First Session With Celestron X-Cel 8mm

[Double Kick Drum]

After my rewarding galaxy session in the wee small hours of Christmas Eve morning, it looked as though the weather forecast gave me another opportunity to get stuck in to the spring galaxies if I was willing to stay up long enough.

I was set up just before 11pm and thought I would christen the new EP with something worthy so I returned to NGC 1514, the Crystal Ball nebula - something I hadn't officially logged yet due to an inconclusive sighting a month ago. The image was sharper than my 6mm Skywatcher and made it easier to distinguish some circular nebulosity around a 10th magnitude star.

Given the positive result, I moved on to M42 and M43. Now I don't use OMG very often but this warrants it! The circular nebulosity of M43 was clear enough but M42 had real depth to it. The Trapezium was sharp and the brighter immediate area surrounding it was indented with a narrow band of dark dust. A thin crescent of brighter nebulosity curled away from the centre of the nebula on either side, enveloping even more slightly dimmer nebulosity. This is the best I have ever seen it.

Moved up to M78 which seemed slightly less bright than M43 and had two magnitude 10.5 stars embedded in it.

By now Taurus was just past its best, although the area with M1 in was still very close to its zenith. I don't know how I have never bagged the Crab nebula before. It was easy to pick up even in direct vision and appeared rectangular with a fleck of additional nebulosity at one end in the 8mm EP.

From there I moved to Cancer but sighting of the galaxy NGC 2775 was unsuccessful so I moved across the border into Leo where I was able to find NGC 2903 for the first time with the 25mm EP. This looked like a quite large and wide ellipse.

Back to Cancer and I revisited M67. A handful of stars were visible and a further 10 to 15 in averted vision.

I finished the night with another inconclusive attempt on M109 before the clouds gathered and put an end to my fun.

Not quite the 14 new objects from a few days ago but to chalk another three off, including the first Messier will do for now.

__________________________________________________ ______

Observing Session: Wednesday 28th December, 10:55hrs to 01:00 hrs GMT

Seeing at zenith: 5.1 - 5.2

Seeing at 45 degrees: 4.7 - 4.8

New Object - Observed Object - Failed

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Nice report. NGC 1514 is a neat little planetary isn't it? I have not tried NGC 2775 yet, and should give it a try when the weather clears properly.