Second night in a row - outer gas giants, a triple and some missing galaxies

[Pixies]

2 clear nights! We're getting spoilt. Again it was a cool still night. A little damp too, but not as bad as yesterday. No real dew issues.

The seeing was good, but perhaps not quite as good as yesterday. My now usual test of trying to split epsilon lyrae with the zoom lens - 93x today. Yesterday was 87x. Transparency was poor again. The light pollution in the damp air looking more like a bright summer horizon.

Anyway. The first target was M57 - nice and clear. But a fail after that: M101 (the Pinwheel) was not there.

Then the planets. I had a late session last night, so wasn't going to spend a lot of time on Mars. It was looking good, though. Yesterday was my first ever observation of Uranus - and now I can add Neptune to that list. I saw both this evening. Both looking similar, but Uranus is slightly bigger and a little less blue. Both were conspicuous disks and easily viewed at 150x

As I was in that area, I had a shot with M33 (the Triangulum galaxy) but it was another miss. I have yet to observe this one, but it wasn't to be tonight. I consoled myself with a new open cluster, NGC752. 

I finished on Iota Cas - a triple I first saw earlier in the year. Back then I had trouble splitting the tighter two at 100x - this time I managed it at 75x. I love the colour differences and the difference in relative sizes. It's much more pleasant to view than Epsilon Lyrae, say - which I find more of a sight-test.

I'm finding myself using the Hyperion Zoom EP a lot now, this evening is was exclusively. But a new purchase winging its way to me shortly might change that.

 

[johninderby]

5th night in a row.....wall to wall clouds. ☁️☁️☁️

Well at least someone had some clear skies. 👍🏻

Edited September 19, 2020 by johninderby

[Jiggy 67]

7 hours ago, Pixies said:

But a new purchase winging its way to me shortly might change that.

.....pray tell......

I also struggled with the Triangulum and Pinwheel galaxies last night, couldn’t get either of them. I think a combination of sky glow and possibly high level wispy clouds didn’t help. The biggest problem I have from my location are galaxies!

 I forgot about Neptune, I’ll give it a go tonight if I go out......I’m not used to 3 nights in a row so don’t know if I can manage it!! 😀

[AstroNebulee]

Great report pixies, I'm still waiting to view Neptune and Uranus, hopefully my 150p can manage it, clear skies 

[John]

Nice report !

M101 and M33 are big face on spirals so their surface brightness is much, much lower than the integrated magnitude figure (the ones quoted for them) might suggest. Harder to see than the brighter galaxies such as M81, M82 M51 etc and very easily washed out by any LP in the sky.

 

 

[Pixies]

6 hours ago, Jiggy 67 said:

.....pray tell......

A Vixen LVW 8mm. Primarily for Mars this year, and planets generally. Will give 150x in my scope - so good for some planetary nebulae and globulars too.