The night garden guest.

[cotterless45]

The intro.

Welcome the unexpected visitor armed with binoculars, cake and questions. No panic, the sky wasn't it's best.

You can't really ignore the guy a few doors away who stars cutting up patio slabs at 9, the eye watering intoxicating fumes of smokey substance wafting across. Then there's the 10,000 Watt security light next door that bleaches Orion out.

Questions ? "Winter Albireo, can we have a look , we won't get the one under Sirius yet ?" " Can you show me where "Kemble's Cascade "is ? " Can we look at some colourful and interesting binaries ?"   Err, that'll be a big grin and a yes from me.

Walk this way , open the light absorbing curtains to the observing arena. Don't move around too much , one day I'll replace the slabs with concrete, just before Hell freezes over. Ignore the nutter with the angle grinder and don't breathe in too deeply  as you're driving back . Just close your eyes when everything goes white and ignore the sky in the south west, arc lights from the golf driving range . Ignore the fact that folk don't have curtains , enjoy.

 

Kick off. C6r on .Heq5pro.
Enjoy by constellations.

Auriga. The lovely overlooked diamond and colours to the open cluster NGC 2281.  M37.  Always a treat.

Gemini. " The Eskimo" NGC 2392, take it up to x216 for the central star and the hood . No better with an Oiii filter. It's some 3000 light years away.M35 , stunning. Mu Geminorum,good red primary. Wasat , spot the companion out of the primary glare.  38 Gem. great triple.

Perseus. Double cluster at x30 " could just sit here and look at this".

Cepheus .The "Garnet Star", gasp of wow. I put a 4.5inch aperture mask on ( looked better on the scope!) to pull the colour out.

 "Kemble's Cascade", top span on Cassiopeia. Go that span to the left. As it's now upright   .that'll be above it,a bit of neck ache and a few nearly fallings over ,but the chain to the pole is there.

Monoceros. Again NGC2301, "Hagrid's Dragon", fill the eyepiece at x100. Wings , neck and landing wheels. Beta Monocerotis, beautiful triple, but seeing wasn't that good. NGC2264 and the Christmas tree, bit bleached over the metropolis.

Orion. We put in the Oiii, but there was plenty green colour to nebulosity without it. NGC2169 and the reversed "37".  NGC 1981, sigma Orionis and a binocular view of Meissa.   New one for me, go half a degree south of Betelgeuse and there are the lovely wide twins of Σ817 (SAO 113266) , with Betelgeuse to the side of the view, tasty . We dropped down to Lepus to get "Hind's Crimson", not at its best guessing it was at the low bit of variability.

Cancer, iota, the other "Winter Albireo ", another wow, on with mask and a long lingering observe of this most glorious of colourful  wide pairs. M44 filled the view, now visible by eye, sky was getting better. A fine view of Ceres, we checked against SkySafari, caught by a triangle of stars.

Taurus. " those two close stars in Hyades are they binary ?", yep , only those and Alcor Mozart by eye. Time to point out that Aldebaran is half way to us and not a member of the cluster.       59 Tau gave blue and gold (SAO 76573) and it was a delightful stunning view of another double double ,Σ7 and Σ401 (SAO 75979) that kept us looking. These are paralell and different. Why folk try to chase fuzzy things from the edge of town escapes me, when there are easy and beautiful targets.

Ursa Major . 65 UMa (SAO 43945), an old favourite and a lovely triple. Σ 1603, because they are alone in the fov, they do look like headlights in the dark. "Bode's", M81 looked better than its neighbour.

If you collect info, it'll come in useful to share the views. Here's some I made earlier !
Light cloud was coming in and within minutes , it went from nicely dark to gone. Very interesting session,we managed a few more of the best and most colourful binaries.

To have a very appreciative observer is a great bonus, to select from the very best of the sky gave us some great views, under clear skies !
Nick.

 

[domstar]

It sounds wonderful- and cake too.

[alan potts]

I like cake but not neighbours always a nice report from you Nick. One of the things that was solidly in my mind when I bought where I am now, no one for about 90 meters, and now that's empty. Sadly the town has had a change of lighting which has affected the SE sky area slightly but 4 miles away so not serious.

[estwing]

A grand tour Nick and lucky for some of us we only have to put up with clouds!..with all that going on I would expect Candid Camera to appear!...clear skies!

[Pig]

Great report Nick ..... a colourful evening in more than one way ?

[Patbloke]

As the 'Unexpected Visitor' I can confirm that the evening was indeed superb (as usual)

Here's the thing with Astronomy and Astro folk - there is a genuine willingness to share the Astro experience with everyone and anyone who shows an interest.

It is true the observation platform slabs wobble a bit (especially after three hours in when I decide that jumping up and down will somehow make me warmer!) and Yes - the occasional pungent aroma in the air made me feel like I was back at the Crystal Palace Bowl back in the 70's watching Bob Marley singing his tunes before Joe Jackson appeared on stage calling us all bad names (weird fella) 

It's always a great evening with Nick but I wonder if the copious amounts of childish laughter at your neighbour when he/she started to grind concrete at 9 in the evening was indeed enhanced by the 'atmosphere'? 

 

For me, the most delightful observations of the night were indeed those binaries/doubles/triples.... the 'Eyes in the Forest'... Beta Monocerotis (despite me calling it Beta Monasaurus a million times were amongst the delightful targets). 

Your copy of Sissy Haas Double Stars for telescopes is a joy to flip through... With the hours and hours of research included together with observation notes and drawings is probably one of the wonders of the world in itself! What price would that beauty fetch at auction??? Shamefully this morning I look at my copy and feel rather flat that it's still in mint condition hardly ever opened! 

 

What to learn from the evening? - Check your weather apps every day and when you see a clear evening/night predicted make a move, mobilise yourself with some equipment, get out there and enjoy the wonders that inspired you to originally invest in your gear... Sharing the experience is a wonderful thing, especially if you can find yourself a wizard like Nick who has such knowledge, experience and laughs as often as he draws breath...................... Mind you that may be down to his observing location? :-)

 

[wookie1965]

Cracking report there sounds like a good evening I will be copying this and writing the notes in my sissy hass book for future reference.

[kerrylewis]

Great report (and follow up by your guest). I’ve started a section in my targets book headed Nick’s Posts