Open clusters under an urban sky.....

[Stu]

...... or an 'I didn't see the HorseHead Nebula' thread

In common with quite a few of you I guess, I enjoyed some of the best skies I've seen in quite a while last night. Transparency was excellent, although the seeing seemed pretty poor to me; the few doubles I tried were not good!

I decided I would have a session almost exclusively on open clusters, mainly because I wanted to have a successful session and to properly see objects despite the small aperture at my disposal and the relatively bright skies here.

The trusty Tak FC-100DC was on my AZGTI mount which I am liking more and more. I have it set up permanently on the Gitzo with a couple of 'saddle bags' slung either side to carry the dew heaters, cables and a three way 12V connector block. I have a GPS mouse attached so no faffing with position or time when setting up, and use a Synscan Handset which I find works much better than the Synscan app. If ever SkySafari is a simple connection then I will move to that though.

The Tak is now equipped with a long dew shield with heater underneath to keep everything dry and to cut out glare too. I've also fitted a heater and dew shield to my Rigel finder. All sorted.

The whole lot is a one hand lift and I've fashioned a method of hanging the Tracer battery under the tripod to keep it off the ground and add a little weight for stability.

Eyepiece wise I used a TMB Paragon 40mm for 3.68 degree afov on the widest objects, although the sky background was a bit bright with this. Next up the 24mm Pan giving 2.2 and a 10mm Speers WALER giving 1.1 at x74. Beyond this I used the BGOs down to the 7mm I think, so this was at most a medium power session up to x105.

Enough of kit, what did I look at? As mentioned, open clusters, although I started with the Blue Snowball Nebula! In the 40mm this was essentially stellar, and I had to confirm with SkySafari which one it was. Upping the power and adding an OIII gave it some size and a tiny bit of colour, enough to be identifiable but not much to hold the attention. Bigger aperture needed to give this one some interest.

M31 was ok, showing some extent beyond the core and M32 also visible as a fuzzy stellar object.

Onto the OCs then. I spent quite some time on each object, I love picking out the tiny stars on the limit of visibility, and also the frequent doubles and triples which occur.

I started at M34, not an object I've spent much time on before, but fab in the 24mm and 10mm. Some nice fainter blue stars in the mix.

NGC752 was a major surprise, beautiful and large cluster that looked excellent in both the 40 and 24mm. Quite a few lovely little doubles buried within it and the bright double of 56 Andromeda at around 5 O'clock. It appeared to be mainly yellow/orange stars.

NGC457, an old favourite

M45, best in the 40mm which is enough to frame the whole cluster. No nebulosity visible, but the quadruple Alcyone was cracking as always.

Mel 20 was next up. I viewed in binoculars not long ago and it looked just as good at higher power where it filled the fov.

Hyades, panned around here with the 40mm

Double Cluster fitted perfectly in the fov of the Pan. Later on when the skies were darker it was stunning. Perfect Stars peppering the view.

Next a scan around Cassiopeia. So much here this is more a case of what I didn't see!

M103

NGC663

NGC659

NGC559

NGC637

NGC654

Whilst the larger clusters like 663 were very rewarding, I enjoyed the much smaller fainter ones too which needed identification on SS to be sure what I was looking at.

Auriga clusters, fabulous as always, such different characters each of them. Again, NGC1907 for example was not really visible when the scope first pointed there with the 40mm. With the 24mm I could just detect something, and then at higher power still it really sparkled with averted vision, a lovely cluster of faint stars becoming visible.

M36

M37

M38

NGC1907

NGC1893

Finally M35 in Gemini once it had got high enough. Great in the 10mm Speers WALER.

My apologies for such a long report, just relaxing on my Sunday morning and writing this as much as a record as anything else.

I'm happy because I've rediscovered some targets which are rewarding to view from home, and also feel like I've barely scratched the surface of them; there are so many more for me to go back and look at. I'm guilty of neglecting NGCs as I think they are going to be too tricky from home, but actually many are just as good if not better than the Messiers.

Back for more next clear night.

EDIT How could I forget M42 at the end. Seeing not good enough for even the E star in the Trap, but I viewed it at varying powers using NPB, and Lumicon UHC and OIII filters. With the 10mm it looked fab, plenty of structure visible in the nebulosity and bat wings with averted vision. Excellent for these skies.

[John]

Great report Stu

Open clusters are gorgeous with a fine frac. The "diamonds agaist velvet" characteristics of the view are just what you need

I agree about the seeing - not great for the closer pairs and uneven brightness ones but lovely transparency for medium power observing. 

[Pig]

Nice one Stu.... I saw all of them last night also ! !  ? seriously though .... a great night indeed but I have to say wasn’t it cold, I eventually gave up after around 3 hours because I couldn’t move for the amount of clothing I had on.    Open clusters are very nice to observe in the frac, they are almost tailor made for them .....the open clusters of course ?

[Stu]

1 hour ago, Pig said:

a great night indeed but I have to say wasn’t it cold,

It was a tad chilly, but not as cold as the night before, I was only out until 9pm and there was already frost on my scope!

