Frosty Messiers & Favourites on the Downs with a Mak 127

[SuburbanMak]

Reading everyone's reports of such a super night inspired me to wrap up warm (think polar explorer here) and drive up onto the South Downs above Winchester last night.  I arrived on site at just after nine and the cloud having cleared, as promised by the Met Office cloud cover map, revealed a pristine sky above about thirty degrees.  Orion was stunning to the SE and part of a glittering path through Taurus, Persues and Cassiopeia.   Even before my eyes were dark adapted I could easily see the Double Cluster and M31 with AV, later these plus the rising Beehive stood direct vision. 

As I unpacked the gear, a very bright yellow fireball crossed through the lower end of Ursa Major, on and down to the NW, disappearing from view behind winter trees - a cracking start! 

It was very cold, setting up left me with numb fingers and although I keep the Mak in a cold part of the house and had popped it outside in the backpack half an hour before heading out views were very scruffy for the first twenty minutes or so as things acclimatised to icebox level.  

Having carefully levelled the tripod I started my normal North Level alignment and encountered the same glitch that started two nights ago - having set to N & level, instead of slewing to Sirius the mount tracked down a couple of degrees and then stopped.  Hmm.. I had assumed this was previously the result of a poorly charged power tank and made sure batteries were full tonight but it appears to be a repeatable glitch (have since loaded the latest version of Synscan and note that North Level is no longer an option, shame as its been very accurate for the last two years!).   Switching to a three star alignment the mount behaved itself as I centred Sirius, Aldebaran, and Pollux with the Baader Zoom at 188x. 

Began with a look at Castor, lovely twin headlights & checked the GoTo looking accurate for a short hop, Mak views starting to settle down. Then switched to a Baader Hyperion 24mm, 68 degree with a Neodymium filter and hopped to M35 - stunning, filled with lanes of stars & remembered to look for NGC 2158 nestling at its side and sure enough there its was.   Then on round to M42, the mount now landing things plumb in the centre.  Stunning level of contrast in the gas cloud and a real sense of stars shining from within it in 3D - I tore myself away to keep hopping round toward my main targets for the night but promised myself a proper look later.    A quick look at the Pleiades, looking fab even in the finder, and then on to M31 to get my eye in on something fuzzy before searching for fainter targets.   

The Mak 127's 1 degree field of view makes taking in the whole of M31 a panning task - it was as good last night as I've seen it, M32 and M110 easily picked out and just maybe a gradation in the outer nebulosity hinting at a dust lane.   

On then to the  main order of business and I centred on Delta Ceti as a waypoint to M77 (The Squid Galaxy for some reason...). A word about hunting down objects with GoTo, when I bought a GoTo system I naively expected to be able to zip from target to target without too much hunting about, and this can certainly be the case with bright features in the widefield ST80, its great fun. I quickly realised however than when looking for objects at the margin of visibility in the narrow field Mak, being plonked without reference in an unknown starfield is deeply disorientating, and unless the target is immediately apparent (as many of the Messier objects are not with this aperture) you can spend a lot of time lost in space, unsure whether you've located the object or not. I like to find the nearest decently bright star, something that's going to define the locale as a reference point and work out from there.  As such GoTo becomes a shortcut to a definite start point for star or (in the case of Virgo/Coma region), galaxy-hops. 

In this case I had plugged Delta Ceti, Mag 4 into SynScan before heading out - M77 lies roughly half a degree to the East.  Having centred on the star I made the short hop to M77 and was delighted to immediately see a directly visible core with some circular nebulosity surrounding in AV. Amazing as I've hunted in vain for this one a couple of times.  "Got the little blighter!" I said out loud, which was weird as there was no one to hear and its not a phrase I'd normally use! 

