Refractor : grand night.

[cotterless45]

Brilliantly clear evening, it was like taking your seat in a planetarium but with a wind machine working. Had a shot with the refractor as a Newt tube would be wobbling too much,

NGC40 is on the Cepheus / Cassiopeia border and is an unusual red planetary nebula, it doesn't look red or the cool green/blue of others.Spotted at x40 between 2 stars.

NGC2419 is the Galactic Wanderer a very distant globular cluster in Lynx. It looked non stellar at x100, 3 equidistant stars pointing to 3 compact non stellar light sources.

NGC1444 is a poor cluster, but NGC1545 also in Perseus is starfish like with short chains of stars.

NGC1528 is a scattered peppering of stars here.

NGC1514 is a small planetary nebula in Taurus, I found it to the Lhs of an Orion replica.

M67 is a lovely overlooked bright cluster in Cancer. Worth seeing as at 3.2 billion years old , it is one of the oldest.

Then over to Orion, continue the arc of 3 stars to find this small planetary. NGC1662 is a pretty cluster to the rhs of the bow.It looked like the letters I and L at x40, worth finding. I had a check on Jupiter and caught a mid transit shadow on the disc at 12.55.

NGC2169 is a cluster up in his left elbow and delightfully reads 37 upside down.NGC2194 looked poor.

Over to Monoceros and a look at NGC, a lovely upside down Christmas tree, festive.

In Taurus, two adjacent clusters NGC1807 at x40 and NGC1817, long chains of stars with 2 sets of doubles out by a nearby star.

I had a look at the usual suspects to see what the old Vixen could do:

The Esquimo nebula showed a good halo and detail at x150. In Ursa Major , Bodes, the owl and the Whirpool were all clear.M106 was bright and elongate as was NGC2403 and M94 showing a bright core in CNv.The Auriga clusters were stunning, always look better in a refractor, especially M37.

That's when the wind and the cold set in, packed in at 4.30. Ursa Major gets overhead and Leo is high in the south. I did have a peek at the Leo 1 and 2 groups , roll on the spring galaxies. Thanks for taking time to wade through this on what was an extraordinary night without dew or clag,

Nick.

[Mike73]

Wow thats alot of clusters Nick, what a busy night!

As much as I find OC's interesting for a quick look they just dont grab me in the same way as galaxies and globs so it was good to see Leo myself the other morning, like you say ' roll on the spring galaxies'.

[KevUU]

Sounds like a fun night, loads o' stuff there!

Another interesting list for me to pick through and steal ideas from, thanks

[VigdisVZ]

Great read. The pace you're posting at I suspect you have the best conditions and weather on the earth, or you're obsing from orbit

[cotterless45]

Love to go in orbit,but.........

There's 9 street lights here and more than that in security lights. To see anything at all I have a shed, a 6ft fence and 2 dark throws pegged onto the washing line.This area gets north and east and some south.

luckily we're on the edge of town and most normal folk get to their scratchers early.

It's just a matter of going out every clear night and making the most of it.We've been incredibly lucky with some wonderfully still and clear nights, neat,

Nick.

[Dunkster]

Sounds like a great night out, thanks for sharing

[Double Kick Drum]

Big haul of stuff there. Loads of variety too.

The Galactic Wanderer (NGC 2419) and the Crystal Ball nebula (NGC 1514) are quite tough diffuse objects that are near my limit. NGC 40 is on my to do list. One or two other ideas there too.

Personally it has been such a long wait to use my scope, I think I may have forgotten what end to look through. Might have to start with the Moon again and go from there.

Clear skies!