Orion Nebula

[noah4x4]

Simply awesome tonight. Made up for a entire month of cloudy misery.

I could only spend about 30 minutes showing my (adult) stepdaughter the joys of astronomy; her first time looking through a scope; so it was delightful that Starsense had me aligned and targeting the trapezium inside five minutes.  Did a quick sky tour of a few local clusters. Then found Uranus. Shame other solar system objects absent. But I think we have another convert.

 

[John]

M42 is looking lovely this evening I agree

Venus, Mars and Neptune were visible earlier although the 1st two were quite lowdown even in twilight.

[Dave In Vermont]

It's almost the same thrill you feel when you first look at M42 - the Orion Nebula - your own first time, when you show these views to another person. Especially if they show the reactions that you yourself felt.

Teaching is underrated!

Dave

[Hadron]

I had my first observing session under semi urban conditions last night and M42 was one of the few objects that was still genuinely impressive (using an OIII filter at least). Speaking as a country dweller (or possibly bumpkin ) it was a real eye opener as to the impact of light pollution even on the edge of a small town, I now have a lot of admiration for those of you that can maintain any level of enthusiasm under such conditions (give me my usual field corner any time  )

[mikeDnight]

On 27/12/2016 at 22:20, Hadron said:

I had my first observing session under semi urban conditions last night and M42 was one of the few objects that was still genuinely impressive (using an OIII filter at least). Speaking as a country dweller (or possibly bumpkin ) it was a real eye opener as to the impact of light pollution even on the edge of a small town, I now have a lot of admiration for those of you that can maintain any level of enthusiasm under such conditions (give me my usual field corner any time  )

Here's a townies view on a mediocre night. I agree that from a truly dark sight M42 is stunning.

Mike