oldfruit Posted March 13, 2022 Share Posted March 13, 2022 (edited) Tonight as the weather forecast was good I decided to venture up to Badger Farm to take advantage of the favourable weather conditions. I set up in the last part or day light thankfully, setting up a large truss dobsonian in the dark is no fun. After collimating the scope I did a star test, collimation was good but the image was mushy, mirrors needed to cool and when they did the image was greatly improved. I was joined tonight by Claire and Dave, Neil, and also two of our newer members Dave and Paul. I made it clear from the outset that everyone was welcome to share the views through my scope if they wished to do so. The first target on the list tonight was M42 The Great Orion Nebula. This object through any scope is great, but through a large aperture dob, it is awesome, tendrils of gas billowing in all directions, large amounts of structure to be seen, I am happy to report that both the E and F stars in the Trapezium were easily viewed in moments of good seeing. I swung around to M97 The Owl Nebula next. Unfiltered a ghostly disk was visible, filtered the contrast was much greater, and I thought that I could make out hints of the eyes. We had a low power look at M81 and M82 and then for comparison we increased the power to observe them individually, teasing out detail in M82 and using our averted imagination on M81 though the spiral arms were not obvious. We had a look at M31 though it is getting low now so whilst the image was bright, not as much detail as can be seen when at the zenith was visible. Next we observed NGC 2392 The Eskimo Nebula, first at lower power then increasing the magnification. At higher magnification there was clear detail visible, showing the inner and outer rings. Neil kindly pointed out that there was a comet, 19P/Borrelly if i recall correctly. Neil provided the finder chart and within a minute i managed to find it. It is always nice to find and observe new targets such as this and it was certainly one of the hilights of the evening for me. We then looked at some galaxies in Leo, the Leo Triplet, also M95 and M96. We could not pass up the chance to look at M51, it did not disappoint, structure was visible, the brighter parts of the spiral arms were easily evident and I will be revisiting this once higher to tease out more detail. We also looked at other objects of interest, the Double Cluster included. I remarked on a talk Paul Money did for us once about star colour. I put Betelguese in the eyepiece, it was a really vivid fiery orange/red colour. These big scopes really do bring out the colour in stars. Another hilight of the night happened just prior to us packing up, a very large bright meteor streaked overhear and down through Perseus, splitting in two and burning orange as it disintegrated, a truly beautiful sight. A huge thank you to those of you that could join me tonight. It was wonderful to have an evening back doing what we love the most, observing and sharing a beautiful clear starry sky. Edited March 13, 2022 by oldfruit +RonC, +Glafnazur, +Streetbob and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Glafnazur Posted March 13, 2022 Share Posted March 13, 2022 Sounds like a great night Mark 👍 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+RonC Posted March 13, 2022 Share Posted March 13, 2022 Not lost your touch then Mark, sounds like a good night at the farm..👍 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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