An unconventional session

[John]

I've posted bits and pieces of my observations tonight (20/21 March 2017) around the forum in various threads but I thought I'd pull together a summary here of what has been a rather different session for me.

It started with the promise of a clear early evening so I put my 130mm refractor out to cool while I ate supper. Immediately after that I took my 11x70 binoculars upstairs where I have a more uncluttered western view. My targets were Venus with it's very slim phase (1.9% illuminated) and the nearby Mercury, which I've not seen for quite a few months. Both were successfully observed and the phase of Venus was very clearly shown in the binoculars.

The 130mm refractor was cooled but the clouds had also arrived and thickened to the point where they produced a fine drizzle. Rather dissapointing but I had no choice but to bring the big refractor in. I thought that might be the end of observing for the night.

A couple of hours later and a good sized clear patch of sky appeared and seemed stable. Jupiter (my original target for the 130mm refractor) was showing above the rooflines. I decided to pop my Tak 100 refractor out on a lightweight mount and see what I could do with the giant planet and a barely cooled scope. The views were very good and although the Great Red Spot was exiting the disk, I had some excellent views of the cloud belts, detail within them, a couple of equatorial zone festoons and the re-appearance from behind the planet of Io followed a while later by Ganymede. Very enjoyable and the 100mm aperture scope excelled itself here

Enter some more clouds though so I packed the Tak refractor inside, made a coffee and had a glass of Shiraz to help it on it's way

Well after midnight I read a post on here about the comet Comet 41P Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak and realised that it would be well placed in Ursa Major. Checking outside, the skies had cleared again so I quickly put out my 12" dob on the basis that at least the large aperture should be able to "nail" the magnitude 7-8 comet. Well so it did and I enjoyed some very nice views of 41P TGK laying reasonably close to the star Merak. Tomorrow evening it should be close to Messiers 97 (Owl nebula) and 108 (galaxy) so I had a look at that pair for old times sake as well. Very rewarding because the sky had assumed good transparency and both these DSO's stood out well in the same wide and low power field of view. The Owl Nebula was particularly impressive considering that I was not using a filter of any sort (I usually use a UHC or O-III filter to bring out the best in this object).

As the 12" dob was in the right position I had a browse around other parts of the Great Bear and picked up Messier 51, the Whirlpool Galaxy, rather easily. What an excellent view I had of this one. It was practically overhead and at 90x the two galactic cores were bright and clear and the extended halo around the brighter M51 was showing clearly descernable spiral structure. Best I've seen this object for quite some time !.

I moved over to my favorite galaxy pairing of Messier 81 and 82 and these presented extremely well too. M82 is such a fascinating structure and it's dark rifts were clearly showing bisecting the elongated "cigar" of the galactic disk. To set the scene off further, the fainter oval of NGC 3077 completed a lovely triplet in the wide expense of space that the Ethos 21mm eyepiece was showing me through my 12" dob. Wonderful

So 4 instruments were deployed during this session but only 3 were actually put to use. The 130mm frac will have to wait for another opportunity but it's companions certainly showed their strengths and the overall result has been one of the best observing sessions that I have had for some time

 

[FenlandPaul]

Very nice report, John.  Sometimes it's best just to make it up as we go along!  It's promising to be clear here tonight so I would love another look at 41P near the Owl..  Also need to get my first proper look at Jupiter for the season.

Best

Paull

[Tigaroo]

Wow! You had a lot more success than me! Really good nights observing though . Grabbed 25x70's and 8x32's while the scopes cooled down. Just got Venus but my location is horrible for that ....looking straight up a main road full of street lights . Some great views later using the new 32mm on 8" Dob, praesepe , M36, M37 hunted for Leo triplet without success . Beautiful view of Orion Nebula through bins and scope . Relocated to another horrible sodium light polluted sight to get Jupiter ...bit dissapointing and everything dew soaked by this time ! Great evening though! 

[Pondus]

Very interesting read .

I nearly always find Ursa Major area in an akward  position for observing With the dob. I really struggle With zenith observations.

I`ll give it a go on wednesday, weather forecast looking promising atm.

Rune

[Tigaroo]

Need to be a contortionist with zenith viewing, very uncomfortable! 

[Tim]

Glad you had a decent night in the end John, I enjoyed reading your report.

I finally gave up around 3am, dissappointed with the patchy scudding clouds with occasional drizzle, but in between clouds the skies were the most transparent  I have seen for many weeks, maybe months.

I've been using/reviewing a small refractor, and took the opportunity to do some visual tests. M81 and 82 rarely fail to please, but I wish I'd read about the comets....

Ended up with some quite useable galaxy cluster photos in Leo and Ursa major, hopefully good enough to make it to print.

If it is clear tonight it'll be comet time though!

 

[chiltonstar]

Sounds like a nice evening John - best to play it "ad hoc" sometimes, particularly with UK observing conditions!

Chris

[laudropb]

Lovely report John. A most enjoyable read. You certainly had a busy session and were amply rewarded for your efforts. No chance here last night. Strong winds and scudding clouds. Woke up this morning to a covering of snow.

[John]

1 hour ago, Tigaroo said:

Need to be a contortionist with zenith viewing, very uncomfortable! 

I use a right angled finder on my dob as well as the Rigel (Telrad-like) finder. Also the eyepiece is at standing height (the tube is nearly 6 feet long) so the contortions are not so bad.

[Mark at Beaufort]

A great read John. I also used the 12" Dob last night and was viewing similar DSOs to you. I did observe about 6 galaxies in Draco and will produce a report at some stage today.

[Owmuchonomy]

Nice account.  You did well to find a night to spot 41P. By all accounts its a 'fast mover'.  Jupiter has just been pants for me every time I've tried recently.

[John]

5 minutes ago, Owmuchonomy said:

Nice account.  You did well to find a night to spot 41P. By all accounts its a 'fast mover'.  Jupiter has just been pants for me every time I've tried recently.

Thanks.

I'm hoping for a clear spell tonight - Comet 41P should be close to M97 and M108 and could make a fine widefield sight

 

[Owmuchonomy]

I will set up the 120ED but to be honest the forecast is rough up here for tonight.  Thursday looks very good but it will have moved on by then.

[Davey-T]

A good nights haul John, set up the imaging rig without any hassle for once so thought I'd have a look for 41P/TGK, unfortunately wasted ages trying to find it using co-ords from Stellarium phone which were completely wrong, by the time I discovered that clouds were appearing, may have glimpsed it with 10"SCT but couldn't swear to it.

As mentioned by others between the clouds the sky was excellent.

Dave

[scarp15]

Enjoyable read, a really good account as to the diversity of what is presently out there to observe. Good approach employing a mix of observational tools, kind of multi tasking but at a nice systematic pace. It must have been clear over wide swathes of the country last night as clear here to, promising forecast currently for into the weekend.