Outreach early evening tester targets.

[cotterless45]

A couple of hours out there, testing out a showcase list for some hopeful outreach viewing this Friday evening. The 4" frac gave some lovely and surprising views.

Kicked off with comet Catalina, caught in a nice trapezium of stars high in Draco. Showing a round glow with a bright core , quite an impressive visitor.
Then to Auriga and the clusters, they always ask !
M38 25 lys in diameter and 4200 lys away, est.220 million years old.
M37 25 lys diameter.            4600.                       300
M36. 14.                                  4100.                          25
Then the triples of 14 Aurigae, yellow and blue and the orange primary of ΟΣ 147.
Over to M42 and at overs x200, the f star of the Trap popped out. Followed by σ Orionis showing the lovely fishhook of a triple. Then NGC 2169 for the 37 cluster, nice and upright using the prism diagonal.

Monoceros showing NGC 2264 of the "Cone nebula" and Christmas tree cluster.
NGC 2244, the "Rosette nebula" and the bright white triple of β.included the cluster NGC 2301, for fun.

Gemini for the Eskimo nebula, quite easy next to a star, at x40 and the giant M35.

Taurus, Hyades and Pleiades with just a smidge of M1 to satisfy the newbies.

Down to Lepus and "Hind's Crimson Star", just so red even in small aperture.

I scraped a lovely M50, but M47 and co. hid  behind my shed. Tried some more binaries , but the Moon was well up and breathing clouds.
Think a quick tour might enthuse those who have not observed before. Earlier , the delights of Cassiopeia might be explored.

clear skies and legs crossed for Friday ,

nick.

[m.tweedy]

Thank you for the information.

Do you mind if i use some of it for our outreach events we are doing at Sunderland Astro over the next few weeks

 

[Piero]

Another great report, Nick!  

I haven't seen 14 Aurigae. It seems an interesting target to try. After SGL changed its makeup, my first thought was "I hope I won't lose Nick's reports with this new Streaming idea!". Still not sure whether I was lucky or not, but at least I managed to catch this one! For another week, I won't be able to go observing in the night due to a surgery on my thumb finger which is slowly healing. Reading other members' reports is always very pleasant! 

Thanks for sharing, 

Piero

[alan potts]

As always Nick your reports are top draw, see thought of something different to say. Good luck on Friday with the event and of course the weather. I still have too much compressed snow come ice outside but it looks as if the observatory may clear tomorrow, nothing worse than clear skies every night and being unable to do anything, we also had minus 28.5 with 70% humidity and that feels a bit chilly. Friends of the wife have been ringing asking if we are still alive.

 

Alan

[jkwhinfrey]

Nice list. I'm outreaching with my local society at a school tomorrow, and I'd love to cover just a few of those objects, but the weather looks really bad :-(

We got a couple of hundred folks turning out in the snow last year though.

I guess I'll be spending more time with the laptop and projector than the scope. Still fingers crossed - and as you said legs too... can't hurt.

James

[laudropb]

As always it is a great pleasure to read your report Nick.

[FenlandPaul]

Did you manage to get out last night, Nick?

Planning a similar event here in 6 weeks' time and interested in your thoughts on objects.  I think a few humdingers with a lot of variety rather than loads of obscure oddities is the way forward. 

Paul