Messiers and faint fuzzies

[mark81]

Headed out last night with great skies. Naked eye about 5.5 mag so I took out the 10x50s and the 11x70s.  With Puppis now far enough over to avoid my neighbours tree I went and picked out M93 as a small grey cloud with just a hint of one or two of the larger stars visible with the 11x70s - that was a new messier for me.  I moved up to M46 which is much fainter as most of the stars seem to be of roughly the same mag but that's not the case with its neighbour m47 - much clearer with 6 or seven brighter stars making a sort of 'y' shape - I must sketch that next time.  Down in Monoceros M50 was easy as a light grey blob and its neighbour 2306 very very faint. 

Then two nice little clusters which sit in the same FOV but look better with the 10x50s are 2306 and bo2., They are nothing spectacular but at very low power just look nice together.  I have seen them with the ST80 at higher power but seeing too much of them spoils the view.  

M41 in Canis was faint and really does need a little more aperture to appreciate - but still a nice target low in the sky for bins.  

M42 looks amazing in the 70s and the 50s as the clarity of the nebulosity holds really well at lower power.  

M45 looked great when laying back on a recliner and while I was there the three in Auriga - all quite faint and the wonderful double cluster which is made for the 10x50s.

I finished off by having a go at m78 in Orion which I managed to see as a tiny faint ball using the 70s and averted vision.  I really was surprised to grab this one. With my arms a little shaky by this time and the moon on its way up I headed in...?

[Guest]

10 minutes ago, mark81 said:

that was a new messier for me

Always great to nab a new one.

Have a pair of 15x70's on the way.  M93 goes on the list !!