Last night 1st View of M42 Orion Nebula +

[AztecastroMcJ]

quite strange n long night (like this post)

was out fairly early 8-9pm everthing looked great

set up and viewed moon for about 1hr

managed magx60 x120 x150 and x300 with my 25mm n 10mm n x2 Barlow, all were very gud even at high x300mag

then rush of blood decided to set up to capture few avi's with webcam, couldn't get focus anywhere near satisfactory,

and after about 30mins decided to pack everthing away as clouds rolled in and moon started to lower,

watched abit of football and played ps3 till about 1.30-2am

then bak outside to check sky had cleared quite well again with just odd bit of cloud, moon was just visible sinking in distance

re aligned scope and tried to find few targets i had planned to view tonight from website Astronomy Now deep Sky Recommended section

successfully viewed M39 again and M29 to confirm which one i was most impressed with(viewed these previously few weeks ago)

then viewed M52 and M103 alongwith NGC457 all open clusters

M39 was my favourite out of all of the above clusters nice colours yellow/orange mainly and seemed to cover large area

Nice view of M31 galaxy and M45 and Mars

then coffee and stellarium to check for more targets,

Orion started to become easier to view from around 4am as it rose higher, again viewed few weeks ago but was dissapointed didn't see any nebula last time,

put in M42 in handset and started viewing, was easy to spot large nebula area aswell as trapezium of stars,

was impressed but bit dissapointed at same time everthing seemed quite dull, not like colourful images u see, possible slight pink/grey/green tint to nebula,

spent at least half hr just skewing around area bak in and out again to check it wasn't a cloud

overall it was impressive except colours

i then checked my double star menu on handset and chose Castor, Mintaka and Rigel, Castor was tricky to split but managed with higher mag, Mintaka was easily split

but Rigel was strange only seen its possible double when main star was out of focus??

when looking around sky away from scope i was drawn to Sirius which although being fairly low was unbelievable bright

seemed to be on fire widly flickering similar to Arcturus but even more flickering

actually thought it could be plane at first it was so bright,

decided to have look using 25mm seemed to be 3 colours Red, Yellow/Green,and Blue top to bottom

my 1st thought was Disco Star rather than Dogstar

tried a few different mags and with barlow and colours were still there??

i decided to check Betelgeuse colour and Pollux then went bak to Sirius still same other stars appeared as one colour but Sirius didn't?

can anyone explain this?

didn't plan viewing Sirius(Dogstar) but ended up being highlight of my night alongwith M42 Nebula

also identified the Winter Triangle(Betelgeuse,Procyon, Sirius)

and Winter hexagon or Circle (Capella,Pollux,Procyon,Sirius, Rigel n Aldebarran)

and Brightest star Sirius

long night ended 6am

roll on winter and more discovery's LOL

James

[mdstuart]

Great report you saw so much! Sirius changes colour as it is normally low down and coming through loads of atmosphere...Interestingly it used to be a redder colour over 500 years ago apparantly.Maybe you are the first to see it turning red again!

Well done on splitting Castor! Have you split the double double in Lyra? You can still catch it early in the evening..

Also Try M36/37/38 in Auriga after midnight. These clusters are at least as good as M39 in my humble view.

Clear skies..

Mark

[Doc]

I agree Auriga clusters are amoungst the best in the heavens. Great report I enjoyed reading it.

[AztecastroMcJ]

Great report you saw so much! Sirius changes colour as it is normally low down and coming through loads of atmosphere...Interestingly it used to be a redder colour over 500 years ago apparantly.Maybe you are the first to see it turning red again!

Well done on splitting Castor! Have you split the double double in Lyra? You can still catch it early in the evening..

Also Try M36/37/38 in Auriga after midnight. These clusters are at least as good as M39 in my humble view.

Clear skies..

Mark

thx Mark, had read somewhere prob wikpedia that Sirius had been mistakenly noted as red colour in past

castor was tricky and yes i have split double double but it did take me few attempts,

find with close doubles once split is noticeable in higher mag,then swithing bak to lower power seems easier to notice split, both castor and double double were like this

the clusters u mention M36/37/38 are being added to my list of next targets thx for that

think M35 looks worth finding too

James

[AztecastroMcJ]

I agree Auriga clusters are amoungst the best in the heavens. Great report I enjoyed reading it.

thx Doc some of clusters colours are great

[Talitha]

my 1st thought was Disco Star rather than Dogstar

Perfect!

Sirius was flickering different colors because it' was so bright and so low. I've seen Venus and Capella do the same thing.

Thanks James, great report.

[Taff]

Hi James' sounds like you had a great night viewing, nice write up.Mark

[RobH]

Great report James

Don't be dissapointed, but you won't see colour in deep sky objects such as M42, which is a pretty bright one.

The colour in images is captured by much more sensitive syetems than our eyes. In low light levels we don't see in colour, mores the pity!

Good staying power BTW....a full night observing takes some stamina....us imagers can always have a nap

Cheers

Rob

[AztecastroMcJ]

Perfect!

Sirius was flickering different colors because it' was so bright and so low. I've seen Venus and Capella do the same thing.

Thanks James, great report.

thx Talitha

wondered why Sirius seemed multicoloured

thx for clearing that up

James

[AztecastroMcJ]

Great report James

Don't be dissapointed, but you won't see colour in deep sky objects such as M42, which is a pretty bright one.

The colour in images is captured by much more sensitive syetems than our eyes. In low light levels we don't see in colour, mores the pity!

Good staying power BTW....a full night observing takes some stamina....us imagers can always have a nap

Cheers

Rob

having a nap ?

i'd be worried it would Rain

or my equipment get stolen

would be interesting to image some DSO tho

just to see some colour

James

[mdstuart]

Sirius was almost certainly red in the past. There were many reputable astronomers who included this star in with Betelgeuse and Arcturus etc in lists. So its pretty certain that it used to be redder. Of course there is then the question of how could that have been etc....

I also heard it said that red to our eyes may be less obvious than say 2000 years agao but that sounds less likely than Sirius being red in the past...

Mark