A Night Full of Promise

[Jiggy 67]

So every weather and astro weather app I have told me that last night (Friday 20th) was going to be clear throughout the whole night.......they couldn't be more wrong, I went out at around 8pm and by 11.30pm, total cloud cover!!!....all was not a complete disaster though as in the 3 hours or so I had, I managed some quite good observations.

I thought I'd start with some nice Messier Open clusters so M50, M47, M46 and M48 got the treatment. M50 and M47 were easy but fairly nondescript, I suppose they are just there to be ticked off the Messier Marathon, put it this way I didn't spend long in their company but I really love M46. I found this to be a lot dimmer than the other two and it required a bit more magnification so I took it x83 mag and it appeared as a beautifully rich star field with thousands of stars resolved......a real stunner for an Open Cluster. The same is true of M48, my next target, another rich field of hundreds of stars.

Next up was NGC2264, The Christmas Tree Open Cluster and its resident, The Cone Nebula. The cluster itself was lovely and bright but there was no chance of seeing the nebula in my Bortle 6 skies, I made a token effort by ramping up the magnification but quickly gave up.

My next target was M53, a Globular Cluster rising in the East and by 10.15pm it was at a reasonable altitude. This is quite a dim glob and at X60 mag I found it to be a fuzzy cloud like structure and I was unable to resolve any stars. I did try higher magnifications but they didn't really work.....sometimes the best views are at lower mags, they provide an overall more pleasing image, even though you can't resolve the detail. It was still worth the effort...I love globs!!

My last target of the night was M97, the Owl Nebula. Now I've made a couple of attempts at this and I've never been sure that I've seen it....in fact, I'm still not 100% so what I'm about to describe maybe complete garbage and I might be describing a dim star but.......I found it to very faint and very small. The best view I could get was with my Vixen 8mm (125 mag) and an Astronomik UHC filter where I could see the faint small disc with a possible hint of blue, I found it better with averted vision. I also tried an Astronomik O111 filter but that just blackened it out of view......which make me wonder if it was the neb?? 

By now the clouds were rolling in, including some very wispy high cloud which didn't help my attempt at M97 so I packed up.

Overall though it was a very good evening, just a shame it was cut short as, without the clouds, the seeing was very good.

Thanks for reading 

[Littleguy80]

Lovely report. Did you spot the Planetary Nebula hiding in M46? That’s what makes M46 special for me. If you haven’t seen it, try your UHC filter on M46 next time  

[Jiggy 67]

Just now, Littleguy80 said:

Lovely report. Did you spot the Planetary Nebula hiding in M46? That’s what makes M46 special for me. If you haven’t seen it, try your UHC filter on M46 next time  

Good call!!

[Ciaran Meier]

Nice report.  Don't think I've tried M46 yet, will add it to my list. 

Ciaran. 

 

[scarp15]

Good report, keep trying for M97 it will 'pop out' with your Astronomics OIII filter, any thin cloud and /or light pollution will render it null and void. Of course cloud rolling in is frustrating but good outcome with the clusters. 

[Jiggy 67]

3 minutes ago, scarp15 said:

Good report, keep trying for M97 it will 'pop out' with your Astronomics OIII filter, any thin cloud and /or light pollution will render it null and void. Of course cloud rolling in is frustrating but good outcome with the clusters. 

Yeh, I’m not sure I’ve actually been on it, does my description sound like it could be it??

[scarp15]

You will know when you have seen it as it will appear as a round hazy glow or patch, not so much a dim star.

[Ships and Stars]

Yes, very good report as the others say, I'll have to check out some of these globulars.

The Owl is a favourite of mine, and can be described exactly as Scarp15 says above, you won't mistake it for a star but it might be a real struggle under bortle 6 though. With smaller apertures under some LP it will appear as a very (or extremely) faint circular 'puff' of nebulosity with averted vision. Around 85-100x is a good power to locate it with in my opinion. Transparency makes a big difference I think, and any haze or high cloud will dampen or mask it considerably. I've seen decent views of it with a 12" dob under 20.3-ish skies on the edge of town, but struggled to resolve the twin 'owl eyes'. Three nights ago, I saw it from 21.80-85 skies with a 20" Dob and it was absolutely glowing, the 'eyes' were plain as day, no filter, which I prefer. If that fails, try and get to a darker spot if possible, you'll see so much more. 

PS while you are in the area, keep an eye out for M108, the surfboard galaxy, they are really close to one another. I've had them both in the FOV of a 21mm Ethos at the same time in the 12" scope, that was really memorable.

Cheers

Edited March 21, 2020 by Ships and Stars

[Ciaran Meier]

Davhei  has just posted a nice sketch of the Owl and M108 over in the Sketching forum. 

(Sorry, not sure how to link to another post)

 

[Jiggy 67]

23 minutes ago, Ciaran Meier said:

Davhei  has just posted a nice sketch of the Owl and M108 over in the Sketching forum. 

(Sorry, not sure how to link to another post)

 

Bizarre!!.....Thanks Ciaran, looking at that excellent sketch (and the two prominent stars to the left of the nebula) makes me think I was viewing it 😀😀  Talk about timing of unrelated posts!!

Edited March 22, 2020 by Jiggy 67

[domstar]

Great report and some the way you described the open clusters really resonates with me. I think M46 is far superior to M47 and M50. I just wish it would get up a bit higher.