A great 1st vacation day

[pvaz]

So today I had my 1st vacation day. With my newborn son only 4 months old, we decided to stay home this year (still getting used to all the logistics a baby requires :S).

Anyway, I woke up late made a nice lunch, practiced bass for 2 hours or so, then went out for a drive. Stopped in a few tourist attractions to make some photos with the kid, followed by a very nice dinner on a restaurant with some friends and family.

On the way back home, I managed to get one of the most amazing sunsets I can remember. Graciosa island was very sharp in the horizon right near to the spot the sun was setting, which made for a few nice shots.

After getting home I did a 3 hour astronomy session. Taking advantage of the excellent seeing conditions I found over 30 "Herschel 400" objects, most of them have eluded me over the last 2 years.

I started with Saturn. The cassini division was easily seen, as well as a band on the northern hemisphere and the ring's shadow over the planet's southern hemisphere. The night was perfect for DSOs so I didn't waste much time on the gas giant.

NGC6369 was a great sight. Very hard to spot but once found, I pulled the mag up to 240x and could see the ring shape easily. All the other objects ware pretty much featureless, some requiring averted vision and tapping the tube just to detect them, so I won't give a detailed account of all the blurry faint fuzzies I saw today.

To finish it off I observed M51. The bridge was seen with direct vision, as well as hints of the spiral structure. With averted vision the spiral almost poped out. It was one of the best sights of my favorite galaxy, followed by the swan, eagle and trifid nebulas. I don't get too many chances to see them with the short summer nights so it was very enjoyable.

And that was it! Managed to have plenty of time with my son and family, practiced my 3 hobbies and had lots of fun. Definitely a great way to start my vacations.

[pvaz]

PS-> The sunset shot...

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Very nice report Paulo. Great haul to get 30 Herschel objects in one night! NGC 6939 sounds like an interesting target.

And, yes, kids can take some getting used to! Before you know it, they will want to have a look through the scope.

[alan potts]

Nice report, these Herschel objects it there a chart of these of a book. I guess that most of them are very faint.

Alan.

[pvaz]

Michael, I think he'll enjoy seeing the planets and the brightest DSOs. I did use pushto to manage so many targets in 3 hours, but most ware so faint in my 8" that it was mostly about checking them off the list.

Alan, you can find the list here: http://www.astroleag...l/h400lstn.html

I would say about 70% won't show any details in an 8" (about 20% are barely detectable) but it's nice to have a target list to get busy once you done most of the Messiers. A few do show some detail, particularly some globulars and some planetary nebulas.

[swamp thing]

Nice report Paulo.

It does indeed sound a great clear night seeing spral structure in M51 is always a treat whenever you get to see it.

The bridge with direct vision would seem to point to very transparent skies indeed.

Lucky you

[rory]

nice picture. thanks for the report.