M44 The Beehive Open Cluster

[Richard Hather]

Observing Information

DSO - M44 The Beehive Open Cluster

Date - 18/04/18

Time - 23:00

Lunar Phase - 7% Waxing Crescent

Seeing - Average

Equipment - 12” Dobsonian 

Eyepieces - 30 ES 82

Additional info - 

Finally after 5 months without a session the clouds parted when I was off work and had time I could spend enjoying the cosmos.

I feel I have to explain this long absence it is mainly due to weather and bad luck but with the birth of my 4th child Bodhi and everything else that entails it’s been a bit hectic.

Anyway onto the session I set everything up around 21:00 just as it was getting dark.

No mishaps by the way, collimating my dob went smoothly as did setup.

So what to observe first I had a small list to start with M3/M5/M13/M57/M44 Jupiter just to get me back in the groove.

I decided on sketching M44 which proved very difficult to find located at the centre of the Cancer constellation I thought I would have no trouble how wrong I was.

I literally couldn’t see any of the stars to point the way, I could see Pollux and Castor which are next door in Gemini but apart from that not much else LP is particularly bad in that area but I kept looking and eventually found what I think is M44.

What I saw was a sea of stars with the centre of the cluster having a definite yellowish tinge so some of the stars.

As I observed and sketch more and more stars became apparent and I got lost in the detail and beauty of the cluster when I did check the time it was 00:30.

After this I observed the other objects listed then called it a night.

It’s good to be back to say the least and just in time for Galaxy season.

Clear skies ✨????

Richard

[Ruud]

Good that you are back. I hope all is well now. The sketch is certainly good!

[cloudsweeper]

Nice work Richard.  Welcome back to the action, and congrats on no. 4!

Doug.

[Richard Hather]

35 minutes ago, Ruud said:

Good that you are back. I hope all is well now. The sketch is certainly good!

Thank you Ruud yeah everything’s great now, just want to have a few more cloudless nights ?

[Richard Hather]

33 minutes ago, cloudsweeper said:

Nice work Richard.  Welcome back to the action, and congrats on no. 4!

Doug.

Cheers Doug it’s good to be back can’t wait to observe some galaxy’s now ?

[Alan White]

I was wondering where you had got to Richard.
Congratulations on the arrival of Bodhi.
Nice explanation and sketch, I look forward to further postings.

One question for you, do you have to shift your dobsonian far to observe?

[Richard Hather]

12 minutes ago, Alan White said:

I was wondering where you had got to Richard.
Congratulations on the arrival of Bodhi.
Nice explanation and sketch, I look forward to further postings.

One question for you, so you have to shift your dobsonian far to observe?

Thank you Alan, it’s great to be back I hope the weather plays ball for me now ?

He really is amazing, mother and child are 100% healthy ?

I observe from my back yard and store my dob inside my house in a cupboard nice and safe.

I wheel the dob whole to my back door then move it in 2 pieces pretty straightforward really.

 

[Alan White]

9 minutes ago, Richard Hather said:

Mother and child are 100% healthy ?

Richard, sorry in my keenness of posting I forgot to ask this, glad both are well.

Thanks about the dob, I am looking at this myself, but may need to move it about so was curious.
I know I can man handle a 250mm but unsure any bigger due to my back.

[Richard Hather]

If I’m 100% honest it’s pretty heavy only when I’m bringing it back in after a nice long session.

But usually the excitement of the night and adrenaline makes it easier.

If you don’t have steps and don’t have to move it far you should be ok and attaching wheels with a stop clip on one of the wheels to keep it stationary is a must in my opinion.

How far would you have to move it and we’re would you store the scope?

Just for extra info I’m 32 and I’ve never had back problems.

[Paz]

Great report and sketch. M44 is a pain to find, but I think it was the first open cluster I ever looked at through a scope - because at the time Jupiter was close by and it was easy to hop over. However since then I've not always succeeded in finding it when its been on my list.

[Richard Hather]

Cheers Paz it took me a while to find it as I couldn’t make out any stars round it through my telrad.

Definitely worth the effort though ?

[N3ptune]

Very nice sketch @R.H. What a perfect large target for your 30mm 82 degree too. I think your sketch is very good, I compared it with one I did before and they match quite well. (considering there were done by humans). a great target and a difficult one too because it has a lots of stars, its an endurance exercise.

Thanks for showing us your sketch log!

[Richard Hather]

13 minutes ago, N3ptune said:

Very nice sketch @R.H. What a perfect large target for your 30mm 82 degree too. I think your sketch is very good, I compared it with one I did before and they match quite well. (considering there were done by humans). a great target and a difficult one too because it has a lots of stars, its an endurance exercise.

Thanks for showing us your sketch log!

Thank you Neptune, we do our best with the eyes we have ?

It certainly was a great target to get back on the wagon with.

I would be interested to see you sketch always nice to compare other sketches to your own ?

[des anderson]

That`s a great sketch, congrats on both......Des

[N3ptune]

30 minutes ago, Richard Hather said:

Thank you Neptune, we do our best with the eyes we have ?

It certainly was a great target to get back on the wagon with.

I would be interested to see you sketch always nice to compare other sketches to your own ?

You seem to have good eyes! from a good sky it's a naked eye target too, a very impressive and large patch, but not visible naked eye from my home. 

Welcome back to observation and congratulation for you 4th child too! The last 2 months were very disappointing for me too, you are not alone in this coming back (at least I am trying to get back on the wagon too)

My sketch is there.

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/309884-cancer-beehive-cluster-and-orion-m78-reflexion-nebula/

 

[mariosi]

Beautifully done! 

Marios