Belper 18-19th April 2014.

[Daz Type-R]

Well, not sure where to start.

 

I will have a crack at an attendance list, starting at the top..

 

Sheila, Stephen, Pete (Rainbow Demon ????),Gentlechaos, (Kevin), Baz, Devil74, Ibbo, Perkli8r, CodnorPaul, tuckstar, DaveJw, myself and TAWow. 

 

Sorry if I have forgot anybody else. 

 

So after negotiating a road closure at the end of the A610 resulting in me driving round the houses, I got to the dark site around 20:20, so preceded to set-up in the last of the light.

 

Once set-up, I went and got a brew and went to chat to everybody while the scope acclimatised.  Keeping an eye on the sky, Jupiter and Mars were bright in the sky and soon the brighter of the first evening stars started to show them selves.  Aligned the finders etc to the primary and set about getting focus sorted and the setting circle and wixey set-up, I was ready to go around 21:30 ish.

 

First off started on Mars even though it was low in the murk, then moved over to Jupiter which was much higher, not much detail from Mars due to the murk, the seeing was not great and I didn't spend very long at the ep, Jupiter was much better as it was higher and the seeing was much better in that part of the sky.

 

My main targets/aims for tonight was really some galaxy hunting and trying different coloured filters on Mars, so as the sun set further and it got darker and darker, I set about finding some galaxy's that I just can not see from my back garden,  so turning to Leo I set about bagging my first elusive faint fuzzes.  first off was M95, M96 and M105, all around the 9.3 to 9.6 visual mag and I hoped, all in the same FOV of my 13mm Ethos, managed M95 and M96 first time with ease thanks to the setting circle, a bit of manoeuvring got me M105, no real detail in any of them, just faint fuzzes but there none the less.

 

Next started an interesting discussion between me, Andy Tuckster, Codnor Paul and Dave Jw which resulted in me wrongly believing that the 3 Messier above were the Leo triplet, when in fact they were not, so next on the list was the Leo triplet then .

 

M65 and M66 easily found with the setting circle but I could not (for 100% certainty) find NGC3628, but never mind, I`m after Messiers not NGC's.  Could not detect any noticeable detail in these either even though they were 8.8 visual mag.

 

Quick break for a brew, some cake and a chat, bit of a wander around chatting and looking through other peoples kit, then did a brief stint as a car park attendant guiding people out so they could leave without putting their lights on .

 

Next on the list was M109, a 9.8 mag spiral galaxy in Ursa Major, found easily with the setting circle, again no real detail and then after that I moved over to M58, another 9.6 mag galaxy in Virgo.

 

By now, Mars was well out of the murk and nicely high in the sky so set about attacking Mars with a set of coloured filters, bit hard to see what they were in the dark but I had a blue, a red, a darker blue and what i thought was a yellow but after talking to Mike we think it was something else, need to get them labelled in the light and tray again, some like the blue brought out the ice cap, other detail was nicely visible using some of the other filters,I borrowed Ibbo's 2.5x power mate which helped loads bringing the magnification up to 230x, possibly a bit high but better than the 92x I was having without the power mate.  Even though I did not really spend the time at the ep that Mars deservers, the aim of last night was mainly a test of the filters (which I may be buying) to see what was visible.  Defiantly will be going back to Mars with these filters sooner rather than later.

 

Another quick blast at Jupiter  using Ibbos bino-viewers, then borrowed the 2.5x power mate again to have a look at Saturn which had risen nicely out the murk.

 

By this time it was about 2:30am, ice was forming on everything, cars were frozen over etc and most people had left, there was just me, Stephen, Mike and Ibbo in the end by the time I had packed the car and loaned Mike my dew shield (long story ) it had just gone 3:00am.

 

Cut it short due to being on call, I was chancing it even going but really glad I went, fantastic night, great company, 7 new Messier s and some nice planet viewing, good use of a power mate and some filters, so I got out the night more than I expected.

 

Bring on the next one, fingers crossed for the quarterly.

Edited April 23, 2014 by Daz Type-R

[T A WOW]

Good report Daz.

[+Ibbo]

nice right up Daz

[philjay]

Glad you had a good night folks

[Orion]

Sorry I couldn't make it. I had family from the north east. Nice to read the report though.

[BAZ]

Great read Daz.

Gentlechaos, (Kevin) also in attendance with shiny new bino's.

[tuckstar]

Nice report Daz, and finally nailed that triplet :-).

Good turn out and again nice to see some more new faces.