Tour with granddaughter.

[cotterless45]

Chilly out there , seeing was decidedly wobbling at times. Started off with our eldest granddaughter appearing and asking for the sky tour.

Kicked off with a lovely bright clear disc of Uranus, "can you see it by eye ?". Then chose some highlights high up to avoid not reaching the focuser.

Let's look at galaxies. Started with M31 at x30 , that got a "wow".Onto Bode's , told me the shapes and brightness. Quite some detail in M82. Chose 30 Arietis and the stunning "Piazzi's flying double" of 61 Cygni. Strange to see the Summer Triangle still up.

The "Blue Snowball" in Andromeda provided amusement , not only commented on as being blue, but magically disappearing with direct vision , "magic !" Did the same trick with the "Eskimo" in Gemini.

Our young observer had pointed out the Pleiades and got counting , young eyes ! We had a scanning look at x30. What else to amuse ?

The double cluster put the focuser nice and low and got another wow. M35 filled the screen and NGC 2169 " it's a 37 !"

Suitably returned to the warm , I continued the tour with the Trapezium, NGC 1981 and "Hagrid's Dragon " the glorious NGC 2301 in Monoceros. Caught NGC 2244 and 2264 as in the area. The sickle was up and I found Ceres, the size of India at 1.7AU.

Returning to Aries , I caught Σ326 and yellow and blue Σ394.Difficult seeing  made it difficult to split Tegmine, but M67 provided a lovely sight.

Good to have keen young eyes out there , quite a challenge to pick out highlights from the usual obscure ,

under clear skies ! Nick.

 

[Knighty2112]

 Nice report. I know. Glad your granddaughter enjoyed the views.  

Views were definitely wobbly last night, but managed some more doubles in Taurus, along with some planetaries too, Uranus as well, and a few surprise galaxies new to me. Also, M82showed some detail to me as well last night too. 

[Littleguy80]

Brilliant report, Nick. Lovely to share time with family under the stars. Memories to treasure  

[niallk]

Great report!

[mapstar]

Nice session Nick. Seems I just can't get out this winter 

[wookie1965]

I'm waiting for my granddaughter ask me for a tour but she is only 7 she does like looking through my magazines and asks questions so hopefully not too long to wait. As always great report Nick very inspiring.