April 1st Cancer and Gemini

[Tyr]

The sky had been clear over Reading as far as I could tell all day yesterday, so I was looking forward to an evening with the telescope, all be it cut a little shorter by the onset of BST and the need to get up at what seemed like an hour early for work today. I had been out twice over the easter weekend so far but not for more than half an hour before the clouds rolled in and blocked whatever I was looking at.

I sat down with a copy the brilliant Illustrated Guide to Astronomical Wonders (IGAW for short), by Thompson and Thompson (Orielly) to decide what to try and observe. Then I wrapped up warm and setup the 150p in the back garden.

Planned was a session of globulars and brighter galaxies in Coma Berenices, however when I got outside again to realise I was a couple of hours (or a month early) and the constellation was possitioned directly over my nearest street lamp . This was probably due to having been out later before the clocks changed.

I had a quick look at Jupiter and M45 in Taurus while I thought about what to do and adapted to the dark. Then I looked at what constellations were well positioned and decided on Cancer and Gemini.

I started with the well known (to me) M44 BeeHive and M67 open clusters in Cancer, M44 is always a favourite as it's the first DSO I found on my own after getting a copy of TLAO and borrowing some Bins. The seeing conditions seemed fairly good in terms of transparancy for Reading with the main stars in Cancer just visible with the naked eye, however there was a bit of a breeze.

I looked again at the IGAW and proceeded to observer Iota Cancri, which appeared as a stunning blue yellow double and was easy to find as it was just visible with the naked eye and easilty split even at low power. Onto Zeta Cancri since I was in the area which appeared a yellow yellow double with some nice colour.

After that I moved on to Gemini and deiced to stick with the double star theme and try and split Castor (alpha Geminorium) which I'd done many before, much brighter than the previous two and appearing tighter. Then I thought I would take what seemed like a long shot and try and find a magnitude 9.9 object that has eluded me several times in the past the Eskimo Nebula (NCG 2392), having only ever managed to find the Ring planetary (M57) in Lyra I really wanted to track down another.

I carefully star hopped from Wasat (delta Geminorium) to the triangle of stars formed by 56,61 and 63 Geminorium, noting the little trail of 4 stars ending in 63 Geminorium. I centered my 25mm EP over the nearest of a line of 3 stars to the 63 -> 61 Geminorium side of the triangle I'd visualised and looked carefully sure I was in the right place. Nothing. ok I thought so I upped the magnification a bit knowing Planetary nebulas are small object and still nothing, then I moved the scope a little and suddenly it was there popping into the field of view exactly where I had expected but vanishing when I looked directly at it.

There was no sense of colour as I was using averted vision but a clear and fuzzy ball hanging below the target star every time I looked around it that disapeared when I looked at it. I spent the next 10 minutes observing it with averted vision before deciding it was time I went inside.Where I proceeded to excitedly make some notes in my log book and to point and wave at star charts to the bemusement of my girlfriend.

Hopefully I'll get another chance at this tonight or soon.

All observations made using either a 15mm or 25mm EP and a Skywatcher 150p mounted on an Alt AZ mount.

Tyr

ps Yellow for observed before, green for new to me.

[Double Kick Drum]

Well done on the Eskimo. It actually has a reasonably high surface brightness and is quite condensed. Harder to locate than see.

I'm not sure what your light pollution is like where you are but I have found fuzzies down to mag. 11.4 in a semi-rural sky with London 30-odd miles to the West with a similar aperture refractor.

Clear skies!

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Nice report. The Eskimo is one of the nicest planetaries out there. When next time you are there try NGC 2371/2: a nice little two-lobed planetary which is a lot easier than its brightness suggests. It almost looks like a double star, until you throw more magnification at it

[Tyr]

Martin, I think the lowest magnitude object I've seen before this is M64 the Sun Flower Galaxy although that was with a 5" rather than 6" scope that I now have available, last night seemed to be very good for transparency. The forecast for tonight also looks good, so hopefully I can go back for another look.

