10 Messiers in one night, plus IC 1805 and IC 1848

[Ccolvin968]

I got out last night with a window of about two and a half hours of dark skies before moon rise. It was a little scary in the beginning. No clouds were forecasted, but it must have been at least 75% overcast. After a brief cloud cover radar check, I put the scope out to cool just in case I got lucky. Well, I did. I'd call both transparency and seeing average. Still very clear and I could see the milky way. I hate the major cities 35 miles to my south that ruin the entire southern horizon, including galactic center. I started off trying to take a look at Saturn. It was a much better target a few months back. It's now sitting in a patch of light pollution and closer to the horizon, so you get the fun wave effect from the roof of peoples houses. I moved on shortly after that to Mizar and Alcor. I've been in love with that double lately. This is when I decided to take a trip over to M3. It was a faint fuzzy as most Globs are. I could make out some stars in the halo around it with averted vision. The core seemed very large, but I know that if I got to a darker location it would be so much better. There are a few spots around the sky that seem to be more effected by light than others. I can't complain though, I can see the milky way from my own back yard. I then moved onto the Ring Nebula to see if I could see it. It's a very hit or miss target for me. It's not hard at all for me to find due to it's location in Lyra. I also got to see the Wild Duck Cluster (M11). The magnitude 8 star in the center really stands out from the other mag 10.5-11.0 stars in the cluster. The frustrating one last night was the Dumbell Nebula (M27). looking back, it wasn't that hard to find, but I was expecting a faint fuzzy. I was never able to find it in my 5" reflector, but this was almost too easy once I realized what I was looking at. After a 20 minute search, and almost calling off the search, I found a cloud that was hovering in the same place, way up...... WAIT A MINUTE!! That's the Dumbell Nebula!! The size surprised me. There was a very obvious dumbell shape to it. I took my ususal trip over to M31. Until last night, I had never been able to see M110 or M32. It surprised me how much M32 popped out, but I had to look really hard, then use averted vision to spot M110. I also got to see M52. There was a mag 8 star on the SW side that really stood out. M71 turned out to be a pretty sight. It was easier to find than I thought it would be. M 103 in Cas was suprisingly difficult to find. It had a very distinct arrowhead shape to it with a bright tip facing SW. While I was in the area, I went down to check out the Double Cluster, NGC 869. That was an awesome sight. At 90x with my 14mm UWA ep from Meade, both clusters fit edge to edge in my FOV. It was truly amazing. I also got to see the Heart Nebula and the Soul Nebula. The entire region had a faint nebulosity to it.  IC1805, the first part of the Heart Nebula observed was easy to find. I thought the Heart Nebula was more impressive than the Soul Nebula just due to the amount of stars it had to share. Overall, it was a great night! Clear skies!

[John]

Nice report and a good haul of objects

It's great when you find an object and it exceeds your expectations !

[JeremyS]

That report makes an enjoyable read-  many thanks

Jeremy

[swamp thing]

Nice one matey.

Really enjoyed your description of the dumbbell nebula. Through larger apertures it does kinda  become as obvious as a stationary cloud. 

[Piero]

Nice report! .. and the more you continue seeing, the more you will see! :-) 

[cotterless45]

Nice one ! The old favourites are the best !

Nick.

[PeterW]

The heart and soul are great!

Peter