Quick Session - 13th January 2012, New Asteroid and Cluster

[Double Kick Drum]

Not the clearest night ever (mag. 4.8 at best!) but I wanted to enjoy my new purchases (WO dielectric diagonal - 5mm Celestron X-cel LX eyepiece - Baader UHC-S filter).

The 5mm gave slightly sharper views of Jupiter than my old Skywatcher 6mm but sadly the air was a bit unstable to say any more than that. Still no GRS!

Io (I think) was nicely placed to the South / South West of the planet. Callisto was also quite close.

Visibility was such that even with the UHC-S filter, M1 the Crab nebula was not possible tonight. It is possible on clearer nights in my back garden.

After some time with CdC, I noticed that the asteroid 12 - Victoria was very favourably placed to find (within the Hyades). It made a flat rhombus with Gamma Tauri and a couple of 9th magnitude stars. At mag. 11.4, it was on the limit of my averted vision and had it been almost anywhere else in the sky, it would have been impossible to pick out. Hopefully tomorrow will be slightly clearer to confirm the sighting.

I finished off the evening with a first look at the nearby cluster NGC 1647, a quite large group of 9th and 10th magnitude stars. There were three or four slightly brighter although I am not totally sure that they are part of the group.

Let's hope for clearer nights as the Moon diminishes!

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Observing Session: Friday 13th January 2012, 21:00 to 22:20 hrs GMT

Seeing at zenith: 4.8

Seeing at 45 degrees: 4.5

New Object - Observed Object - Failed