A good clear night - at last!

[WaveSoarer]

Checking my note book, last night was the first time I'd been out observing in a tad over three months. It's been either too overcast, wet, windy or some combination of all three with some full moon thrown in to make it worth my while getting the scope out. I'd only managed to snatch the odd few minutes with my binoculars now and again. Anyway, the equipment was still ok and I just about managed to remember how to set things up and do the polar alignment. I set up my laptop with Stellarium and then I got started. I didn't have anything particular in mind, apart from the first object, and I just did a bit of a tour.

C56 - NGC 246 - Planetary nebula

I was pleased that my star-hopping was still ok and I could find my way about quite happily. C56 was quite an easy star hop from Deneb Algenubi and it took me a few moments to make it out as a speckled very faint fuzzy patch. I tried with both my 20 mm and 15 mm EPs, with and without a UHC filter, and it was only just really a very faint fuzzy blob no matter what. Still, pleasing to observe and I may take some images when I get the chance.

There was then a bit of a pause while some thin cloud rolled over and a shower passed just to the south of here. By the time I started again C56 was too low to the south to see from my location. I decided to visit an old favourite while it was high and well placed (and not so high that the legs of the tripod would get in the way).

M31 Andromeda galaxy, M32 and M101

This is always a great sight and the sky was clear enough so that some hints of detail were visible. M32 is an easy spot, quite close to the core of M31, but it's surprising how far you need to pan across to find the fairly faint M101. The extent of M31 was quite clear as a slightly elevated brightness above the level of the background sky. A slight dip in the brightness indicated the main dust lane.

C18 - NGC 185, C17 - NGC 147 and NGC 278 Galaxies 

A bit of a detour over to the area around 20 Cas. The locations of both C18 and C17 are clearly define by the surrounding faint stars but where C18 is quite easily seen as an elongated patch I found that C17 fell in to the yes, no, well could be categories. The galaxy NGC 278 is also fairly easy to locate and I was stunned by how bright it appeared. It was quite compact in my 20 mm EP and it could have been mistaken for a planetary.

NGC 404 - Mirach's ghost

This must be the easiest star-hop ever. Just point the scope at Mirach and there she blows. Or at least you can just make out a small fuzzy point of light next to the glare of Mirach. It almost looks like some internal reflection in the EP and could be lost in the diffraction spikes of the spider if you're unlucky with the orientation.

M33 - NGC 598 - Triangulum galaxy

Along with M31 this is another of my binocular favourites. I like the challenge of trying to find M33 in my bins in marginal skies. It was very obvious in the finder and it was no disappointment in the well-used 20 mm. The galaxy is diffuse and quite large (no core) and there were hints of irregularity in the general fuzziness - though I'm not going to claim there was anything close to a spiral, it just didn't look uniform.

By the time I'd nipped in for a cup of tea, Orion had just appeared above the roof of the house and I then had a quick view of a few nebulae near the belt.

NGC 2024 - Flame nebula

I've never had much luck with this in the past so I decided to have a go again. I aimed the scope at Alnitak without much expectation. I slowly slewed the scope back and forth  approximately along the direction of the belt while keeping Alnitak in the field of view. There was nothing that particularly leapt out but it was pretty noticeable that the area to the side of Alnitak, in just about the right area as the flame, was brighter than the general background sky and this faded away the further the scope was slewed from Alnitak. There was even a hint of some unevenness, perhaps banding, in the light. I used my 20 mm EP, again, but it could well have benefited from the use of my 32 mm. Next time. The nebula is fairly large and I'm not surprised I looked straight through it before.

M42 - NGC 1976 - Orion nebula

Ah, what a great sight! Such a beautiful nebula that you never tire of viewing. I tried with and without my UHC filter but the unfiltered view looked best to me. The whole bud shape was just about visible, not just the bright crescent, and there were hints of texture in the glow behind the finger-like dust lane that the trapezium nestles jewel-like in velvet.  Mesmerising. My first view of this was almost four years ago and I found this a little bit creepy to view for the first time.

NGC 1977 - Running Man nebula

Just a quick tweak on the slewing knobs and this nebula popped into view. It appears as an elongated and heavily textured smudge. The UHC filter didn't reveal much more than the "natural" view but I've noted it down for more attention on the next session.

A school night and Mrs WaveSoarer has to get up super early so I finished the session with another  favourite.

M1 - NGC 1952 - Crab nebula

An easy star hop from 123 Tau and the nebula appears stellar in the finder. In my 20 mm EP the nebula is an oval, slightly ragged, patch that seems to float above the field of background stars in a fairly startling 3D way. A little joyous cloud bobbing serenely in space.

A very enjoyable session and I didn't get overly cold either.

[laudropb]

Very nice report of a very productive session. It let me what I am missing. Still clouded out here.

[Piero]

A very nice report to read!  

It's interesting to see how filters work differently on users and on different telescopes! I guess your 200mm has already the sufficient aperture to show nebulae as distinct. Instead, in my little scope filters can really help spot these nebulae, especially planetaries. 

Thanks for sharing! 

Piero

[Stu]

Sounds like a very nice little session, bet it was great to be out again after so long

[chiltonstar]

Great report! I think a number of us in this part of the world were out last night after so many weeks of grey & drizzle.

Chris

[Paul73]

At last! Someone has seen some stars!

Nice writeup. I love that little group of galaxies between Andromeda and Cassioipia.

Paul

[jetstream]

Very good report WaveSoarer! Congrats for seeing the Flame neb, now its time to fine tune and see the whole structured look of it, keeping Alnitak out of the FOV helps lots, as you know.

Nice catch on M31's dust lane...theres more to come! Eagerly waiting more reports...