Some success

[craigfoot]

Hi

So after some frustrations over the last few days, detailed in another thread, some success. .

Last night before bed a went to take the dog out and was amazed by the view of Orion. . Decided as it was our last night away to drag the scope out.

So 2am in my pyjamas and a hoodie I aimed at the Orion nebula. Only a few seconds before I could see a white cloud, 3 stars in a row inside it and 4 stars making a square shape. Very impressive. . Now looking at stellarium this shows the 'running man nebula' clearly as what I saw, and under it 'de mairans nebula'. . The second looking much more impressive, I couldn't locate this, am I missing something?

I then spotted a bright star to the east, must be a planet I though, lined up on it and instantly saw Jupiter and 3 moons, very clear and bright in my bst 8mm

Took in a few more stars again all looking very clear in the bst. . Sirius, betelgeuse and aldebaran

Then headed over to the pleiades, so many stars! Actually more impressive in the finder scope

Finally went back to mizar to confirm my earlier observation. Clearly visibly were the 2 stars of mizar along with alcor and a 4th very dim star.

Perhaps the best viewing sessions are the unexpected ones!

Still had some balance issues and rotation on the mount problems, didn't bother trying polar alignment as just wanted to get on and see something :-)

[Sirius Starwatcher]

Sounds like you had a good evening craigfoot. Well done, I agree that some observing sessions without planned targets are really fun, worthwhile and you learn stuff so quickly.

[MAN or ASTROMAN]

Sounds like an enjoyable session Craig. The Orion Nebula region repays continued viewing - luckily we have the whole of Winter to look forward to! You have also discovered that the Pleiades are really a wide view object.I much prefer 10x or 15x binocular views of them than through the scope eyepiece.

[Astro Imp]

Great report Craig, this is a region that you will return to again and again, there is just so much to see.

Good luck and clear skies.

[craigfoot]

Any thoughts on what I actually saw in Orion? Was this the nebula, or is there another part of this which I missed?

[Astro Imp]

Hi Craig,

A great resource for checking out the Messier objects against what you saw is the sketches done by Mike73, an SGL member. Mike's sketches:- http://www.pbase.com/mike73/messier_sketches

HTH

[Moonshane]

'de mairans nebula' is also known as M43 and is quite small but is pretty much linked to M42 which is the main Orion nebula. if you saw M42 which is the bit with the three stars in a line and the four in a trapezium (hence the name 'The Trapezium' for this latter group) then you'll have seen M43 but maybe not realised it.

http://darkhorseobservatory.org/product.php?ProductID=137&CategoryID=48 explains which is which

the running man nebula is quite faint but if your skies were dark you may have seen this.

[craigfoot]

Oh I see. . M43 looks bigger when you see pictures. . There was another star below with a faint cloud around it, which I assume was this