by Mike Conley
It's been too long since getting out and the cloudless sunny drive just added to the anticipation. At times it was difficult to recognize the route getting there since the last time I went it was foggy in the valley and clear above 1,000 ft.
Equipment: 16" f/4.5 Dob with 4.5 " f/4 viewfinder or in view finder terms a (30 x 114). EP's 27mm, 19mm and 15mm Panoptics and 9mm Nagler with 2" 2x Barlow.
While it was getting dark I thought of a TV show that talked about Sirius A and its small companion Sirius B. After trying for a short time it appeared that the seeing was not good enough to split the double without Sirius A swamping out the view.
As it was just getting dark and wandering back to my telescope I started with M42 and never get tired of the awesome view it provides. I started with the 4.5 in with a 15mm Panoptic EP 30x (2.23 degree) that provides the big picture and then the close up view in the 16" with the 9mm EP 203x (24.23 arc min). in the Trapezium with 6 stars and much detail visible without filters. I also observed with the 19mm 96x and 27mm 68x EP's that each provided a perspective that emphasized a different region of the nebula and with the 27mm M43 and NGC1977 join the field of view.
The flame nebula NGC2024 has appeared brighter to me in the past so maybe the somewhat soft viewing conditions was more of a factor here but he best view was with the 27mm with the object position to keep the star Alnitak just out of view.
Jumping around to constellation Ursa Major I checked out some old friends M108 and M97 Owl Nebula. I also observer M81 and 82 which fit nicely into a single view with the 27mm Panoptic and not far from that position PGC28225, PGC29146 and PGC29146 are fun galaxies to find while in the neighborhood.
Then jumping back to the Monoceros constellation I set my sights on the Christmas Tree Cluster (NGC2264) open cluster. It seems like there should be more to see with a name like that. Perhaps a mix of many red and blue giants would spice things up so I will send a request to the creator but don't hold your breath ;-)
Moving to the Beehive open cluster (M44) in Cancer I spent a little time trying to determine limiting mag at 203x and found I was maxing out at about 14th mag. And my 4.5" dew finder started indicating a strong presence and that I really .. really will stop procrastinating and order dew fighting equipment this time.
Next stop was Leo and an easy to find group of galaxies in Leo's mane. Hickson 44 which includes PGC30059, PGC30068, PGC30083 and PGC30099 83 and 99 jump out at you while 59 was easy and 68 required more effort but was still easy to find.
M67, NGC2682 in Cancer is the oldest Messier open cluster and from the Seds web page New estimates of G. Meynet's Geneva Team indicate an age of 4.0 billion years.
ngc2903 is spiral galaxy in Leo in front of Leos face. It is an easy mag 8.9
ngc3041 not far from NGC2903 is another galaxy which is not hard to find but at mag 11.5 it's noticeably dimmer than 2903
With a hint of breeze from the south and concern of my secondary dewing up I moved to Ursa Major for a look for a few in the big dipper.
NGC3780 and NGC 3804 easily fit into the same view when using the 27mm Panoptic EP. 3870 was the easiest to see at mg 12 and 3804 at mag 13 was as expected noticeably dimmer and smaller in diameter.
ngc3756 is only listed as a little brighter at mag 11.5 but it seemed significantly larger that 3780
ngc3718 was even brighter than that at mag 10.5 and larger than 3756 but while observing this galaxy is started to get dim and then I noticed a halo around all the stars and the dew monster claimed my secondary for the night.
After that I had a great time observing in other scopes with Alvin taking time to show me some new Arps and Jim providing views of Jupiter and the Comet Macholz and after viewing through Shneors bino viewer I can see why they are so popular. Later after packing I had a chance to meet the new guys and view through the 12 Portaball which provided a very nice view of M51 and the Leo Trio.
Posted on tac-sac Mar 08, 2005 13:43:02 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.2 Mar 12, 2005 10:15:56 PT