Observing report from Confolens March 9-14

[Cjg]

Am almost ashamed to say that in 4 years of calling myself an amateur astronomer, I've seen a total of only 39 Messier Objects. Since buying a Takahashi 76 last year, I've been determined to improve that number.  

With new Moon falling on the 9th this year, I travelled with Ryan Air to the new AstroFarm B&B at Confolens  ( http://theknowledgeobservatory.com/astrofarm-3/ about 45 mins from Limoges airport) to attempt a Messier Marathon. Over 3 clear nights I've increased that number of observed Messier objects to 68. My report won't be as well researched or written as some on here, but will contain the highlights of what I've managed to see. I knew before starting (from Pennington's excellent book) that it would be a struggle to see everything, but wanted to make the attempt.

Thursday 10 March was the first clear night, but not until about 2300hrs, by which time it was too late for M74 and M77, in fact it took me 10 minutes to find Andromeda as it set in the West! 
M79  proved to be equally elusive as Lepus got lower into the horizon. Despite a great start on Saturday 12th and spending about 20 minutes I failed to get M79, perhaps the moon at 16% washed it out...I cross-checked my Pocket Atlas with Sky Safari 4, and was confident that I was in the correct area....
Messier's 32 and 110 were lost in the "murk" as was M33; I'd seen this twice from Seething and was ecstatic to find it: a faint patch of white mist against the grey black, but not tonight.
M34 and M76 in Perseus are old favourites, although for the Little Dumbell I needed my highest power eyepiece.
M41 was my first "new" Messier object seen: it wasn't spectacular at the time, and I was keen to crack on, one to study in future.
Rushed through 42/43 pausing just to admire 78, lovely to see in the Panoptic 24 against the darker background.

M46 and M47 were easily found, having practiced from Seething, I can just about see both in the same field of view in the 24, after my struggles finding M33, I was buoyed to find both, am reasonably sure I saw the planetary nebula in M46 too. M93 was lower and found after a short search, not as impressive at the time at 46/47. M50 was almost directly above Sirius, yet another first for me.

52 and 103 are "old friends" and often seen from Seething, I paused for a brief look at my favourite asterism the Owl Cluster and the Double Cluster in Perseus (the double cluster is just stunning in the Tak with the 24 Panoptic, and was easily visible naked eye despite being lower in the sky).

The Crab, Pleiades and open clusters in Auriga I raced through, although the Leo triplet is familiar, I knew I'd need time on the Galaxies of Coma and Virgo.

65 and 66 were easily found and seen, no sign though of NGC3628, although I did not linger to search properly. On the Saturday, a highlight was finding 65 and 66 first time, almost dead centre of the eyepiece with my 15mm plossl, l'd forgotten to swap it for the 24mm Panoptic. A small thing, but an achievement for me! 95, 96 and 105 were frustratingly harder to find, they were "lower" than I recall, perhaps the presence of Jupiter confused me; there was a lot of 'faffing' moving the mount with the slow tracking wheels before finally arriving at 95 and 96, 105 was easier to find, a shorter 'hop' from 96.
Coma was a pain in the neck! High up and my list was split with 53, 64 and 85 in one batch with the remainder coming after Virgo. At this point, a Dob would have been easier, kneeling to sight through the red dot and crouching to peer through the eyepiece in the cooling air was tiring. 53 was an easy hop from Diadem, 85 was not too difficult, took a little 'faffing' backwards and forwards with the slow tracking wheels; it's just a little 'higher' than 53 and forms the corner of an imaginary square, the square though is 'tilted'; another 'first' seen. M64 The Black Eye Galaxy was surprisingly not too difficult to find, just over a third of the way 'up' from M53 and inside the square, impressive as it was, I noted in my haste that it looked 'nothing like a black eye' at the time.

Ursa Major, Canes Venatici and Virgo were challenging for differing reasons, that report must wait until I've gathered all of my notes.

Thanks,

Chris

[RichM63]

Nice report, I've not driven down that way for quite a while.

It looks to be an interesting Astronomy Centre, I wish the owners all success. 

[Cjg]

Thank you RichM63,

The owners were very accommodating to me, very, very helpful. They are finishing off parts of the B&B, and going to build a viewing platform along with yet another observatory.  Their skies were superb, and the attraction to me was the short flight, 1hr 20 minutes and 40 minutes car journey that made it extremely convenient (and cheap) to get to...I paid an extra £29 to have my Tak sit in the seat next to me on the aircraft. 

From Seething I struggle and just see the faint stars that are the easy hop to M81/M82, from Confolens, they were so much clearer, I wondered how I could not see them. 

Chris

[Piero]

Super Report, Chris!!   A bit of persistence always pays back! These small telescopes can be really powerful particularly under a dark sky, but also offer a good way to train one's eye to catch faint lights! 

Looking forward reading about your next observations!  

Piero

[Cjg]

Thank you Piero, agreed, an excellent way to train your eyes, am looking forward to getting clear skies at Seething to put the new knowledge to the test.

Chris

[alan potts]

A really great report, I always feel it is important to talk about ones failures as well, I seem to have had a few of them lately, number one being the weather, I think someone has towed Bulgaria to the UK.

That really was a Messier Monster Marathon and only part of it. I don't believe I have covered all the Messier objects yet which is a disgrace with the amount of clear sky I normall get coming my way. I feel one or two of the galaxies in the list are going to be difficult, M77 is listed at mag 8.9 but I always find it rather dim even in larger scopes, I think if it was higher in the sky it would help, though it never gets that high in England.

Look forward to part 2 Chris!

Alan

[Cjg]

Thank you Alan. The 6 degrees difference  between Seething and Confolens makes all the difference, as did the clearer sky. 

Chris

[Size9Hex]

Nice one! Looking forwards to part 2

[laudropb]

Very nice report. A most enjoyable read of some great session. It was certainly worth the journey.