Meade Lightbridge Observing report as of 22.12.2009

[Doc]

22nd Dec 2009

Meade Lightbridge 16" F4.5 Fl 1829mm

Slight Crescent Moon gone by 21.30

Very cold -1° to -4°

Poor seeing LM 4.0

Auriga was the featured constellation in Astronomy Now magazine for Jan 2010 and one of the objects is IC2149 a planetary nebula very close to Pi Auriga. At just 0.2'x0.1' and with a magnitude of 10 it was very hard to locate. I tried all my eyepieces and my O111 filter but still this elusive little planetary refused to co-operate.

Next was Ngc2419 also known as The Intergalatic Wanderer, the most distant globular cluster known to man at 300,000 light years away. Once again I failed in my attempt to locate this object. The sky didn't look very good and I'm sure this had a overwhelming contribution to it.

Next onto Ngc2264 The Christmas Tree Cluster in Monoceros, this is such a delightful cluster and really does look like a christmas tree, in the 28 Uwan at x65 I counted approx 30 stars many over mag 8 in brightness. Around the bright star at the base of the tree there is alot of nebulosity which with averted vision has a triangular or cone shape cut out. With prolonged observing the nebulosity seems to stretch further into the tree but this is very subtle. I cannot be sure I saw the cone nebula but with averted vision and the 7 Uwan inserted I might have. I took the time to sketch what I saw.

Gemini was now gaining altitude so went for a few open clusters to finish off the Gemini Herschel entries. First was Ngc2420 this turned out to be a small circular patch of stars. Within this 10' patch I counted about 12 stars while using the 16 Uwan at x114 but did detect a little background nebulosity so maybe a few more unaccounted stars were there but I was unable to see them due to sky conditions.

Next was Ngc2395 a very sparse open cluster in Gemini, nothing to write home about and very easily missed, had to double check on the web if I had indeed found it. Through the 28 Uwan at x65 I counted about 20 stars. No shape or colour was noted.

Just for giggles really, I dropped down about 0.5° from Ngc2395 and tried to locate the Medusa Nebula or Abell 21, I've seen some cracking photographs of this object showing a lovely crescent but I wasn't expecting to see it in the eyepiece. It's quite large at 10'x6' but has a surface brightness of mag 16.4 so I had no chance. Scanned the area with my 28 Uwan and also inserted the O111 filter but nothing appeared.

Staying in Gemini my last open cluster was Ngc2355, not that easy to seperate from the background stars but once found easily resolved into a circular clump of stars about 0.8' in diameter. Through the 16 Uwan I counted aprroximately 15 stars. No colour or nebulosity detected.

Monoceros was riding a touch higher now so once again to finish of the open clusters in the Herschel 400 I headed for Ngc2215 a medium size cluster at 11' in diameter and shining at mag 8. It turned out to be a patch containing about 20 stars that are loosly scattered with no defining borders.

Next onto one of the highlights of the evening a lovely open cluster called Ngc2232. This is a very bright cluster at mag 4 and pretty large at 30' in diameter. The really nice in the 28 Uwan and I even detected a few yellow coloured stars. I counted 10 bright stars and at least 20 dimmer stars.

Staying in Monoceros I swept up the open cluster Ngc2251 an interesting cluster in a diamond shape.

Last open cluster on the Herschel list was Ngc2286 a medium size cluster that consisted of at least 40 stars about 8 of these brighter then the rest. no shape was detected and no colour seen.

It was now 23.30 and the sky seemed to be a bit more transparrent and the seeing had improved slightly so staying in Monoceros I looked up Ngc2346 a planetary nebula known as The Butterfly Nebula. The nebula is small at 1.0' x 0.7' and had a visual magnitude of 11.5 so I wasn't expecting to find it. In the 28 Uwan I could not detect it at all, but by inserting the 16 Uwan and by sheer luck in sweeping that area something caught my eye. I inserted the 7 Uwan and through times of good seeing I could detect an oval smudge, no extra detail or structure could be seen. I tried the 16 and 7 Uwan with the Baader O111 filter but this didn't really improve the view, not bad for an object just half a light year across but 3000 light years away.

And then an accident happened, due to the severe cold and my frostbitten fingers I dropped the O111 filter after taking it off the end of the 2" to 1.5" adapter, it fell on the floor and is now loose in the housing as it rattles around inside. I checked it on the Eskimo Nebula and it seems to work fine but is loose.

Anyway a bit annoyed and freezing cold I called it a night, the scope was really iced up, the worst I've ever seen it but once again the dew heaters worked really well., and I managed another 7 entries in the Herschel 400.

[pvaz]

Seam you had a good night, except for the ending.

Hope you can fix the OIII!

[Doc]

Seam you had a good night, except for the ending.

Hope you can fix the OIII!

It was freezing, you should have seen the scope it had about 5mm of ice all over it.

As for the O111 it still works ok just rattles.

[red dwalf]

nice report Doc,

it was very clear here last night but i didn`t get in from work till gone 11pm and after being cold all day i wasn`t up for it, but jupiter was very clear early on in the evening, it was all i could see apart from the moon for ages due to the horriable lights they have at the airport, keep telling them to turn them off but they won`t

[DarkerSky]

Good stuff. NGC 2346 sounds like an interesting planetary. I'll have to have a go at that. Pity you couldn't get NGC2419. The wanderer is a tricky customer for sure.

Btw - my OIII filter glass has rattled inside its housing for years. I've no idea what caused the rattle but it doesn't seem to affect performance and the glass has never fallen out

[Talitha]

Another great report Mick, thanks!

All of my filters (even the plain colored glass ones) have an inner ring up against the glass with two very small notches in it, opposite one another... just like eyepieces and refractors have in them.

Very carefuly insert a small pointed plastic toothpick (or a very small jeweler's screwdriver) into one of the notches and gently try to rotate the ring to tighten it against the glass. Tap the filter as you're doing this so it's well-seated. If needed, use two toothpicks at once, but i've had success using just one on my fiilters, eyepiece lenses and refractor lenses. Hope this helps.

[Doc]

Another great report Mick, thanks!

All of my filters (even the plain colored glass ones) have an inner ring up against the glass with two very small notches in it, opposite one another... just like eyepieces and refractors have in them.

Very carefuly insert a small pointed plastic toothpick (or a very small jeweler's screwdriver) into one of the notches and gently try to rotate the ring to tighten it against the glass. Tap the filter as you're doing this so it's well-seated. If needed, use two toothpicks at once, but i've had success using just one on my fiilters, eyepiece lenses and refractor lenses. Hope this helps.

Thanks Carol off to have a look.

[LukeSkywatcher]

Yep Carol is correct. It should take a couple of seconds to fix.

[Beulah]

Great report Doc!

What does the Eskimo Nebula look like through your scope?

With my 8" reflector, 25mm EP with 5.5 LM skies and "good" seeing (say 7/10) it has a small, bright central ball with a fuzzy border.

[SAB]

great report! The Cone Nebula is one tricky [removed word], I've never seen it, even though I've seen the Horsehead from my place.

I think the Cone is certainly more difficult than the HH.

[Rob]

Sorry to hear about your filter!.. its easy to have things happen like this, your hands are so cold.

Nice report Doc cheers