Best night ever!

[jimbooz]

After a wonderfully bright and sunny day with the expectation of a good nights observing, I was dismayed when it clouded over around 5.30pm. I had a look out at 7 and the clouds had gone and the sky was very dark and very clear. A quick trip out with all the gear; dob, chair, table, cushion and cider. It was looking darker than I've seen it before!

Started with M81 and M82. It took a while but got them after a few mins of checking Left Turn and the centre pages of Astronomy Now. Kids and wife came out to have a look and were amazed at seeing two galaxies about 12 million light years away. One galaxy side on and one end on. Got both in the same fov with my BST 18mm. Awesome!

Moved on to the beehive cluster. The stars of cancer were hard to pick out with the naked eye but the beehive was easy to see. It more than filled the eyepiece with bright, sharp stars.

Onto the crab nebula, M1, which I had not been able to see on previous occasions. It took a while to track it down but eventually found it. A grey blob which was not particularly impressive to view but still fascinating when you think it is the remnants of an incredible supernova.

M42, the Orion nebula was magnificent. The nebulous cloud surrounding the trapezium was clearer and seemed larger than I'd seen before.

Jupiter again showed more bands but was a bit too bright and I'd spent a lot of time on it since I got the dob in Jan.

My only disappointment of the night was andromeda. I had what I thought was the right area but despite a lot of searching I didn't get it. Maybe it is difficult to see when it is so low in the sky.

I wasn't downhearted and tried for M36,37 and 38 in Auriga, again having failed on a previous night. This area of the sky seemed very highly populated with stars and it was tough going. However I got M37 first, then moved across to M36 and finally onto M38 which was my favourite. There seemed to be a myriad of fairly faint stars of roughly the same luminosity. Majestic!

I was starting to get chilly and the missus was going to bed. Sweetheart bought me out another cider and my scarf before she went. I wanted to get another nebula under my belt and had a go for NGC 2392, The Clown Face in Gemini. Sounded great but was a bit of a pig to find. It is a small fuzzy grey blob (aren't they all) but capped my nights dob viewing nicely.

Spent the last ten minutes or so on my comfy chair (with added cushion) finishing off the cider and continuing my education of the constellations and naked eye stars. Got back inside in time for Match of the Day. Liverpool won 4-0.

Best night with the telescope! I'm hooked!

[Guy Wells]

Brilliant!

[andyman]

sounds like you had a great night wish i could say the same clouds not playing ball here

[kirkster501]

great stuff!!

Imaging M87 on this computer right now!

[Lee M]

Great to hear some good clear skies elsewhere.

I'm still hopeful for tomorrow & Monday night.

[JamesF]

Just got in myself after a fairly busy evening, mostly hunting open clusters though I picked up a few galaxies in Leo to finish off before the Moon light up the sky too much. I'm just contemplating the chances of staying awake long enough to get a shot of the Moon once it has risen above the trees, but I don't think it's going to happen.

James

[jimbooz]

This night just keeps on giving! Saw Saturn for the first time. WOW. It was very yellow probably down to how low in the sky it was.

Saw the ring clearly enough in my 18mm but it didn't look good with the Barlow. I'm going to bed happy!

[skir]

That's a really productive night! I was looking at m36 too, spent a few minutes trying to work out where it was until I realised I was looking right at it! Doh!

Unfortunately I think the cold caused some issues for my main battery so that knocked it on the head for me.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

[emadmoussa]

Good stuff!!

[Double Kick Drum]

Nice selection of deep sky objects there. Well done!