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Observation Log - 09/10/2004-10/10/2004

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Started out this evening at 20:45 UT. Conditions were very similar to last night - nice and clear. First stop: Perseus. I'd missed this constellation yesterday evening as it'd risen out of view (the "roof" of the landing only allows up to a certain angle). Turns out I'd missed quite a lot!

Sidenote: I've pretty much worked out a sort of technique for observing - I make a quick inventory of which constellations are visible, then use a small reference book (The Philip's Guide to Stars and Planets, by Sir Patrick Moore) to see what kind of interesting objects can be found in each. Constellation by constellation, starting off with my favourite objects, nebulae, I work by way through any globular and open clusters and finish up with double/multiple stars. By the time I've gone through this process once, other constellations have often moved into view, or at least those already visible are in better positions for observing objects which weren't well placed before.

I started out with NCG 1499, the California Nebula. I may have caught a very slight glipse of it, but its surface brightness is very low, which made its presence impossible to confirm in these skies. Next up was M76, the Little Dumbbell. It was very similar in apearence to it's bigger brother, M27 in Vulpecula, but around a third of the size and with less defined edges. It was however quite faint in comparison, though clearly visible.

Perseus is home to several nice open clusters, and M34 was the first I checked out. It's a large, sparse cluster with (according to the book) around 60 stars, all of which I was able to pick out, based on a quick count. The so-called "Double Cluster" (NGC 884 and 869) was most spectacular! Two bright, relatively tightly packed clusters which were each similar in size to the FOV of my 26mm Plossl eyepiece. They're so close, you could almost consider them one giant cluster. I then moved on to NGC 1245 which wasn't too exciting in comparison. At first glance, it seemed to contain maybe about 20 stars, but as time went on, more and more started to appear - it'd be nice too see what this looks like from a darker site. NGC 1525 was the last: quite loosely packed and the 40 stars mentioned in the book seemed about right.

Atik, Zeta Persei, was my final target in this constellation. I just managed to split it at 200x. The companion star was very faint to the left in the eyepiece. Two very slightly brighter stars were also visible to the bottom left.

M33 in Triangulum and NGC 772 in Aries were my next elusive targets. I suspect that these were too near the bright lights on the landing (and a couple of appartment buildings) to be seen.

Back over in Ursa Major, the galaxies M81 and M82 looked similar to what I remebered from last night. M82 however looked slightly larger, and seemed to be all one shade, similar to an elongated nebula. Whilst pointed at M81, the nextdoor neighbours were leaving and noticed I had the scope set up (OK, I know: it'd pretty hard to miss). I guess that even in those lights, my eyes had become slightly dark adapted as they couldn't see much of anything at all! Either that, or my eyes are already slightly better "trained" than I thought they could be at this early stage. I didn't have too much luck with other DSOs in Ursa Major... There was nothing to be seen of M97 and M108, probably because they were very close to a very well-illuminated church to the North.

Over to Cetus - a new constellation for me. Only the "head" was in view, but I was able to pick out at least the core of M77. Again, I think this was reaching the limits of visibility, as the scope was pointed at a very acute angle to the wall.

Taurus, on the other hand, was in prime viewing position at this time. This didn't help me see M1 (the Crab Nebula) at all, though. It's very faint, and I may have just caught an unconfirmed glimpse. The open clusters NGC 1746 and NGC 1647 were much easier and seemed very similar to each other. I'd estimate about 30 stars in each, but they're very thinly spread. I got a couple of nice shots in the finder of the Hyades Cluster (very wide!) and the Pleiades. I then (22:15 UT) decided to go inside for a while and warm the old fingers up a bit!

I returned twenty minutes later and Gemini was surfacing above the distant haze of the horizon. M35 was a very pleasant sight - a loose, wide open cluster that just about fitted in my FOV in the 26mm Plossl. I'd estimate there were about 70-80 stars in total.

Gemini also has its fair share of double stars, and I started with Mu Geminorum. At first, I wasn't too sure I'd actually split it. The separation of almost 73" was however far more than I expected, so I was looking in completely the wrong area! Sure enough, there was the companion towards the left of the FOV at 200x. Mebsuta was a similar story, but the companion was even fainter this time - only just visible at the same magnification. Castor was in comparison a piece of cake to split into two lovely, bright components.

As Saturn started poking through the haze, some thin clouds started moving in. It is however always nice to get a glimpse of this beautiful planet - a great way to round off an evening's observing.

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