Perkil8r Posted December 1, 2013 Share Posted December 1, 2013 The weather was showing to be clear from around 10pm until 2am so a few of us decided to head on over to Belper. That proved to be the right choice to make! On arrival at around 7pm there were a lot of clouds about but a few small gaps. Just enough to get the scope polar aligned and set up. Probably around 8pm or 8:30pm it started to clear, followed by a few clouds passing through, then clear and so on with some quite large breaks of around an hour or so. Then around 11:30pm as most had either packed up or were packing up it cleared to crystal clear skies. The following is hard to believe in parts and spread over various sessions of 10 or 15 mins between 11:30pm and 6:00am, yes, 6:00am! I was using my now favorite Bushnell 10 x 50's First stop was to try for Lovejoy - No joy So I had a mooch about looking at M31, M33, Double Cluster, M42 and M45. I keep looking at M33 just because I can now, having taken me well over a year to see it! Much in the same way as M31 can be a pig to find, but once found, you can hardly put a pair of Bino's to your eyes and not see them. Neither of which ever fail to impress. Double Cluster fills a decent FOV and just sits there like a couple of piles of salt spilt on a black tablecloth. M42 looking resplendent as always and M45 simply beautiful. Next on to a quick look at Jupiter. Although not much to look at in Bino's of this size it is obvious it is not "just a star" but something more, and in this viewing complete with 2 of it's moons, Callisto to the left and Ganymede to the right, Io eluded me although should have been visible. This around 00:15 - 00:30 at a guess, certainly the orientation according to Stellarium would suggest this to be the case. Later and back to Lovejoy - deep joy! Much clearer than my first sight of it the other night. The head was as I described previously, a little larger than Jupiter appears and probably a little brighter than the inner part of M31 and fuzzy. But this time streaking upwards across the obsidian sky was the tail. Quite a wide fan too. I'm not clear on my FOV with these binoculars but I am guessing the tail reaches a good degree, maybe a degree and a half above the head. The tail is faint though and does require quite some time to discern. The time now is around 3am. With a belly full of Bacon Butties and builders tea it was a great moment to be alive under such wonderfully clear skies, although rather breezy it has to be said, and none too warm either. With the bit between my teeth it was off for a tour of all the targets seen earlier. Now popping into view much clearer. If it was my eyes or the weather or perhaps the Bacon I don't know, but certainly things seemed much clearer. It was time to find some more, Steve was also scanning about so between us we would find something and compare. Whilst we were observing the ever incredible Double Cluster I scanned up to M52 a small cluster which sparkles nicely, not at all far from the Bubble Nebula which is or at least was impossible for me in binoculars. Back round to M42 which was now much brighter to my eyes than earlier. Steve mentioned a cluster below Sirius. I'm not sure of it's catalog number as mentioned so I scanned about and found M41. I'm not sure as this was the one Steve had mentioned but that's the one I found. Not that unlike M52 really, quite small but certainly worth a look. It's easy to find, there's a lighthouse shining the way! Find the lighthouse and head down a couple of degrees or so. Still full of enthusiasm it was on to try and find M81/82. They eluded me on this occasion, I think due to the height. They would have been virtually overhead which is not an easy position for me to observe. I finished this stint with Jupiter, at the time I could see 3 moons, Callisto to the left, Io to the right and Ganymede further out to the right. It is only since I have checked the names now on Stellarium that I find I actually say all 4 major moons. Europa that had been in front of Jupiter when I observed it earlier was now just clear of the disc to the right. I now realise I have seen it because I remember focusing and re focusing thinking I wasn't focused as Jupiter it's self seemed not quite round. Europa was just clear of the disc so I can only presume now that the slight elongation was caused by Europa. In bigger binoculars it may have been possible to split the 2 bodies, but in the 10 x 50's it just made Jupiter look like an egg. And one last fling, now shortly before 6am! The moon was just rising, we looked up at Leo, now past the meridian! and decided to try for the Leo Triplet. Low and behold, and now checked with Stellarium for the orientation I can confirm I saw 2 of the 3! M65 and M66. These are 2 galaxies of 9.3 and 9.0 magnitude respectively. We also scanned to find M51 the Whirlpool. All three of these targets were definitely visible, but that said, if you did not know where to look, or what you were looking for you would never have seen them. They are but tiny and fuzzy with hardly any light. The moon to finish off then, and at 4% it was the thinnest slither of a moon, but as it climbed the most spectacular sight of the night for me, Earthshine at dawn! It was possible to see a few of the many seas, in particular the sea of tranquility and the sea of the cold. Driving home was splendid, the moon rising ever higher with Saturn off to the side. It was truely one of those nights you just don't get very often. I've quite probably missed a few targets off here, but I didn't make any kind of notes so I've had to rely on my memory here. It just goes to show, Astronomy does not have to be all about big expensive scopes, eyepieces and mounts, there is plenty to see with a simple pair or binoculars and some clear sky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+RonC Posted December 1, 2013 Share Posted December 1, 2013 Nice report Mike, surprised your up and about already!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philjay Posted December 1, 2013 Share Posted December 1, 2013 Great report Mike wished I coulda been there I saw lunar at about the same time when I woke upto go for a pee at 0600 It looked magical, lunar not my pee that is Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Perkil8r Posted December 1, 2013 Author Share Posted December 1, 2013 Nice report Mike, surprised your up and about already!! I was up at 11am! not exactly feeling energetic today though Great report Mike wished I coulda been there I saw lunar at about the same time when I woke upto go for a pee at 0600 It looked magical, lunar not my pee that is Thanks for the clarification The moon was really quite spectacular though wasn't it?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Ibbo Posted December 1, 2013 Share Posted December 1, 2013 Nice report Mike but you forgot to mention the Yeti Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T A WOW Posted December 1, 2013 Share Posted December 1, 2013 Nice read thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dawson Posted December 1, 2013 Share Posted December 1, 2013 Great. Glad you found lovejoy. Lovely read. Jd Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyboy1970 Posted December 1, 2013 Share Posted December 1, 2013 Good stuff. I like finding M33 as it is inside a little parrallelogram of 4 stars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catman161 Posted December 1, 2013 Share Posted December 1, 2013 Great report mike-what an awesome night! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BAZ Posted December 2, 2013 Share Posted December 2, 2013 A nice read there Mike, Iam glad you all had a good night. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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