10/24/2017- Dark Skies, Happy Night

[Hayduke27]

It's been a busy work week, but Tuesday night was just so clear and beautiful that I felt the need to load up the truck with viewing equipment and drive the 10 minutes out to my dark site.  The moon was a small crescent already low in the sky, and it was absolutely cloudless.  I was set up by 20:15 and stayed until 01:00.  As usual, I could see Andromeda with my naked eye, and could see stars down to about magnitude 6 without visual aids. I began viewing with my Celestron 8SE scope and an Explore Scientific 18mm 82° EP, no filters.  I am using my GoTo to it's full potential, and though I have been practicing my star hopping I spent a lot of time on the GoTo this night in the interest of getting a look at a lot of objects.  I am still new enough to this whole gig that I love just to see the wonders that lie above.  Eventually I will build my skills up to the point I can just jump around in the stars like more advanced astronomers, but for now I am still on the steep learning curve and just trying to get some good viewing under my belt.

I started the night with my scope turned to the west, as I wanted to see some clusters and galaxies along the western horizon before they set.  I began the night by focusing in on M13, one of my absolute favorites.  I spent a significant amount of time staring into the star cluster and just getting lost in trying to see as many stars as I could.  I could probably stare at this object every night and never get bored.  I moved along to M28 and M22.  M22 is another beautiful cluster, and I almost got out the sketching kit but decided to do a little more sky exploration before settling onto one thing. I moved along to M14 and M10.  M10 provided another dazzling sight, and inspired me even further to do a sketch of a globular cluster soon.  I spotted M55 for my first time, which I noted was a bit less dense than some of the others I had been viewing. I saw M75 which was small but very bright and M72.  I then spotted M71 and it really made a big impression on me.  It's gorgeous and I spent a long time gazing.  Globular clusters are just so amazing. Before the night was out I also spotted M56 in Vega, which was pretty faint compared to some of the others but still a nice sight.

Before the western horizon dipped too far, I had more exploring to do.  I moved the scope to M81 and M82, my second time viewing them, and spent a lot of time panning the scope up and down between the two.  Both are lovely, and they provide a nice contrast between a straight on galaxy view and one at a slant.  After some time, I decided to move slightly southward and look for M101, which has eluded me twice in the past.  On this night, I made first light of it, and it was not an easy spot though once I found it I had no trouble observing it.  While I was at it, I added NGC 3077 to my first light list, and then decided to move further up into the sky.

M56 came next, another first light for me.  While I was there I scoped M57 just because it is always such a joy to observe.  It has quickly become one of my regular stops in the sky. I have observed it with and without a UHC filter, and either way I get a lot of excitement out of seeing such an amazing shape just hanging in the sky.  I also managed to spot NGC 0777, the Triangulum Galaxy.  I think this is one of my dimmest objects to spot so far, and I spent a lot of time examining it.  It was a true study in using my averted vision.  In the end, I decided to make a sketch (which I will post below).

Time to really start hunting.  I decided to take another stab at the Intergalactic Wanderer, an object that has fascinated me by name alone, and as of yet I had not seen.  Once again, I managed to spy this dim cluster and add another to my list.  I began to feel bold and decided to try and find another couple of objects that had given me fits in the past: IC 1396 (Elephant Trunk) and the Garnet Star.  I moved the scope in that direction, and found a tight little 3 star cluster.  I wondered if this was the Garnet Star (it wasn't) and could see no nebulosity.  I panned around a bit searching for the Garnet Star, but in the end saw neither it or the Nebula.

I decided to put on the UHC filter along with my ES 30mm 82° EP.  I searched for the California Nebula, the Heart Nebula, and the Soul Nebula.  I managed to see a little bit of dim nebula with the Heart Nebula, and maybe a little bit of the California Nebula (I saw a small round nebulosity in the area).  I'm not sure if these are darker than I anticipated, or if I might still just be using too much magnification.  I did manage to find the Bowtie Nebula (NGC 40). I took another look for the Elephant Trunk with the 30mm EP and the UHC filter, but alas no such luck.

 

I ended my night with some wonderful views of M1 and M42.  I tried and missed the Witch Head Nebula and Barnard's Loop.  I took of the filter and took a nice look at Rigel and Betelgeuse, astonished as always at the color difference between the two.  It occurred to me that in the future I'd like to add more double stars to my list.  All in all it was a wonderful night of observing, and I felt incredibly satisfied on the drive home.  I look forward to more dark skies and nights like this, though with the moon growing again I think I may have a little lunar observing to try out before then.  Thanks for reading and clear skies to you all!

 

[scarp15]

Rewarding session, good read and sketch, great that you have a dark sky location very close to home.