28/02/2016- Some new friends, one was quite "Fiery"

[pipnina]

The clouds departed tonight, so my dad and I went up to wembury to catch some starlight! Upon getting there, getting the scope set up and looking up; we were greeted by a plethora of stars! Possibly well into mag 5 but I can't remember any specific ones so it could have just been high 4's. The winter milky way visible (just) looming over Orion.

Our first target was M42, bright and fluffy, we made out the top arc and a little nebulosity fading as it went south, no loop running underneath visible, unfortunately.

Next up was me (yet again) attempting the Flame, but this time I was successful! With alnitak just out the field of view I could made out two very faint patches of nebulosity divided by an absence of nebulosity running through the middle. Nice to see it at last, I didn't attempt IC-434.

After this, I went looking for M78 (again), unfortunately I didn't find it (will have to think of some serious star hops for this one). However, M1 was an easy find, after getting the scope set up to 123TAU it was a simple matter of moving the scope diagonally a little and I found myself looking at a little glowy patch, no detail, just a smudge, but very happy to have found it this time!

Next up: Jupiter: Seeing was a little turbulent but we saw the four Galilean moons and the bands, perhaps a bit low in the sky?

Last but not least, I finally got my scope pointed in the right place for M81/82! Quite the struggle to find and I had to do a bit of moving the scope in the tube rings but we got there. The two were easily distinguishable from each other: M81 was a clearly round-looking object while M82 looked like a line (or a cigar ) Happy to have seen them, spent a while looking for them.

 

After getting this much out of my 5"... It makes me all the more anxious for the new 10" to arrive at the door next week!

    ~pip

[Stu]

Well done on the Flame Pip, got it at last!! ??

[jetstream]

Congrats Pip! The Flame in a 5", awesome job! wait till the 10" arrives...

[laudropb]

Congratulations Pip. You had a very nice session and that always makes it very enjoyable. Hope clear skies arrive with your new Dob.

[Adamchiv]

6 hours ago, pipnina said:

The clouds departed tonight, so my dad and I went up to wembury to catch some starlight! Upon getting there, getting the scope set up and looking up; we were greeted by a plethora of stars! Possibly well into mag 5 but I can't remember any specific ones so it could have just been high 4's. The winter milky way visible (just) looming over Orion.

Our first target was M42, bright and fluffy, we made out the top arc and a little nebulosity fading as it went south, no loop running underneath visible, unfortunately.

Next up was me (yet again) attempting the Flame, but this time I was successful! With alnitak just out the field of view I could made out two very faint patches of nebulosity divided by an absence of nebulosity running through the middle. Nice to see it at last, I didn't attempt IC-434.

After this, I went looking for M78 (again), unfortunately I didn't find it (will have to think of some serious star hops for this one). However, M1 was an easy find, after getting the scope set up to 123TAU it was a simple matter of moving the scope diagonally a little and I found myself looking at a little glowy patch, no detail, just a smudge, but very happy to have found it this time!

Next up: Jupiter: Seeing was a little turbulent but we saw the four Galilean moons and the bands, perhaps a bit low in the sky?

Last but not least, I finally got my scope pointed in the right place for M81/82! Quite the struggle to find and I had to do a bit of moving the scope in the tube rings but we got there. The two were easily distinguishable from each other: M81 was a clearly round-looking object while M82 looked like a line (or a cigar ) Happy to have seen them, spent a while looking for them.

 

After getting this much out of my 5"... It makes me all the more anxious for the new 10" to arrive at the door next week!

    ~pip

Great report, sounds like an evening I would dream about!

[cotterless45]

Lovely report ! You're going to have to sellotape your socks on , 10" view will blow them off !

Nick.

[alan potts]

Lovely report, there will be no stopping you with a 10 inch. I have not managed the flame this year so far with much larger scopes, so very well done indeed.