Auriga, Orion and Taurus; harbingers of autumn.

[cotterless45]

What a fine and clear night, ending with the rising of wintery favourites.The Milky Way blasted across from Cygnus to Cassiopeia , brushing the base of Auriga. Even from this polluted town site it's tortuos shape and dark areas could be made out.

If like me , you get mixed up with the 3 major clusters in Auriga, M38 (largest),M36 (middle smallest)and M37 (tightest and nicest),then have a look through a pair of binoculars. They run in a crooked line through a line from theta to Elnath, like the base of a kite shape.

At x15 you can make out their position and compare their size/brightness.

It was lovely to see Taurus with Jupiter in front of the Hyades and a very bright Venus to the North .

Perseus looked stunning and don't overlook a scan down the chain of stars, including the central Melotte 20.

The double cluster between the 2nd star of Cassiopeia and Perseus just glared out of the sky by eye.

In the East ,Orion was high enough to pick out M42, promises of long autumn nights to come.

Overhead the garnet star was bright at the base of Cepheus, being kicked along by a sinking Cygnus.

An unexpected night, our weather forecasts gave cloud and mostly info on the south .

Nick.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Nice report. Binoculars are great for this kind of viewing.

[KevUU]

Cheers for that. I can't wait 'til I can see these guys again and still get to bed at a reasonable time...

[JamesF]

Some of my favourites, these, as they, along with M1, were the first non-naked eye DSOs I saw, with my ST80. Took me *ages* to find them, having little clue what I was doing and having to learn my way around at the same time, so it's always pleasant to go back and visit them as a reminder of when I started.

James

[LukeSkywatcher]

Auriga is just one of the best areas in the night sky. It just about has a bit of everything in and around it to observe.

[LukeSkywatcher]

Take a look at this image:

http://paginadeastronomie.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/auriga.jpg

Jam packed with goodies. I've never visually been able to spot the Flaming Star Nebula but i know its location is around a group of stars known as "The Children". Then again i have yet to observe the area with my 8" scope. Hopefully i might start seeing a hint of the Nebula.

[Josh Wilson]

Wow. I wish I had one of those for every constellation. I also got up early last Saturday to see Jupiter, Venus, and M42. I saw Jupiter but decided it would be better with a different scope so I moved right on to M42. Even though it was low, my O-III filter was a real champ, giving just a bit more detail than my Hydrogen-Beta filter. I was so amazed by M42, I forgot to view Venus. Can you post the homepage of the website you got that picture from? Thanks.

[Expat_tony]

Well I just changed "auriga.jpg" in the URL to cassiopeia.jpg, and guess what came up?

But as this seems to be a Rumanian blog, who knows what other constellation names are in use ("bootes.jpg" didn't work).

It seems to be a work in progress anyway, there's an raw photo of orion.jpg .

The blogger is called Adrian Sonka, perhaps he might be a sharing kind of person if you ask nicely. Bet he'd appreciate similar raw images too.

[Matt Scunthorpe]

I must say i am looking forward to the return of Orion. Also the return of Jupiter and Venus as nighttime objects, although i did get a bit of a view the other morning before bed.

[cotterless45]

Set the alarm for 3am, you'll be in for delightful things, or as Mrs.C asks "where are you going ?",

Nick.

[ely_ellis]

I noticed that Orion was comming up early morning.

Strange how I never looked forward to Autumn in my life before now!