I spent a decent amount of time taking in M77 and enthusiasm thus buoyed, slewed to Eta Piscium the marker star for M74, The Phantom Galaxy, which lies about a degree NE.  After 15 minutes or so of uncertain peering it became clear that The Phantom would remain so tonight. Maybe I was seeing something but then I could look at the surrounding faint stars and make each a candidate based on very slight haze around them, so no, not counting this as seen. I have generally found face on Spirals the hardest objects to pick out and this one was no exception.  

On to M109 in Ursa Major, another subject of much fruitless peering in the past. Its not difficult to find where it allegedly lies, within a Mak-field South of Phecda/Phad on the bowl of the Plough.  I centred on the bright star then dropped it just above the FoV, and after giving myself 10 minutes or so to really look I was able to see.... nothing that I could remotely identify as a galaxy. 

Slightly disheartened and feeling the cold, I centred on Edasich (Iota Draconis), for the 2 degree or so hop to M102 (taking NASA's word for it that Mechain & Messier actually meant NGC 5866 The Spindle Galaxy as M102).  A faint but very apparent oblique smear of light in a triangular star field immediately lifted my mood - I've found it so much easier to discern the edge on targets, they seem to register with the brain being of distinctly different pattern to surrounding stars. 

Took an enjoyable look at M81 & M82 which can just fit in the same field in the Mak, M82 showing some texture and after looking at such dim, grey patches, looking bright with a slightly golden light.  

Two out of four of my winter Messier nemeses down, moving the total on to 97, felt like a great night's work and by now I was freezing and tired of peering at the limits of vision so after a couple of minutes of star-jumps to get the blood moving again I worked my way through some sparkly things... 

Double cluster (NCG 869/884) - stunning in both finder and Mak, really enjoyed the few contrasting yellow stars embedded and the dark lane between the two clusters and being able to step back and take this in naked eye as part of the ribbon of the Milky Way.  

Kembles cascade & NGC 1502, the Jolly Roger Cluster - I'd seen this designation for the cluster the other day when looking at Kembles cascade and was keen to put some higher magnification on the cluster itself, sure enough there is a pronounced diagonal cross of bright white stars, not so sure about the skull but I can see what they're driving at. Enjoyed the wide view of the cascade in the 8x50 finder then "zooming in" on the cluster by switching to the Mak. 

Owl/ET/Dragonfly NGC 457 - the Mak really excels on these smaller star clusters and at 63x in the 24mm this was filling about two thirds of the field. Very much ET at this magnfication, earlier in the week I was looking at it through the low mag ST80 and in that it was much more a gossamer Dragonfly.  Gorgeous in either format. 

With clusters that look like things in mind, I remembered "Hagrid's Dragon" NGC 2301 over in Monoceros which I have never looked at.  Slewing all the way over to Sirius first to make sure the mount and I were still on the same page, I had a lack-lustre attempt at seeing the Pup with a BCO 18mm Barlowed to 8mm (188x) -may have been something at 5 o'clock (RACI) view, I'll have to check, but as always nothing concrete and I was getting some shake from the building breeze at this mag, the one downside of my spot on the Downs is it really catches the slightest wind!  On then to NGC 2301 which really does look like a dragon in flight - lovely stuff! 

Took a quick look at M41 as it was nice and high - super cluster this one looking very bright last night.   

Then allowed myself to get lost in the folds of M42 at high mag for a time, panning up and down. I have never seen it better and was able to really see the nebulosity and star shining from deep within the M43 De Marian region. Kicking myself now that I didn't actively look for the Running Man as the contrast was such that I might have had a shot at it - still, one to chase another day. 

After enjoying a quick look at receding Mars - just about discerning the polar region and the faintest hint of Albedo darkening toward the Eastern limb, I finished with a quick look for the Comet C/E3 ZTF low to the NE at around midnight - managed a couple of minutes on this and was just convincing myself that I'd got it, slightly non-stellar point with maybe the hint of a tail, when a car pulled into where I was parked 100m away putting paid to the best of my dark adaptation. Whatever they were doing up there either my presence put them off or it was a wrong turning as they pulled swiftly away.  By this time I was getting properly cold, the sky had lost some of its quality with very thin, high haze plus I had noticed my attention span waning in the last half hour,  so I called it quits and took the gear down with numb fingers.

