The "Vampire " star and a lovely evening.

[cotterless45]

An email asking to observe and as soon as it got near dark and clear (hurrah), Patbloke arrived. With no time to draw breath , we took at trip up to a dark site out of town. High humidity picked up light both here and at home, not easy.

Just with 15x70 bins we found M33 ( just about by eye) filling the fov. M31 was elongate and spidery across the length of the fov. The Auriga clusters just glisten on dark background. We were both surprised at the ease of picking out Bode's, both so bright . It was just a quick visit to compare to my garden. Next time it'll be a Dob trip.

Pat had some Meade 5000 HD's, he was eager to compare these to Hyperions. The HD's are just under £100 a throw and I found them incredibly sharp and contrasty. We compared a lot of targets , using the C6r. The 6.5mm gave some stunning views of the Eskimo Nebula, showing the halo unfiltered. Observing conditions weren't great, a bit of haze and some poor seeing which calmed down, as frost arrived.

I started with the 102 to get a lovely view of the delicate Wasat. That afternoon a box had arrived from FLO ( hurrah !) with a very neat WO diagonal fitted with a helical focuser. Anyone using a stock focuser should get one ! It finely and easily tweaked the focus to give dual speed capacity.

Back to the grind, M82 showed its dusty lane with the 18mm HD, very useful size. It gave plenty contrast to the Trapezium, really caught in the dark pits of the nebulae,nice. Try scanning around to pick up the huge (" coal car cluster" ,try saying that in the dark ) NGC 1981.

We had some lovely views of the ancient M67 and later M44 ( The Beehive) filled even a 40mm fov. Catch this by eye, it's bright and we thought finer than the Pleiades. We were swapping a 31mm Hyperion Aspheric and a 15mm SW Panorama to get some wide field views of

Monoceros (NGC 2264, NGC 2301 ,

NGC 2286,just magic),Orion, Gemini (NGC 2266)and Taurus ( NGC 1647).

M1 looked surprisingly bright with a defined shape, just get it about x80 with some averted vision. The double cluster,NGC 663, NGC 7789 and M35 gave us plenty views to compare eyepieces. The Aspheric ,at 2" gave just gorgeous results.

We were both glued to "Hind's Crimson Star"®, in Lepus. I get the "Vampire Star" description. It sat alone like a round drop of blood. I don't recall seeing a star with so much colour, a really gorgeous sight. I found the carbon ε, but it lacked the depth of the "Vampire". It's a Mira variable , going from +5.5 to + 12 in 430 days, we must have caught it bright.

We visited Castor , a blue/white double and κ Geminorum, which was all glare.

Monoceros gave a lovely triple β, sharp at high magnification.

Cor Caroli was lovely and a quick scan to Chara showed the bright M94 . I caught "La Superba", nothing special in this usual tester star, the sky being too bright. Up to UMa for M97, very observable by averted vision.

Jupiter was climbing over roof tops and although low and wobbly we picked out belts and little Io appearing on the limb after occultation.

Plenty meteors, Pat caught two going in opposite directions at the same time. I caught a long trailed one in the west, very busy.

High fuzz cut short our observing about midnight. A very memorable session, made a change from just sitting there in the dark, share the views under

Clear skies,

Nick.

[Dave Lloyd]

Always an immersive and evocative report. Thanks.

[alan potts]

Wow that sounded like some night, great report Nick. We had wall to wall cloud for a few days now but this morning was beauifully clear. There is too much snow to set up a scope but temperature are set to rise today so some melt will be welcome. 

I ventured out with the 10.5X70 binos and before long was sat on my bottom having slipped over, still looking in the general area of Venus and Saturn, both fairly close to each other. Had a look at Antares which has really moved against the clock since before Christmas. Lovely very thin sliver of Moon which may well be the last we see of it without a lot of luck being lost in the Suns glare tomorrow.

Alan

[Piero]

It seems to me that you two had a lot of fun!

Here the sky was very clear yesterday but I prefer not to go out since it the first day I didn't have flu/fever after 6 days.

Vampire star... Mm.. Curious by this now!

[chiltonstar]

Sounds like a great night! Here, the sky was incredibly clear, with a frost forming everywhere (first frost layer on my new scope!). I spent most of the 90 minutes I managed outside before frostbite set in looking at the Trapezium (glorious at x70 with a 38mm Panaview - A, B, C. D and E, F clear and easy, no G though) and some difficult doubles around the area such as Propus - amazingly orange in the larger scope, with a little orange baby, and measuring the apparent diameter of the Airy disk using Castor (reticule eyepiece).

Chris

[Patbloke]

Fantastic night Nick... As always a right laugh and a bucket load of targets observed!

It was great to finally test out the meades against a similar quality EP. I can still see the vampire star when I close my eyes this morning. The depth and clarity of colour is something everyone should try to see!

Unbelievably you have been true to your word and produced this report from memory! No note taking whatever... Bit of a genius you are Nick and your observing set up is class, definably making the most of your garden.

Can't wait to DOB up at the dark site soon... Thanks

[laudropb]

Another great session and most enjoyable report. Did not clear here until the early hours but it was worth waiting for. 4 planets and comet Catilina, as well as some old favourites made it a worthwhile early rise, more so because it was my first view since November.

[alan potts]

I can't think of a site member that was more overdue a clear night apart from Yong up in Gothenburg, he has had it rough too, really great to hear you got out.

Alan

[estwing]

the skies were great in Cheadle but I was tinkering with the lambretta...as soon as I finished.. :clouds1:must have a gander at the vampire....you can "count"on it!

[estwing]

nice link here...http://oneminuteastronomer.com/1206/vampire-star/

[mapstar]

Good going again Nick I managed to get out with a friend but his 12" dob needs some fettling on the bearings as it just drifted every time you let go of it on low targets.

Had a good evening out though and fantastic to be under the stars again instead of cotton wool!

[mapstar]

80mm frac and an 8mm ethos and I nailed the vampire tonight. Lovely and very difficult to make out in light polluted urban skies.