My best observing night so far!

[Luke]

My head is still in a spin from a wonderful night of observing on Saturday. I had not been expecing such a good night!

I thought I'd get about 90 minutes tops because I could not start until 9.30pm and I was expecting the clouds to show up by about 11pm. I was wondering if it had been such a good idea to haul out my 16 inch dob to cool down when my 10 inch dob is so much easier to move, but it had been about a month since the 16 last came out to play...

As it turned out, the clouds did not show up in force - though a bit of thin high up stuff did dritt over - and I had my best night of observing so far

My highlights were:

Seeing the Horsehead Nebula. I was a bit surpirsed to see it because the Flame, which I looked at first, was not at all bright.

M33 - real hints of the sprial structure

M51 - I could almost cry, the spiral was so clear and it was the most beautiful, enchanting sight - I had to tear myself away from the view to carry on looking at other objects

Jupiter - the red spot really stood out and there was in general plenty of detail to be seen

the Virgo cluster of galaxies - just 5 minutes panning through the area and smiling at seeing all those galaxies so closely packed. Quite mind-blowing to think about what I was looking at.

M3 - the stars really popped out

Andromeda - very clear dust lanes, and M110 itself was a fine sight

M35 and the little cluster near it, and ditto M38 - just wonderful to look at

the 37 cluster, clearest I have seen it. I joked to Sarah, my other half, who was at the eyepiece first, "is it in the field of view?" when there was this number "37" blazing in the middle of the view.

M42 - so much structure visible. Had fun swapping between a UHC and OIII filter, both of which showed a ton of detail.

Noticing that Virgo had an extra star. I assumed at first that Saturn was back, so set my goto to Saturn - at which point the scope sank towards the floor... It was in fact Mars. I could not see much detail at all and should have spent more time on it, but I was just chuffed to see it and thought I will come back to it another night.

Hope some other folks had one of their better nights too.

[John]

Sounds like a superb observing session Luke 

Your report is also a great advert for getting a 16" or larger aperture scope - there is just no beating those extra inches when it comes to bringing those deep sky objects to life 

[Mike73]

December has been a right off as far as DSO's are concerned for me but its great to hear that you had a good night Luke, I can really picture some of those objects the way you described them.

[cotterless45]

Great report. I had a look at M34, very beautiful. Completely overlooked it in the search for the "not the usual" suspects ! It's very tempting to go for huge aperture and lovely to hear what is possible,

Nick.

[estwing]

Well done you on such a great night

[tich]

Well done Luke I was out at the dark site on Saturday but never made it there until after 9:00, unfortunately I was clouded out after a couple of hours & the dew was horrendous. It did clear again later by the time I were home but I was just to tired to set up again by then.

[Paul73]

Lucky man! A full session, loads of apature and a better half who likes astronomy!

I Managed 05:00 to 06:30 before frost and the approaching dawn forced a retreat. Bagged Lovejoy for the first time - first ever good comet through a scope. Hercules cluster was another first and a delight.

Climbed into bed a happy man. 15minutes later an enthusiastic 2 year old land on my head....

Paul

[Moonshane]

great report. you must have decent skies to get a glimpse of the HH. I have never even seen the flame with my 16" from home (and not been elsewhere to see it either). fab.

[Luke]

Thanks, all!

I have to lay the blame for getting the 16 inch on the Kelling Star Party... Our previous 12 inch dob really shone there under the darker skies and we thought how wonderful it would be to get views at home like we got at Kelling.

We thought a 16 inch at home might match Kelling with a 12 inch. In fact, Sarah and I both think the 16 inch at home wins!

My back thinks the 10 inch is much better, though