First night for DSO in months

[YKSE]

Finally a clear night for some DSO hunting. Forecast looks promising for the weekend too, so extra effort in alignment after firmware upgrade and dark site travel preparation.

Targets were the relative easy DSO in Gemini, Open clusters such as NGC 2129, 2395, 2420, 2266, 2355, 2304 were all easily seen in 67x, best in about 160x, and 2158 looked good too together with M35.

2392, the Ekimo Nebula, a nice revisit, better detail in the core at abou 200x.

2371/2372, Nice planetary nebulae, in about 150x, better contrast with UHC filter, but smaller in size.

Feels great when the weather looks good

[swamp thing]

I know the feeling, its been a while since Ive been out myself. Some good targets there

[alan potts]

Yong,

I have not had the best of weather of late but you really seem to be put through the mill up there. I must hunt down the eskimo Nebula, it is one that i have not seen.

Alan

[YKSE]

I'll keep updating this thread if it brings clear sky to me

Another 2 hours session under SQM 18.8 (4.6 NELM) sky, In Auriga, open clusters as NGC 2281 and 1857 were bright, 1664, 1907 and 2126 not difficult either, 1931, the "miniature version of the Orion Nebula" combined with open cluster, showed up quite nicely in about 140x, not much difference with UHC on or off.

Moving on to Orion and Monoceros, opens clusters 2194, 2186 and 2251 were easy, 2232 was plainly bright. Planetary nebular 2022 was of stellar size, with UHC on and off reveal it easily, since UHC dimmed the stars much more than this nebular. 2245 was a different story, visible in direct vision without filter, while UHC eliminated much of the nebulosity. Last but not least, Caldwell 46, Hobble's varibale nebula, easy target in 67x to 150x.

[YKSE]

Friday looked good, I finished work earlier than usual for my first trip to dark site this year.

Targets were low NGCs in Fornax, Eridanus, Orion, Monoceros unaccessible in my backyard. Setting up the mount took a little longer time than at home, when hunting started, NGCs in Fornax and eridanus had gone under horizon. fairly dark sky, SQM showed 20.9(NELM 6.1) through out the session, transparency not best, twinkling Sirius in naked eye.

1788(dark nebula), not so difficult with a brighter star in the core, 1980(open cluster with nebulosity) even much so with three very bright stars. 1973 and 1999 were readily seen too. 2024(flame nebula) was too difficult this time too. 2384, 2383, 2204, 2343, 2353, 2335 and 2539 were easy open clusters. 2286 was kind of different OC, just a few bright stars in direction vision, but averted vision revealed a pool of faint stars, and averted vision pulled out stars in 2324 and 2311 as well. Planetary nebula 2346 was easily seen, as well as 2185.

As clouds started to show up in southern horizon, I looked up at 1491(blocked by my own house the other day), an easy one actually.

18 new NGCs, a good start for this year's DSO hunting.

[jetstream]

Great report and hunting Yong! The Spider and the Fly is a great target and a better catch!

[YKSE]

Yes, Gerry, the Fly(1931) was a good one, Spider (6537) will have to wait for a month when it gets higher a little earlier.

Actually, I managed to squeezed out some half hour's viewing in backyard last night too, 4 nights in a week, that's starting look like something.

First check on Leo triplet showed that seeing was not the best, 3268 was seen only in averted vision, a quick swing to Leo minor, 3344, 3432, 3294 and 3395 all needed averted vision and centerred view to confirm. Clouds rolled in from south, over to Ursa major, only had time to had a quick view on M81/82 pair, and to get 3184 and 3077 (only averted vision too) before the clouds took over the sky.

46 new DSO for the week, not a bad start.

[YKSE]

Partial cloudy forecast tonight, I took out the scope in the hope that there might be opennings. Yes, It did, few clouds for over an hour. SQM around 18.5 (4.4 NELM). Transparancy differred quite a lot depending where I was looking at.

2655 and 1961 in Camelopardalis were all very difficult, averted vision in good 3-4 minutes to be seen, Planetary nebula 1501 were easier with UHC. Next were my two remaining Leo galaxis in 666 DSO list, 3900 and 3912, a first check on M65/M55/3268 indicated that these two would be difficult, it did took longer time the last three, only seen in averted vision of course. Turning to Ursa Major, I had time to bag 2681, 2976, 2768 and 2841, all easily seen in direction vision, before the clouds rolled in.