20th October 2011 with Orion XT8i

[pvaz]

The milky way was visible but there was a thin haze. The atmosphere was stable so I would rate seeing as 4 out of 5, due to the haze.

Plan was to see Ganymede occultation, then check up as many Herschel 400 objects in the Cetus area and end it with the GRS and IO transit around 2 am.

After cool down and a quick star test I observed Jupiter for about 40min, gradually seeing Ganymede getting closer, then dimmer 'till it disappeared behind the gas giant. Jupiter was well resolved, very steady. I could identify 2 very noticeable festoons in the NEB.

Then I went for the Herschel 400 list as planned.

I started with NGC 157 galaxy, but it was a bit hazy in the area and after 15 min of failed attempts I moved to the next.

NGC 246 was easy to find with the telrad as it forms an equilateral triangle with 2 naked eye, mag 5 stars. On my 8" , this planetary nebula looks like an oval shaped bright area with 3 bright stars overlapping it. It's easily detectable but shows no structure or interesting detail on a 8".

NGC 247 , a faint elongated galaxy, was next. Easy to locate as well, but not easy to see. I used the 31mm EP and barely saw it using averted vision. Then moved on to the 21mm, the smaller exit pupil improved contrast and I was able to detect a long patch with a bright star towards one of the edges.

Unfortunately the haze was getting thicker making it hard to locate more fuzzys so I packed up and finished for the day.

Not the best night but Jupiter was great and I got 2 less Herschel 400 objects to worry about.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Nice report. Next time round I will have a look at those Herschels in Cetus (though I will have to move to a site with fever trees nearby). Nice to know an 8" can pick them up.