Tough night, but with a good result

[smolloy]

Hi all,

The sky looked clear for most of today, but it turned out that there was a little bit of high level cloud that added an irritating "fuzz" to everything I wanted to look at. I also found that I am getting increasingly more irritated with the big nasty streetlight at the bottom of my garden, but more of that later.....

I started off (as usual) gazing at Jupiter. Just beautiful at the moment. Two very obvious bands visible, with a hint of structure in them, and a third faint band going in and out of view. Lovely scattering of the four moons, with one of them lying surprisingly far away, and two of them close enough together to make them tricky to distinguish in the 25 mm EP (although very obviously separate in the 10 mm EP).

Then off to another old favourite -- M42. Looking very very clear despite the poor transparency. I think this feeling of clarity was more influenced by the fact that I was using my 25 mm EP rather than the usual 10 mm. Everything looked sharped and more 3D in the wider FOV. Trapezium clearly visible, and lots of beautiful nebulosity all over the FOV.

I also bagged M1, my first new discovery of the night. I am pretty sure that I was in the right location -- a lot of the surrounding stars appeared to match stellarium -- but it was so faint against the LP, that I wonder if I am kidding myself. I will try to confirm on a clearer night.

Next, sigma Ori -- this would make a nice sketch (given my limitied drawing skills!). A couple of the stars have very faint companions, one (at the base of the triangle) requiring averted vision, while the other is directly visible with only a little effort.

At this point I started hunting for M36-38 in Aur, and the Double Cluster, but I found I was being prevented by light from a streetlight going straight up the secondary tube into the EP. Very very very frustrating experience and, at one particularly mad stage of the evening, I found myself leaning a set of ladders against the offending light with the intention of covering it with a box

After retreating from the brink of madness, I realised that a less insane approach would be to take the cardboard and strap it to the OTA to shield the light.

This got me back on track for a while, and I spent a good long time staring at M35 -- easily the best cluster that I have seen through my scope. Completely fills the FOV with the 25 mm EP. Doesn't look like much through the 10 mm, since the FOV is too narrow.

At this stage I was getting very frustrated with the intermittent views as the high level cloud drifted by, and was feeling very irritated. Is backyard astronomy really for me?

So I retreated inside, and was browsing around here to find some inspiration (difficult since everyone seems to be as irritated as me!!), when I found a post about M81/82 and decided to give it a shot.

I had to move the scope to a new location so that I could get the north/east view I needed. Locating the right star in Ursa Major (its eye) was easy enough. Then I used binoculars to learn the sky nearby, and to hop to roughly the right place. When I was convinced I was looking in the right area, I used the finderscope to follow the same process, and then *bang* there it is!!!

Wow!!

A lovely bright M81 and within the same field of view, the thick stripe of M82!!

M81 was very easy to see, although there was no visible structure (remember how bad my seeing was). It was a roughly circular blob, slowly diffusing into the background haze. Unmistakable.

M82 was harder, although it was quite clear (with averted vision) after I'd found it. A thick strip of fuzz within the same FOV as M81.

I was so proud to have found these by myself, and even more so now that I have learnt that they are 12 million lyr away!! The oldest light I have seen

I noticed a nice little double just beside M81, but couldn't find it in stellarium. Will have to do a bit of research to confirm this.

So, 3 new objects, a host of old friends, and a brush with madness. not bad for one night!!

Thanks for reading!

[rory]

thanks for the report.

i was the same with m1. so faint ,you wonder weather your trying to convince yourself youv'e seen it. but ive been back several times now,and happy ive bagged it.

averted vision and abit of scope movement helps to confirm.

[Double Kick Drum]

M1 is less than one degree from Zeta Tauri and is quite large. I found a wide FOV best with the bright star just out of frame so as not to impede viewing.

Congrats on finding it.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Nice report. Three new Messiers in a night is a good haul. M1 can be quite tricky.