Observing DSOs last night with 6" refractor

[Mark at Beaufort]

I set up the 6" Meade last night mainly to observe double stars but the sky was so clear I decided to look for more Hidden Treasurers and Herschel 400 objects.

After an enjoyable view of Jupiter I turned my attention to Cetus and Sculptor. The view of NGC 253 was the best that I have ever had so I moved the scope downwards and found the glob NGC288. All I could detect was a glow but it was in the correct place and clearly a faint object but at Dec - 26 degrees not bad for the UK.

Carol (Talitha) produced a wonderful sketch of NGC 247 in Cetus so I went looking for it. It helps to indentify the mag 9.5 star at the base which I found. Tapping/moving the side of the scope together with averted image I could make out the glow of the galaxy

Over to NGC 908 another Hidden Treasurer from Steve O'Meare's book. Again tapping/moving the scope and I detected the glow of this galaxy. The thing that surprised me was the best EP for seeing this galaxy was the Hyperion 17 even better than the Ethos 13mm - don't know why!

Down to NGC 1097 - number 67 in the Caldwell list and the lowest from the UK. Well I found the star field including very faint stars but could not see the galaxy.

The scope is now covered in ice so I looked for one more object - the planetary neb NGC 1535 in Eridananus and number 24 in Hidden Treasurers. This PN appears as a small blue disc although I could not detect the central star.

Well very pleased with the views with the 6" frac mounted on the SkyTee alt/az mount. Went inside and wrote up the log and sat back and had a beer . Good start to 2010.

Mark