16inch under darkish skies

[Daniel-K]

The three amigos go to lynn brenig 24/25-03-2012

4oclock and the other guys barry and austin were at mine with the van loaded and a good forecast we set off on the hour and half journey to our dark site. upon arrival there was two fisermen packing up with the trout they had cought, must have been there super.one of the them said when they saw us 3 getting out the van and opeing the doors that we was going to be fly tipping untill we dragged out the scopes. after setting up we noticed venus at 18:39 so with a 2 inch 26MM EP in venus was just over a half cresent very crisp clear veiw. 18:44 jupiter was visable it was still light at this point with about an 40 min left before it got even close to being dark but i was able to make out the two main bands and lot of browny bnads on the bottom.17:02 IO was just going behind jupiter so i sat at the EP and watched it dissaper behind the gas giant, what a fantastic stat to the night i thought.17:22 the very thin slither of moon that was hanging around under jupiter through the scope the thin cresent had a red glow from the sunset a awesome sight i will never forget with how much detail the craters was showing. time for a snack i think had some buttys beef paste yum yum it wasnt quite dark enough for galaxy's yet so it was over to Auriga for some clusters i manged to get M37 and M36 two stunning cluster both veiwed with the 2 inch 26mm EP.M44 was just calling as it was visable with the naked eye,a very differnt veiw im use to with so many extra stars and being so bright it was a great veiw even though i couldnt get all in the EP. Next over to the Double cluster in perseus one of my favourites. by half 8 it was dark enough to go for some fainter stuff so before we lost orion for the season i thought i would say bye to the jewl of the winter sky i was amazed as i have never seen orion from a dark sight before the nebulaostiy i could see was like looking at a picture it was brilliant the best way i can describe it, is looked like it had wings if that makes sense. next i tried for the horse head i colud see glimpe's of pink nebula couldnt actuly see the horse head but the nebula was deffently there. M1 stuck out like a saw thumb like a cloud just sitting there. up

and over to the Eskimo in gemini now this was unreal at first i had the 26mm 2" EP in then changer to a 12mm 1.25" inch i could see the star in the middle (not sure if its a star but i was bright) i was blinking sort of but with averted vision some finer detail was on show the best i have ever seen. up and over to M97 the owl which was like like a gas ball with the eyes showing. while in ursa majour i noticed on the sky atals there was a number of NGC galaxy's in the bowl 9 in total i got 8 of the 9:

NGC 3892 & 3998 two lovely galaxy's next each other

NGC 3613 & 3619 another two galays close to each other

NGC 3610

NGC 3953

NGC 3898

NGC 3780

NGC 3642 Couldnt find! but still please i manged to find 8

was trying for ages to find IC 1029 & NGC 5676 with no success so if you know how to spot

these please tell i was in the right area just could not see them maybe the brigtish two star the sit by drown them out??

the leo triplet was mind blowingly good the side on glaxay was showing dust lanes!Next M3 evadied me all night! but i got the small glob NGC 5466 next to M3! i also bagged NCG 4147 another small glob that sits inbetween virgo and coma Berenices a tough little glob as it looks like a fuzzy star but once on it, it reveals it beutey! NCG 6229 yet another faint glob in Hercules mag 9 i think was a real treat! M60 was just very bright with M59. M58 is a spiral galxy but didnt show much detail.scanning the vigo bowl was great picking up galaxys of differnt shapes and size's and not know what the hell they are was fun. by this time i could vega and deneb! Sarturn was high so the 12 mm 1.25" the

banding was clearly seen along with the cassini division. at this point i carried on looking at NGC's but didnt document them as i was getting tierd but it was great night/morning getting home at 5:45AM!!

[gooseholla]

What a beautiful location!

I notice no ladder or box in the picture. How do you find using a 16inch pointing straight up? And it looks like it gets pretty low as well! Must be, err.. interesting!

[Daniel-K]

the ladder was in the van only for barry though i can just manage when its straight up. when its low it can be a pain but the veiws are worth it !

[DarkerSky]

Brilliant night out by the sounds of it. Llyn Brennig must have been pretty dark. I've only been there in the daylight, but I'd imagine it is a decent sky. Good haul of galaxies. NGC 3642 is Mag 11.1 according to Dreyer and a fair decent size. In theory it was easier than some of the other gxs you bagged, which were pushing mag 13.

[tony4563]

Wow.

Sounds like you had a great night!

[Daniel-K]

i just couldnt get it. its one for another night. probably tonight. the sky was dark but there was a slight haze till 3ish when it dissipated and it became alot clearer.