Hopped around Cassiopeia and took a trip to Andromeda

[Ccolvin968]

So this was my first real night out observing, not in the books or just checking out the moon. I Observed Venus at almost half full phase! Or what seemed to be half full. I'm still studying how Venus works and it's phases. Much later after sundown and Cassiopeia cleared the lovely trees, I hopped around Caph, Ruchbah, Tsih, and Shedir as part of the constellation Cassiopeia. I also managed to add two more Messier objects to my list of seen. M-103 open cluster though faint, brighter stars still visible, and M-31. No real details could be distinguished, but small cigar like shape and bright bluish yellow color seen. I also checked out NGC 457 (open cluster). Phi-1 Cassiopeaie (mag 5) and Phi-2 Cassiopeaie (mag 7) being the most obvious and faint other magnitude were visible throughout the night. I also Observed NGC281. At magnitude 7.3, much too faint to pull any details from the nebula. It was obviously a nebula, because it looked like a cloudy gray spot in my scope I couldn't focus on. I was also startled by a satellite flying through Cassiopeia along with a few other stray meteors. I'm probably gonna get back out there for a little bit and check out the moon tonight. The scope I have is a Celestron PowerSeeker 127EQ. I bought some extra eyepieces for it and am very happy I did. Sure, it's no huge special scope, but I'm happy with it so far. I'll just be even more excited when I have a bigger better scope! Clear skies!

[Qualia]

Wow, sounds like you had a great evening, Colvin and I'm glad you got a nice session in. The coming months are going to be a joy with some of the best constellations and sights coming into view, so I look forward to a few more reports

[Double Kick Drum]

Great stuff. That Messier list will grow very quickly, I am sure.

NGC 457 is nice. Other good objects in Casseopeia are M52 and NGC 7789 (Caroline's Rose). Enjoy!

[cotterless45]

Think I'll get a t shirt with NGC7789 on it ! From a dark site this is a spectacular cluster. Quite surprisingly at a star party very few had heard of it .

Cassiopeia really is the queen of clusters, don't forget to see the lovely doubles of eta and iota,

Nick.

[rory]

nice lump of sky around the "w"  I noticed you have three messiers. I noticed you viewed the Andromeda galaxy (m31)  next time you visit her see if the satellite galaxies can be spotted with your scope. m32/ 110 . good challenge and another two messier ticks.

 thanks for the report.

[Ccolvin968]

I could definitely see them. Just not individually, and very faint due to the fact I'm 40 mins north of a huge city. I guess I could add them to my list. I'm so exhausted from work,mand it's cloudy tonight. I'm thinking about heading to my dark sky spot on Friday or Saturday.

[Special K]

NGC457 is certainly a great one and I've not made it to NGC281 yet, though I want to.  Great stuff to take in and this time of year is such a pleasure to prowl around those rich sights!  It's great to hover on a single Constellation rather than ping ponging across the universe!  Cass is a good place to settle in for a session, that's for sure!  Clear skies.

[andrew63]

Some nice clusters. A lot more to see now with the dark nights - Auriga a great area for clusters also.

andrew

[andrew63]

Think I'll get a t shirt with NGC7789 on it ! From a dark site this is a spectacular cluster. Quite surprisingly at a star party very few had heard of it .

Cassiopeia really is the queen of clusters, don't forget to see the lovely doubles of eta and iota,

Nick.

Maybe FLO will  do a new design from the  'Galactic Garments' range for you Nick. I think Caroline's Rose embossed  would be more marketable though !

andrew