Observing Reports
November 2007
28th November 2007
8” Newtonian Reflector
The past few times out under the stars I have been viewing Mars but this time I was going to try some deep space observing.
It’s been quite a while since I have used the 8” scope and tonight proved to be a worth while experience.
Was home from work at around 6:30pm and noticed the sky was quite clear. It seems to have been raining most of the day.
Andromeda was high in the South and M45 was glistening in the light pollution to the East.
First stop of the night was M33 and while using my 25mm (favourite) eyepiece giving a magnitude of x40 I could see the faint glow of this spiral galaxy. I couldn’t make out a much detail but it was noticeably brighter towards the core.
Tried for Uranus but I’m unsure if I found it even with Synscan on the mount it appears very small. Actually, now that I think about it, I did have a slight problem later in the session when the scope was slightly off. It could be that I have missed this planet again.
M34 a magnificent star cluster in Perseus was a bright evenly spaced object that was a great sight to be seen under my darkish skies. Neatly spaced, with many colours of stars, most noticeable was a few red tinted jewels.
A quick look at M31, bright and large as usual.
Now over to M2, a Globular Cluster in Aquarius which was nicely in the 25mm eyepiece although I could not resolve any stars within the cluster. This could be due to the fact that the object was just above some houses.
A nearby Globular Cluster M15 was next and this time I increased the magnification to x100 which resolved many stars with averted vision. It reminded me of the first time I viewed M13 with the 8”. This was the highlight of the session.
Lastly I viewed M27 and notice the apple core shape easily.