Vesta and a few DSOs

[Mark at Beaufort]

Not had a good session with my 12" Dob for many weeks so with a clear sky forecast I decided to have a session. To be honest the sky was not the best but I felt I needed to have a go with certain objects.

I started with Vesta having never observed it before. Vesta is high in Cetus fairly close to 87 Cetus. Cross referenced to Stellarium and found it - need to check if it moves to confirm I was observing Vesta. 

Now a few DSOs - started with M74 - not the easiest object but very clear in the 12" Dob. Moved down to M77 and also took in NGC1055 but this object was difficult and I could only see it as a glimmer.

Viewed M33 (very clear) - using the 'Trapezoid' it pointed straight to NGC604 (nice with 9mm Myriad). I felt lucky so I wanted to try and observe IC1613 (Caldwell 51). Never been successful in the past although some books suggest you need a 16" or 18" scope although Sue French states some have seen it in a 70mm frac. Moved down from Epsilon Piscium about 2.5 degrees to a line of 3 - 6th mag stars. Checking the area in Stellarium found the exact location. Well its faint - very faint - can't be certain but felt I could see a very faint gimmer. Need to return - sometimes I wish I had a larger OTA.

Dew now becoming bad so I had a look at M42, M43 and NGC 1977 using my new TeleVue Nebustar filter - initial thoughts the filter looks promising. Had to finish so viewed the lovely edge on galaxy NGC891.