21st Feb Backyard

[Tweedledee]

Had a couple of sessions last night, a short one just after sunset and longer one after 9pm.

First I had a look at Venus as it had only just become visible to the naked eye. In the 15x70s Mars was also visible less than half a degree from Venus and was surprisingly very red against a bright blue twilight sky. So nice to see the colours and both so close. A little later in a darker sky I took the 15x70s out again for a quick look at the thin crescent Moon and 6th magnitude Uranus just above and left in the same field.

I put the ST120 out to cool about 8.30pm and had a nice viewing session from 9.15pm after getting dark adapted inside while studying Stellarium with my deep red goggles on    . I think that wearing these dark adaptation goggles is a brilliant way to save time, and make the most of a clear sky. They do look ridiculous but you can watch TV, stare at the computer or finish off household chores with them on and then go outside after 20 minutes or so with about 90% dark adaptation.

 

I'd updated comets in Stellarium for accurate positioning, and found 7th mag comet Lovejoy was exactly half way between Almaak (gamma And) and gamma cas. I wanted to see Messier 76 the Little Dumbell Nebula only 40 arcminutes from the comet, and had familiarised myself with the neighbourhood in the correct orientation and field size for the ST120. Knew it would be tough as M76 is between 10th and 12th mag depending where you get the data, and not much more than a couple of arcminutes across. I had seen it in just a 4" newtonian many years ago in times of far less light pollution, and had great views in larger scopes. Well, once outside I soon found the comet but was struggling to see M76. After much perseverance, concentration and more dark adaptation I'm sure I glimpsed the nebula with averted vision in the ES 9mm 120 degree at 67x in a 2 degree field, but it could have just been a faint star in exactly the right position relative to the comet and brighter surrounding stars. Hopefully I had seen the slightly brighter section of this double lobed planetary nebula. After packing away I wished I had tried an OIII filter on it, that would probably have made it pop out from the stars bigger and better. The comet looked great in both the 25mm 100 degree at 24x with a 4.2 degree field or the 17mm Ethos at 35x and a 2.8 degree field surrounded by a rich star field. I could just detect that the brightest part was very slightly offset from the centre of the circular fuzz ball, but no hint of a tail.

Had some great views of the Owl Cluster NGC457 in Cassiopiea in the 9mm.

 

Double cluster was nicely resolved in the 17mm Ethos and 9mm 120. The 25mm showing 4.2 degrees of sky had the double cluster and the even bigger Stock 2 cluster in the same field which is one of my favourite views. What an incredibly rich field this is in. A couple of curvy lines of brighter stars seem to join Stock 2 to the double cluster.

The Orion Nebula was the best I'd ever seen it in the ST120 showing the fish's mouth and lots of contrasty detail with the wings stretching out quite a long way. This made such a great low power vista as it was flanked by the clusters NGC 1980 and 1981 above and below.

The bright multiple star systems of Sigma Orionis (Struve 762) with Struve 761 close by was a very nice sight resolving into six stars in a field of fainter surrounding stars, almost a star cluster in its own right.

Orions belt cluster (Collinder 70) is the loveliest of sights when framed in the 4.2 degree field of the 25mm 100 degree ES. All three belt stars are surrounded by so many stars in a large range of brightnesses with a lovely reversed S shaped string of stars snaking through the line of the belt.

Cluster Messier 35 in Gemini was a large fuzzy patch in the 4.2 degree field of the 25mm and looked good when pushed to the edge of the field to show the larger and sparser Collinder 89 at the same time. Had a brilliant resolved view of M35 in the 9mm 120 degree also showing the smaller fuzzy clusters NGC2158 and 2157.

Had forgotten I'd got the little Vixen 2.1x42 bins in my pocket, so finished off having a really enjoyable look around with them. The whole of Orion fitted easily in the field of the bins and was a glorious sight full of stars looking like it is normally only seen in widefield photographic images. Within the rectangle formed by Orions main stars Betelgeuse, Bellatrix, Saiph and Rigel, I counted 34 stars not including those four. Not sure what magnitude that relates to, but I'd seen this website about the Orion star count in relation to light pollution and its effects on naked eye limiting magnitudes...
http://www.britastro.org/dark-skies/starcount/

That really was a thoroughly satisfying observing session. :)
 

 

[+Streetbob]

I find reading these observing sessions inspires me to get out there myself.  Only wish I had been able to last night.

 

Thanks

[Doc]

Was busy last night but reading your report makes me wish I set up after I got home.

 

Fantastic report Pete and as always very well wrote.

 

As Doug says very inspirational.

[Daz Type-R]

Fantastic report Pete, I was out and did not get back until very late, so looks like I missed a fantastic night.