Chalking up those DSOs

[IB20]

A quick check on Clear Outside convinced me to set my 8” dob up. After a quick collimation check and 40 mins of cooling I was ready to go. 
 
I decided tonight was a night to try for some new targets, so using the telrad and 25mm BST I centred Alkaid and tried to locating M101. After 10 mins of re-treading star hops to where it should be, I had to admit defeat that M101 wouldn’t be achievable tonight. I did see some lovely doubles in Asellus Tertius and Asellus Secundus though whilst frantically roving about! 

My next target was M51, so back to Alkaid and hopping to 24 Cvn and the triangle of HD mag 7 stars I caught a glimpse of grey fuzzies. Swapping over to the 13mm DeLite confirmed that I’d located M51. A faint spiral structure showed but more surprisingly to me, its companion NGC 5195 was also visible, truly fantastic. 

After M51 seemed to be showing so well I popped over to M66 & M65 just to see how they differed from a clear night last week. I actually felt that these weren’t as easy to see as the previous night, which made M51s visibility even more surprising.

Moving on, I quickly got the 8x42 bins out for some majestic views of Melotte 111 and then decided to go globular cluster hunting for M3. Well I’ll say it’s one of the easier targets to find and just wow, the 13mm DeLite was beautiful on this, single stars beginning to resolve, an image improved no end by me pulling my hood over the EP to shut out some neighbouring LP. Note to self, I must get an observing hood! M3 is stunning, I could’ve looked at it all night, and in fact went back to it 2 more times.

Next up was M94, after locating Cor Caroli it didn’t take long to find the very bright centre of M94, again surprisingly visible! Checking SkySafari I see that M63 is only a short hop away, but after locating HD115270 I just couldn’t tease it out, so it’ll have to wait another session.

Coming to the close now and I can see Spica and Corvus, so for a laugh try and snag the Sombrero not overly hopeful as the sky was fairly light towards to horizon. As bold as brass, there it is, so bright with a central bulge looking phenomenal, I can’t quite believe it, I was almost certain I’d struggle to see this from my location. 

Absolutely buzzing at that session, I can’t quite believe how good it was. The 13mm DeLite is an extraordinary bit of kit in my 8” dob. I have been thinking about getting a frac but tonight was so good I can’t wait to go again with the dob, maybe I just need to invest in more DeLites! 😂
 

 

[Pixies]

Nice report.

I started trying out an 'observing hood' (inside-out black t-shirt) during my last 3 sessions and it really does help!

I wish I could observe the Sombrero, but it's just too low for my back garden and also in the direction of light pollution.  I'm hoping to get to a dark site next new moon, before the bright summer skies, and that's my number one target.

Shame you couldn't find M63. I must admit that I find it relatively 'bright' in my 8" dob. If you could see the M51 companion, I would have thought M63 would be easy. Perhaps the transparency had worsened.

This stuff gets addictive, doesn't it? Shame that galaxy season is nearly over. I wish this run of clear transparent skies had come a little earlier!

[IB20]

Another clear moonless night so decided to get the 8" dob out again.

After cooling for an hour, my first target was one of the hardest I've gone for yet, the Ghost of Jupiter. I had to relocate my scope to a far corner of the back garden to create the necessary elevation to have a go as my neighbour's roof and chimney were the direction I needed to explore. After locating Alphard, I popped in the 25mm BST and tracked across the stars of hydra which kept fading into the brightness of the lower altitude skies. I finally pinpointed mu hydrae, which was a lovely yellow colour and then just a small tilt downwards revealed an diffuse sphere of pale green, a beautiful object. Swapping in the 13mm Delite didn't offer any better clarity, as the object had got so close to the chimney that it was becoming blurred. Returning back to the 25mm returned the nebula to its initial glory. I watched as it drifted out of view for the rest of the night. 

As I had moved the scope I could actually now  swing 180° and get at Cassiopeia too, so thought I'd check on the nova. However having such a small field I couldn't find either M52 or the 4 Cas rhombus which I'd been using with such regularity in the 15x bins, very frustrating!

Spica was now coming into view so I went for the Sombrero galaxy as it had impressed so much on me Tuesday night. Aiming for Algorab (a lovely double btw!), moving northwest and locating two sets of triplet stars, the Sombrero is very easy to locate. I found it didn't present as well as Tuesday, either I wasn't as dark adapted or it wasn't as transparent, or both! Still it's a brilliant looking DSO, a long thin strip of light with a bright bulging core. 

Next up was a pair of globular clusters, M53 and M3. M53 is a fair bit fainter than M3 and I spent more time with the 13mm Delite on M3 but I start to resolve both clusters after some patient viewing. M3 has really been one of my favourites during this galaxy season.

My last few outings with the dob I've always tried to get a clean split of Izar, tonight was no different. I cranked up the mag to 240x with the 5mm BST, as I'd been reading that doubles should be really pushed in dobs (can anyone confirm this is true??) and although I could make out two orbs of differing mags and in the correct orientation, I was never satisfied as the image was a constant bubbling mess. I'm not quite sure if this was due to atmospheric seeing or tube currents, but I had left the scope out for a good hour before I'd started, maybe I do need a refractor for doubles...

So back to DSOs and the Sunflower galaxy which had evaded me on Tuesday was next up. After lining up Cor Caroli (another nice easy coloured double!) I first jumped to M94 to gauge transparency and it presented with a nice bright core so I had hope for my target. After some toing and froing between a 4 star T shape asterism and Cor Caroli, I glimpsed a pale smudge below 19 Cvn. It's pretty faint but nice to finally bag it!

Last one of the night and I see M106 is close by on SkySafari which appears between Chara and Phecda, so line up Chara and using the telrad I pick a spot in the middle of the two stars. Unbelievably there it is, again just a pale grey smudge but it's another messier object in the back pocket and with that I decide to call it a night. 

Well, I did take the 15x bins out to check on an old nova friend.  

 

[wookie1965]

Absolutely brilliant from home after several years I have never seen M51 and the Leo trio I am so Jealous.