one I will never forget. Yes Western Australia abolished daylight saving approx 6 years ago. The eastern states still have daylight savings I believe..

Give it a go @bomberbaz. This was my first taste of what a truly dark site is like, now I'm hooked. Hope you get that break in the weather 🙂

Alan White, this site was so dark that I even doubted the sky was real, I have never seen such a deep black in my life. I wish I could live there😃

Super report Magnus! I thoroughly enjoyed reading it👍

So true @Nik271, real dark skies are truly amazing and should be preserved worldwide for all of humanity to marvel at!

You are right @Hayduke27, I was completely satisfied just staring at the dark sky spectacle with the naked eye. I could have stayed out there for hours just gazing but unfortunately had to go to bed because I was leaving early the next morning 😭. This experience has really hit home just how much light pollution is robbing us all😠

Hi Kostas, glad to hear of your experience. Ive read about people talking about dark sites, but once you actually see real dark skies it blows you away. Dark skies are indeed more important than aperture!

You got it spot on👍

😂😂

Hi my fellow stargazers! This is not really a report in the usual sense, more of an observation. Yesterday I traveled to a rural town called Mount Magnet, roughly 600 km out of Perth on a work assignment and stayed there overnight. There were thunderstorms while some workmates and I had dinner during nightfall at a local pub. As we walked to where we were staying for the night the clouds had disappeared and I was confronted by the most pitch black night sky I have ever seen in my life! Honestly I just stood there in stunned silence. My colleagues were impressed too , but I was simply gobsmacked as I compared it to my backyard sky back home. There was no comparison! The sky was the most deepest deep black, with so many stars visible I momentarily struggled to identify the constellations. Now I know what the term "dark Sky" means. This town is in the middle of the bush, with non existent light pollution. My colleagues had long gone to bed while I was still standing out there, not believing my eyes! The Magellanic Clouds were easy naked eye and very bright. Taurus and Orion were unrecognisable, thousands of stars and glowing patches. The entire sky was ablaze, set to the deep deep black sky. Even now I can't describe the blackness, it didn't seem real! Even now back at home it seems like a dream, it affected me that much. I can only imagine using a scope under such skies🤯. All of us amateur astronomers need to get to a truly dark site at least once in our lives, even only naked eye it is an experience that will be seared into your memory forever. I will never forget last night... Joe

Hi my fellow stargazers! I have been using Sky Safari 6 Plus for several months now and was hoping my follow amateur astronomers could help me out with this question: how to mark objects that you have already observed on the actual star maps? For example say I've observed M31, how do I get it to appear differently from other objects on the star map ie. marked as "seen"? Thanks so much for your kind help in advance! Regards Joe

Hi Kostas and thanks. Yes I'm planning to travel to darker skies soon. I'll keep you posted. Cheers mate!

Hi Jeremy, good to hear you are a Sandgroper too! 😊. Yes Shark Bay is beautiful, and far less light pollution than Perth. The skies are amazing there!

Thats great John. Yeah Perth is actually the most isolated city in the world, we are far from everything! I would also love to visit England one day, I've never been north of the equator. Glad you enjoyed your stay in our country and hope you can come back soon when it's possible. Clear skies mate!

Thanks John. Which part of Australia did you go? The east coast is notoriously rainy and humid. Here in Western Australia it's perfect for stargazing, in summer virtually every night is clear!

You're welcome Mark👍. Thanks and clear skies

Thanks Grant😁. There are also a lot of sights us southerners yearn to see too, like M 51 and the Double Cluster 😭

Great report John! Your 8inch sure is delivering the goods. Clear skies!