Observing Reports

January 2005

29th - 30th January 2005

-Weather-
Very cold
Clear sky
No noticeable wind.

First stop of the night was Orion and M42 (The Orion Nebula). Luckily the Moon was very low in the sky so it didn’t appear to drown out too much detail. I was quite sure there was a lot more detail and nebulosity on view and could clearly see, what I think must have been M43 the darker section at the northern part of the nebula. The sections, which I call “The Wings” of the nebula, were very wide and a great deal of detail was on show. Working with the “Small Wonders” series from the Cloudy Nights website, I tried to split Rigel but failed even at high magnification. I feel that Orion was probably a bit low in the sky and turbulence was the main problem for viewing the double.

A bit further up Orion’s sword lies Orion’s Crown a bright set of stars known as NGC1981.

Saturn was positioned well so I took this opportunity for a quick view and noticed that the Cassini Division was visible only intermittently. Practice viewing objects is strongly recommended as I feel that over that past few months using the scope has made me appreciate the finer details.

I managed to locate Comet Machholz with the binoculars and positioned the scope in the general area. Using low power gave a great view and the brightness of the nucleus was very visible. On first viewing the comet I was sure I managed to just make out its tail. The comet is a sight I shall always remember and feel lucky I have seen it.

Since I was in the area, the double cluster was nearby and took my second glimpse of these spectacular clusters. Filling the full field of view at low power was a star field to die for. Stock 2 was also just north a bit and I always find this a refreshing change as there are quite a lot of dim stars, but spread over a larger area.

Auriga was also located well as Orion was getting too low for any further viewing. I ended up spending quite a while in this constellation to view the many star clusters on view. I defiantly saw two of the Messier clusters which I think were M37 & M38. One of the clusters was noticeably rectangular in shape and the other seemed to make the shape of a cross. I shall need to view this constellation on another night to observe M36.

Monoceros is a faint constellation that I have not looked at before and on inspection of my Uranometria Star Atlas I noticed that the “Christmas Tree” (NGC2264) cluster would be on view. Managed to find it with out too much of a problem and noticed its distinct shape. A bit further down was a cluster situated within “The Rosette Nebula” (NGC2244). Quite a nice small cluster but no hint of the nebula was visible.

Last stop of the night was Gemini and found M35 right away. The cluster is very large and bright and a great view in low power. M1 was near so I tried for the object but failed on this attempt, could be due to the Moon now being higher.

A last quick scan in the binoculars reviled M44 in Cancer. This was still a great view, even in my cheap 10x50’s.

Well it was about 2am and thought I should head in, this was another great night under the stars.

30th January 2005 – 10:40pm

A short viewing session tonight with the binoculars.

The sky was quite clear so I had a quick scan around Leo, Gemini (M35) and Cancer (M44).

I managed to see M44 with the naked eye, what a sight, I had never noticed this before. Seems my skies are quite good.

Clear Skies!

21st – 22 nd January 2005

On checking metcheck.com it stated that the sky was going to be quite clear all through the night so I got ready for another viewing session.

After dinner I took the rubbish out to the back garden and noticed what at first I though was high altitude clouds but on taking a closer and longer look it was Aurora . This would be the second time and proved to be the best. The colours were so bright, with greens and reds through out the whole display.

Set up the camera and was amazed at how the images came out. The colours were so bright and unbelievable. The display seemed to last for quite a long time and you can find the images on this site.

I carried out a “seeing” test with Saturn as it was very high and far enough away from houses across the road to give a good view. The Cassini Division was visible at times and also possibly two rings around the planet. The view was defiantly not as good as last time but none the less it was very clear and metcheck.com seems very reliable.

The moon was high in the sky and seemed to drown out quite a lot of stars so I found it quite hard to locate ”Cancer”, which was to be my first stop. After a while of getting my bearings I realised that what was straight in front of me was “Leo” so I set up to view around that area for a while.

“Leo” was quite a disappointment as I was looking to locate some more Messier objects, such as M98, but the moon was clearly drowning out the galaxies. I’ll give it a try another night.

I knew M44 – Beehive was located in “Cancer” so sticking with open clusters I thought I would try my luck at this object. I was not disappointed. Setup over Algieba in “Leo” and drifted through RA to find M44. The object was found quite easily and was very impressive, so much so I would say it blew me away even more than M45 did. It filled my field of view at low power and contained loads of bright stars. M44 is an impressive and amazing star cluster.

Next I moved on to “Cassiopeia” to confirm that I had viewed M103 and M52 on a previous night. Managed to find M103 as it is easily located next to the bright star Ruchbah. The cluster is very small and quite dim; at least I managed to locate it again, which I was fairly happy with. Had quite a problem at first trying to locate M52 and it seems I was probably looking at a larger cluster of stars the last time viewing around this area. M52 was eventually found, and like M103 it was a lot smaller than I realised. My star hopping skills are defiantly getting a lot better, once I turned the star diagonal around a bit to get the view the right way up, although backwards.

Had a quick look around Orion at the Trapezium and Orion’s Belt.

To finish off the night I imaged the Moon, Jupiter (although it was very low in the sky) and Saturn and decided to call it a night.


Clear Skies!

13th January 2005

It was a very clear night and seeing seemed to be very good.

I positioned my scope in the front garden on the grass to minimise turbulence and pointed towards Saturn.

Saturn was at opposition, being closest and brightest as seen from Earth.

I could clearly see the Cassini Division and some slight banding around the planet. This was what I had wanted to see for quite a while now, as all other previous views were never as good.

Also on view was, what I think must have been Titan and Reha, two of Saturns moons.

Separate note, the Huygens Probe has just sent back some amazing ground images from Titan.

These really are exciting times.

Clear skies.