M46, M47 plus NGC 2423, M44 and Tegmine

[Spile]

I had a nice evening last night with a few open clusters and a double.

M47 to the East of Sirius was easy to find and combined brighter and faint stars. The central region reminded me of a number 5 dice. 4*

I headed North and found the fainter open cluster NGC 2423 3*

Back to  M47 and then East to M46. Rather mysterious in that the longer I looked the more I saw. It was almost as though I was looking at an animation with "mist" rising out of the centre of the EP  5*

I then headed over to the Beehive (M44) which was as excellent 5* as ever before concluding with Tegmine which I finally managed to split into three at maximum power YB+YB+YB 4*

 

[Kon]

Very nice report and good choice of targets. 

1 hour ago, Spile said:

Back to  M47 and then East to M46. Rather mysterious in that the longer I looked the more I saw. It was almost as though I was looking at an animation with "mist" rising out of the centre of the EP  5*

I have a similar experience with many of my targets that the more you observe the more things 'come into view'.

[DeepSkyBagger]

What size 'scope are you using? M46 has a very prominent planetary nebula in it just north of the centre. Maybe worth a return visit with an OIII filter if conditions aren't good.

[Spile]

21 hours ago, DeepSkyBagger said:

What size 'scope are you using?

Thanks for the recommendation. It is a 8". I don't have any filters but will keep a note for future reference.

[chops]

Thanks for the report, M46 and M47 both fit into the 4 degree field of view of the apollo 15x70s: it was fabulously clear last night and I had a similarly wondrous experience to you, except half a bottle of brandy made the monopod wobble a bit...

[AndyC]

Like you I had a similar experience with M46 the first time I saw it 11 years ago. I remember being chuffed about finding it, so I dug my notes out from then and a year later.

Using a 6” Meade Refractor. On the first two evenings couldn’t make it out even using averted vision just where I knew it should be! Then on the third after looking for a while glimpsed hazy patch at first and then resolved into many stars the majority of these will be below 11th Mag. I got the impression that there were well over 30 visible! No obvious signs of the Planetary nebula NGC 2438.

But, then 11 months later with a 10” Dobsonian. An Old Friend, easy to re-find but still tricky to see clearly, nevertheless a much better view than last year. Lots of really faint stars: there must be 60+ more fainter ones and hints of others in the background. Tried the UHC on the Planetary Nebula (NGC 2438) apparently contained within the cluster as it was clearly not going to be visible without it. Gotcha!

I also noted that the night’s early observations were disrupted by the sounds of intimacies coming through next doors open bathroom window😉😬😬

[PrairieStarGazer]

Nice report. I'm itching to give M46 and the planetary in it another go soon with an OIII filter.

[tripleped]

would  the planetary nebula in M46 be  visible  in Bortle 8  with a 10 " Dob?