In the rain...

[pvaz]

The weather forecast said it was going to rain but, as I got home, the sky was clear at last.

I rushed in, made a list of the Herschel 400 I'm still missing in Cassiopeia and a full list of the ones in Perseus. 10 min later I had all setup and the GOTO controller aligned and ready for it's first real session. Meanwhile the wind was blowing hard, I asked for M38, pushed as it told me to, and it was in my FOV! Then the rain came... it was mild rain with sparse clouds and a strong wind.

I stored the scope, picked the binos and made what I could of it.

1st M42/43 nice as always. The main brightest area was visible through binos. Couldn't make individual stars in the trapezium. Just a small dot of light where it sits.

Then M38 and M36. M38 was bright and I could make out individual stars, M36 seamed like a patch of light. With averted vision I could detect a small patch of light near M38 where NGC1907 is.

Then I went for M35 in Gemini. I could see a brightening in the sky and make out 4 individual stars.

I tried NGC7789 next. Found the place easy but I couldn't make its shape. Tried averted vision but no luck so I went for M52. I looked carefully in the area and sow a small round patch of light, I think it was it, the place was right, but I'm not sure since there ware many stars in the area.

On to the double cluster for an easy target. I looked at it for a good 5 to 10 min trying to resolve some orangish stars. No luck! I did see many individual stars resolving and it was a great sight even without seeing any hints of color.

Then I wanted to test how much I could detect with binos now that I have some star hopping experience. I went for the North America Nebula, panned the area near Deneb for a while letting my eyes adapt and trying averted vision. No luck at all, not even traces of it.

Jumped to the veil nebula. After a good 5 min at it, with averted vision I think I sow the witch's broom section for a brief moment. Maybe it was my mind playing tricks on me.

On to another challenging target, M78 in Orion since now there where clouds all over the rest of the sky and the rain was still falling mildly. This one was surprisingly easy. It's very small and through binos it looks like an tiny oval brighting in the sky but it was extremely easy to find.

Even though it was lite rain, after an hour I was getting wet. Called it a night and came in for a change of cloths and a warm tea.

[Talitha]

It's too bad the rain made you put the scope away Paulo, but from the sounds of it you did very well anyway. Great report, and i must say, the first one i've ever read of a rainy observing session.

[pvaz]

It was a warm night (17ºC) and the clouds ware sparse so I could juggle around them and see whatever was available.

[Taff]

Hi Paulo' That's a nice write up sounds like you had a great time at finding the DSO.Mark

[Doc]

Lovely report, I wouldn't dare observe in the rain, the base board would warp like hell if it got wet.

Have yet to see M78 so well done on that, it's very small so you done well to capture it.

[pvaz]

Lovely report, I wouldn't dare observe in the rain, the base board would warp like hell if it got wet.

Have yet to see M78 so well done on that, it's very small so you done well to capture it.

I used binos when it started raining and stored the scope.

And yeah M78 is really small. I was surprised I could even detect it on binos.