Faint fuzzies - and other joys

[iPeace]

I've only been in this business since January. Since then, I've been very fortunate to get great views of wonderful objects, especially given the conditions I've had to contend with. To set up one's first telescope in one's own front garden under a sodium street lamp and to see the Pleiades, the Orion Nebula, the open clusters in Gemini and Auriga, and Jupiter - including, at the best of times, the Great Red Spot - is to have it very good indeed.

It hasn't always been easy, but it has always been fun. Setbacks have not bothered me as they might have when I was younger, and I can now rely on a community of good people who insist things can be done (yes, you). So faith is easily maintained between sessions. And it's a journey without destination, for its own sake.

I'm also prepared to accept that there are things I may never see. Limited access to sufficiently dark skies and limited aperture will contribute to this. Scope will have none of this, of course. It considers itself the nemesis of the Keck and refers to the Hubble as "that thing they had to put in orbit to get to work at all". If it's there, scope sees it and if I don't, well...must try harder. Or perhaps less hard. Or something.

So it is with a mixed bag of thoughts that I have come to regard "faint fuzzies" as things that only appear to others. See the one over there, using a frost-covered laptop running Stellarium as an interactive star chart, toes freezing off as he peers through a TV85 at the spot in the sky where all of humanity insists an entire galaxy is to be seen, but seeing nothing at all? That's me. Notice the big smile on the face. Still having great fun.

Until last night. Don't worry, the fun has remained, it's the other bit I mentioned. I got some faint fuzzies.

After gazing my fill of Jupiter, I got down to it and tried hard for the Messiers East of Denebola, M98 or M99. Kept it up for quite a while, repeatedly starting over and re-tracing the necessary hops. Nothing. Not a stellar sausage. Burger-and-fries-all to be seen.

Leo Triplet, then. More hard work. More fun. Less toe remaining to freeze off...there! Finally! Well, two out of three. M65 and M66 were clearly visible, but no NGC 3628. Still, a great result. Not an immensely impressive sight as such - faint and fuzzy indeed - but to know what it actually is that you're seeing - and to be seeing it at all - is very satisfying indeed. Light from other galaxies touched with one's own eyes. Very cool.

On to Hercules. The Great Glob. Wow. I'll have that... M92, then? Yes. My first galaxies and globs, all in one night's viewing.

Mars and Saturn had appeared... I deployed the 4.7mm Ethos and tried for the Ringed One. Harsh and unjust to say I needn't have bothered, but the viewing in that direction was just plain bad. Good to see the rings nice and open for us, though. I skipped Mars; onwards and upwards.

Unexpectedly, the open clusters that I regularly stumble upon were a bit harder to find than usual. Finally found NGC 2281, M37, M36 and M38 in Auriga, but it took some doing and the view was not as good as I had previously had. Lesson learned, perhaps, that Auriga's current low position is less conducive. Oh well, there will be other nights...

On to Perseus and Cassiopeia. Caldwell 13 (bless that man), or NGC 457, or the Dragonfly / E.T. / Owl cluster, was a new find, and a great sight, a new favourite. The cluster of IC 1805 was another, but no associated nebulosity to be seen.

And the best sight of all was Caldwell 14, or the double cluster of NGC 869 and NGC 884. I could sit and gaze until I well and truly freeze. So I did. Toes are still tingling as I write this, early next afternoon. Must sort the freezing toes problem out before I go all Ranulph.

Thanks for reading.

[cotterless45]

Grand ! You'll be needing some aperture to get detail in the faint fuzzies. Binary stars have great colour appeal in a small frac. Mars and Saturn have been low here in the early morning and require some rare good seeing to make the most of,

clear skies !

Nick.

[Piero]

Very nice reading iPeace!

A 8"-12" dob under a decent sky would certainly impress you, particularly when combined with you 40 (x2.5) deg orthoscopic-like eyepieces!  

This said, I regularly use a telescope smaller than yours. It's tough of course, but very pedagogic I think and still gives a lot of fun! 

[laudropb]

Very enjoyable post. It can be frustrating hunting fuzzier from poor skies, but keep trying. One night the seeing will be spot on and they will appear.