Feint fuzzies and an equine adventure

[BiggarDigger]

For various reasons, I've not been so active recently.  So it was with great anticipation that I was able to get out with my trusty 200p Dob.  Dark, crisp, clear & moonless skies awaited. 

Picked up on a few of my go to objects to check sky quality.  An earlier squint through field binoculars suggested it should be good.  An so it was.  M31 and M33 looking good.  Dust lanes in M31 visible over the extent of roughly three field of views.  The lop-sided presentation of M33 mottled with brighter patches showing at least some of the star forming regions.  Round and up to M1.  Bright and well formed with a crisp edge to the south and a northern aspect that Douglas Adams and SlartyBartFast would have been proud of.

Drop down to M42 - well, it would be rude not to.  I can't get over how amazingly detailed this object is under clear skies.

So now swing round to some more challenging objects in and around Ursa Major.  Even though they are bright, I always find it quite difficult to align on M81 and M82.  Once found however, they are good jumping off points for lots of feint fuzzies.  From M81/82 its just a nudge down to NGC3077, then back up to NGC2976. From there west to NGC2985 and NGC3147.  I tried north for the IC520 group, but either they were too feint or my star hopping let me down as no sign could be detected.

No bother, swing down to the top of Draco and pick up C3 just for good measure, then across to NGC 4125, which oddly enough is a new galaxy for me.  Tried for NGC4605 but again my star hopping high in the northern skies let me down and no amount of scope hugging could get me on target.

So I drifted down to somewhat easier declinations taking in M101 and M51.  Spiral structure in M101 was clearly visible with the 27mm eyepiece and the two objects that make up M51 were amazing.  I don't think I've seen M51 so clearly separated into the two components before, the interactions between the galaxies clearly visible with trails of material linking the two.

Across to the southern edge of Ursa Major and locate M106 as a starting point, then up to NGC4147 (another new galaxy for me) and across to NGC3949, both of which were not much more than feint smudges.  Tried east to NGC4138, but couldn't locate it, so up further to NGC3938, the third new galaxy for the evening.

Having drunk my fill of fuzzies to the north, I swung back round to the South where Orion was appearing from behind the only (and most annoying) tall tree just beyond the boundary of our property.  Line up on Alnitak.  The Flame bright and clear with a central dark band and a couple of side fingers visible.  Last winter I was able to just about observe the HorseHead, right at the limit of the capability of the scope and my eyes.  Would it be cheeky to try for the Horse head again?  It would certainly be a waste of these skies not to try...

Move Alnitak out the the field of view, IC435 is bright and well defined.  I guess the nebula itself is illuminated by a central star because the central point is so bright fading to wisps of nebulosity in a vaguely circular pattern.  From last year, I recall there are to mag 9 stars that mark the eastern edge of B33.  With IC435 to the east, beyond these two stars I can see a very slightly brighter patch of sky, IC434, to the north west (in the EP).  Like last year, it oozed in and out of visibility.  I pulled the snorkle hood of my winter coat up over my balaclava to shield any external light.  Masked my left eye, but kept it open and breathed deeply for a while to allow oxygen to reach my eyes and brain.  Sure enough there was a darker patch of sky about the same width as the distance between the two mag 9 stars.  Very poorly defined with extreme difficulty discerning any edge at all, but definitely a darker patch in IC434.  I stood up to stretch and went back to the eyepiece a few times.  Each time this slightly darker finger was there with IC434 visible defining the darker patch that is B33.  I have to say, that if I didn't know what to look for, I would have completely missed it, but it was a little easier than last winter.

After 30 minutes trying a H-Beta filter and coming to the conclusion that it made visibility more difficult.  It was a cheap eBay knock off, so maybe there's a flaw in it?.  A 10mm unfiltered EP made IC435 and the Flame stand out better, but introduced instability in seeing, so for me on that occasion the unfiltered 27mm was the best.

After a while, despite thermals and winter clothing, I began to feel the cold: ice had long since formed on the OTA and my homemade Telrad heater wasn't able to keep the viewfinder clear.  However, Leo was up!  I quickly took in the triplet, but unfortunately tiredness was setting in and it was just too cold to wait for Virgo, so I packed up just before midnight and came in after three hours of glorious skies.

A night to remember.

Richard

Edited January 19, 2020 by BiggarDigger

[niallk]

What a great report!!

[beka]

Hi BiggarDigger,

You must have a seriously dark sky. What would you estimate you naked eye limiting magnitude to be?

Best

[BiggarDigger]

19 minutes ago, beka said:

Hi BiggarDigger,

You must have a seriously dark sky. What would you estimate you naked eye limiting magnitude to be?

Best

I'm very lucky to live under Bortle 3 skies about 3 miles outside of Biggar in the Southrrn Uplands of Scotland.

NELM is difficult to be consistent. Some nights it's a soup of murk looking south over the Clyde Valley, other nights, such as last night NELM is at least 6, probably better. A lot depends on my neighbours too.  Outside lights from the farm down the hill can be difficult some nights.

A few weeks ago when I looked, Uranus was naked eye object.  Last night Cassiopea was a sea of stars and there were so many stars in Orion's shield that I practically lost count.  At least 11 that I did count, but quite a few extra came and went as averted vision tricked the mind into miscounting.

Mrs Digger and I are hoping to move to be closer to family further north this year.  Whether I have access to this kind sky in the future is unclear, but for now, when conditions are good here, they are really good.

[Ciaran Meier]

Thanks for that excellent report. 

[cotterless45]

Wonderful exciting read ! Shows that you don't need mega aperture in great skies ,

Nick.

[estwing]

Great read...just goes to show what reasonable aperture can do in Dark skies...love it.!

[Stu]

Fantastic report. Amazing what can done with decent skies and excellent observing skills. I've still yet to even come close to seeing it, without Gavstar's night vision kit that is.

[mattjanes100]

Great work!