angusw2 Posted April 6, 2013 Share Posted April 6, 2013 Friday 5th April saw an arranged meet at the Belper dark sky site. I loaded up the dobsonian and when I arrived found that the road leading to the site entrance was blocked with snow piles up to three feet deep. Apparently the local farmers had used this little used road to dump snow cleared from other roads. So we set up by the snowdrifts and and soldiered on. The first target was another quick view of Comet Panstarrs, before it set. After the sky had darkened sufficiently and a quick look at some favourite clusters I turned to Virgo in my quest for Messier objects. Using my widest field eyepiece I pointed my Telrad midway between the stars Denebola in Leo and Vindemiatrix in Virgo and picked up M84 and M86 in Markarian's Chain. I star and fuzzy object hopped up Markarian's Chain up to the first new object of the evening M88. Then using a star chart and computer program I worked my way along M91, M90, M89, M58, M59 and M60. I then swung the scope with the Telrad to the star 6 Comae Berenices and star hopped M98, M99 and M100. I then swung to Rho Virginis and star hopped to M49 and M61. 11 Comae Berenices provided the guide to find M85. I then swung up to Cor Carioli and dropped on M63 and then M94. I decided to then have another go at M101, and object I had looked for but failed so ever see a number of times. I decided to star hop to make sure I was in the right area but before I got there I realised it was clouding over and there would be little change of seeing this notoriously low surface brightness object through the haze and so decided to pack up. Overall a very successful evening seeing 14 new Messier objects. Also I found that for most of the evening I was standing on compacted snow and my feet were not as cold as previous evenings on frozen ground! A fun and unusual night and I look forward to the next one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tweedledee Posted April 6, 2013 Share Posted April 6, 2013 Very nice report Angus. That is an exciting region to explore. I intend to have a look there soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Perkil8r Posted April 6, 2013 Share Posted April 6, 2013 14 in the end then, well done it was nice to meet you, and I enjoyed sharing your excitement as you declared another then another and so on Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest spacedex Posted April 6, 2013 Share Posted April 6, 2013 sounded like a fun night with lots to see but am not visual,i shall get to the next one with the image rig John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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