A comet and some more messiers

[iamjulian]

Despite promising forecasts all week, last night was the first night in a while that I have had clear skies, so I set up at dusk, polar aligned, and got the camera ready for another go at comet Hartley. It was quite easy to locate in the eye piece this time, 24x magnification it looked about as bright, and slightly bigger than M13. I spent about half an hour taking images of it before ditching the camera and heading back indoors to consult the maps for some visual targets. I was reading midweek about someone describing doing the messier marathon in one night. While I do much prefer to spend more time on each target, I couldn't help thinking that my 30 messiers in 14 months wasn't very impressive. If people can bag them all with 8x50 binoculars, I should pull my finger out and get a few more.

Back outside I aimed at M76, the butterfly or little dumbbell nebula. Star hopping from gamma andromeda with the finderscope was pretty easy. Checked the map on CdC and then waited until my eyes got dark adapted again (even with the night version of CdC, the glare from the screen sets my eyes back a bit, but mag 7 star maps aren't always detailed enough). Sure enough, averted vision showed I was in the right place. Couldn't really make out much structure at 24x, but a faint smudge, about as bright as M110 was visible. Extra magnification did not help.

Next target M101, just above the saucepan handle. I have looked for this many many times without success, but my eyes were now well adapted and I already knew how to star hop to it. It took a few minutes, but there was definitely something there at 24x. Again, extra magnification showed nothing. At this time of year, It's about as good as I am going to get from home (limiting mag about 5). How on earth you are supposed to be able to see that with 8x50 binoculars is beyond me. In the desert perhaps.

Next up, M71, a glob in sagittarius. Nice and easy to find, neatly between gamma and delta(?) stars of the constellation. Not a very bright glob and magnification didn't seem to help much. I could not resolve any stars. Perhaps it was my viewing angle - over a roof with a window light to one side.

Slightly up from M71 I found M27 the dumbbell nebula. I am not sure why I haven't tried this one before. It was really quite big, more so than I expected, and almost as bright/obvious as M31. Almost. It took magnification well and some structure was clear too. I wrote in my note book - "A planetary filter and some more aperture". I didn't really want to leave M27, but time was moving on and I wanted to get M29, an open cluster near gamma in Cygnus. Not the most stunningly obvious cluster, nor the most impressive. But another one for the list.

Five more messier objects and a comet. It was a good night's astronomy but I did conclude that as fun as imaging is, I much prefer observing.

[Talitha]

Well done!

M27 rocked me back on my heels the first time i saw it. Still one of my faves.

[Beulah]

Glad you made the most of a rare clear night in these parts!