A few DSOs and a comet...

[Davesellars]

Perfectly clear skies all day and I had been keeping my fingers crossed that the fog wouldn't come down like the previous night.  With the Moon not due to rise until after 1am it was the perfect opportunity to dust off the dob.  I haven't used this scope since late 2017 due to it being pretty much impossible to get out in 2018.

So at 6pm while it was still light(ish) I lugged out the dob to its position to cool down and set up giving it a check over since it's  been so long since I used it!  I noticed the Moonlite focuser had become quite loose with the house move and lugging it back from the allotment so I tightened it up carefully to the positional stops hoping that the secondary collimation hadn't been affected with this.  With a cursory glance through the Cheshire it seemed to be OK nothing to worry about too much for now - I'll revisit this another day.  Amazingly though the primary collimation was pretty much central from the start without any adjustment - I just tightened up.  My red torch battery had gone out anyway which made it rather difficult to collimate exactly any further.  I let it be... Viewing through the beast would be a decent judge enough.  60mm finder and Rigel finder aligned up to the eyepiece with a bright stars as they were starting to come quite visible now I was set.

I went back in helped get the kids ready for bed after a quick game of chess with my eldest daughter.  Mercifully they took pretty much no time to get to sleep so I got my gear on and eyepieces / filters out to start just before 8pm...  The stars were really shining brightly - the transparency certainly seemed to be fairly high.  I thought it was just going to be a couple of hours getting back to using the dob dusting off the cobwebs so to speak...  But then this happened (sorry, this may be longish report...) :

M42/M43 - With the Delos 17.3 - Really extenive bright nebulosity showing a tinge of green in M42 with the wings arcing around considerably to fill the view.  M43 is also very bright so showing a distinct shape.  M42 I came back to numerous times duing the night.  Later once the scope had fully stabilised temperature I checked the Trapizium with the 5mm (300x)  The view was pretty steady and only touch of softness in the stars A, B, C and D which were bright.  E and F were very easily visible as fine points of light.  OK, so the collimation probably isn't too shoddy.  I also used the Baader OIII and also my Explore Scientific Ha filter

NGC 1975 - Bright reflection nebula.  Moving enough to get the brightness of M42 out of the view the reflection nebula showing nicely particularly around c Orionis and 45 Orionis its shape fairly distinct.

M81 / M82 - With the 10mm Delos this showed extensive structure throughout with mottling and very obvious dark lane cutting through diagonally at the core.  For M81 the core is very bright and large - no spiral arm structure was distinct but a considerable amount of the view surrounding the core was obviously part of the galaxy.

My wife came out and joined me for a little while - It was the first time for her using this scope.  So I showed her M42, M81/M82 and the Double Cluster - she was amazed at what could be seen especially being able to see so clearly galaxies.  The double cluster was a riot of stars filling the entire view with the Delos 17.3  She's not a fan of the cold though so she didn't stay out long!

Onwards to some fainter stuff...

M97 Owl Nebula - Without a filter this was a largish fairly bright round nebula with a touch of darkness perhaps showing inside but very difficult to discern.  I opted for the narrower band of the Baader OIII over the Astronomik OIII to prise out maximum contrast and detail here and using the 10mm Delos. Using the OIII the structure of the owl was very obvious.  Both eyes showing clearly seperated.

NGC2024 - Flame nebula - Orion was about in the perfect position now - I wanted to have a go at the Flame as I had not had good opportunity to view this before.  The transparency seemed good. Using the 17.3mm Delos with no filter I maneouvered to get the brightness of Alnitak just out of view.  Uff, this is a difficult one.  Staying at the eyepiece more time and with the slight movement of the scope I could just about make out two lighter areas with a darker lane running through it.  Very much almost averted vision stuff difficult to keep in vision for any length of time.
I decided to put in my Astronomik UHC filter unsure if this would make much difference however I was pleasantly surprised at the result!  The contrast much improved with the nebula and dark lane now quite distinct and easy direct vision.  Apart from dark lane I could not see any further detail in this nebula.  I swapped the UHC for the Explore Scientic Ha filter however this did nothing for the nebula although it was still visible.

M1 Crab nebula - It's been quite some time since I last observsed this!  With the 12" dob it was an easy object to see directly with decent contrast with the 10mm Delos.  Its oblong shape obvious but undefined at the edges I put in the Baader OIII but this actually made it somewhat smaller but a little brighter with good contrast however no details within the nebula could still be seen.  I should have used the UHC in retrospect and didn't swap the OIII for it.

M35 Open Cluster - Really lovely view with the 17.3mm Delos a variety of star colours and magnitudes filling the entire view!

IC443 Nebula - Seeing this on Sky Safari as this was close to M35 I decided to go for it...I could not see anything but should have read the info on SS as it does mention that it needs an OIII (not the Ha which I used...) So this was not visible despite spending a reasonable amount of time on it with an unflltered view.  Perhaps next time!

M36 / M37 and M38 open clusters - Good collection of clusters M37 being a particularly nice cluster with the 24mm Panoptic.

