Messier hunting

[SwiMatt]

After a few great nights of observations, using well my time under better skies than where I normally live, yesterday the sky was covered by clouds. But it was a night of break knowing that for today the forecast was looking very good. And the forecast wasn't wrong.

I put my telescope outside at 15.30 to cool down (there are about 35 degrees of difference between inside and outside right now), and went out at around 17.30 for a short session before dinner. The sky looked very clear, with the whole of Ursa Minor visible with averted vision without waiting for dark adaptation!

I point the Mak 127 to Jupiter... and it is all blurry! What the hell is going on? Quickly I realize that my partner, inside, has lit the fireplace, and the smoke is right on my optical path... realized that, I turn the scope towards Saturn, and see the small crisp planet in my eyepiece. All is good again. But tonight, I aim to fill my noob list of Messier objects - I'm not going to use these amazing skies for planets (which I can see from home).

I point the red dot towards where M2 should be. I find it almost dead center! An interesting globular cluster, which I compare easily with M15 nearby. I cannot resolve either, so I move on to my next target. At home, M27 is tough to find and looks like a faint potato without much interest. Here, I find it easily and, for the first time, I see the apple core shape. Now I'm excited. I had not planned to sketch tonight but... the star field is so crisp and M27 is so beautiful! I do not resist, I get quickly inside the house and get my sketching gear (which was ready - just in case...). After finishing it, I get back inside to warm up and post the sketch on SGL...

After dinner, at around 19.30, I get out again, with a plan in mind. I set up the telescope in the snow, which I found is amazing at dumping vibrations. Waiting for dark adaptation to kick in again, I navigate towards M36, which I sketched a few days ago. I look around for M37 and M38, but I cannot find them just like that - I will get back to them later. Meanwhile, I fill my eyes with the amazing naked eye view of the Pleiades and of the Milky Way - which I so sorely miss from home. After 15-20 minutes, I decide that I'm ready for my plan: I want to find M1. The Crab Nebula is the remnant of a supernova that was reportedly observed in 1054 CE. It is also the object that, historically, Messier found when looking for another comet, and this confusion led him to start his catalogue. Because of this rich history, M1 is probably my favorite object of the list - but I know it's not the easiest one, especially with only 5 inches. Luckily for me, it's so close to a bright star (Zeta Tauri) that I could simply get there, move 1 degree or so away and either find it or move on... and I think I found it! To the very least I found a very very faint bubble that moved when I moved the telescope, and that came to be easier to see using averted vision. I have little doubt that it was indeed M1! That was a very very exciting moment, but my night wasn't over yet.

I must have spent 20 minutes on the Crab Nebula. Galvanized after that, I get back to Auriga and find M36, then pull out my star chart and star hop to M38 and M37. The open clusters of Auriga look all different and all beautiful. I particularly enjoy the fine star patterns that M38 shows, which almost resemble a cross - but M37 shows such an interesting bunch of fine stars, compared to the "coarser" patterns in M36. Then I see that the foot of Gemini has cleared the tree so why not find the shoe-buckle? I find M35 and spend a few minutes comparing it with 36, 37 and 38. What a night. I'm finding so many objects that I didn't have the time to see when I started this hobby with a pair of binoculars in April. OK, what could I look at next? Hey, is that... Orion, getting out of the trees?

Quick, I point the 10x50 towards it and see that the Orion Nebula is very well placed - another of those easy objects that got below the horizon too early in my astronomy "career". Unfortunately, to get a favorable view, I have to move my telescope to the terrace: this means that I cannot, for the sake of me, push any magnification without starting a wobble-fest. At this point, I am quite content with my night and I am starting to feel extremely cold (-16 degrees Celsius!), so I give a look at Jupiter, with the idea of closing the night like that. Jupiter looks sharp but wobbly, so I get tired of the exercise quite fast. I pull out the 10x50 again and look up to M42 again, the Pleiades, the double cluster, M31, then the clusters in Auriga appear to me like fuzzy objects in the larger field of view... the views tonight have been the best I've ever had, and I cannot wait to have another night like this.

