+Streetbob Posted January 11, 2016 Share Posted January 11, 2016 Despite an early get up the following morning and with the weather forecast looking good I decided to have a short observing session. Taking a chance I set up my Altair 200mm Reflector on a Dobson mount at 16:30. I know if the clouds had found out they would have been right there, fortunately it stayed clear. With the moon at 0% I started observing at 18:45. Following advice from various members to concentrate on a constellation and get to know all the main stars, Auriga was in clear view so that was my target. To start with I aligned on Capella and fine tuned my finders (Starpointer Pro & Altair 10x60mm RACI Finder Scope) With a Baader Zoom MkIII set at 24mm I swept to β Aug (Menkalinan); θ Aug; ε Aug; η Aug; ζ Aug and finally ι Aug which liked a beautiful orange colour. Then setting my Wixey at 54° and using the Starpointer Pro to roughly half way between θ Aug and ι Aug I very quickly found M38. I then reset the Wixey and following the same procedure found M36. This was such a joy to view. At 19:34 a wisp of cloud blew across so I had a quick tea from my flask and returned to find M37, another joy yo observe especially with the Baader set at 16mm. Following more advice to try sketching to really enhance an observation, I returned to M36. I spent an enjoyable 30 mins or more sketching, though the results weren't very impressive. By 20:45 everything was dewing up so I finished my observing session. During this session I used an Everyready Helix head torch. Not that impressed as you need to cycle through 5 white light modes to switch off! I need to find a better head torch. The third piece of advice that proved useful was to keep a log. Thanks all. Smithysteve 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daz Type-R Posted January 11, 2016 Share Posted January 11, 2016 Nice write up, thanks for sharing. Sounds like dew control is next on your list, I can observe all night now and not dew up one bit. Nothing worse than a bit water ruining a good night. +Streetbob 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Posted January 11, 2016 Share Posted January 11, 2016 Great write up Doug. The Wixey is a great tool and so easy to use. And yes always keep a log, very useful to look back on and write observing reports from. +Streetbob 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catman161 Posted January 11, 2016 Share Posted January 11, 2016 Nice one Doug. I love Auriga too I always check out the clusters in there. Beautiful. Great write up +Streetbob 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werisit Posted January 11, 2016 Share Posted January 11, 2016 Nice write up Doug. Auriga and its M's are a favorite of mine too. Also grab M35 in Gemini as well. It's not often you can get 4 consecutive Messiers. I got my head torch from Morrisons for about £3. It has a sliding switch, one way for white, the other way for red light. +Streetbob 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Streetbob Posted January 14, 2016 Author Share Posted January 14, 2016 Thanks for the tips. Looking into dew heaters now. Was going to expand my eps, they'll have to wait. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smithysteve Posted January 17, 2016 Share Posted January 17, 2016 An interesting report Doug, it is always good to hear about a successful viewing session. I love reading these types of reports, they have been a bit scarce of late due to the poor conditions. ? Looking forward to hearing about more great nights. ? Cheers! +Streetbob 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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