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A good session after all

Piero

By Piero
in Observing - Reports

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Piero

Piero

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According to the weather forecast, it was supposed to be cloudy and rainy/snow this evening, but clear around 9pm. Therefore, I quickly sorted out my equipment for a short session. As soon as everything was ready, the sky was completely clouded. BUT, who knows... let's wait for 10 minutes.. and hurrah the sky was clear again. :headbang2: I started this session a bit in a hurry as was not sure how long it was supposed to last. However, luckily, the sky remained clear all evening. :icon_biggrin:

Equipment: Tak 100 f7.4, 35Pan, Docter, Zeiss Zoom, VIP 2.23x, and the super Russian Monk hood. Sky: slightly windy in the beginning, but steady and transparent afterwards. -1C. Moonless evening.

So, here we go. The trip started with the classical M36-M37-M38 in Auriga as these were nicely placed in the sky. Of course, M45 could not be avoided. Such a lovely target! The Hyades cluster in Taurus was next with the beautiful Aldebaran shining high to east of this medium/large size cluster. A gradual movement to east, and NGC 1647, popped up. I don't know why Stellarium calls it `Pirate Moon cluster`. Personally I didn't see any Moon or Pirate in it. Apart from this, it is a nice cluster in the middle of the constellation of Taurus and rather easy to spot. Its brother, NGC1746 is located slightly north-east and is another interesting cluster to zoom in. Finally, about 1 degree north of Tianguan, Zeta Tau, there is M1. It appeared like a cloud at 21x, but its detection was easier at higher mags (50-100x).  Between Tianguan and Meissa (delta Orionis), there is a nice area of stars to observe with at low power with a wide field telescope+eyepiece, and it contains the Ruby star, or 119 Tau, 115 and 111 Tau. I first saw this area with my TV-60 some time ago, but it is also very pretty with the Tak 100 at 3 degrees FOV in my opinion. Later on, I moved on Orion's shield. There is a little open cluster, NGC1662, that I casually spotted again with the TV-60, and I was interested to see this again. It's a bit lonely in the area and does not contain many stars. I totally forgot to catch the `Poor Man's double cluster`, or NGC1817-NGC1807, whose name seems curious.. Time to visit Gemini, and in particular, M35, NGC2392 (the Eskimo nebula), and Castor. M35 was lovely to observe. I could have spent one evening just on this target, and the more I zoomed in the more little stars popped up. It was the first time I observed the Eskimo with this telescope, and I have to say that it showed up pretty well as a nice ball with a thicker border. It was easily visible from 25mm to 6.7mm, filterless. Meanwhile, Orion was coming up. Sigma Orionis, just below Alnitak and next to the challenging target B33, the Horse Head, is a nice system of multiple stars. One of the gems in this constellation, I have to say, and it is always a pleasure to re-visit. Moving south towards Orion's sword, The Running Nebula-M43-M42 and the star Hatysa were wonderfully shining. M42 was interesting at low power, but because of these moderately light polluted skies, I prefer the view at medium magnification. At 60-70x it showed plenty of details, in terms of shades and "waves" within the "bat body". This "box" containing the trapezium was well defined, with a distinct bright bar visible. The fish mouth was also well represented with a clear contrast. South of the "bat body" there was a nice cloud of equal size which popped up nicely with adverted vision. I put some effort in detecting the shadow of the southeast bat wing, but only the initial part starting from the fish mouth was detectable. Unfortunately, my eye is not trained enough for clearly state that part of the southern loop was detectable. I was not using any filter, and I suspect there was some faint patch of gas here and there where the loop was expected, but this needs more study to be confirmed. The trapezium was lovely to see. At 103x, E was visible with direct vision almost all the time, whereas F was visible time to time. 

And that's it for today. :) 

Thanks for reading, 

Piero

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Piero

Piero

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2 minutes ago, Cjg said:

Great to read you managed some time tonight Piero.

What do you think your chances are of seeing B33 with your Tak? 

Chris

Thank you, Chris. :)

Under my current sky.. no chance. Anyway, I think I can survive even if I won't see black horse heads in the sky. There are so many interesting targets to observe and I feel more rewarding. A reasonably good view of the rosette nebula would be much more intriguing in my opinion. Of course the HH is a tough challenge and people often like challenges. I do understand this. :)

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Paz

Paz

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Great report. I was hoping to get out this evening but I've only just surfaced from jobs and it's bedtime!

Regarding NGC1647 this was named the pirate moon cluster by Stephen OMeara. He said that in binoculars it was a ghostly round glow a bit larger than a full moon. It features as number 27 in his Hidden Treasures book.

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F15Rules

F15Rules

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Lovely report Piero. 

I thought I was in for a session too, got the FS128 AND the ED103s both out, wrapped up well, and then had to fiddle with the Vixens RACI finder, get EPs and seats sorted etc.

I then just got both scopes centred on the double double in Lyra and ... Got called in to help my wife buy something on eBay...came back out after 10mins, to find wall to wall cloud!??.

No quick sign of it clearing (8.30), so packed everything up again..

Had a look at bedtime after watching "Bancroft" on TV, and  it was clear as a bell again!

Too late to get everything out again (work today), so got the Opticron 10x50s out for 10mins and scanned Orion and Auriga..made me feel a bit better, got lovely views of the Auriga cluster trio, Hyades, Pleiades, M35 and M42.. and I counted almost 30 stars inside the Orion main asterism, so it was a very clear sky, in the end☺.

So I lived my planned scope session vicariously through your report, Piero! Thanks?

Dave

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Stu

Stu

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11 hours ago, Piero said:

Absolutely! And the wind was almost absent over here at least. How was the seeing in London?

Seeing wasn't brilliant but otherwise was quite a nice night. I must take my scope up onto the Heath again soon where I expect the seeing would be better away from the houses. I can often get E in the Trap but struggle with F. Combination of LP and seeing probably. My sky was mag 19.1 last night at the zenith, surprising it was still 18.5 plus down at about 25 degrees.

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Piero

Piero

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13 minutes ago, Hayduke27 said:

Likewise!  I need to find this one and scope it out!  Great report!

@Hayduke27 , @Littleguy80 

It is not difficult to find. You can find it from Aldebaran, Ruby star, Meissa, or the tip of Orion's shield:  

The Poor man's double cluster is right in the middle. Magnitudes:7.70 and 7. Sizes: 16' and 17' .

poor_man_dbl_cluster.thumb.png.6d13a5a727f50374de76260be367b4a4.png

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