Nice deep sky session tonight

[John]

Nice clear night tonight. Transparency is not bad. No moon around. Had the 12" dob out for a couple of hours cruising around looking for galaxies and anything else that took my interest.

Managed to find a whole bunch of galaxies in varous parts of the sky ranging from M31 at 2.2 million light years out to NGC 315 which is around 204 million light years distant. Other highlights included the rather nice open cluster Collinder 21 in Triangulum, Uranus at 400x or so, NGC 604, the massive nebula within the Triangulum Galaxy (M33), a bright fireball that plunged Earthwards through Auriga, The Crab nebula (M1) unusually clear and contrasty and finally a quick dip into M42 in Orion to gaze at the sprawling nebulosity with 6 Trapezium stars very clearly glowing within it.

Just used the one eyepiece for all this apart from Uranus and the fireball and that was the marvellous 21mm Ethos. No filters used.

Cold by the time I packed in so having a glass of shiraz to warm up !

 

   

[Paz]

Nice report, a lot of good objects. I've just come in from a session trying out the C8, but I should not be up so late on a week night!

[alan potts]

Nice report John, wall to wall grey and damp here mate.

Alan

[Stu]

Glad you got out John. Had a quick look with the binos between some light patchy cloud but it looks like it was a lovely clear night here.

[GavStar]

Nice one John. As you know I also enjoyed the clear skies last night. I saw M1 for the first time. A lot less clearly than you saw it by the sounds of it - aperture and dark skies a great help on this object I think.

[Stu]

Just popped the Tak out to try my luck given the forecast, only to watch the clouds roll in. Hopefully it will clear later. It is great to be seeing so many reports of clear skies for once!!

[GavStar]

18 hours ago, John said:

Nice clear night tonight. Transparency is not bad. No moon around. Had the 12" dob out for a couple of hours cruising around looking for galaxies and anything else that took my interest.

Managed to find a whole bunch of galaxies in varous parts of the sky ranging from M31 at 2.2 million light years out to NGC 315 which is around 204 million light years distant. Other highlights included the rather nice open cluster Collinder 21 in Triangulum, Uranus at 400x or so, NGC 604, the massive nebula within the Triangulum Galaxy (M33), a bright fireball that plunged Earthwards through Auriga, The Crab nebula (M1) unusually clear and contrasty and finally a quick dip into M42 in Orion to gaze at the sprawling nebulosity with 6 Trapezium stars very clearly glowing within it.

Just used the one eyepiece for all this apart from Uranus and the fireball and that was the marvellous 21mm Ethos. No filters used.

Cold by the time I packed in so having a glass of shiraz to warm up !

 

   

Hi John, what did Uranus look like at 400x? I was viewing it st around 175x and wondered whether there is anything more to be seen?

[GavStar]

2 hours ago, Stu said:

Just popped the Tak out to try my luck given the forecast, only to watch the clouds roll in. Hopefully it will clear later. It is great to be seeing so many reports of clear skies for once!!

Hope it clears for you Stu. Looks clear here tonight only a few miles away but no observing tonight for me - ? and ? instead 

[Stu]

32 minutes ago, GavStar said:

me - ? and ? instead 

Sounds like an interesting combination Gavin. Don't spill your beer!  

[Piero]

Nice report!   Yesterday was indeed a nice and sufficiently steady evening.

I managed a nice observation of Cetus A, and unsuccessfully attempted to spot something on the chain of galaxies near Algol. The open clusters (M- and bright NGC-) inside Auriga looked just great. Later on, I visited Taurus and its open clusters placed within the "V". As for Gavin, it was the first time I observed M1 with the Tak. I did not expect it so large, I have to say. No much detail at any magnification, but still rather easy to spot with direct vision. Orion was the last observed constellation. Again, another "first time" of M42-43 for this Tak. Very impressive. The two bat wings extended nicely, leaving this curtain of gas spreading down. Rather distinct were the Fish mouth and the Bright bar features along the connection of the two wings. M43 was also well depicted with nice contrast separating it from M42. The Running Man nebula was just the final touch of beauty to the whole picture. 

[John]

2 hours ago, GavStar said:

Hi John, what did Uranus look like at 400x? I was viewing it st around 175x and wondered whether there is anything more to be seen?

I could not see any detail on the disk Gavin although the disk was quite crisply defined considering the magnification being used. What I was looking for were the brighter Uranian moons but I didn't see those last night.

[chiltonstar]

Glad someone enjoyed last night.....it was raining freezing dew here! I did just about spot the HH though! Same warmup procedure as you - best Oz Shiraz, 14% and enough tannin to kill a horse.

Chris

[John]

1 hour ago, chiltonstar said:

Glad someone enjoyed last night.....it was raining freezing dew here! I did just about spot the HH though! Same warmup procedure as you - best Oz Shiraz, 14% and enough tannin to kill a horse.

Chris

If I'd seen the HH I'd have drained a whole bottle !

[DeepSkyBagger]

You don't mention many of the galaxies that you saw. When you looked at NGC 315, did you happen to see little NGC 311 in the same field? 

Here's my observation, made about 3 years ago with the same sized instrument as yours.

[chiltonstar]

6 hours ago, John said:

If I'd seen the HH I'd have drained a whole bottle !

Liver won't take it these days.....

I've looked many times, but it was the first time I've really convinced myself I've seen it - not very impressive though really compared with a globular cluster or the MW on a good night!. The seeing was poor, but the transparency really excellent and Orion in my darkest area of sky.

Chris

[Moonshane]

Great report. Did yo need a filter for Ngc 604?

[Special K]

Nice report!  Taking in some interesting objects with fine optics, and capping that off with a warming drink sounds satisfying!

[John]

On 18/11/2017 at 09:11, Moonshane said:

Great report. Did yo need a filter for Ngc 604?

No. It was quite clear without. I was tempted to use the DGM NBP and seach for other nebulous patches within M33 but I saved that for another time.

[John]

On 18/11/2017 at 03:00, DeepSkyBagger said:

You don't mention many of the galaxies that you saw. When you looked at NGC 315, did you happen to see little NGC 311 in the same field? 

Here's my observation, made about 3 years ago with the same sized instrument as yours.

Nice sketch Patrick

I overlooked NGC 311 but at mag 14 I'd not have got it on this occasion. My limiting mag for this session seemed to be around 12.5. It was a reasonable night for here but not the best I can get.

In some reports I do list all the targets I've observed but I kept this one short and just noted "highlights"

[DeepSkyBagger]

13 hours ago, John said:

I overlooked NGC 311 but at mag 14 I'd not have got it on this occasion.

311 is magnitude 13.0 and has a surface brightness also of 13.0. It's nice and compact, so given just slightly better conditions, you should get it. The sky conditions when I made this observation were not very good. Decent magnification helps, my observation was made at x150. I did know in advance that it would be there, in the same field somewhere, and that helps too!

There's yet another galaxy in the field (just outside my observation). About the same distance NE of 315 as 311 is SW of it. This is NGC 318, but at mag 14.2, I wouldn't have had a chance.