January 12, 2013: Some observing interspersed with imaging

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Last night was clear for the first time in what seems like an age, so I set to work observing quite early, despite some high haze. I set up the scope, and waited for it to cool, whilst scanning the heavens with the Helios 15x70 bins. The Pleiades were stunning, and M36, M37 and M38 were neat. I also had a good look at Collinder 70 (Orion's belt and surroundings), for the first time with the knowledge it is an open cluster, and duly logged it as such. I started of with a failure, as Comet C/2012 K5 (LINEAR) failed to show up, even with the Celestron C8. Meh. Either both finder charts (which agree) are wrong, or the object has faded too rapidly. The faint haze cannot have helped either.

I then had a look at M42/M43 (well you must, mustn't you). I tried out the Denkmeier filter-switch diagonal I got, and liked the swift filter switching it allows. I then had a brief hunt for some galaxies, and after some effort got NGC 1337 in Eridanus. In the haze, this mag 11.9 galaxy showed up as the faintest of fuzzies, clearly elongated, only visible in averted vision. NGC 1637 was next, and was a bit easier (and clearly more round in shape). I failed to pick up Collinder 92 in Monoceros which is clearly too anaemic.

I then did some imaging of Jupiter with the ASI130MM camera. More on that here. I did not take very long trying to get data, as the king of planets seemed to be swimming in the FOV.

Finally, I turned to a planetary in Lepus: IC 418, or the Spirograph nebula. This proved very easy, despite its low altitude. At mag 10, and with its very compact size, it shows up easily. Near stellar in the 31mm Nagler (but with hints of fuzziness), it showed up as a distinctly blue-green blob in the 17mm, and held up well in the 10mm. Swapping in the UHC filter made the stars around it all but vanish, but the nebula stayed bright. The filter-switch diagonal is really great for this kind of work.

After bagging my fourth newly logged DSO for the night, I decided to call it a night, and start processing the data.

[VigdisVZ]

Nice collection of old friends there. I think I must have been lucky to capture C/2012 K5 when I did. I actually have it in my image gallery. All thanks to Lars in my club who told me where it was during our last clear session out at the dark site obsevatory.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Nice collection of old friends there. I think I must have been lucky to capture C/2012 K5 when I did. I actually have it in my image gallery. All thanks to Lars in my club who told me where it was during our last clear session out at the dark site obsevatory.

When did you spot it?

[VigdisVZ]

When did you spot it?

4th of January.

[m_j_lyons]

Michael - I liked the images of Jupiter...what did you use for tracking? I'd like to give it a go with my USB webcam but I'm afraid to get sucked into the never ending, never satisfied editing and manipulation AFTER the viewing session. I'll likely stick with the moon for now.

BTW - if you haven't logged SN2012ht in Leo yet - stay up late (or get up early) and do so - it's an easy target right now but likely won't last too much longer.

Happy hunting.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Michael - I liked the images of Jupiter...what did you use for tracking? I'd like to give it a go with my USB webcam but I'm afraid to get sucked into the never ending, never satisfied editing and manipulation AFTER the viewing session. I'll likely stick with the moon for now.

BTW - if you haven't logged SN2012ht in Leo yet - stay up late (or get up early) and do so - it's an easy target right now but likely won't last too much longer.

Happy hunting.

Thanks Mark,

I used the trusty Vixen Great Polaris mount for tracking (no guiding necessary, just the RA motor suffices). I tend to tweak and fiddle till I notice not much more can be gained, and then stop. Very occasionally I go back to old data if I find a new trick.

I forgot to mention in the report that I first located Vesta and Ceres with the bins, to check out their movement (I spotted them for the first time a few days ago). I have not yet seen SN2012ht, because it got increasingly hazy (it is fairly low in the sky from these parts). I will get another chance on Wednesday, according to the forecast.

[Moonshane]

I have just been looking in vain for Linear as it's the first real decent night for ages. I did a quick google and if the predicted magnitudes here http://www.aerith.net/comet/catalog/2012K5/2012K5.html are anything like accurate then it's understandable I could not see anything even in the 16" where I live. I fear if not seen in the first few days of the year then it's curtains for this one.