Amongst the trees

[Littleguy80]

I’m lucky enough to be on a short trip away at Thetford Forest. The skies here are quiet dark, listed at just under 21 SQM on Clear Outside. The Beehive cluster is a clear naked eye object. I’ve brought along my travel scope, an SkyWatcher Equinox 80. 

Sitting outside and considering my options for observing targets, I hit upon the downside of being in a forest. There’s a lot of trees in the way! Fortunately my first target was in Ursa Major which was unobstructed. I had a successful evening last night getting my first views of Comet C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS). I was keen to return to this tonight. The comet is close to M81 and M82. I started out with my Aero 40mm eyepiece to try and see the comet in the same FOV but this was unsuccessful. I now turned to my Baader Zoom. I was getting hints of the comet but nothing more. Perhaps my eyes needed more time to dark adapt. I returned to M81 and M82 and spent some time zooming in on each. Even with only a modest 80mm of aperture these are lovely galaxies to observe. After awhile I decided to try for NGC 3077 which forms a nice triplet with M81 and M82. At a shade under mag 10 it was a more challenging proposition than the two bright Messiers. With the zoom on the 12mm setting, I found focusing to the right of galaxy put my eye in the right position for a nice clear averted vision view of this galaxy. Moving back to the comet, and focusing to the right of its position, as with NGC 3077, really lifted  its prominence to my eye. The 16mm to 12mm settings on the zoom working best. I felt that the 8mm setting caused the view to deteriorate. I followed this with a look at M51. I concluded that I’ve been spoilt with too many stunning views of the Whirlpool galaxy in my dob to really appreciate the view of it in the little frac. 

Looking around at the sky, I saw that Leo was fairly well positioned above the tree tops. I went for the obvious first target of the Leo triplet. M65 and M66 were bright and obvious straight away. With averted vision, the thin grey bar of NGC 3628 came and went. A check of SkySafari confirmed its location matched what I was seeing. I moved onto another group of Leo galaxies, adding observations of M105, NGC 3384, M96 and M95. I then clocked up one more galaxy in the form of NGC 2903. A nice bright galaxy and easily seen under good skies. 

My eyes were feeling the strain from my previous nights comet hunting. However, I couldn’t resist one final look at the comet. It seemed much clearer now. I found myself wondering whether this was due to improving transparency or just good dark adaptation from all the galaxy hunting. One of the most satisfying parts of the session was that everything was observed using only try Baader zoom. A great piece of kit, especially when used as part of a lightweight grab and go setup. Another great night of comet and galaxy hunting!

[domstar]

Galaxies in a small frac. Obstructed views. Fighting with the Hamburger.- welcome to my world.🙂 A great read. I didn't know about a third galaxy with M81 and M82. Can't wait to give it a try.

[Littleguy80]

1 hour ago, domstar said:

Galaxies in a small frac. Obstructed views. Fighting with the Hamburger.- welcome to my world.🙂 A great read. I didn't know about a third galaxy with M81 and M82. Can't wait to give it a try.

It was a world I was very happy to be in  You can all the fun and challenge of finding targets on the edge of what can be seen, same as you would with larger aperture. Good luck with NGC 3077!