Comets, Meteors & Dark Skies

[webboid]

Last Wednesday (23 July) I met up with some of my observing buddies at a great dark sky site about an hours drive from my home. The best bit about this site is you can set up right out of your car boot. On arrival around 10.30 a couple of my buddies were already there & setting up. I had my 12" dob with me so base out of the boot, OTA out of the back seat, eyepiece case, accessories & map laid out in the boot along with red torch. Done all set in less than 5 minutes.

With the light fading & stars beginning to show them selves I considered my targets for the night. I had a few new ones in mind but started with Mars & Saturn as they were most obvious. A bit of chat with my friends as we waited for cooldown & a darker sky to show up. This site has a really good unobstructed south-east through south to south-west vista & beckoned me to have a look at some of the low stuff around Sagittarius. I had already had a great session checking off nearly all the Messier objects there last month so I decided to just check out a few but spend more time on them. M22 this is a big globular well resolved but not to the core. Then using a UHC filter on the swan nebula M17. This was an uncanny resemblance & in the correct orientation to look like a Swan gliding through the cosmos. Distracted by one of my buddies who wanted to use my scope to hunt down a comet I duly obliged. In no time he had found it. C/2013 UQ$ (Catalina). We all had a look but this was a tricky one, only revealed with averted vision. I saw a small faint halo around a slightly brighter core.

By now the stars were out to play & the Milkyway was putting on a good show. On top of that we were seeing a surprising number of quite spectacular meteors. Bright & leaving significant trails. I decided to have a look at some of my favourites. M13 was just incredible & it's equally brilliant neighbour M92. Then M15 on to M57 & then M27. M27 was so bright with a huge halo of nebulosity surrounding the familiar apple core. I then looked for & found M76 the little dumbbell. It did look that way but much smaller than it's big brother. Right next to this I had to grab a look at the Andromeda galaxy. Using a low power eyepiece I could see this huge object along with M32 & M110. I could even make out a dark lane on M31, a first for me. By now this was naked eye along with the double cluster which was my next view. Simply breath taking are the number of stars revealed, both clusters almost merging.

I returned to the low southern view to hunt down a new target. The double globulars NGC 6528 & 6522. These were a bit hard to make out as they were quite low. But with direct & averted vision I could see them both in the same FOV. One was easy direct but the much smaller one only with averted vision. Next M30 a globular in Capricornus which was fairly easy to star hop to & very much looked like a glob. That was one I missed last time. Then much more difficult to hop to was M55. Also missed before & I got lucky finding it. I had roughly aligned my Rigel to where I thought it was & recognised an asterism on the map. This was more a fuzzy blob. Also had another look at M69 which also looked the same. A bit low & some murk on the horizon now. I put the UHC back on & spent some time following the eastern & western veil. Teasing out some subtle detail was a treat. Lovely!

Stopping for a break & a snack. We glanced at the remarkable sky above us. Dark rifts in the Milky way, stars galore & more meteors. It's not supposed to get that dark this time of year, we thought, but it was surprising how dark it seemed. My observing buddy did a sky meter reading & recorded SQM 21.32. He remarked that that was pretty good. Suitably refreshed I cracked on.

With such a good sky & the square of Pegasus quite high now I had a go at some galaxies found there. NGC 7331 is a favourite & did not disappoint. Nearby was NGC 7217. I had look at this the previous night at home & was only seen with averted vision. This time it was quite apparent & confirmed the observation. A barred spiral NGC 7479 next, the bar was most obvious. NGC 7332 & 7339, a nice pair of edge on galaxies & also NGC 7448. Then the galaxy group of the night. NGC 7769, 7771 & 7770. Three galaxies in the same FOV. I must admit I was not completely sure I could see the third galaxy (7770) as it was very close to 7771. A hint with averted vision but would need to try again later this year.

It was now around 2.30 AM & my buddy had set up his 28x110 binoculars for the grand finale. With the sky beginning to brighten he shouted 'got it!' On show was the comet C/2014 E2 (Jaques). This was very bright with a nice halo & I thought I could detect a hint of a small tail. This was not confirmed as the sky continued to lighten & so the comets brightness diminished.

Another truly memorable night under the stars. I could not want for anything better.

[andrew63]

What a great night and read !  We have been blessed with transparent skies over the last few weeks.  Glad you saw the comets, sounds well suited for the big binoculars.

andrew

[swamp thing]

What a great write up. Nice report Paul.

Sounds like the perfect night out under the stars to me. Good weather, good list of objects and good company.

Clear skies

[webboid]

Thanks guys

It's the second time I have been there & it is proving to be very good. Also very fortunate to have some extremely experienced observing buddies in the group. Looking forward to their presence come winter & their big dobs (24" & 18")