New moon observation summary

[Nova2000]

Hi all

Last new moon a friend of mine had come to my place with his Skywatcher 10inch dobsonian and so we decided to go for a observation night . I had my 8inch dobsonian.

This time we went to our usual dark site which is a bortle 3 (lp map).  Sky conditions were really good ,there were some gusts of wind . It had been a while since I observed some open clusters and so I decided to locate  them on the 8inch and my friend would go for the dso.

Elevation-780mts

 

Brief report of highlights 

Eskimo nebula appeared a small white roundish patch ,smaller than m1

Jewel box was beautiful

M51 I could make out the spiral arms

M101 arms didn't appear to be as prominent as m51s. North side has some glow as there is a village towards that side of the plateau .

Needle galxy - my favorite Galaxy

M104 dark line cutting through a ball of light 

Went through virgo galaxies m86,84,87,49,60,88,90,85,98

(I do not know the proper art of Galaxy hopping)

The bright globular clusters m4,m80,m5,m3,m13, Omega Centauri ,etc always a treat to the eye 

There were some clouds between 1am to 2:30 am , we make some coffee during this time .

We waited till 5:30am until packing up  so we got a glimpse of the milky way rising up . 

I had my dslr with me which I used to click a star trail and some milky way shots with a tokina 11-16 wide-angle lense .

(I am a impatient observer and want to keep viewing different objects instead of carefully observing one object properly 😀)

I feel my latitude gives me some good views of both the northern and southern jewels .

Cheers 

Clear skies 

Edited February 28, 2020 by Nova2000

[Ciaran Meier]

Wow, that was a great session. Good to have the company of a friend too.  Are you Observing from somewhere near the equator?  

[Nova2000]

15 degrees north ,so I miss the magellanic clouds

always good to have someone out in the dark