Wow have not blogged in a while. I guess I must have been busy observing rather than staying indoors and blogging ;) Weather has been fantastic lately (nice cool and dry weather leading to super transparent night skies) and I have managed to squeeze in quite a number of observing sessions. Have been using mainly the 6" f/5, but have also been using my 20x80's on the Orion Paragon tripod with the slow motion control head attached and the Cometron CO60. Since I last blogged, daylight savings have started and the sun now comes up at 6am (used to be 7am) and goes down at close to 5pm (used to be 6pm). So yes there is more darkness for astronomers to ply their trade. And it has been good :) I currently try to get out a little bit later (around 11.30 to 12am) to allow the winter constellations to climb higher into the night sky. If I get out too early I hit the fall/autumn constellations and there is not much there to look at, other than maybe stuff in Pegasus (M15 and NGC 7662), Andromeda (M31, M32 and M110). This time of the night Lyra, Cygnus and Vulpecula are all too low in the skies....unfortunately.
Seeing that I moved from the southern hemisphere, I have yet to explore some of the sighs that can only be seen from north of the equator. Some of the northern constellations riding high in the skies right now include the hero Perseus, Cassiopeia and of course Pegasus, the winger horse and the maiden Andromeda. Since starting to observe northern constellations DSO's, I have grown rather fond of the double cluster in Perseus. It is really quite pretty in all my equipment. I guess one of the reason why I was not a bigger fan was probably due to the object being placed too low in the murk. Also there are several other open clusters that look really nice riding high in the skies. There is M36, M37 and M38 in Auriga. Then there is of course M45, the seven sisters (Pleiades). That sorta concludes the open cluster tour, even though there is still the clusters in Cassiopeia. Coming to the topic of planetary nebulae. I am rather bias when it comes to planetary nebulae (i.e. I really like them ;) They show all sorts of interesting shapes and most of them, while not very big tend to show minute detail at high magnification, to patient observers. Now if only I could lug my big 10" down those pesky stairs, I could probably probe deeper. But as it stands, the 6" f/5 is my primary scope now. It is big enough to show some really interesting detail.
Well if I start early enough I get to observe the bright and ghostly Ring Nebula (M57), the Dumbbell Nebula (M27) and the Cygnus blinking planetary (NGC 6826). You can refer back to my older post but each one shows a slightly different face to us. For instance when we look at M57, we are looking down its cylindrical form and that is why we see a celestial doughnut. And planetaries generally do very well when a UHC type filter is used. While these selective filters do not make objects brighter, they increase contrast to a point where minute details become obvious. I have yet to see a planetary that does not show more detail with such filters.
Later on in the night we get good views of the blue snowball (NGC 7662) in Andromeda. Both NGC 6826 and NGC 7662 look similar in my 6" f/5 operating at about 150x and 300x with the NPB filter in place. At higher mag's I think I can start to make out some inner detail. When Gemini rises, the Eskimo Nebula (NGC 2392) becomes fair game. This one is way more interesting than the above-mentioned as it shows quite a lot of detail. At high mag the "layers" become very apparent and the "fur parka" is easily visible. I can't pretend to make out the "face" of the eskimo in my 6" f/5, although his triangular visage is easily visible in the 10" f/5 at high mag.
And now for the crown jewel, the planetary I have never seen from my equatorial and southern observing locales, M76, the little dumbbell nebula. Did not expect this one to be easy, but did not expect it to be hard either. When I got the location down, it was easy even without the NPB filter in place. The bipolar nature of this planetary is clearly evident with the filter. I am sure this object will be a centerpiece when viewed from a dark sky. Also with the filter in, I though I could make out some faint outer wisps with averted vision. Sketched this object from memory and when I get the chance, I will post the scan up on this page...promise.
Its always nice to finish off the nights observing with a really bright and detailed object and M42, the Orion Nebula never disappoints. I still miss getting lost in the dark rifts of the Eta Carina Nebula and scrutinizing the homonculus, or the Tarantula's outstretched arms in the LMC but somehow M42 packs a slightly brighter punch. With my 10" I can see subdued rusty reds in the outer wisps of M42. Have to settle for blue greens in my 6" though. The NPB filter really does make the faint outer tendrils stand out a bit more but the views are more pleasing without the filter in place.
So there you have it...my long overdue observing report. Hopefully I will have more to write about since there is the long Thanksgiving Day weekend coming up. Only problem is the waning moon...maybe later in the weekend might be good ;)
