New Year Urban Wonders

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

During the fine New Years Day afternoon a quick glance at Clear Outside revealed a clear and chilly night, so I scraped myself off the couch, hoping after weeks of bad weather, illness, family and Christmas commitments I'd manage a first winter observing session.

With dusk looming, the modded 150i tube mounted on an AZGTI and steel tripod was set up in observers' corner. The water shaken out of the tarp light shield before being erected along the neighbour's adjoining fence.

As the sun disappeared behind the houses, a quick tweak of the red dot finder and a turn of a secondary collimation knob left me good to go for later.

The scope pointed north, levelled and covered with the Ducksback outboard motor cover, while I headed back in for tea and to wait for what passes for darkness to envelope the garden.

After being warmed by a hearty meal and a hot mug of tea, the layers went on, topped off with a fetching beanie and fingerless gloves. Finally out into the garden strolled the Amateur Astronomer, eyepiece case in hand, ready to rumble after barren months.

Aware the Moon in a couple of hours would add to the city light pollution, I quickly got to work. Battery and mount switched on, mobile connected and mount aligned. Mars and Betelguese chosen as alignment stars, the AZGTI worked flawlessly. A good start.

As this was an early session, which for me means a blue/grey sky resting on an orange glow there was little chance of observing anything other than some old favourites, but just being out under the stars was rewarding. Much like an angler, not caring too much if the fish aren't obliging, but still enjoying the canal bank and relative peace. In my case punctuated with the sounds of waning traffic.

So no great challenges ahead but despite the early evening sky glow, the otherwise incredibly clear sky revealed more than just the core of M31, an obvious extra layer of oval grey smudge added to the view.

After touring around the southern sky, taking in Uranus, Hyades, NGC 752, M34, M36, M37 and M38, the AZGTI whirred its way onto the Pleiades, which unusually from my yard, was clearly naked eye visible, with individual stars apparent. Looking into the 25mm Celestron X-Cel I was astonished, for the first time from my garden, obvious nebulosity could be seen around the cluster's stars. Initially I was sceptical. This must be condensation! After checking and observing for longer, I was happy I was seeing what I thought I was seeing. Just beautiful.

Before finishing, feeling quite warm, I slumped into the garden chair and spent a few minutes enjoying the clear sky resplendent with winter asterisms and constellations, including the greatest of them all and my final target, Orion.

I marvelled at the swirling grey M42 before splitting the the young Trapezium stars and ending the session. Leaving behind a terrible year, while beginning a new year feeling incredibly contented and one with the universe from my city garden.

 

Edited January 2, 2021 by ScouseSpaceCadet
Speeling

[domstar]

Excellent report. A good reminder of why we do this.