Epick Crom

Hi fellow observers! I had a wonderful night exploring the large constellation of Eridanus with my 10 inch dobsonian. This constellation holds many delights and a few rare sights! Moon at waxing gibbous but sky very transparent. Before my foray into Eridanus began I had a few targets that I wanted to observe first. I started with finding the "Little Ladle" asterism in Pisces, brought to my attention on another forum. This charming asterism is found approx 2° from Iota Piscium, close to the Pegasus border. It gleamed in the moonlight and does look like a round spoon ( ladle). Next target was Saturn. Spectacular as usual, with one of its moons, Dione, positioned directly below Saturn and very close to it. A lovely sight! Mighty Jupiter was next, its moons strung out to one side of the planet. I saw very fine details in its cloud bands, one of my best ever views of the gas giant. After Jupiter I payed a visit to Mira (Omicron Ceti) the famous variable star in Cetus. I estimated it's current magnitude to be around 8th magnitude. After enjoying those targets it was on to the main event of the evening, Eridanus: Acamar ( Theta Eridani): Lovely double with identical white components spaced at 8" NGC 1535: "Cleopatra's Eye". Wonderful planetary nebula. Blue/green coloration. I noticed it's 12th magnitude central star for the first time. Some internal structure visible at 343x. Kied ( Omicron Eridani): This is an amazing multiple star, it's two companions being a white dwarf and a red dwarf! Very rare indeed. 39 Eridani: Another amazing multiple star, at 70x it's first companion was visible, then to my amazement the third companion became visible once I upped the magnification to 240x. This was my first time observing this object. I just love surprises! NGC 1332: Elliptical galaxy. This was visible as a fuzzy smudge despite the moonlight. Another first discovery for me. NGC 1537: Another elliptical galaxy. Eridanus abounds with galaxies! I finished the night by observing the waxing gibbous moon. I got fantastic views of the Straight Wall, Apennines Mts and crater Clavius among others. I viewed crater Plato using my 2.3mm Cielo eyepiece ( my lowest focal length eyepiece) giving me 522x. The seeing was good as I got a rock steady and clear image, enabling me to see the Plato craterlets for the first time.A nice ending to an enjoyable session. Wishing you all clear skies Joe

Welcome to this most wonderful of hobbies! A fascinating journey lays in front of you, enjoy every minute! Regards Joe

Thanks for your interesting observation report. Congratulations on seeing Deimos! That is a good achievement. I am yet to see either of the Martian moons, but have seen Sirius B on several occasions. Well done👏

I had a fantastic view of Saturn last night! The seeing was rock steady and the sky very transparent. Saturn at 343x looked better than a photo, razor sharp and not even a slight flutter. It was so good that I spent the entire session only observing it!

A clear night last night here in Perth. Had an ok view on M31 and M32, still can't see M110. Moved over to Cetus and split Kaffaldijhma (Gamma Ceti). It a charming double with close white and yellow components. Took in M77 which is always a sentimental favourite for me as it was the first ever galaxy I saw through a telescope 🔭. After that it was time to head off indoors for the opening game of the 2022 FIFA World Cup ⚽

Good going Robertl! I do the same as you when I'm too tired to lug out the dob, I grab my 10x50mm binos. They provide a wonderfully wide, 3D presentation and reveal a surprising amount of detail. Observing starfields and the brighter deep sky objects through them is a joy! Joe

Nice sketch Robertl! I am yet to view Mars this season, looking forward to it. You got some good details there.

Another excellent image Kostas, well done 👍

I had a good night of observing last night. Saw four galaxies in Fornax for the first time: NGC 1326, NGC 1399, NGC 1404 and NGC 1387. Ended the night by watching Ganymede slowly slip behind the disk of Jupiter.

Fantastic, nothing as satisfying as a nice night out observing 👍

My current best eyepiece I've looked through is my 17mm Saxon SWA. I have a 24mm Panoptic inbound so that may very well change soon!

I use the Sky Safari 6 Plus app and find it is always spot on in showing the correct position of the GRS.

Congratulations on your purchase of the Meade Coronado PST🎉. A dedicated solar scope is something that interests me too, do let us know how it performs! Happy solar viewing! Joe

Wishing you a speedy recovery Stu👍

Great report Stu! It sure is nice getting our kids interested in this great hobby of ours! My daughter (14) and son (10) are constant companions to my observing sessions, they can't get enough of DSO's and the Moon and planets 😂. Your daughter will be an amateur astronomer in no time👍

Kostas, that is an amazing image of the ISS. Is this through your 8" dob?

Just came in from my observing session and I'm happy to say I just saw NGC 7662, the Blue Snowball planetary nebula in Andromeda for the first time. It took a lot of faffing around trying to position my little table correctly so I could place my 10 inch dob on it to give me more elevation to get above my neighbours roof which blocks my northern horizon. I starhopped from Scheat in Pegasus to Omicron Andromedae down below. From there I panned to 9 and 10 Andromedae with NGC 7662 near by. It just grazed over my neighbours rooftop but even then I could make out it's blue colour. As you guys would say, I'm very "chuffed" right now! Joe

I went off the beaten track last night to visit the obscure constellation Indus. I observed two new to me objects: Theta Indi: A fine unequal double with white and yellow components seperated by 7" NGC 7049: Spiral galaxy. Detected it as a faint smudge of light, but always a thrill to see something new for the first time. Happy stargazing all!

Nice snap of the partial solar eclipse John👍

There was a GRB on October the 9th, maybe this was what you saw?! https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/brightest-gamma-ray-burst-yet-lit-up-the-sky/

Congratulations on an epic session! Lots of northern targets that I haven't even heard of. Nice to read your descriptions about them 👍

M33 sure is tough from bortle 7. Well done!

I think we have all had some sessions were everything went wrong. I have had quite a few of those 😢

Good work Kostas. Gotta convert them from a young age! My son is a similar age to yours ( he is 9). He loves Jupiter the most 😄

Nice report Kimboman! I noticed an unusual feature on Jupiter last night, it looked like a well defined, black narrow streak starting near the Great Red Spot and extending for quite some distance in a straight line. Never seen that before, wondering if you saw something like that on Jupiter? Although it probably rotated out of view by the time you observed Jupiter since I'm in Australia...