Michael, thank you for the tip I'll see if I can find it tonight (or next session if the clouds intervene). I just searched for the "Brightest Planetaries" list mentioned in your signature and realized I've actually found 3 now rather than 2 I remember locating the dumbbell nebula some time last year.

[cotterless45]

Neat, try a UHC filter with the planetaries, it'll show great detail on the Eskimo at high mags,

Nick.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Martin, I think the lowest magnitude object I've seen before this is M64 the Sun Flower Galaxy although that was with a 5" rather than 6" scope that I now have available, last night seemed to be very good for transparency. The forecast for tonight also looks good, so hopefully I can go back for another look.

Michael, thank you for the tip I'll see if I can find it tonight (or next session if the clouds intervene). I just searched for the "Brightest Planetaries" list mentioned in your signature and realized I've actually found 3 now rather than 2 I remember locating the dumbbell nebula some time last year.

Brightest planetaries is a handy list. Many of these objects are quite easy compared to galaxies of the same magnitude, in part because they have a high surface brightness, but also because they benefit from the use of UHC or O-III filters. The latter means you can see them in moonlight or with a lot of man-made LP.

[Tyr]

hmm I have a Skywatcher LPR filter, which I've not found of great use so far but I'll give it a bash.

[Special K]

Great report Tyr and interesting how you found the Eskimo. My UHC hasn't helped me see it better but have since taken care of some collimation issues so think I should try again soon. Your skies might be darker than mine as I was really struggling to make out Cancer last night. Wasn't too hard to find my way to M44 again, but M67 was a battle!

[Tyr]

I was out again last night and the sky conditions were clear and quite transparent again, but a little windy.

Special K, Cancer was again visible with the naked eye here (although it is not often so), so I suspect you might be right.

I retraced my steps from the previous night to find the Eskimo and it was even clearer than the previous night, even standing a little direct vission. I'm wondering if this was a bit about practice time at the eyepiece. I tried a 7mm EP as well and was suprised that it didn't make the image too dim. I tried the LPR filter and maybe it helped a little but I'm not sure, I suspect I have the wrong kind of lighting in my area.

I tried for NGC 2371 however I wasn't able to see it, or maybe I did but didn't use enough magnification and it just appeared as a dim star. I'm sure I had it within the field of view of the 15mm EP I was using as I could see the two recognisable groups of surrounding stars at either side of where it was marked on my star map.

I had a look at M35 while I was in the area, which was a very nice rich open cluster, plenty of detail which started to come out the more I looked.

I also had another look for the Leo Triplet (M65,M66,NCG3628) but no cigar, to be honest I wasn't expecting to be able to see them, but I'd like to try and work out where I expect them to be so that when I get to a darker site I can try again.

[Tyr]

The sky conditions were out again last night, it was clear and quite transparent again, but a little windy.

oppps ... revision failure, that makes no sense.

I was out again last night and the skyconditions were clear and quite transparent again, but a little windy ....

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

oppps ... revision failure, that makes no sense.

I was out again last night and the skyconditions were clear and quite transparent again, but a little windy ....

Corrected that for you

[Special K]

I had a look at M35 while I was in the area, which was a very nice rich open cluster, plenty of detail which started to come out the more I looked.

I also had another look for the Leo Triplet (M65,M66,NCG3628) but no cigar, to be honest I wasn't expecting to be able to see them, but I'd like to try and work out where I expect them to be so that when I get to a darker site I can try again.

Did you also get a look at nearby NGC2158? It's a nice little addition and a good target to max out the magnification!

I've found photos of the area to be a good thing to study in order to get your bearings. However, I can only see M65 and M66 with averted vision.

[Tyr]

Special K, no I hadn't thanks for the tip I'll add it to my list.

Hopefully I might get another chance later this week. It seems so odd after months of cloud