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M33, Trapezium E&F, Plus Doubles!


cloudsweeper

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1.50am - clear sky, still, mild, Moon gone - so off I went with the 10" Bresser Dob.

I aimed between Mirach (And) and Mothallah (Tri) - recognised a chain including the brighter HIP 7370/7516 - on to HIP7428 with its close neighbour - further hopping/pattern recognition until I was right on the region where the Triangulum Galaxy (a face-on spiral) M33 should be, confirmed by various T and triangular patterns of stars around its location.  Looking carefully, patiently, and blocking out light from the sides, it appeared as a large pale grey patch, a bit under half a degree.  Quite unmistakeable; my first sighting of this elusive object - but I hadn't used the Dob on it before!  A thrilling observation indeed, helped by darkness, lack of Moon, aperture, and altitude of target.  (The Neodymium Filter didn't improve the view.)

I took the mag from x35 to x64, and the core area stood out more clearly.  Not so good x71, 91.  I tried x31, and wouldn't have spotted it, as the exit pupil was too large so the contrast was poorer.

NGC 604 - an HII region (emission nebula) of star formation at the periphery of M33 was also clearly seen as a faint speck.

Triangulum Doubles (located using SAO numbers in Stellarium)

Sigma 183 - (2)+1 visual double - 5.6" - reached with a hop from M33 - increased from x35 - clear split x64, 91, fainter companion.  Hopped to:

6 Tri - (2)+(2) - bright visual double - 3.8" - just split x91, clearer x115, slightly fainter companion.  Another hop to:

Sigma 239 - binary - 14" - easy x35, fairly close match.  I then got 9 Tri (part of the eponymous triangle) in the Rigel, and hopped from there to:

Sigma 246 - binary - 9.6" - clear split (albeit close) x35 - better x64, fairly close match.

3.40am - by now Orion was striding towards the south, well in my view, so I finished with a look at the Trapezium open cluster in M42.  Never seen the E and F stars before, then Bingo, there they were at x144, faint, but very clear in Direct Vision!  They are a good 5" from A & C respectively, but are faint and surrounded by nebulosity, so need good transparency to show up.  I finished 10 minutes later - the mirror was fine, but the Rigel and RACI were dewy.

Two hours of pleasure - all goals reached, and new objects observed.  Well worth getting up for.  Now for a bit of sleep.......

Doug.

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1 hour ago, wookie1965 said:

Great report I've only recently seen M33 and that was at a dark sky site never seen it from my back garden ever.

I go for the doubles from home and clusters no use going for deep sky stuff.

Thanks Paul.  It's not exactly dark here - I just had good conditions and decent aperture.  Maybe you have a lot more LP than me!  Anyway, I was delighted to bag M33, and shall try my luck with other faint galaxies.  And doubles and clusters are great targets too!

 

1 hour ago, PaulM said:

Good report - hope to observe M33 later tonight

Best of luck - let us know how you get on!

Doug.

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