NGC 1931 Nebula - This nebula is tiny!  Obvious, even without a filter bu actually improved with the OIII and using the 7mm Pentax XW to really get in to it.  There is a very bright core to the nebula with a slight irregular shape around this core.

IC 417 Nebula - The patch of nebulosity closest to Phi Auriga which is made up of many fine stars and some brighter ones is actually like a small cluster in itself and of considerable interest.   There is a brightening within this cluster though, while not obvious seems to be the core of the nebula.  No further nebulosity could be seen further out.

C/2018 Y1 (Iwamoto) Comet - Quite a difference from my observation last week with the 120ST!  This is very much more obvious and a large area of smudge.  It seemed as though the smudge was actually brighter around the comet's core.  The shape was vaguely irregular.  Rather more impressive view although there was no tail that could be seen.

Almost 3 hours had passed and I was ready for a warm up drink so I took a break for 10 mins and planned the next lot of observation.  Leo was starting to get much higher and looking good for an assault on its bounty of galaxies...When I went out the last of the lights were out from other houses so the need to shield my eyes from this distraction constantly was much less.  Still my hoody which covers my entire head drooping over the eyepiece works fantastically here to cut out the local LP.  The 7th star of Ursa Minor was now easily visible direct vision and indeed I was able to see naked eye some other mag 5 stars. I would therefore guess the site is approx approaching 5.5 NELM if it was transparent enough and with dark adaption concentrating enough time on the sky itself - however, for now I had a bunch of galaxies to hunt down.

M65 / M66 + NGC 3628.  Really nice view of M65 and M66, with the Delos 14mm I judged this the best eyepiece for giving me the best contrast at the moment for this area.  NGC3628 while faint was easily direct vision and of considerable size - no particular core could be discerned though this galaxy is quite diffuse.

NGC 3412 Good size and quite bright galaxy appearing as a longish oval core with some extension outside of the core.

M105 + NGC 3371 + NGC 3373 - M105 and NGC 3371 are very obvious and bright with large cores.  NGC 3373 nearly kicked my butt - this is considerably fainter and quite difficult.  In the end I moved up the Delos 10mm just to hopefully get a bit of extra edge on the contrast.  Indeed this worked although this was still very difficult took some work to pry out  I wondered if the brightness of the other two galaxies was interfering with seeing this better.  The angle of the galaxy could however be seen with its oval shape.

M95 + M96 - bright small cores.

To Algieba - nice bright double star easily resolved and across

NGC 3226 + NGC 3227 - Bright spiral galaxies one overlaying the other slightly.

NGC 3193 + NGC 3190 + NGC 3185.  These three represent a nice group of galaxies. Also has NGC 3187 but for some reason I could not see this.  NGC 3190 is quite large but diffuse.  The other two are readily visible directly but faint cores.

...That pretty much completed Leo for the night.  Sure there are quite a few more to go at but I'll save them for another night.

M51 - starting to get a bit higher up now.  THe two cores really are bright and there's a smidge / scent of structure outlying from the core and the bridge vaguely visible if you imagine a bit...

M101 - Directly visible with the 17.3mm Delos without any optical antics required.  Quite extensive apart from the core - there's a hint of more there but it's not playing nicely.  Nice to see this one again though and at least proves this place isn't too bad to observe from.

It was still wondrously clear but getting kinda cold now and getting on for 1am. I think about packing up but realise Coma Berenices and Virgo is now in play!!!  So onwards...

M53 globular cluster - starting nice and easy with this glob - it's disappointingly small so I put in the 5mm Pentax which resolves it wonderfully at 300x.  The core is not particularly bright and it seems to have slightly irregular shape.  There are numerous stars visible at the periphery of the cluster becoming quite sparse.

M64 Black Eye galaxy - really great view with the 17.3mm Delos and moving in with the 14mm Delos for a bit more contrast the "black eye" core is really obvious.

Then heading in to the deep hole that is Virgo I wandered among the plethora of galaxies visible at every movement
of the scope.  Starting from M59 / M60 (always start here!) then taking the Messier galaxies: M58, M89 and M90 probably being the most difficult to observe as it's quite diffuse.  Then around Markarians Chain and noting NGC 4564, NGC 4567 and NGC 4568 and out the other end...  Another night I'll make more detailed observations of the galaxies within here - I think I still have some left from the Herschel 400 list anyway!

And that I decided was enough!  About 1:30am I packed up after over 5 hours observing and finished the night with a good dram of Scotch whisky!

Tonight it is looking good for another session as it's incredibly clear at the moment!  May need more coffee though....

[Guest]

That's a full year of my observing !!!

Super list,  will be adding a few of those to my ob's list. 

Thanks for sharing. 

[Paul73]

Great session and write up. A well earned dram! I may well follow suit tonight.

I also viewed NGC 1931 nebula last night (a first for me). Well worth a look if you are in the area.

On the glob front, M53 bright with its little NGC5053 buddy were cool, but M3 stole the show ???.

Paul

[Littleguy80]

Fantastic report, Dave. I love those sessions where time flies and you just can't stop observing. I regularly play the "I'll just see this target and then go in" game which is repeated about 10 times before I actually pack up,