After one last look at the Winter Milky Way I got in the car, whacked the heating on and headed home for a cuppa and a thaw before a welcome bed. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 18, 2023 by SuburbanMak

[Epick Crom]

Thanks for your fantastic report 👍. Man I would kill for the view of the Double Cluster that you described!

I too enjoy observing M77 and NGC 2301. Sounds like you had a great time at a dark site👍

[josefk]

Sounds very productive and a real pleasure - i recognise the sentiment to "go after some sparkly things" after spending ages trying to peer at dimmer stuff!

[F15Rules]

I couldn't get out the last 2 nights, due to family issues, but did see how superb the sky looked..

I went outside to do my nightly check at c 11pm, and the Milky way was beautiful, even with no dark adaptation.

Real structure was visible in the area from Cassiopeia over to the west of Orion, and Perseus in-between.

I do hope many of you got out to enjoy it!👍🌌🔭🔭..

Dave

Edited January 19, 2023 by F15Rules
Typo

[PeterStudz]

I made the effort to get up at 4:30am here in Southampton in order to try and get a look at Comet C/2022/ E3 (ZTF) - I wish they’d name it as I can never remember all of that! For the time being I’ve named it Comet Bob .

But sadly, despite being crystal clear when I went to bed, there was significant hazy  high cloud. I could see the brightest starts like Vega & Arcturus but naked eye none of the stars in Hercules. I did play around with the binoculars for a bit. A bright satellite came directly overhead going roughly south to north. Then I gave up and went back to bed . Will try again!

[markse68]

Fantastic night by the sounds of it and thanks for the report- a joy to read. I keep promising I’ll do similar with a trip out to Ashdown forest but haven’t yet- would have taken some serious polar gear last night I think!

Mark

[PeterStudz]

15 minutes ago, PeterStudz said:

I made the effort to get up at 4:30am here in Southampton in order to try and get a look at Comet C/2022/ E3 (ZTF) - I wish they’d name it as I can never remember all of that! For the time being I’ve named it Comet Bob .

But sadly, despite being crystal clear when I went to bed, there was significant hazy  high cloud. I could see the brightest starts like Vega & Arcturus but naked eye none of the stars in Hercules. I did play around with the binoculars for a bit. A bright satellite came directly overhead going roughly south to north. Then I gave up and went back to bed . Will try again!

Sorry, wrong section!

[SuburbanMak]

7 hours ago, Epick Crom said:

Thanks for your fantastic report 👍. Man I would kill for the view of the Double Cluster that you described!

I too enjoy observing M77 and NGC 2301. Sounds like you had a great time at a dark site👍

Cheers!  Likewise I'd love to get a look at the LMC, SMC, 47 Tucanae, Carina Neb etc... Someday maybe  

[SuburbanMak]

3 hours ago, PeterStudz said:

Sorry, wrong section!

No worries - nice post! 

[SuburbanMak]

3 hours ago, markse68 said:

Fantastic night by the sounds of it and thanks for the report- a joy to read. I keep promising I’ll do similar with a trip out to Ashdown forest but haven’t yet- would have taken some serious polar gear last night I think!

Mark

Where I go is only a ten minute or so drive away from town and up on to the Downs, takes me from SQM 20.16 in the local park down to 21.04 and makes a massive difference, well worth it and I am now completely comfortable in the environment at night, which does take a bit of getting used to first couple of sessions! 

[SuburbanMak]

5 hours ago, josefk said:

Sounds very productive and a real pleasure - i recognise the sentiment to "go after some sparkly things" after spending ages trying to peer at dimmer stuff!

I find they look amazingly bright after fuzzy hunting - definitely the most rewarding way round to run a session in my view