Home Quintet in very clear skies

[Whistlin Bob]

I really wasn’t expecting much last night after our local club zoom meeting (Tom Field from Seattle talking about spectroscopy- very recommended), as the forecast was iffy and I was tired. It was only my son nagging that got me out really. I’m very glad he did.

Got the 14″ out (in for a penny…) and started off with some broken cloud and a nice view of Mars- it really is very good at the moment. Polar caps and surface shading were very prominent- and that colour- wow!

Decided to try and do an imaging run in the Dob on it- it’s harder than it looks!!! I barlowed it up to get some detail, and at 5m focal length keeping it on the screen, never mind in the middle, is not easy!!! Eventually realised that the seeing wasn’t going to support anything special so we abandoned that idea and started observing instead.

Next went for the Pleiades, and at that point the penny dropped that seeing might be a bit wobbly, but the sky was very transparent. The nebulosity was evident all over the place, a bright electric blue around the brighter stars. We both found that by gently wobbling the scope you could bring out the granularity right across the cluster.

Moved across to Andromeda, and just sat taking turns drinking it in- with the bright core centred the disk reached out beyond the fov of the 30mm EP. Even m110 was pretty straightforward.

Time for my son to go to bed, so I said goodnight and then took a break to set an imaging run going.

Next up- Uranus- clear green disk. Lovely view.

M33 best ever view from home. Superb in 30mm. Core was clear with hints of the outer regions.

Ngc752 lovely rich cluster. Almost rose like. Gorgeous.

NGC 891 – Nope- even with this sky I couldn’t catch this at home.

I fancied some more galaxies so next up was Mirach and its ghost. At around 200x this was clearly visible.

NGC 7814 in the corner of Pegasus was really faint but there.
Ngc7331 above the north west arm of Pegasus was nice and obvious.
Worth going for Stephans quintet? YES! First sight at home in 30mm just a smudge, but definitely seen. Spent a long time on this one. I must have tried for this 10+ times but I’ve only seen it once before on a special night in Cumbria. It was only the faintest lightening of the sky without real shape, but the concept of seeing this galaxy cluster with my own eyes blows my mind.

Over to Cepheus for the Garnet star- like a glowing coal, with hints of nebulosity around it.
Ngc7380- my imaging target for the night. No nebulosity seen but a nice v shaped cluster.

Caroline’s Rose. This was inspired a bit by a clubmates picture. On hazy nights I find this cluster can be a bit meh- but tonight the hundreds of faint stars were a wonderful sight.

Time for bed now, but went back for a last peak at Mars. Just a terrific sight. I spent a while looking for the moons without any joy- the planet was just too bright, the glow prominent even when the disk was edged out of view.

Tearing myself away from the eyepiece on a night like this was not easy!

[Stu]

Fab report Bob, a great night! Mars is excellent at the moment isn’t it?

Totally agree about Caroline’s Rose, with LP or poor skies it is underwhelming but wonderful when conditions are good.

[Mark at Beaufort]

Great read Bob and some wonderful objects. Its nights like this that keeps us going.

[Whistlin Bob]

Thanks Gents 😀

@Mark at Beaufort the planetary observations were largely in the WO Binoviewers that you sold to me. They can just about focus in the Dob with both Barlows and give really terrific high magnification views. 

[jetstream]

@Whistlin Bob Excellent report!

Congrats for seeing Stephans Quintet! It sure does like a bit of mag and a 10mm-12mm in your scope just might show you 2 or three ghostly lobes.