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17/11/12 - Great Night

Matt Scunthorpe

By Matt Scunthorpe
in Observing - Reports

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Matt Scunthorpe

Matt Scunthorpe

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Well after waiting until 11.30pm for a friend who never actually turned up, i decided to get started.

Tonight was the first real night i could use my Telrad, and oh my days, it really is brilliant. My first target was M1. This was the 4th night i have searched for it, but tonight, i lined up the Telrad, and first time of trying, there it was. Very small and smokey patch, but as such a well known Messier, it really was amazing.

With my enthusiasm in over drive now, and my Telrad sheets in my hand, i went for M35. I kid you not, when i got it in the EP and my honest words were 'Oh my god, Holy...' It was an amazing site, so beautiful and just filling the 25mm EP. Has to be one of my favorite objects i've seen to date. Working my way up M36, M37 and M38 which were all amazing. I was very confused to begin with as to which one i was looking at, then i realised what i thought was M38 was actually M36, then it all made a lot more sense. I'm confident i bagged them all.

At this point i decided to treat myself and have a look at Jupiter, all 4 moons were there, and the seeing was very good at times so really got a good view. I decided i would go for M81 and M82. But i'm afraid to say, at this point i broke a vital part of my astronomy kit.. My tea flask :(, as i had to spin the scope fully around to go for Ursa Major, i accidentally kicked my flask, and smashed all the glass inside.

Now onto Ursa Major, I have seen these before through my scope, but a friend actually found them for me, but i managed to nail them after a view attempts, and both nicely fit into the EP. I also had a search for M40, but couldnt see anything of it, and couldnt find anything on it in TLAO, so decided to leave it.

Dew was becoming a real problem now, and the first time ive really noticed a difference, i think ive been lucky with mine that it never seems to dew up, but the secondary had fallen victim this time, but i still managed to bag M78 in Orion. I could see a very dim smoky thing, and the 2 stars that people say are 'eyes'. It was pretty tricky to find, and couldn't find any info in TLAO on it, so i really was on my own, i think the dew may be the reason it was pretty dim. I also looked for M79, but decided it was too low in a light polluted sky, and thought id just be wasting my time.

I packed up at 2am, after conceding defeat to the dew. All in all, it was another 6 Messiers bagged in my Messier hunt, taking my (not so) grand total, upto 23.

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Double Kick Drum

Double Kick Drum

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Congratulations on bagging six new Messiers and especially your first supernova remnant M1 - very satisfying find.

All of them are worth revisiting, whereas M40 is just one for the collection. It is one of the dullest of the M objects along with M72 and M73 in Aquarius.

M79 is quite tough due to its poor elevation.

Thanks for sharing.

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Moonshane

Moonshane

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great report - what a good night's observing!

have another look at M35 and see if you can detect NGC 2158. in a dob it will be left of and slightly under the main cluster like a faint milky patch - almost like a sparse globular. together they look lovely. I mnaged it in my 6" the other night so you should see it in your 8" may need averted vision but if you saw the crab you should get it.

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Double Kick Drum

Double Kick Drum

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great report - what a good night's observing!

have another look at M35 and see if you can detect NGC 2158. in a dob it will be left of and slightly under the main cluster like a faint milky patch - almost like a sparse globular. together they look lovely. I mnaged it in my 6" the other night so you should see it in your 8" may need averted vision but if you saw the crab you should get it.

...and just beyond that is the slightly larger and slightly more diffuse open cluster IC 2157.

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Double Kick Drum

Double Kick Drum

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Yes, it's a double.

Even Astronomers aren't immune from errors (except me, I have never ever made one, honest :grin: ). There are even some NGC numbers which just refer to stars or are duplicates.

The other controversial Messier is M102. Not strictly listed by Mr Messier (like a few of the later ones). It is regarded by most (including myself :cool: ) as NGC 5866 in Draco for purposes of completing numbers 1 to 110. Quite a nice object as it happens.

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Matt Scunthorpe

Matt Scunthorpe

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great report - what a good night's observing!

have another look at M35 and see if you can detect NGC 2158. in a dob it will be left of and slightly under the main cluster like a faint milky patch - almost like a sparse globular. together they look lovely. I mnaged it in my 6" the other night so you should see it in your 8" may need averted vision but if you saw the crab you should get it.

Thanks Moonshane, I willl have a look next time I'm out. The thing I love about clusters, globular and open is that their really party pieces, always get a wow from people whenever you show them a cluster. I think they've become one of my favorite things to view. M35 and M11 being the best 2 I have layed by eyes on.

EDIT - correcting spelling. Blackberries do not get on with this forum. What you type appears about 20mins after you typed it.

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WaveSoarer

WaveSoarer

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Thanks for the report. I was also out last night doing some imaging of Jupiter and Uranus. I managed to view the Eastern (NGC6992) and Western (NGC6960) parts of the Veil nebula and I also had my first views of the Triangulum galaxy (M33) and M1. Sadly M1 was behind our walnut tree but it was definitely visible. I was surprised by how large M1 is compared to the Dumbbell nebula (M27) but it is pretty faint - though trying to view it through lots of twigs wont have helped. M33 is very faint and it was barely visible in my finder scope and still very faint with my 15mm EP through the main scope. It was more of a smudge and there wasn't any discernible core - unlike the whirlpool galaxy (M51) which has a very noticeable blob in the middle. Even its fainter companion (NGC5195) has an obvious core. I also viewed M42, which is always wonderful.

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Matt Scunthorpe

Matt Scunthorpe

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M42 is an amazing object. Just the way it is lit up is like nothing else in the sky, so awe inspiring. M33 & M51 are definately on my hitlist for the next night. Providing the moon isnt up for M33 at least. Trouble is Ursa Major is just below the house so will have to go to my preferred dark site for that i think.

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Vince1963

Vince1963

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Great stuff Matt...Sounds like you had a great night (apart from the flask business) you'll have to get one on the Christmas list. I managed M81 in my bins the other night and i think i could just make out M82 too, i don't think my eye's where playing tricks. But anyway great job Matt :smiley:

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