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.....homework Part 2...

estwing

By estwing
in Observing - Reports

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estwing

estwing

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Sunday 27 November..after a little stroll towards Glendale, darkness fell along with a load of cloud. Feeling a bit bushed I was about to turn in when Faulksy came indoors and proclaimed a clear sky!. Off with the covers and a quick revist to M31, a tad disappointing after last nights wonderful view in the bins...so was M33...damn.

My winter target The cone nebula was now high enough for a glimpse?. This is starting to become my nemesis! 30 mins of teasing me along with scope tapping and nudging gave me a little of its shape on the right hand side, but alas the left side is the real toughy part and completes the cone shape....fail again!..Grrrr.

To make amends I swung to scope towards M42 to cheer me up...and boy did it!.Yes, yes we've all seen how lovely it looks haven't we...haven't we?...next clear night load up yer Frac, Dob or Mak and Drive, drive as for as possible away from your orange haze and then take another look at M42. Just do it once...the sight will live long in your dreams.

The Trapezium stars were pin sharp in mine and mike scopes thus confirming quality mirrors were being used, tho we didn't ramp up the power too much which might of told another story.     

Next we popped in Damians HB filter and after a few moments the Horse Head was looking back at us. Took me 90mins at Bala before a very faint outline came into view, here it just rested its head on the stable door and whinnied....in Damians 22" with the 13mm ethos it was HUGE!

A hop across to The Rosette nebula and this filled the view in my 21 ethos, not seen this before so I was very impressed in fact Steve came over for a peek and said that's blooming wonderful tonight! Lots of whisps and swirls around the outside

Onward to Gemini and the planetary ngc 2371/2372 the double bubble which is featured in The Secret Deep. Needed a little power to find this and in the 13 ethos at 157x it appeared to be a figure 8 on its side!

M108 was the best I'd seen it....just lovely

M1 was a mass of cotton wool instead of a faint smudge it was a patch of ice on a window, but sadly no internal filament structure

M97 was a Hoot! a great sight..but the best was The cats eye neb in Draco.... so green so so green! terrific.

Ngc 3184 the little pinwheel, another great spiral and bright to boot!easy to find next to Tanian Australis in Ursa Major

If you're around Leo take time and have a look between Adhafera and Algieba on Leos neck because theres a super little group of Ngcs here

Back up to Ursa Major to Abell 1185...( I do sweep about a lot!) this is a cluster of faint galaxies the brightest around 14 mag but a good test on the eye!

Ngc 379 in Pisces is Mag 12.9, then next was Ngc 512 a barred spiral in Andromeda at mag 13.2 all I could make out was a brighter core

lastly Ngc 3198 another spiral in Ursa Major at mag 10.3 this was like a full moon! so bright and a real Gem...Sadly just as Coma and Virgo were rising a blanket of cloud moved in cutting our observing session short and we finally threw in the towel at 4am...what a great night we'd all had.

This turned out to be our only real night with our scopes...Great actors always left the stage with the audience wanting more....and the Isle of Skye had let the curtain fall on us, which left us thinking what might of been?..but a least we got to see Act 1 of the play...I need to find the box office and purchase another ticket for Act 2....clear skies everyone, Calv.

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mapstar

mapstar

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Great report Calv. As though I was there :grin:

Remember searching down from Tania Australis in ursa for NGC3550 at the heart of Abell 1185 at the end of the night and just beating the clouds to it.

Fantastic few hours star hopping :wink:

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niallk

niallk

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Great report Calvin! Hope you all had a great time & better luck with the weather the next time :) Saw some smashing pics of those big dobs lined up.

I'm hoping to pack up my dob and get off out to the real dark tip of one of the peninsulas in west Kerry some night in the coming weeks if the weather looks good - fingers crossed.

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alan potts

alan potts

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A very nice report Calvin, it is always nice when any of you go that far and the sky plays the game, I did send the very best wishes to Steve say we had cloud and that must be a good sign for you all. I guess if cloud messes things up which sadly it does so often, you can always resort to trying the other thing that Scotland is famous for that comes in bottles.

Alan

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alan potts

alan potts

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It is so cold tonight I have had to content myself with a very large 12 years old single malt milk, it was on special offer at the local supermarket. I did manage 20 mins with the binos though which was nice, a chilling minus 11 now.

Alam, oh dear too much milk.

 

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