A night of firsts

[wookie1965]

Had trouble with the mount but I think I have sorted now. Put the Meade on went to balance it I had one weight on right at the bottom of the weight bar scope was still trying move so put the other weight on both to the top and hey presto balanced.

Aligned with Arcturus and Dubhe. Tried M31 bang in middle thought hey ho going have a good night and sure enough I did.

NGC 1502 ( Kembles cascade) including Struve 484 and 485  great line of stars with two doubles thrown in. ( A first)

Double cluster NGC 869/884  both in the 25mm stars popping out everywhere just brilliant.

Messier 103 cracking open cluster ( A first)

Messier 52 also known as NGC 7654  another lovely cluster. (A first)

NGC 457 one of my favourites  unmistakable shape  with two bright eyes.

Messier 34 wide open cluster plenty of stars on view. (A first)

Tried Messier 76 eluded me 

NGC 752 lovely open cluster. (A first)

Messier 15  with the 15mm in all I could see was a snowball with the 8mm in stars started popping out on the very edge looks to be a really tightly packed globular cluster. Think I have seen this before but it could be another first.

NGC 7762 beautiful cluster running through two bright stars on one side and another on the other side like a river of stars really nice. (A first)

NGC 7662 (Blue Snowball ) in the 8mm it looked spectacular should of put a UHC or Oiii filter on and viewed but forgot.

 Ψ Psi Cassiopeia  01h 25.9m  +68° 08` Thought this was a double easily seen in the 15mm but then read it was a triple had go up to the 4mm to tease out the triple with averted vision very hard satisfying though. (A first)

Iota Cassiopeia  (SAO 0122 98 My nemesis tried 4/5 times split this into the triple tonight with the meade 6.4mm there it was easy dont know how or why I have struggled with this.

1 Camelopardalis  (SAO 0246 72) nice twins except for slightly different colours. (A first)

A couple I wrote down from Cotterless45, Nick.

Iota Triangulum (SAO 0553 47) easily split with the 15mm nice yellow and pale blue. (A first)

 γ Aries Mesarthim Rams eyes  I can see where it gets its name from really bright twins looking at you. (A first)

9 firsts for me some wonderful clusters and double star delights, the mount hit everything I pointed it to.

I hope that`s the end of the mount trouble and cannot wait get out there again now to write some more lists up.

Clear skies.

 

 

 

 

 

[Trikeflyer]

Great report and it does feel good when you overcome a technical glitch with mount alignment and it makes all the difference when observing in urban skies I think.  Glad you got it sorted.

Some really nice objects there and you must be buzzing at so many firsts. M76 is tricky I find it really hard from my urban skies, faint and small!  Kemble cascade and the owl cluster are two of my favourites. M52 is nice in a scope. I had it in the binoculars last night and it’s pretty faint, the scope opens it up nicely. 

Thanks for posting.

Steve 

[Stu]

Wow, great session Paul. Good to hear that you beat the mount into submission finally and that it played ball! Some lovely objects in there, NGC1502 is a nice one, sitting on Kemble's Cascade as it does.

Have you given Neptune a go? It is easy to find currently, near Phi Aquarii.

[cotterless45]

Brilliant report . Lovely sky out there last night. Great when it all comes together. Not kidnapping your thread , but a couple of lovely triples.

Both bonuses as in deep sky objects . Σ2816 has been described as "exotic", the colours certainly are , Nick.

[wookie1965]

I see you had the 8" out I wonder if I can get those in the 5".

I had Σ 269 and Σ 239 but wrote the wrong SAO numbers down when I checked Σ 239 I had (0753 84 but it should of been 65) Σ 269 I had (0753 83) from The Cambridge Double star Atlas but that number is wrong my handset would not get 83 must be a printing error. I will try with RA and DEC next time.

[wookie1965]

3 hours ago, Stu said:

Wow, great session Paul. Good to hear that you beat the mount into submission finally and that it played ball! Some lovely objects in there, NGC1502 is a nice one, sitting on Kemble's Cascade as it does.

Have you given Neptune a go? It is easy to find currently, near Phi Aquarii.

I totally forgot it but being as its between E and S I may not get it as I have 3 story houses depending on how high it gets I will give it ago next time I will find out what's best time for me to try for it.

Thanks Stu, I love getting out and hopefully this time I have got the mount playing ball I will have many more sessions.

[alan potts]

Looks like you had a great night, nice report too.

Alan