At last!!

[oldfruit]

Tonight after what seems an eternity, the skies finally cleared and to say i was keen to get out observing would be an understatement.

The scope had been out for a while so whilst waiting for it to cool i had a quick look around and was wishing it had cleared earlier. The reason being that the stars were only slightly twinkling. The seeing was obviously good tonight but the transparency was poor. Even Sirius which seems to change colour and twinkle furiously was behaving tonight. Unfortunately Jupiter was too low by this time to observe from my location so i would have to seek some other targets.

The obvious choice was M42. I used a low magnification at first and the view was amazing. So much to see, dark lanes, bright patches, darker patches. What amazed me the most though was that when i upped the magnification the detail was still fantastic. I even went up to 200x and could still make out loads of detail in the nebula. I also looked at the Trapezium but could only see the main 4 stars and am not sure if i should be able to see the E and F stars with my scope. Even at higher magnification i could not make out more than the 4 main stars on this occasion.

Next i moved the scope up to M78. Whilst this was clearly visible as a faint patch of nebula with 2 stars within it, it was a little overshadowed by what i had seen of M42.

M1 was next, now i have observed this a few times and have seldom seen more than a very fain oval glow and this was also the case tonight. I would imagine a bigger scope would start to show some more detail?

As the air was quite steady i thought i would try for some double stars. First was Castor in Gemini. I am not sure of the separation of these stars but it looks very close. I used magnification of 100x and the stars were easily split with a sliver of black between them.

Next was Rigel in Orion. This pair was easier to split though the companion star is almost overpowered by the primary. I could see Rigel was a brilliant blueish/white but found it difficult to make out the colour of the companion star.

I finished my session with a look at the Pleiades which to me look great with the eye, binoculars or any size scope. Tonight i was sure i could just about make out some nebula around Merope but to be honest could not be sure as it was very faint. It just looked a little fuzzy around Merope but it could have been haze or cloud, but the rest of the cluster looked normal so i will try again when the transparency is better.

Would be interesting to know if anyone else had similar observing conditions tonight.

Clear skies.

Mark.

[DarkerSky]

Nice report Mark, and good to get out there!

M1 does indeed show a bit more detail in a larger aperture. I've seen a clear 's' shape to the nebula in my 16" scope with bays and filament protrusions, as well as mottling in parts of the nebula.

I'm yet to capture M78. It's next on my list, once I get a cloud-free and moon-free night!

[Dave Smith]

Nice report. It's good to see someone is getting out. Still wall to wall cloud here in Essex.

Dave

[oldfruit]

I must admit it was great to get out after such a long break. I`m hoping to get to one of the star partys this year and see if i can get a look through a bigger scope. I`m sure though that if i observed objects through my scope under ideal conditions i would possibly be able to tease out a little more detail.

I did also set the alarm for 4am today to see if i could get a look at Saturn but it was cloudy so i`m glad i had the chance to get out last night.

[John]

Nice report - glad you got out under the stars at last !.

Managed to get an hour or so myself this evening. E & F trapezium showing with my 6" refractor, once it had cooled down. They can be challenging though - a good test of both seeing and collimation.

[stolenfeather]

I had such a night a couple of days ago and you couldn't believe the invisibility. I blogged my report instead of posting (I welcome you to view it). My only glitch was the cold with left me with some frostbite issues. Like you, Jupiter was low to the horizon so it was not the greatest show. But the Messiers? Beautiful!

I wish you MORE cloudless skies,

Isabelle