Three Nights in a Row

[rockystar]

In an unusual turn of British weather, I've had three nights of observing opportunity - so I took advantage.

24/4/17

The first clear night for ages, I just had to get out - but I had no plan; so I decided to make my way through the Spring section of Turn Left at Orion. I'd start in Cancer, move over to Leo (skip UMa - I've seen everything that TLAO lists, and it's directly over head, which I find tricky to navigate to ), then Coma Berenices and finally Canes Venatici. And of course Jupiter will be in there somewhere.

Cancer

M44 (Beehive cluster) - such a lovely cluster and pretty much fills the 1.6º FOV that my ES24 gives; love this one in the finder scope too.

Zeta Canri - a nice close double, cleanly split.

M67 - a tighter and fainter cluster than M44, could resolve about 40 stars. nicely framed in the 14mm, a small cloud pass interrupted this though.

Iota Cancri - a quite striking blue/gold double, love seeing these colour combinations.

Jupiter - The clouds were passing by this bit of sky, so over to Jupite; looking pretty good, with 4 moons all on the left (in the Newt), didn't spend too much time, as this wasn't one of my targets for the evening. Clouds had passed, so back to the plan.

Leo

M65/66 - these were really faint this evening, I nearly missed them (I've seen them better than this at Home); I think a bit of experience helped with spotting these tonight.

Algeiba - A tight double, which I could just split cleanly, but either poor seeing or poor collimation prevented me from getting good, sharp stars.

It was getting late and cold, so I had to call time.

25/4/17

Clear skies for a second night, and my wife out for the evening, how could I not pick up where I left off from the night before.

Jupiter - An earlier start meant that it wasn't quite fully dark, so started with the big guy; I spent at least half an hour on it this evening and it was looking lovely, had some great views of the weather bands and the GRS was out.

Interrupted by a homecoming wife, who wanted to watch something before bed, just as I'd found my next target; so spend a bit time with her, see her off to bed and back to it. Just settled down with the target and the clouds rolled it  

There is no better way to make the clouds disappear than to pack all of your stuff away! The scope was still out, so out came everything else and eventually:

M53 - nice cluster and could just start to make out a few stars, when: more clouds!

26/4/17

I was letting the dogs out for their evening pee, and low and behold, an unprecedented third straight clear night. With still a few things to tick off the spring TLAO list, I was back out.

Jupiter - I had taken note of the moon positions for the previous 2 nights, so that was my only objective for Jupiter this evening.

Coma Berenices

M53 - Back to where I left off, and I could see a few more stars than the night before using AV.

M64 (Black Eye Galaxy) - very faint and no detail, spent a few minutes, but nothing giving up.

Canes Venatici

M3 - What a beautiful Globular Cluster, I found myself mesmerised and staring at it for ages. Loads of stars resolving in and out as I looked around. Was quite large in the FOV in the 6.5mm and still quite bright. Just a lovely view.

Clouds coming in from the north, prevented me from completing the Bootes doubles from TLAO. Virgo was still cloud free, so I thought I'd see if I could find any galaxies, not really expecting much - M60 very small and faint, and possibly M59 with AV, but I couldn't be sure, and it disappeared with direct vision.

A successful and fulfilling 3 nights, all about 1.5 to 2 hours long, and should keep me satisfied for a while.

If you've got this far, thanks for reading.

 

Lee

 

 

[cloudsweeper]

Good report Lee!  Had a few good nights recently myself, taking in some of the same objects you saw.

Doug.

[Mark at Beaufort]

Enjoyable read Lee.  There are so many objects to enjoy.

[Pondus]

Great report and great read indeed.

I find Messier 5 a more spectacular globular than M3. Somewhat easier resolved. (using 8" dob).

Also the summer beehive IC4665 is definitely Worth a look. A very Nice open cluster, a bit tricky from up here though (Bright background). 

 

Rune

[mapstar]

Nice report Lee 

[Richard Hather]

Nice report Lee, unfortunately a cold and a new series on Netflix has hampered my hopes for more sessions this week.

I have to agree with Rune M5 is stunning but M3 it's certainly one of my favourite globs hopefully we will get more clear skies next week ?

Richard

 

[alan potts]

Very nice report lee, I have had a few nights on the trot now though with the very sudden change from cold to 27 degree days the air has not been that steady, most noticable on Jupiter, didn't seem to have the same contrast as last year, maybe time to check collimation.

Alan

[rockystar]

thanks all - I don't think i could have got to M5, think it might be a bit low and a bit close to the house. I'll check next time

 

[Astro Imp]

Good to hear some of us are getting out. Great report Lee, you snagged some nice objects there.

[alan potts]

We managed 3 in a row last night, 3 great big thunderstorms in a row. The first one put a bolt of lightning of massive power only about 200 yds away, that's close enough in my books, terrible weather here.

Alan

[rockystar]

hope it picks up for you soon Alan - I guess you don't have the same lack of darkness issue, for the next 3 months, as we do?