Observing Christmas trees and Klingons!

[Gregnat73]

Finally a bit of luck.... Despite a forecast of cloud, at about 7pm the moon suddenly appeared so I grabbed the binoculars (Canon 15x50 IS) to see what else I could spot from my open living room window. With the intermittent cloud, a bright moon and a bit of LP I decided not to even try for the fainter fuzzier targets and instead concentrated on seeing what was around the area of Orion.... and thought I'd share what I saw (I really need to start making proper observing notes I think)

First the usual suspects; M42, M45, Hyades and Jupiter all looking stunning (I never get bored of these targets)

Then the asteroid Vesta, I did see it a month or 2 ago but it was much harder to track down this time but I think I found it again!!

Then some new targets, NGC 2264 (the Christmas Tree Cluster) quite easy to find following instructions from the "One Minute Astronomer "E-book I have on my Kindle. A nice little cluster, which really does look like an inverted Christmas tree (no sign of the associated nebula though)

After that, another target from the "One Minute Astronomer"... Hind's Crimson Star (R Leporis) After a bit of star hopping I managed to find it and at first it looked like an ordinary faint star, after a few minutes the red colour seems to become more obvious and every now and then it seemed to appear very red indeed.... I found it quite captivating and will definitely be looking for it again (but on a darker, clearer night)

By then the clouds were reappearing so I tried for open cluster NGC1662 which I'd heard described as looking like a Klingon spaceship from Star Trek! A bit more star hopping and there it was... At first just a faint patch of brightness but after a few minutes and with averted viewing I could begin to see some structure, 3 lines of stars forming the wings and nose of a Klingon Battlecruiser (sort of... I suppose!) Again, another target I'll be revisiting!

By then the clouds we almost upon me so I called it a night.... A short session but definitely an enjoyable one!!

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Nice report. Red stars can sometimes seem to "flare up" as the cones in the retina kick in. The nebula associated with the X-mas tree cluster is hard. I have spotted it only a few times, through bigger bins and from a dark site.