Stunning,freezing night

[jetstream]

Today provided driving rain and then freezing cold with high winds.This evening was none the less very good to have a telescope out & see the sights.Tonight I got the trapezium with the E & F stars easily visible -with a range of eyepieces.Rigel was also easily split-but Sirius was a no go.I have to say this....M42 was absolutely stunning looking like bright green marble and the area of the trap was glowing brightly-all with no filter(forgot them). Pleiades gave up some nebulosity around its brighter star members(no dew on optics) which is such a great sight.

The most surprising thing that I saw this evening was a patch of nebula on the right side of Alnitak  .....it looked like a thick upside down U,or like Stonehenge slabs.It had really thick sides & top and I am pleased to see this with no filter.Does anyone know what this is?Or has anyone seen this shape before?I'm thinking this might be a good sign for Horsehead hunting down the road,but not sure.The sky was SQM 21.3,with average to good transparency.The objects in Auriga were fantastic too.This was a very raw,cold evening but the trip was well worth it,great night

[YKSE]

Well done Gerry, seeing the E,F and splitting Rigel will be my next task

[cotterless45]

Send some good nights over here , last night ended with heavy dew followed by heavier rain !

Try aUHC filter on Sirius , the pup pops out of the glare quite easily.

South of Alnitak is IC 434 , a bright emission neb,The Horshead is found here . To the other side is another bright emission nebula NGC 2024. Well done to spot these and the Trapezium extras !

Drop down from Alnitak and you'll find the Sigma Orionis group, neat !

Nick.

[AlexB67]

Send some of that weather over here please . Yesterday I waited in hope, by the time had planned some targets the clouds had already come over. The notion of taking my Dob to a bit of a darker sky for the first time rapidly evaporated, but glad I stayed home as clouds just got worse. It seems as ever since the new scope in my collection, perhaps it is just my imagination, but this has been one of the cloudier autumns over here.

[Special K]

Sounds like a great night, Jetstream. The bitter cold seems to add an extra sense of achievement on these occasions! Have you looked at some photos of that U area since to see if you can spot it? You've bagged a lot more than I can with my gear. I didn't take a drive to a dark site when trying to find any nebula near Alnitak. Suppose that's next...

[jetstream]

The dark skies make such a difference,its incredible-1.5 magnitude change from my house to the dark site,combined with another 2 magnitude gain with the 10"(compared to my 90mm).I checked my atlas, starry night & some photos and what I saw should be the "tank track" neb ngc 2024,but it was on the wrong side.....I'm sure I had Alnitak on the left & neb on the right,which eliminates 2024...In my Pocket Sky Atlas IC434 shows a couple of "U's",one of which may be the observed nebula-but then that would put the Horsehead on the top in my reflector & I'm not sure if that is right.To be honest I'm not really sure what part of which nebula I saw! .When it quits snowing-hopefully Tuesday-I'm heading back out for another peek....

[YKSE]

 .......When it quits snowing-hopefully Tuesday-I'm heading back out for another peek....

Do take a couple of pictures of setup then!

[acey]

The dark skies make such a difference,its incredible-1.5 magnitude change from my house to the dark site,combined with another 2 magnitude gain with the 10"(compared to my 90mm).I checked my atlas, starry night & some photos and what I saw should be the "tank track" neb ngc 2024,but it was on the wrong side.....I'm sure I had Alnitak on the left & neb on the right,which eliminates 2024...In my Pocket Sky Atlas IC434 shows a couple of "U's",one of which may be the observed nebula-but then that would put the Horsehead on the top in my reflector & I'm not sure if that is right.To be honest I'm not really sure what part of which nebula I saw! .When it quits snowing-hopefully Tuesday-I'm heading back out for another peek....

 Sounds like you saw part of NGC 2024. If you were looking towards the south through a Newtonian then "right of Alnitak" would mean east of it, which is where the nebula is (i.e. to the left of the star on a map - but you're seeing things upside down).

[jetstream]

 Sounds like you saw part of NGC 2024. If you were looking towards the south through a Newtonian then "right of Alnitak" would mean east of it, which is where the nebula is (i.e. to the left of the star on a map - but you're seeing things upside down).

Acey,thanks for the clarification.The orientation of some objects in my scope still confuses me a bit . I was looking SSE to south roughly as I had to wait for Orion to climb in order to get any kind of half decent view of things -mind you Betegeuse was fanastic as a boiling burnt orange when still in the sky murk!NGC 2024 it is then,thanks again

[jetstream]

Do take a couple of pictures of setup then!

Yong I'll try to take a few pictures next time out,hopefully my eyepiece case arrives on time.Snow has mostly melted,but at night the roads are full of ice so.....I should be "snug as a bug in a rug" in that little quarry though will be interesting how the snow will effect the SQM readings

[acey]

Acey,thanks for the clarification.The orientation of some objects in my scope still confuses me a bit . I was looking SSE to south roughly as I had to wait for Orion to climb in order to get any kind of half decent view of things -mind you Betegeuse was fanastic as a boiling burnt orange when still in the sky murk!NGC 2024 it is then,thanks again

With a high-power eyepiece and no clock drive, watch how stars drift across the FOV - that's the East-West line on the sky (east where they enter the field and west where they leave it - like sunrise and sunset). North is 90 degrees  anti-clockwise from west (i.e. west is on the right when north is at the top - opposite to a map of the ground because you're looking up at the "inside" of the celestial sphere). On a sketch it's enough to draw an arrow indicating west - you can work out the rest from that. Then it's easy to match it up with a map or image.

[jetstream]

With a high-power eyepiece and no clock drive, watch how stars drift across the FOV - that's the East-West line on the sky (east where they enter the field and west where they leave it - like sunrise and sunset). North is 90 degrees  anti-clockwise from west (i.e. west is on the right when north is at the top - opposite to a map of the ground because you're looking up at the "inside" of the celestial sphere). On a sketch it's enough to draw an arrow indicating west - you can work out the rest from that. Then it's easy to match it up with a map or image.

Acey,thanks for the great explanation, I have been struggling with the objects out there where orientation matters when describing them or looking them up on a map.This also explains the part of the North Amercan neb that I saw.The immensity of these objects is amazing and I pursue them whenever conditions allow

[acey]

Your 90mm scope should be great for low-power wide-field views of objects like the North America nebula. Just remember that if you're using it with a mirror diagonal then the view through the scope is upright but left-right reversed - the "mirror image" of what you see on a map, thanks to the single mirror in the diagonal. A Newtonian has 2 mirrors so things aren't left-right reversed. Can be pretty confusing at first but you get used to it eventually. Looking at things in daylight can be a big help for getting used to the orientation. Clear skies!