Galaxy Quest

[dick_dangerous]

Hi All,

So yesterday was my birthday and, guess what, I got those clear skies I'd ask for. Not sure if it was my wife or my parents who wangled it, but I was happy to make the most of a good transparent couple of hours in the park.

I wheeled the Dob down, and got stuck in pretty quickly (Possibly too quickly) - the seeing had its moments but was mostly pretty bad, but it was very transparent and very dark (For London). I only failed on one object and that was M68 which proved just too low down in the sky for me. It was another night that showed just how much you can see from London with some perseverance and fortitude, bringing my Messier count up by 11 new objects to 76...

• Jupiter - My first hit of the evening, with occasional lovely views of the GRS and belts and occasionally being unable to see the belts at all. This is why time at the eyepiece really pays off on planets!
• M94 - I cranked round to Cor Caroli (Always lovely) before locating this old favourite which punches through the London fug surprisingly well.
• M63 - Got my first view of the Sunflower Galaxy, a rather fainter oval smudge in the EP.
• M53 - Lovely little globular with some hints of graininess in Coma. So easy to find, and lovely to see as always.
• M64 - The Black-Eye Galaxy is another one that seems not to mind the light pollution so much as the others, and is a new Messier for me.
• Mars - I next swung round to the Red Planet and was surprised and delighted to find that in between the boiling morasse I got fine views of an ice-cap and some dark regions with my new favourite EP, the 8mm. Really nice views, kept me enchanted for a good 10 minutes.
• M49 - Using TL@O for direction I successfully located this rather bright elliptical galaxy. Another easy target for London. It got me wondering if I could find the giant galaxy M87...
• The Virgo Cluster - TL@O directs you to M87 via a whole bunch of other galaxies. I didn't think I'd be able to see them but knew I could use the finder charts to navigate through the stars. So I started at 34 Virginis, just like it says, followed the instructions and had a quick look down my eyepiece to find myself staring at M60. I was surprised it showed up, but very excited, so I started following the instructions to see how many more of the Messier galaxies I could find. By hopping along I managed: M60, M59, M58, M89, M87, M86 and M84, in that order. M87 was the brightest and most obvious of them, but after about half an hour I'd clocked up 8 galaxies that I wasn't sure I'd be able to see from London.
• Saturn - Finally rising high enough before bedtime, I had a quick look at the ringed planet. It was wobbly still, but I noted some banding in occasional good seeing, a couple of moons and, of course, those wonderful rings. I've missed Saturn!
• M65, M66 - The moon was shortly to rise and my feet were getting cold, but I went for a quick look at the Leo Triplet again.
• M105 - Feeling brave I shifted along for M105, and was pleased to find it, along with NGC 3384 right next to it. I didn't manage to find M95 and M96, due to tiredness, so I'll leave them for a future session. M105 was actually quite easy to see, surprisingly so.
• M13 - I started packing up but then noticed how high Hercules had risen. Although M105 was a good scalp, and bright enough to be more than a ghost in AV, I wanted to end on a high, so I swung the 'Scope back over to M13. It was a lovely hazy blob in the 25mm, but I thought what the heck and stuck in the 8mm. When I got to focus it started off as a bigger hazy blob but then suddenly it kind of exploded like a swarm of bees into individual stars. It was yet another moment where I was struck at what an amazing hobby Astronomy is - I've always loved globular clusters, but this is the first time I've ever seen one resolve into stars with my own equipment - a magic moment.

I saw that Lyra was also shifting around in the sky, and was tempted to look for the Ring Nebula, but I decided to call it a night there. 3 planets, 2 globulars (one resolved), 15 galaxies and 11 new Messier objects, all from within the M25? I'd call that a good night!

DD

[knobby]

Sounds like a great night ... M13, I love it !

[Paul73]

Wow. It really was your birthday!

What a great night's viewing. If it gets much better. I haven't seen it yet.

A good result ot work out which galaxies you are looking at. There are a heap of NGC's awaiting your next Virgo extraxigaza. You'll start using the Messiers as navigational aids and suddenly realise that you have half a dozen galaxies in one field of vision.

Paul

[Russko13]

Great report an sounds like it was an amazing night !

[dick_dangerous]

Wow. It really was your birthday!

What a great night's viewing. If it gets much better. I haven't seen it yet.

A good result ot work out which galaxies you are looking at. There are a heap of NGC's awaiting your next Virgo extraxigaza. You'll start using the Messiers as navigational aids and suddenly realise that you have half a dozen galaxies in one field of vision.

Paul

I'm hoping to catch more under some darker skies. Just got to get out to the first. It's nice to know that it can get that dark in a London park - a lot of the thrill was trying to find them, rather than the actual views. Ultimately they were mostly fuzzy blobs in my field of view!

DD