M42 or NGC1977 Last Night

by Chris

Tried last night to have some fun and try to find M42 after all the cool photos posted by Rich. Problems were twofold, in our backyard last night, the light pollution was terrible/worse than normal, and very limited views. Fortunately Orion's belt was visible. But no two stars for an accurate alignment (couldn't even see Polaris due to light pollution!) on my 8i so I just manually slewed to the nebula using my telrad. I found one nebula, either M42, or ngc1977, which was my very first nebula found on my own, so I was excited no matter if I didn't know exacty what I was looking at lol. I tried finding the other nebula to no avail. I think it was 1977 as there was a distinctive "V" pattern to it which resembles more to 1977 than M42. There were 3 stars seen in a line pattern at 7-8 oclock position, and one star at 1-2 oclock...which kinda looked like both nebulas as seen in sky6 software. And since there was no alignment done, the 8i couldn't help identify what I was looking at. Nevertheless, I had a great time and it was a real site to see for myself. I know this is a bit of a newbie post, but who else am I going to tell this too? ;)) I need to get a better star guide to use out in the field.

Anyway, Thanks for posting Rich those excellent photos of M42.

Posted on sf-bay-tac Feb 02, 2005 09:42:23 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.2 Feb 03, 2005 00:00:13 PT