Galloway gives a boost.

[estwing]

After a 5hr drive to the site ( leaving the cloud and rain behind in the Lake District) I set-up quickly with the promise of a clear night ahead...rare for me in Scotland!!

Dew heaters on ,kettle on, 21mm Ethos in..ready. First up I just had to look at Jupiter, Saturn and Mars..Jupiter wasn't showing much detail and Saturn was only slightly better but tbh its always a better view than Jupiter!. Mars ( star of the show) was too bright for viewing without a filter..so on to the Witches Broom.

Not a massive difference between the filtered and unfiltered view, not dissapointing, just not spectacular. Hoping towards M57 and upping the power to the 8mm Ethos the target looked fuzzy!...not the best sky conditions but a clear sky doesn't always mean a good sky.

Swinging round to M31 the dust lane and extent of the object was impressive...you do kinda forget how big it is until viewed in dark skies!.

Following down Kembles cascade to seek out NGC 1501 in Camelopardalis. I picked up this target from O'Mearas Hidden treasures Number 22.

The Blue oyster nebula is a mag 11.5 planetry nebula that's pretty bright, smallish pale blue object and the 13mm ethos at x157 showed a pin cushion viewed from above sight...nice catch! M33 had two main spirals along with inner detail that was pleasing. Next up was M77 in Cetus, bright core but lacking in spiral action...hmmm..not really a great galaxy night as confirmed by Mapstar who was struggling to track down a galaxy in Auriga. NGC 1074 and 1055 bagged but not memorable yet NGC 891 was good with the dark lane shown with ease..but then again it's huge!.

Popping over to Perseus NGC 1003 was just a fuzz...coffee time and a bowl of soup later I sneeked a peek at M1 and to my suprise the unfiltered view in the 21E was good with inner structure ..i spent time on this as it wasn't half bad!. Orion was rising but at this point of the night the stars started to twinkle more and more ..on to M42.

Normal showcase view even low down!..but the Cone nebula would be rising soon so another coffee was needed to boost me into the wee small hours...choccy bar and i sat down ....mistake...i woke up with a jolt and coffee running down my leg....i was shattered and decided to call it a night as the drive up had taken more out of me than i thought....drat.

Friday night was a waiting game as a clear patch of sky was moving in from the west.. but never moved far enough to reveal more the jupiter and saturn....only triumph was the capture of M17 in Sagittarius and M18 just to the side...by 10pm it was game over, shame but at least i had a taste of the dark skies of Galloway....and dark they are!.....clear skies everyone.

Calv.  

[jetstream]

Well its about time! glad you guys got out and are reporting again Calvin, excellent report

[faulksy]

Nice one calv  👍

[mapstar]

Brilliant stuff mate and a proper good read up of the event.

I've yet to write anything down. The skies were not transparent but out of 6 nights I had 3 that were clear enough to do some viewing and timelapse's.

The Friday was a triumph just in the fact that whilst skimming the hedgerow you managed to bag the omega neb. Don't think the dob could go any lower.

Looking forward to the spring event and the next viewing session. 

[Mr Flibble]

Great report! Glad you got some clear skies at drumroamin 🤘

[Guest]

@estwingIf I did an observing report, it wouldn't be as good as your's.👍 Thanks for helping me find Andromeda on Thursday night.

[PeterW]

Great to see people getting out to dark skies! Such a shame the coffee couldn’t have given you a crack at the Cone... hope you won’t have to wait long for another outing.

Peter

[estwing]

2 hours ago, PeterW said:

Great to see people getting out to dark skies! Such a shame the coffee couldn’t have given you a crack at the Cone... hope you won’t have to wait long for another outing.

Peter

Damian..(mapstar)..had a crack at the cone but reported that hardly any of the surrounding nebula was visible 

[PeterW]

It’s early in the season, hopefully plenty of more attempts possible.

Peter