Belated report 7th Jan

[Casus belli]

The following report was written due to boredom approx 2 weeks after viewing took place.

I hate my job. Its a month away from home comforts, beer, internet, the wife and more importantly my scope. Its the night before I go to sea for a month and to be honest I'm feeling rather down. And to make things worse my step daughter is at home hogging the T.V. After 30 minutes of the doom and gloom that is soap opera world I have to get out and go for a walk. As I step out of the door I realise that its clear. Not a cloud in the sky, its cold and very little wind. Now I had packed my scope away to keep it safe from grandchildrens inquisitive (and highly destructive) fingers, but what the heck.

15 minutes later I'm all ready. I had unfortunately given my red dot finder a bit of a bang on the way out the door and it was well out. Not enough time to fix it so I used the plaedies and the 40 mm ep to figure out the correction needed. (A bit to the right and up a good bit, I'm nothing if not exact). First target is Mars and its still showing faint surface markings right from the off using both 25mm and 13mm ep. I also note a very faint dot to the left. It couldn't be a moon could it? A later look at stellarium puts Deimos in the same place at mag 13.1 which is certainly possible with the lightbucket. This is my first sighting of a Martian moon so I'm quite a happy person with all thoughts of going to sea forgotten about.

Now I'm quite proud of my ability to track down faint fuzzies but I do have a major and constant failure in that regard. M31. I swear that that entire galaxy knows when I'm looking for it and it moves because I spent a full 30 minutes searching for it. I must have a blind spot or something. I know where it is but I seem to get confused/have a senior moment between naked eye, binoculars and finally scope observation. I found myself muttering "How can anyone loose an entire galaxy? Its a hundred thousand light years across and contains a hundred billion stars for Gods sake. No wonder I can never find my keys" Finally I find it and its time for the warm and the cuppa that I promised myself half an hour ago.

I have a quick look around these forums and read a good write up about the eskimo nebulae. This gets me thinking about it and other nebulae. Why not? Seeing is excellent and theres no moon. Before I've only seen the ring nebulae. the little dumbell and orion nebulae. However before I head back out the Mrs asks the "How much longer are you going to be out for?" question which all married men know really isn't a question and means "get your bottom back in here inside an hour or else"

First target is M1 This is one I've never seen before despite several searches for it. I use the 2" 25 mm ep and line up with my dodgy sight and there it is. Smack dab in the middle of the fov. A dimmish but easily seen blob. I try the 13mm ep and get a larger dimmish blob. I try the nebulae filter but it doesn't add anything. I think I'll really need some light pollution free skies before getting the good from this piece of kit. Now to try for the owl in Ursa major. And once again I line up my sight and again smack dab in the middle is a ....... dimmish fuzzy blob. I did, just for a second, wonder if I had inadvertently managed to get a fingerprint on my ep but a jiggle of the scope proves otherwise. A quick search around finds M108 another galaxy I'd never seen before. I try for m81 and m82 but they'd obviously been to the m31 school of concealment.

Saturn is just rising so I have a quick look-see. My cat gnasher tries to climb into the almost prone telescope and the kitchen light goes on telling me that the kettle is on and she who must be obeyed has decided to call it a night. I chase Gnasher out of the scope and grab a last look at the ringed planet for a month. The cat climbs on top of the scope and wants to play. I'm spinning my scope around with the cat on top, the kitchen light is flashing on and off, its all getting too silly. Time to pack it in. Pity theres so much more just rising that I want to see. Still in a months time I'll have a whole month to stay up all night. Its then I love my job.

[jgs001]

CB, That's a nicely written report. Thanks for sharing.

[Sam]

Great report, good job on getting M1 - which can be quite tricky. I found M108 really hard to see and didn't get the Owl nebula at all so I must have another go.

And well done on catching Deimos - I showed my eldest daughter Mars the other night and she asked what was the faint star really close to the disk - I couldn't see it at first but she was quite certain it was there and after a while I could just make out the faint point of light - I think it was Deimos, it was in the right place.

Sounds like you had a great evenings viewing.

[dogfish]

I enjoyed that - but then I only get virtual observing done these days

Cheers, Martin

[Casus belli]

Thanks for the kind replies. I enjoy writing the report almost as much as the actual observing.

The night in question was remarkably clear. It was also a very cold night which really helped with the seeing. I've tried for M1 a few times before and never seen even a hint so I think the conditions helped remarkably. As for Demios, well I never even considered seeing an object thats only some 10 miles across from 30 odd million miles away.

[MikeP]

I enjoyed your report too. Very nicely written.

Mike

[Vega]

Nice report

RE: Andromeda. It can be a pain to find, but once you find the right method for you, you'll be finding it every time. This time of year take the top star of the square of Pegasus in the West, star hop directly upwards through the next two brightish stars. Then across to the right a further two stars (each star progressively dimmer to the right in a slight arc formation). Andromeda is just below and slightly to the right of this end star (Almost in the same FOV as this star).

Matt

[themos]

The rightmost V of the Cassiopeia W points to Mirach also. Then it's a question of going back towards Cassiopeia to Mu an Nu Andromeda.

[dogfish]

The rightmost V of the Cassiopeia W points to Mirach also. Then it's a question of going back towards Cassiopeia to Mu an Nu Andromeda.

Themos, that's how I always find it too.

Martin

[Casus belli]

Thanks all. With these directions and the arrival of the book "Turn left at Orion" it should be a doddle. Actually in theory I do know where it is. In theory. I think the problem with that night was that I was observing Andromeda for the first time after it had crossed the zenith.

I have a good sense of direction but the bit of my brain that deals with right and left doesn't seem to like being up late and out in the cold.