Opportunity vs conditions = bane of my life

[Ally8446]

As the title suggests, it's not very often that I get the opportunity to got to my dark site at the same time as there is no moon about and it isn't cloudy.

It all came together perfectly on Friday 29th. Car all packed early as I was able to get away from work mid afternoon. Arrived dark site (Bortle 3) around 18:45, set up, checked collimation, it would need a tweak before astronomical darkness but left it to reach equilibrium first. By 8pm and a few cups of tea I was ready to go so popped in the ES24 giving me x68 mag.

M42/M78 -  (default) . Never fails to astound me, the trapezium really pops although I couldn't quite see the two binaries. I put that down to the elevation of Orion itself as I'm certain my mirror would normally be able to resolve all 6 stars. I really love how defined the cloud is with amazing structure. Swapped down to ES14 giving me x117 mag. Spent roughly 30 minutes just touring the entire cloud. Jaw dropping.

M1 -ES24 -  Irregular in shape but I could just about make out a faint 's' shape after 15 mins of studying. I saw more structure in it when I was in Scotland back in November but then it was Bortle 2 skies.

M108 & M97 Owl  - ES24 - M108 First time for me this one. No pronounced central core although I think I could discern some dusty regions, could be wrong. Owl was quite startling as immediately I could see both darker patches, I presume these are the 'eyes' of the Owl.

M101 - ES24 - Faint structure visble but a clear dense core and I think hints of nebulosity. I switched down to ES14 to try and tease out a little more detail.

M51 - ES24 - It was obvious to see why it's referred to as a 'grand design' galaxy. Along with its neighbour NGC5195, it really is a sight to behold. A fair amount of structure and bright dense core, hints of a few dust lanes. I tried to discern any kind of view of the bridge connecting the two but to no avail.

M63 - ES24 - Not sure about this one but I think the core had a tiny hint of yellow to it, I'm open to correction on this. Changed to ES14 and was surprised to see notes of the spiral arms.

Leo Triplet - ES24 - All three in the FOV. Very little, if any, structure seen.

M95/M96/M105 - ES24 - This is just a beautiful area to spend time cruising between the three, trying to tease out the slightest little detail. M96 clearly the brightest.

NGC3681/3684/3686 - ES24 - This is where I'm expecting someone to say 'nah mate, you got that one wrong'. I swear I could see three faint fuzzies, mostly with AV. I was that convinced I even did 'The Dance' from Evan Almighty 

I finished with the Double Cluster. Reason ? It's an incredible sight albeit I couldn't fit the entire area in my FOV. Still got to clear it with SWMBO to buy a 30-34mm WA EP.

All in all I had a cracking time. Arrived 18:45, vacated 00:10 as I was frozen to the bone. Don't you just love this hobby.....I know I do 

Clear skies one and all

Ally

 

 

 

 

 

[Hughsie]

Great report.

When it all comes together who cares about the cold, dew, wires everywhere, polar alignment, neighbours lights, wife switching lights on, cat rubbing around the tripod legs, batteries running out......oh and clouds. Damn you can do nothing about clouds!