Ho66es's Blog

Finally a good night to check out my new scope, shortly after 6pm I headed up to Killylane. I was first to arrive and was able to quickly get unpacked and setup. The new scope goes together almost as fast as the old one with the exception of the OTA which is a bit ’scary’ as I am unused to having to fit the dovetail. Once levelled I tried out skyalign using Mars, Venus and Sirius, alignment success, a nice feature.

Next to arrive was Jonathan and the observing began. I started with M42 and that was to become the focal point of the evenings observing for me. It was as if I was using a filter, everything just ‘popped out’  the detail and clarity were stunning. Shortly after Stevie arrived and last but by no means least was Derek. Items viewed by myself included:

M37 an open cluster in Auriga

M38 another open cluster in Auriga

M32 (also known as NGC 221 and Le Gentil) a dwarf elliptical galaxy

M31 the Andromeda Galaxy

Eta Cas a lovely binary

M101 the Pinwheel Galaxy (also known as Messier 101 or NGC 5457) is a face-on spiral galaxy

Gamma Ari another lovely double

M81 (also known as NGC 3031 or Bode’s Galaxy) a spiral galaxy

M82 (also known as NGC 3034 or the Cigar Galaxy) the prototype nearby starburst galaxy

Saturn

Mars

Venus

the ISS made an early and very bright appearance too.

A few other objects were observed, but then Stevie lent me his Wilson optical diagonal and we tried it with his Hyperion eyepieces and Dereks Panoptic, although we moved around a bit we usually ended up back at M42. Eventually the old and the prospect of an early rise got to us and we started to pack up, only then did I notice a layer of dew on the front of my scope despite a shield, and a thick coating of ice on almost everything else . It had dropped to -3c whilst observing!

one other useful kernel of knowledge gleaned from stevie was the use of ‘precise goto’ on my scope, a very good feature.

A final? outing for the Nexstar 5 as its successor wings its way to me and I wanted to achieve 40 of the nexstar50 list before retiring it that left me 4 objects to go.

NGC4565

NGC7510

M100

24 com.

The skies were gorgeous on my arrival about 19:30 and on setup I cleared 3 of the objects within the first 30minutes. next to arrive was simon and the pair of us settled into a nice viewing session visiting old favourites and finding new ones in the crisp and clearing winter/spring sky. Along the way M100 fell under my gaze confirmed by Simon as I had to drop to 30mm and avert to see it.

galaxies were plentiful and sitting out proudly from a deep backround, especially nice were the globular clusters!

Later stevie arrived and once he was setup I shortly departed as had been my plan. My equipment was coated in ice but what a great night. I hope Simon and Stevie enjoyed the rest of their stay

A great night, almost made the break worth while, I arrived at Killylane at 19:20 and Stevie and Derek were not long after, I hit an incredible list of firsts for me. I was maybe a bit hurried but they all got a look and some of the more doubtful ones got confirmed by Stevie (2nd there he was ‘unlucky’ to set up beside me). My eye is slowly getting used to my scope and picking up on fuzzies that this time last year I would have missed, what also helped was that my alignment was pretty spot on and even when i left the 12.5mm eyepiece in objects appeared in the field of view when gone to (my normal ‘goto’ ep is my 25mm).

Some objects were barely discernable, like M101 and NGC2392, others like a lot of star doubles were beautiful and readily split by distance and colour.

The Orion Nebula was clear and got better as the night went on, early in the evening Derek showed me it through his scope with the filter in and it really popped out.

Eventually about 10pm the cloud cover started to move in eventually covering most of the sky by 10:30pm when we decided to pack up and leave, though even then saturn was trying to show itself. My toes were almost painful for the first half of the drive home as they warmed up, and some of my static kit on the table was covered in hoar frost (left out of its boxes  its dried overnight.

Without further ado the list !

1/ Messier 67 (also known as M67  or NGC 2682)
2/ Messier 81 (also known as NGC 3031 or Bode’s Galaxy)
3/ NGC 7662 otherwise known as the Blue Snowball Nebula
4/ The Andromeda Galaxy, also known as Messier 31, M31, or NGC 224
5/ Eta Cassiopeiae
6/ Messier 35 (also known as M 35, or NGC 2168) an open cluster
7/ Messier 46 (also known as M 46 or NGC 2437) an open cluster
8/ Gamma Andromedae the third brightest star in the constellation of Andromeda. also known by the traditional name Almach
9/ The Double Cluster common name for the naked-eye open clusters NGC 884 and NGC 869
10/ 30 Arietis a 6th magnitude binary star in the constellation Aries.
11/ Messier 34 (also known as M 34 or NGC 1039) an open cluster
12/ 32 Eridanus
13/ Messier 38 (also known as M38 or NGC 1912) an open cluster
14/ The Crab Nebula (catalogue designations M1, NGC 1952, Taurus A)
15/ Open Cluster M36 (also known as Messier Object 36, Messier 36, M36, or NGC 1960)
16/ Messier 37 (also known as M37 or NGC 2099)
17/ Messier 41 (also known as M41 or NGC 2287) an open cluster
18/ 38 gem
19/ h3945
20/ The Eskimo Nebula (NGC 2392)
21/ Messier 82 (also known as NGC 3034 or the Cigar Galaxy)
22/ Messier 65 (also known as NGC 3623) an intermediate spiral galaxy
23/ Messier 66 (also known as NGC 3627) an intermediate spiral galaxy
24/ The Pinwheel Galaxy (also known as Messier 101 or NGC 5457) a face-on spiral galaxy
25/ 24 com
26/ Gamma Leonis (γ Leo / γ Leonis) a binary star system in the constellation  Leo. It has the traditional name Algieba  or Al Gieba.
27/ NGC 2903 a barred spiral galaxy
28/ Messier 105 (also known as M105 and NGC 3379) an elliptical galaxy
29/ Messier 95 (also known as M95 or NGC 3351) is a barred spiral galaxy
30/ Messier 96 (also known as NGC 3368) an intermediate spiral galaxy
31/ Cor Caroli (α CVn / α Canum Venaticorum / Alpha Canum Venaticorum, originally known by the more elaborate Cor Caroli Regis Martyris) the brightest star in the northern constellation Canes Venatici.
32/ The Beehive Cluster (also known as Praesepe (Latin for “manger”), M44, NGC 2632, or Cr 189) an open cluster
33/ Messier 46 (also known as M 46 or NGC 2437) an open cluster
34/ Mars
35/ The Orion Nebula (also known as Messier 42, M42, or NGC 1976) a diffuse nebula

I think thats it all, and thats just through my scope. there were some awesome views through Stevies and Dereks too