Across the Universe

[Size9Hex]

An unsuccessful trip out to a dark site, with the New Forest being unfathomably busy with bright headlights late into the evening. The scope (10 inch dob) didn't even come out of the car, although before giving up I caught the lovely M35 naked eye, coming and going in averted vision. The Auriga clusters and Bodes were not seen.

Back home, the evening was salvaged somewhat.

Quasar 3C 273 (mag 12.9, Virgo) spotted. Point source of light, which needed high mag (255x) to pull it out of the sky. At this mag I could just about hold it in direct vision, and quite easily averted. Subsequently also visible (just) at 180x having already located it. Sky Safari and Stellarium confused me on this one, showing other objects in almost the same location. My research on t'internet suggests that star HIP 60936 and star GSC 0282-0202 are aliases for 3C 273? The quoted distance is 2.4 billion light years, but there are a couple of good articles I found which made me realise that at these distances, even the concept of distance requires you to define your terms.

http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/redshift.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distance_measures_%28cosmology%29

Cygnus X1 (or at least the companion variable star V1257 Cygni) spotted. The original black hole! One that has fascinated me since reading about it as a child. Bright and tranquil in the scope.

Although neither of these were visually impressive, they're a big part of what this hobby is about for me. Just to see something like this with your own eyes is an experience.

My intention to forget about nebulae lasted for exactly 0 sessions...

The North American Nebula revealed itself at 50x with an OIII filter. The Gulf of Mexico was moderately clear and the extension into Mexico was particularly obvious (but still faint). Less obvious to non-existent elsewhere, but the field of view was quite restricted.

The Veil was even lower in the sky (16 to 17 degrees) but with the same eyepiece/filter, the east and west section were both seen and quite obvious. What a treat! I was amazed how well this stood out.

It was only a quick look. I need to hit these two with everything I can one day!

Thanks for reading. Hope it is was of interest.

 

Edit: Oops, should have added, Albireo is back :-)

[laudropb]

Very nice report. A real good read.