Ice Giant, Asteroid, Galaxy - A Good Variety!

[cloudsweeper]

After an enjoyable late-afternoon Moon session, I went out again at 7.10pm, this time with the Bresser Dob.  

First, Uranus: Started with Torcular (Pisces) then hopped (pattern recognition) to the 5th magnitude ice giant, which stood out in a sparse, relatively faint field.  x42 used initially.  The planet looked slightly bluish.  It was magnified at x106, 141, and was still a sharp ball at x212.  I took it further to x318 - clearly magnified, although not so well defined.  (Chris - @chiltonstar - I usually see colour in Uranus, but never have in Neptune.)

Then Vesta: Got to Lambda Ceti, then this third largest of the asteroids was in the same roughly 2deg FOV, shining away at 6th magnitude.

Finally, galaxy M77 in Cetus: Delta Ceti targeted, and M77 was in that 2deg FOV, an 8th magnitude barred spiral face-on galaxy, one I hadn't yet got round to.  It was at the end of a line of stars, looking like a slightly fuzzy star itself, and with a 10th mag star very close by.  The Moon was sinking in the south-west.  Going up in steps from x42, M77 became a larger fuzzy patch at x115.  In the same FOV was another galaxy NGC 1055.  I got its precise location from neighbouring stars, and a faint one immediately to its north, but saw no sign at various magnifications.  The lingering Moon didn't help - and neither did the onset of clouds.

Two enjoyable and successful hours, a second session that day.

Doug.

Edited December 3, 2019 by cloudsweeper

[domstar]

Hmm. This is getting embarrassing. I seem to be inadvertently following you. I didn't go for Uranus but had a later session last night looking at Vesta and Cetus A- my first non Andromeda galaxy. I was made up the first time I saw it- a real challenge in a 70mm. I always have good memories of it and it seems to me that it's close to giving up some detail but not quite.

 

[cloudsweeper]

2 hours ago, domstar said:

Hmm. This is getting embarrassing. I seem to be inadvertently following you. I didn't go for Uranus but had a later session last night looking at Vesta and Cetus A- my first non Andromeda galaxy. I was made up the first time I saw it- a real challenge in a 70mm. I always have good memories of it and it seems to me that it's close to giving up some detail but not quite.

 

Cloudy here at the moment Dom, but I have a target for tomorrow.  Who'll be first, I wonder!?  😉

Doug.

[Marvin Jenkins]

22 hours ago, cloudsweeper said:

After an enjoyable late-afternoon Moon session, I went out again at 7.10pm, this time with the Bresser Dob.  

First, Uranus: Started with Torcular (Pisces) then hopped (pattern recognition) to the 5th magnitude ice giant, which stood out in a sparse, relatively faint field.  x42 used initially.  The planet looked slightly bluish.  It was magnified at x106, 141, and was still a sharp ball at x212.  I took it further to x318 - clearly magnified, although not so well defined.  (Chris - @chiltonstar - I usually see colour in Uranus, but never have in Neptune.)

Then Vesta: Got to Lambda Ceti, then this third largest of the asteroids was in the same roughly 2deg FOV, shining away at 6th magnitude.

Finally, galaxy M77 in Cetus: Delta Ceti targeted, and M77 was in that 2deg FOV, an 8th magnitude barred spiral face-on galaxy, one I hadn't yet got round to.  It was at the end of a line of stars, looking like a slightly fuzzy star itself, and with a 10th mag star very close by.  The Moon was sinking in the south-west.  Going up in steps from x42, M77 became a larger fuzzy patch at x115.  In the same FOV was another galaxy NGC 1055.  I got its precise location from neighbouring stars, and a faint one immediately to its north, but saw no sign at various magnifications.  The lingering Moon didn't help - and neither did the onset of clouds.

Two enjoyable and successful hours, a second session that day.

Doug.

Great report. Particularly interested in Vesta, as it is an unseen by me at present. 
I appreciate the detail of your report, quality like this just helps enormously. I have checked my Messier guide for M77 and I have viewed it before, but now is the time for me to slow down, observe and take it in instead of tick it off a list.

Planet, Astroid, Galaxy. The same report, more power to you, I’m going to use this as motivation to get out there and not just get pigeon holed in one type of astronomy.

Marvin