[scarp15]

Very nice report Stu refreshing to focus on all the wonderful clusters presentable at the moment. NGC 752 is a really nice cluster as you mention, Nick highlighted it in a report a couple of weeks ago, characterful consisting of some interesting doubles and colour variations. I really enjoyed using my TV76 on some of the open clusters last weekend, so completely understand the appeal. 

[Littleguy80]

3 hours ago, Stu said:

My apologies for such a long report, just relaxing on my Sunday morning and writing this as much as a record as anything else.

Lovely report, Stu. I’ve taken to keeping a document updated with all the reports I’ve written for SGL to look back on in years to come. It’s been a really long time since I’ve written anything just for fun. Report writing on SGL has been a nice fringe benefit of taking up astronomy  

[Stu]

1 hour ago, Littleguy80 said:

Report writing on SGL has been a nice fringe benefit of taking up astronomy  

I often write up reports on SGL as a way of record keeping as much as for input from others. It is very nice to look back on them over the years. I know the dark site reports are of most excitement but I keep my interest by observing as much as I can from very ordinary places so try to make the best of what is on view under, say, a mag 4.5 sky, rather than giving up completely!

[Stu]

1 hour ago, scarp15 said:

Very nice report Stu refreshing to focus on all the wonderful clusters presentable at the moment.

It's funny Iain, @GavStar asked me the other night what I like viewing at this time of year, and I was a bit stumped. It felt like it was a 'post Cygnus/Sagittarius, pre Orion' time, but actually there is loads to see!!

[Astro Imp]

I enjoyed that Stu, I have spent a lot of time viewing most of the clusters you mention and had a lot of fun doing it. As you say we have to make the most of what we have and just get out there and enjoy.

Let's hope for some more clear skies although it's looking pretty grim at the moment.

[PeterW]

Darn it, wanted to give Orion a crack and when I looked out about 9 the sky seemed quite bright with very few stars so I didn’t bother.... my bad.

 

peter

[scarp15]

36 minutes ago, Stu said:

I often write up reports on SGL as a way of record keeping as much as for input from others. It is very nice to look back on them over the years. I know the dark site reports are of most excitement but I keep my interest by observing as much as I can from very ordinary places so try to make the best of what is on view under, say, a mag 4.5 sky, rather than giving up completely!

It keeps things in perspective and balance Stu, off-setting the drama of some of the dark sky reports. Equally determining the rich diversity, for when observing such as from home. I would expect no doubt you would be joining your group to go on some dark sky trips to, when possible to do so. The report writing to is a good way to gather your thoughts and document a session, as you say would be nice to look back on in years to come. Damien pointed out in a post, it can take a bit of effort to compile, I sat down the other day thinking that I had a window of opportunity to prepare mine, when my daughter sprang into the room "Dad, Mum says that we are going to the supermarket in ten minutes". From intrepid stargazing, to supermarket trolley pushing as night follows day.

[GavStar]

16 hours ago, Stu said:

It's funny Iain, @GavStar asked me the other night what I like viewing at this time of year, and I was a bit stumped. It felt like it was a 'post Cygnus/Sagittarius, pre Orion' time, but actually there is loads to see!!

Great answer to my question, Stu. I wasn't requiring you to go outside in the cold and dark to answer it though! ?

But you given me lots of suggestions to have a look at in the next few weeks. 

[Stu]

2 hours ago, GavStar said:

Great answer to my question, Stu. I wasn't requiring you to go outside in the cold and dark to answer it though! ?

But you given me lots of suggestions to have a look at in the next few weeks. 

Plenty more I missed but they should all be amazing in your new 'little' beast  

We really do need to get back to our dark site very soon if you are up for it?

[GavStar]

3 hours ago, Stu said:

Plenty more I missed but they should all be amazing in your new 'little' beast  

We really do need to get back to our dark site very soon if you are up for it?

Yes I'd like to do another dark sky visit soon particularly since there are lots of different objects to look at compared to our previous end of summer visit.

Hopefully all my new kit will arrive this week so I'll be fully ready ...

[Highburymark]

Excellent report Stu - thanks for posting

[wookie1965]

Nice report there Stu some clusters there I must visit NGC 457 is one of my favourites.

[niallk]

Great report Stu 

Itching just to use my scope again - it's been ages:  or ?????!!

[Piero]

A lot of targets in there! Nice one!  

When I visit the North-East of Italy, the sky is probably as light polluted as in London. I tend to push the magnification a little bit more to darken the background sky. Of course this is a personal thing, but I find this works better for my eye. I also use a dew/light shield over there with my dob and it does make a substantial difference in reducing stray light. I haven't one for the Tak, but who knows.. it may be added to the list in the future. 

NGC752. I like that very much too.  

[Mark at Beaufort]

A very nice report Stu. Just to add to your collection viewing star clusters you may like this document - https://www.astroleague.org/al/obsclubs/opencluster/Manual.pdf

[Stu]

On 04/12/2017 at 22:38, Mark at Beaufort said:

A very nice report Stu. Just to add to your collection viewing star clusters you may like this document - https://www.astroleague.org/al/obsclubs/opencluster/Manual.pdf

Thank you Mark, not sure how I missed your post. Will have a good read through that.