One scope, one eyepiece

[RobertI]

Trying to keep it simple last night, so ventured out with the 102ED and the 17.5mm Morpheus (giving 40x) and filter wheel for some DSOs. Warmed up with M42 and had some lovely views, tried some different filters -  the UHC was the best. Transparency was good after all the rain but seeing was very wobbly so I didn't try upping the power to get the E and F.

Had a scan around some other objects in Orion. Had a half hearted attempt at the Flame Nebula - I've never seen it and I think I need to do some more research about the best scope and conditions to see it. Next I found M78 by accident, a small, faint, well defined but irregular shaped nebulosity with a couple of stars at one end. There was a hint of the even smaller and fainter NGC2071  in the same field of view.  Failed to find the challenging planetary NGC2022, at mag 11.7 I need darker skies I think. 

The some open cluster in Taurus and Gemini. NGC1817 was large and sparse with around 40 members. Next to it in the same FOV was the slightly smaller and even more sparsely populated NGC1807. They made a very attractive pair and will go on my "two in a view" list! NGC1647 was another very nice large and scattered open cluster, possibly the nicest of the Taurus clusters I looked at - worth a look. NGC1746 was also large and sparse but again, definitely worth seeking out. 

I failed to find the "intergalactic wanderer" NGC2419 which was a bit disappointing, but it lies in a sparsely populated area of sky so star hopping not easy.

The Eskimo Nebula NGC2302 was easy to find lying next to a brightish star, which made its non-stellar appearance more obvious. When viewed with the OIII filter, it maintained its brightness whilst all other stars dimmed, confirming the catch. I finished the session with the Crab Nebula M1 which was nicely visible, but didn't seem to benefit from any filters for some reason.

A nice session but noticeably colder now! The Morpheus is a very easy eyepiece to live with, and with the 102ED, shows lovely wide field of view and at 40x, the sky is dark enough for DSO hunting but wide enough to find things easily, so no bulky finder-scopes required. It was nice keeping things simple. 

Edited November 26, 2022 by RobertI

[josefk]

Hi Rob - In my observation notes for NGC 1647 I have notes to the effect of "remember to come back and spend more time here on a pitch black steady night". It is lovely isn't it.

[RobertI]

1 hour ago, josefk said:

Hi Rob - In my observation notes for NGC 1647 I have notes to the effect of "remember to come back and spend more time here on a pitch black steady night". It is lovely isn't it.

Yes it is, and I was surprised at what I found in Taurus - I think the Pleiades and Hyades steal the show, and I forget to ramble the lesser known paths. 

[Moon-Monkey]

There are nights when I go out with my eyepiece case and scroll through ptetty much every piece and there are nights when I go out with just one and this is a wondeful example of what fun you can have with a single EP when you just go hunting old school style a fun resort to read buddy very inspiring 🙂