What have I just seen

[stevetynant]

I've just spent an amazing 20 minutes in a field opposite my house I never considered observing from before- with bins only - but the difference 100 yds from my house out into the dark compared to my garden observing was chalk and cheese. Anyhows with my 10x50s just got Pan Starrs and Andromeda in the same field of view- amazing - watched a shooting star for at least 3 seconds- seemed so close I could see smoke- fantastic but I also saw something completely by chance that I've never seen from my garden in the Western sky.

I know I could go to stellarium now and find out or even my maps which I didn't take but just wondered by throwing it out there if from my description anyone can tell me what I've seen..... here goes

This was at about 9;45pm in the West - if you drew a line up through the right hand "horn" of Taurus up through Jupiter and travel up - with averted vision you can see two, without bins, what appear to be short straight lines of stars opposite each other slightly staggered but when I raised the bins to my eyes I found these two star trails but also a fuzzy in the higher of the two lines - look left and there's another look left again and yet another - look slightly further left and down and another Fuzzy - this one was bigger than the other three.

I was amazed and spend quite some time just repeating the same path from Taurus to Jupiter - up to the two star trails then left.

What have I seen - 4 galaxies in close proximity?

Anyone can tell me I'll be seriously impressed (or just plain embarrassed at my own lack of ability) before I do my own research

:icon_salut:

[stevetynant]

Couldn't wait. M35,M36, M37,M38. Brilliant really chuffed.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

[Helen]

Am I allowed to say I guessed, before reading your second post? Those objects were the first that I learnt to find by starhopping and they are still some of my favourite objects. I had to write an article for Uni on a constellation and chose Auriga because of the clusters, and learnt a lot about what else is in there as a result. Turn your dob on the area and even more will pop out

Helen

[stevetynant]

Thanks Helen appreciate the confirmation.as a beginner I'm trying to build up my knowledge of objects I can star hop to without maps or coordinates, I think this area may well be a favourite. Just out of reach for my garden observations but can't wait to get the scope on it in the near future.

[Rhys Hardwick]

Same here, had guessed! Promise

They are lovely clusters. Haven't given them the binos treatment yet though.

I didn't think you would get much difference over a short distance- interesting. Will have to experiment!

[WaveSoarer]

I also stumbled across those objects when I was out with my binoculars. They are rather lovely.