T'was the night before Astrofest.....

[spacemonkey]

Hi all, this was written for our club (Norwich Astronomical Society) site so may all seem a bit "foreign", but the targets will be relevant for everyone so I'm posting here as well.

Observing report 8/2/08 19.00 - 02.30

Greetings, and welcome to my latest report of another quality night

out at Seething Observatory in the middle of what has been a good few

clear nights, at least most of us have been able to get in some decent

eyepiece time recently.

The forecast for this weekend was looking excellent on friday

afternoon, so I was set up with the TV102 (specially polished for the

occasion) by 18.00, Jason and Dave P. were already set up and we had

everything planned for a late night, at least those of us who didn't

have a train to catch to Astrofest at 7.00 am or whatever. The sky was

very transparent, but we suspected the seeing was not quite as good,

which was later confirmed when we were hardly able to see any detail

at all on Saturn or in the rings, and a lot of the tight doubles and

multiple stars were very difficult to split.

As usual these days I was working throught the constellations in the

IGTAW, my copy is now becoming quite scruffy from the recent damp

nights, but the general consensus seems to be that it is proving to be

a useful record of observations of some quite obscure stuff, along

with the more usual Messiers and double stars.

Hopefully you're familiar with the format of my reports, but you get

what goes in the book - that's if I can read what I've scribbled in

the dim light of a red torch on wet paper.

LEPUS -

1904 (M79) : Small and faint, but low in south. Highly condensed core

@ 88x, stellar @ 46x. Very faint halo.

130-gamma : Wide @ 46x, primary yellowish, secondary white.

LYNX -

2683 :Small faint lenticular streak @ 46x, brighter towards center,

faint halo each end with AV @ 88x.

2419 : The intergalactic wanderer.Very faint uniform haze @ 46x,

better @ 88x. No core but quite large.

12 : Both white @ 146x, hint of yellow in fainter secondary.

19 : Yellowish primary, blue wihite secondary @ 88x. Nice contrast.

38 : Difficult @ 88x, easier @ 146x, clean split 220x. White/yellow.

MONOCEROS -

2244/2237 : Rosette. Very clear @ 25x, fills field. Easy to see

brighter areas distinctly. Needs UHC. Several arcs seen. Cluster

contains some pairs.

2251 : Lens shaped cluster in rich area of milky way, 1/2 of field in 46x.

2261 : Hubble's Variable. Very small and faint @ 46x, better @ 88x.

Obvious fan shaped, uniform hazy patch, no star seen.

2264 : Christmas Tree. Excellent @ 46x, loads of nebulosity & dark

patches with UHC, Cone not seen (but suspected in Jason's 16").

2301 : Looks like a bow, with a faint arrow ready to fire @ 46x,

extended arc opposite. ~)-( - (that's the shape it is)

2323 (M50) : Many faint unresolved stars in central area @ 46x, arcs

extending out look like octopus arms.

2343 : Arrow shaped cluster of mag 8-10 stars, faint unresolved

background haze @ 88x. Shares field with fainter cluster @ 46x.

2232 : Very loose, 2 separate areas of mag 6-7 stars @ 46x. Rich milky

way background.

8-epsilon : Easy @ 88x. Both white.

11-beta : Similar brightness white pair @ 88x, hint of yellow in

fainter secondary. Very tight bottom pair split @ 146 & 176x.

DRACO -

5866 (M102) : Fairly bright @ 88x, small uniform core, faint outer

halo seen with AV, with faint star to edge.

5907 : Thin faint streak @ 46 x, no core but brighter towards central

area.

6503 : Faint oval halo with very slightly brighter core @ 88x

6543 : Cat's Eye. Obviously non-stellar @ 46x, uniformly bright oval

shape @ 146x.

24-nu, 25-nu : Identical pair of white stars, like headlights @ 46x.

21-mu : Just split @ 146x, identical yellowish white.

16/17 : Bright main pair easy @ 46x, both white. Tighter pair split @

146x, secondary fainter.

CORVUS -

4361 : Faint circular patch @ 88x, uniform brightness, no central star

seen.

4038 : Ring Tail. Very faint irregular shaped hazy patch @ 88x.

7-delta : Wide separation @ 88x, bright white primary, very faint

white secondary.

At this point, it was around 2.00 am, and to start any more of the

"big" constellations in the book would mean not finishing for hours,

so call me a lightweight, but I decided to leave the Virgo and Coma

area for another night.

As there was no rush to get through any more on the planned list, I

had some spare time to go for some faint and some unusual stuff that I

have found out about recently, or that Jason was seeing in his 16".

CANIS MAJOR -

Nagler 1 : A cluster reported to Sue French by Al Nagler seemed a

fitting target for one of his scopes and eyepieces, and it was nice to

see the chevron shaped asterism low in the south of Canis Major.

2217 : Very faint small circular patch @ 88x, tiny stellar core.

COMA BERENICES -

5024 (M53) : Very bright core with partially resolved outer halo @ 88x.

5053 : Have been trying for this several times without success. Very

very faint hazy patch seen with AV @ 88x, bigger than expected.

VIRGO -

Markarian's Chain : Fills field @ 46x, 8 main galaxies in chain,

"eyes" (4438 & 4435) obvious, better @ 88x, close pair. M84 & M86

large oval haze, both brighter core. 4388 dim streak. 4473 & 4477 very

small circular patches, tiny nucleus. M87 and M88 also seen nearby.

There are a few doubles missed off the list that Andrew pointed out

during his visit, all of which I remember being quite impressed by.

Even Jason was heard muttering "mmm, cool...." at one point. Next

thing you know he'll be buying one of those imaging devices that you

all speak of.

Back in my day, we looked through eyepieces in proper telescopes, made

of wood, and brass........ ;o)

Anyway, we had an excellent night, that will do me until after full

moon. Unless sunday is clear, and I could always take a sickie on

monday...

Thankyou, and goodnight.

Dave.

[jgs001]

Dave, great report, and a great evenings session. Thanks for sharing. I like the format for your observations also.