Penguin peeks from indoors

[Nyctimene]

-7° C degrees, NELM just 5 mag, and not keen on wrapping up in several layers of winter clothing. So, once again, I put the "Blue Penguin", a 76/300 Newtonian, on the kitchen sideboard and peeked through the south facing window. I started with M 44, the Beehive cluster in Cnc, that was beautifully framed within the 3° TFoV at 15x mag. The central  V-formed "Heart of the Crab" was distinct. Down to it's companion M 67, that was partially resolved at 30x. The 10.2 mag galaxy 2775 was invisible. The open cluster M 48 in Hydra (5.8 mag) was well resolved, with a central group of  noticeably brighter stars. The  oc 2506, 6° SW, 7.6 mag, was much fainter and just a rather large (7 arc min), round, unresolved glow, visible with AV in 50% of observing time. I finished with the spring harbinger galaxy 2903 in the Lion's head, with 9.0 mag readily visible at 30x as a N-S elongated 3:1structure.

"Every scope has it's sky" - these words of the German observer R. Brandt (around 1930) came to my mind, when I finished the Penguin excursion after 11/2 hours at 02.45 CET. Rewarding targets - and well warmed body and feet (underfloor heating)!

Thanks for reading

Stephan

Edited January 22, 2020 by Nyctimene

[scarp15]

Glanced at the title Stephan and initial thought is Penguin? Then quickly recall that you had used this title referencing the Newtonian in previous accounts.

Cold night, sounds like a good idea to had set "Blue Penguin" up on the sideboard looking out. It is nice to coast through the open clusters, I found this to be really relaxing on the second part of my night out on Saturday including the ones you mentioned with my 85mm refractor. Nice to, to complete with that galaxy.  

Edited January 22, 2020 by scarp15
spell

[jetstream]

Excellent Stephan!

The thought has crossed my mind to try the same thing with the H130 out our front picture window which faces south. Great target selection and observations!

[Nyctimene]

12 hours ago, jetstream said:

The thought has crossed my mind to try the same thing with the H130 out our front picture window which faces south.

This thread on CloudyNights reflects different experiences and opinions:

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/689502-have-you-ever-observed-through-a-window

I agree with Thomas'  (astrojensen) statements, given that the optical quality of the window panes is decent (as it is in my case).

The Heritage 130 P Flextube is already too large to put it on my sideboard; but might be useful through front picture windows, perhaps on a tripod /AltAz combo.

Stephan

[jetstream]

30 minutes ago, Nyctimene said:

This thread on CloudyNights reflects different experiences and opinions:

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/689502-have-you-ever-observed-through-a-window

I agree with Thomas'  (astrojensen) statements, given that the optical quality of the window panes is decent (as it is in my case).

The Heritage 130 P Flextube is already too large to put it on my sideboard; but might be useful through front picture windows, perhaps on a tripod /AltAz combo.

Stephan

Thanks Stephan, I'm eyeing up the grand kids Lego table right now lol! it just might work to sit the H130 on.