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Dob Exorcises Ghost


cloudsweeper

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Two+ hours yesterday evening with the 10" Dob again.  There have been several references on SGL to Mirach's Ghost (NGC 404, an almost face-on lenticular/"field" galaxy), but I just hadn't got round to it, so I put Mirach in the Rigel circles knowing that MG would be right in that FOV.

At x35, the exit pupil was large, so the galaxy didn't show up against the sky, but at x64,  a small pale patch was noticeable in AV.  x91 improved the contrast and the view.  So - another elusive fuzzy bagged by the Dob. 

Aljanah (Cyg) next, and a few hops from there to the Eastern Veil emission nebula - a big wide arc occupying most of the 2deg FOV, and exhibiting a definite shape.  (I've seen it before, but perhaps not as clearly and readily.)  OIII filter used.

To finish, I scanned across the rich starfields of Cygnus.  Looking along the Milky Way there gave the impression of observing a huge open cluster - very rewarding.

Doug.

 

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A nice report. I like the way you take every opportunity and it's great that you take the time to report. This sort of thing keeps me enthused on these rainy days. I really like Mirach's ghost- easy to find, difficult to see. 90x worked for me too and I was surprised to see it. Your Autumn transparency must be good.

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39 minutes ago, domstar said:

A nice report. I like the way you take every opportunity and it's great that you take the time to report. This sort of thing keeps me enthused on these rainy days. I really like Mirach's ghost- easy to find, difficult to see. 90x worked for me too and I was surprised to see it. Your Autumn transparency must be good.

Thanks, Dom.  Like many others, I find that sharing enhances the joy of what you've observed, and reading what others have seen helps enormously with both ideas for targets and techniques/gear for viewing. 

D.

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Nice work Doug. I was out last night trying to see the asteroid  Xanthippe occult a 12.5 magnitude star, but even with my C8 the mag 14 asteroid wasn’t visible with the conditions. Maybe if I’d have been at a dark sky site I would have bagged it. Anyhoo, I then had a trawl around the skies looking at some planetaries, and finished off with Uranus and Neptune, but did look at Mirach’s ghost too. Transparency wasn’t great as I’d tried M82 earlier and could barely see it well, but could just see the glow of the ghost. Got back inside after an hour as it was bitter outside. 

Edited post to get the asteroid name correct. Spell check changed it to some thing totally different. :( 

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4 minutes ago, Knighty2112 said:

Nice work Doug. I was out last night trying to see the asteroid  anthem occult a 12.5 magnitude star, but even with my C8 the mag 14 asteroid wasn’t visible with the conditions. Maybe if I’d have been at a dark sky site I would have bagged it. Anyhoo, I then had a trawl around the skies looking at some planetaries, and finished off with Uranus and Neptune, but did look at Mirach’s ghost too. Transparency wasn’t great as I’d tried M82 earlier and could barely see it well, but could just see the glow of the ghost. Got back inside after an hour as it was bitter outside. 

Thanks Gus - must have been bad if you could barely see M82!   Cold - Yes, 2+ hours was enough pleasure for one night!

D.

(BTW - where's the dog gone??)

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On 30/10/2018 at 08:49, cloudsweeper said:

Thanks Gus - must have been bad if you could barely see M82!   Cold - Yes, 2+ hours was enough pleasure for one night!

D.

(BTW - where's the dog gone??)

Thought it was time for a picture change as alas I lost my little pal earlier this year in March. :( 

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