Before closing, though, I searched in vain for M81 and M82... these galaxies are proving tougher than I thought. It will be for the next time. Now, inside, my limbs aren't painful anymore, and my mind is still full of the beautiful sky...

By the way... who said that Maks aren't great for DSOs?

 

 

Edited December 4, 2023 by SwiMatt

[RobertI]

Great report of a very nice haul of DSOs. I think if you’ve caught M1 you’ll be able to see M81 and M82, trouble is they are in an area devoid of bright stars so it’s not easy to find them. You’ll get them. 🙂

[Epick Crom]

Fantastic report (and sketch)! Thanks for sharing 

[SwiMatt]

7 hours ago, RobertI said:

Great report of a very nice haul of DSOs. I think if you’ve caught M1 you’ll be able to see M81 and M82, trouble is they are in an area devoid of bright stars so it’s not easy to find them. You’ll get them. 🙂

Yeah, that's what I keep telling myself. If tonight the sky is similarly good I will strategize my star hopping before hand. When I searched for them yesterday I was getting cold, and didn't have the patience...

[Ed in UK]

Nice report, thanks for posting.

I recall my first siting (and only) of M1, it was an a blob of blackness that wasn't quite as black as the surrounding space...... Just like you could really only make it out with averted vision.

Going to start on my Messier List soon, thanks for the inspiration 😁.

[josefk]

The Messier open clusters in your list there are really beautiful jewel boxes - i love them at all sorts of magnifications , full frame up close, and far away as sparkling little dabs with loads of sky around.  There are other smaller NGC clusters in that area too so if you make yourself a star chart it could be quite productive for not too many star hops in a circa 10-degree stack. M35 has NGC 2158 on the edge of it.

[bosun21]

Great report and sketch. What bottle was the sky? You will find M81 & M82 soon enough as my first ever views of them was with a 4" achro in bortle 6 skies. Easy enough to see with direct vision.

[SwiMatt]

3 hours ago, Ed in UK said:

Nice report, thanks for posting.

I recall my first siting (and only) of M1, it was an a blob of blackness that wasn't quite as black as the surrounding space...... Just like you could really only make it out with averted vision.

Going to start on my Messier List soon, thanks for the inspiration 😁.

I heard contrasting views on the Messier list ("not the best for amateurs" is a typical critique) but so far I have loved every object. Although it is true that I haven't seen the faintest yet. Good luck!

2 hours ago, josefk said:

The Messier open clusters in your list there are really beautiful jewel boxes - i love them at all sorts of magnifications , full frame up close, and far away as sparkling little dabs with loads of sky around.  There are other smaller NGC clusters in that area too so if you make yourself a star chart it could be quite productive for not too many star hops in a circa 10-degree stack. M35 has NGC 2158 on the edge of it.

Seeing both M36 and M38 in the same FOV with the 10x50 was amazing after seeing them up close I will definitely spend more time in those vicinity, thanks for the tips!

1 hour ago, bosun21 said:

Great report and sketch. What bottle was the sky? You will find M81 & M82 soon enough as my first ever views of them was with a 4" achro in bortle 6 skies. Easy enough to see with direct vision.

This should be Bortle 4, so I expect it to be an easy feat with 127 mm. However, I did not get serious enough with star hopping yesterday night - and M81 is far enough from bright stars that just estimating a position in the sky isn't as easy. We're expected to see clear skies again tonight, so I will make sure to come up with a good star hopping strategy before getting out in the cold!!

Edited December 5, 2023 by SwiMatt

[Franklin]

13 hours ago, RobertI said:

I think if you’ve caught M1 you’ll be able to see M81 and M82, trouble is they are in an area devoid of bright stars so it’s not easy to find them. You’ll get them. 🙂

Taking a diagonal line through the bowl of the plough helps locating these two.

[SwiMatt]

1 hour ago, Franklin said:

Taking a diagonal line through the bowl of the plough helps locating these two.

That's the first thing I tried 🤣 

[SwiMatt]

I got them tonight!!! Thank you @RobertI, @bosun21 and @Franklin for the encouragement and the tips!!