A night of mixed bag

[YKSE]

Monday 11/4, 5-day-old Moon near Orion, SQM 20.4 at 22:15, improved to 21.2 after mid-night when the Moon set, 1-2m/s wind, 60-70% humidity (not a water on the car!), transparency from average to very good after midnight.

Starting on Orion, NGC 2313, a nebula of 1.5'x1.5' size, bright stella size in 68x without filter, more irregular shape with UHC.
NGC 2316, a mix of reflection nebula and H-II, of 1'x1' size, turned out to be too difficult.

Moving up to Ursa Major, NGC 2327, another mix of reflection nebula and H-II, but 2'x2' size, with UHC, in 68x, only got it in averted vision(AV).
NGC 2537 in Lynx, mag 11.7, Bear paw galaxy, easy seen in 68x, tried all my EPs in 80x to 150x range, it felt best with around 120-130x, some bright spots and dark lanes seen in AV.
IC 2233, galaxy of mag 12.6, caught in AV in the same 1 deg FOV as bear paw.
NGC 3516, a mag 11.5 galaxy, bright core easy seen in 68x, AV show more oval shape.

Midnight passed, time for Abell Galaxy Cluster 1656, the other monter black hole:
Here's 1 degree FOV through a diagonal(Galaxies ranging from mag 11.5 to 13.7):

4889: DV in 68x, evenly round patch
4874: same as 4889, just smaller.
4921: also DV in 68x, fainter than 4874
4911: DV in 68x too, ever smaller
4926: AV in 68x.
IC 4051: AV in 68x too.
4881, 4895, 4907 needed 120x to be seen in AV.
4886: not seen in any mag
4853: AV in 120x
4839: not in the picture, easy DV in 68x, oval shape with bright core.

Before packing up around 1:30, I took a look at M13, simply gorgeous in about 170x, averted vision shows sparkle of stars, and the propeller for the first time!

When everthing were in the car, Altair above the tree caught my attention, the map about comet 252P/Linear
I checked earlier during the day shown that it should be about inbetween Altair and Acturus.
Taking out 8x40 binos, scanned from Altair towards Arcturus,
first an nice open cluster near a bright star, it turned out to be IC4665, an unexpected new DSO.
then comet 252P showed up, large faint patch with tails upwards. Hurray!

 

Thanks for reading.

[laudropb]

Nice report and write up.

[cotterless45]

Superb and some really excellent findings there !

clear skies !

Nick.

[Piero]

Another excellent report Yong!  

How far do you need to drive for reaching that dark location? 

[YKSE]

Piero,

It takes half an hour's drive, mostly on motorway. I consider the trips as my best astro updates, and also I can keep on doing that