Session 9 for 2022 and bag full from Leo!

[Davesellars]

Session Date: 29th - 30th Jan, 2022
Time: 9pm - 2:15am
Scope: 120ST
Transparency: Excellent

Somehow, magically it cleared slowly from storm Malik from the early evening.  By 8pm the skies were pristine but there was still a good wind (too much for the dob) so I set out the 120ST on the EQ5 (which I hadn't used in years).

I'd just received my "fix" to a nearby LED lamp which while does not intrude its light overly on to my property nor lights the sky plays havoc with my dark adaption.  A washing line, Three 2.7m washing line props and a 6m x 1.5m green heavy duty tarpaulin and some clips later I'd managed to fully block out the offending light.  What a difference!!!  I'd previously used a large parasol on its side which worked a little bit to block the worst out - Now no more needing to shield my eyes constantly away from that area or going to change my EP.  With a hood to help as well from any other sources I was able to get really quite well dark adapted during the session.

NGC 1788 (reflection nebula in Orion) - Getting this one first as it was perfectly positioned at the start of the session.  It had caught me out before as it's considerably smaller than I expected. Surrounding the mag 10 star is a small patch of nebulosity that could be held with averted vision almost like a slightly unfocused star but a touch irregular with the 7mm Pentax XW.  There was no further extension to the nebulosity or with a lower power (10 and 14mm Delos).

So, warming up with some easy targets but spent quite a bit of time with each...

M42 - With the 10 and 14mm Delos considerable structure to the nebulosity.  There is so much to this nebula - I see something different every time I view it! The wings were very extended and prominent.  M43 easily seperated by the dark lane between it and M42.

M31 / M32 / M110 - Awesome with the 10mm Delos the core and dust extended dust filling the FOV.  M32 bright and large with quite and extension to surrounding the main core.  M110 also was directly visible.  Moving down power to the 17.3mm Delos showed M32's core quite brighter and disinct however at the loss of most of the remainder of the galaxy.

M33 - This is my litmus test for indicating the sky quality particularly the transparency as anything other than very good just washes out the galaxy completely as it has no really bright core to speak of.  The 10mm Delos again showed this was immediately visible.  A large patch of dust with vaguely angular look.   The 14mm gave a touch more brightness to the central region but losing out some extension to the nebula and really needing averted vision to then bring some out.

M51 - was a touch low down but showed both cores easily enough.  Nothing more distinct.  That area of the sky looked to be a touch brighter as well which wasn't helping obviously.

It was time to return to a target I'd viewed some weeks ago with the dob as I wanted to attempt this with the much wider view of the 120ST...

NGC 2239 Rosette Nebula (bright nebula in Monoceros) - With no filter I could make out a very vague nebulosity around the cluster region however with the OIII this was immediately obvious. To the left (refractor view) side I could easily make a out a large chunk of dark area cutting into the nebula with the other side showing a very distinct dark lane. The top left showing perhaps the brightest area of the neblula although I could not really distinguish the smaller dark lanes.  With the OIII filter I went through numerous eyepieces (10, 14, 17.3mm Delos) before settling on a 32mm BC Plossl with the Baader OIII rather than the Astronomik OIII.  The structure with this combiniation certainly was the extra light was required for the narrow band of the filter.  I also tried the UHC - while this still showed nebulosity it was very much diminished.

NGC 2024 Flame nebula (nebula in Orion) - Every night I try for this and most times I fail... Anyway, tonight I had a fleeting glimpse.  After trying numerous eyepieces the UHC filter has before shown me something of this so I tried again.  The 17.3 Delos seemed not to be capturing enough light with a filter so I went to the 32mm but this was too much.  I don't have a good EP inbetween these focal lengths anymore for some reason I sold my Panoptic 24mm Anyway, I found a 25mm plossl that comes with the Skywatcher scopes (which aren't too bad actually!) and used this with the UHC.  This seemed to be a good combination of EP focal length and the filter performance and I glimpsed the flame.  It was fleeting and I managed to get some sense of it being there after but not quite with the same clarity.  What a difficult nebula!

About 11:30 I moved on to Leo as I had some galaxies from the Herschel 400 pending there... The additional dark adaption I was able to get proved critical on some of these...  The first three are fairly close together

NGC 3686 (mag 11.43 galaxy in Leo) - Averted vision only and with the 7mm Pentax XW, although the Delos 10mm a glimpse was very slight the extra power from the Pentax enabled the galaxy to be held slightly in more vision.  Very small slighly elongated very faint I think this was reaching the very limit of 120mm aperture with my sky darkess.  I'd like to come back to this one later on with the dob at some point as I failed on the next one...

NGC 3655 (mag 11.7 galaxy in Leo) - I tried hard on this but going by was 3686 required that touch less extra magnitude (although it is half the size) seemed to undo me.

NGC 3626 (mag 11 galaxy in Leo) - definitely easier than NGC 3686.  Very faint direct vision however averted vision really seemed to bring this one out with the 10mm Delos.  Some extension to the core with an obvious angle of the galaxy's core.

Just after midnight I went in for a cup of tea and warm the toes... Reasonably low lighting only to try to maintain some dark adaption.

Back out after the mid session interval... I looked to Leo again which was really now favourably placed

NGC 3640 (mag 10.4 elliptical galaxy in Leo) - Very diffuse galaxy and needed averted vision to observe using the 10mm Delos.  

NGC 3521 (mag 9.1 spiral galaxy in Leo) - Wow, this was quite a shock to the eye after the previous small and very faint galaxies.  This has real size and very bright! With the Delos 10mm the angle of the spiral and very faint region of the arms (some mottling) seemed to appear against the very bright core that was better defined with the 14mm Delos.  I definitely recommend observing this galaxy and will have this on my list for the next time I'm out with the 12" dob.

NGC 3810 (10.7 mag spiral galaxy in Leo) - After the visual pleasure of 3521, this was quite the disappointment.  Small and difficult averted vision required to hold in view no detail could be described.

NGC 2903 (mag 8.85 spiral galaxy in Leo) - Yes! That's more like it again...  Reasonably large and very obvious elongated core with some structure and possibility of arms just about discerned with averted vision with the 10mm Delos.  Again, quite a visual treat to complete the Leo galaxies I'd had planned and once again I'll come back to this with the 12" dob (fingers crossed for a great transparent night soonish!

Now Ursa Major was quite a bit higher around 2am I looked back to M101 to complete the night.  Very slight, the core area with the faintest of subtlety around the central region with averted vision.

I looked around for a while and notcied the faint whiff of very high clouds..  In the next 10 minutes those got heavier and that was that - play stopped.

9 sessions this month!!!  Let's hope February gives as good...

[Mark at Beaufort]

Very nice Dave. I always wonder why Messier never found NGC2903.

[Froeng]

Excellent report! A cracking night indeed. Well done on the flame and Rosette. These are definitely difficult targets. I only saw the Rosette once on an excellent night in a nature reserve.

A brilliant end to a fruitful January! Compared to last years' wash out, we are being spoilt so far. Let's hope for more of it!

[wookie1965]

Great report and read I'm really jealous though as I have never seen M51 from home. 

[Voyager 3]

Detailed reports are always a pleasure to read. Thanks! Clear skies ..