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M79 – Globular Cluster in Lepus was my last Messier object to observe. At 4:30am I found it ;D. I woke up at 4:am and thought it's now or never. It's a very distant cluster… hard to resolve as it was low in the southern sky and frost was on my equipment. Because of the conditions I didn't stay out long. I saw that Mars was available so I turned my scope to see. And before shutting down I had to view M42 for the first time this season. I took a look at Jupiter much earlier to show one of Collin's friends. Nothing too excitng. It's good to finish the Messier list.
On to the Cadwell objects!!Happy trails.
Rick
Yes indeed. M79 is a tough object to resolve. It is a very tight globular cluster, and one of the few to be visible in the winter constellations. It is not too hard to find if you draw a line from Beta to Gamma Lepus and follow the same distance to the south and just slighty east. I tried it for my Binocular Messier list (using 15X70 Celestron Binoculars) and could not definitively say that I saw it.
In my Celestron G8, it is a noticalbe, but not spectacular object.But still, Rick, YOU FOUND IT!
Congratulations on completing your Messier list. If you let me review your observing log, I'll send in a letter to get your observing certificate.
I applaud your dedication to get up so early to get your last object.
Hopefully people got out Saturday night. The transparency was incredible. I was able to see M110 from my backyard with direct vision – something that was difficult one of my nights at Keller.
I was going to comment on that(clarity). I did manage to get out in my backyard, later in the evening. I got a new mount, the HEQ 5 Pro (arrived friday).
I managed to balance it and polar align it after a while, and then figured out the Synscan's 3-star align. I also figured out how to attach and focus my camera with my refractor (Celestron C80ED).While I was taking pictures, I used my 10×50 binoculars, and after seeing a few targets, and M31, I took a long shot: M33. And what do you know, I'm quite sure I saw it. It was ridiculously faint, just barely perceptable, but I returned to it 3 times and it was there. I really wasn't expecting anything, so it's surprising.
Also I got my first look at Mars. It was through holes in the trees, but still easy even over the downtown light pollution.
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And here is one of my efforts.
5 shots 90 seconds each, 2 darks also 90 seconds.
At 600mm, F/7.5 with a Canon XS
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Thanks Roger.
Rick: congratulations! I'm glad you found M79. Isn't it wonderful to have seen all the Messier objects? Good luck with you next goal.
Fantastic shot, Luka! I know many would be pleased with that after years of practice. Nice, round stars. Good detail on M31, including two dark lanes. Consider posting that to the Cloudy Nights beginning imaging forum.
Nice job Luka. I only wish my imagers could get that wide of an angle. I may attempt a mosaic of it latter but many other objects to image in the meantime. Either way good job.
Looks like a nice night. I'm heading to the Flatin Farm at 7 p.m.
Ganymede transit tonight starting shortly after 9 p.m.
I got out for three and a half hours. I got in observations on Jupiter and caught the beginning of the Ganymede shadow transit. Neptune was an easy find, it is still hanging out by 42,44,45 Capricornus. Uranus was easy to find back also. The asterism below the Circlet of Pisces that pointed the way to Uranus on Oct. 9 has now been joined by Uranus.
I wanted to sketch the starfield of 2 Juno, but the southern sky was pretty filthy. Too much moisture. Fomalhaut was only dimly visible.
The zenith was pretty good, and I recorded NGC 7160, an open star cluster in Cepheus that I had overlooked for the Herschel 400. It's a pretty little thing.
I had binocular looks at Aldebaran and the Hyades, M45 the Pleadies, M36,37,38 in Auriga, M42-43 the Orion Nebula and Orion's belt. I also checked out Epsilon Auriga and see that it is now dimmer than Eta Aurigae and about the same brightness as Zeta. Those three stars make up "the Kids" of Auriga and last year Epsilon was the brightest of the three.
I drew the starfield of asteroid 19 Fortuna which lies near Zeta Taurus. With luck, I'll be able to tell which "star" Fortuna is the next time I go out. I also observed M1 the Crab Nebula, but can honestly say I've had better looks at it. Transparency was not real good last night.
My final observation was getting the position of Mars. It is now northeast of M44. It shows a disc in my scope, but not much detail. I'm glad I went out, I got some good work in.
Finally got some scope time last night also, worked with my new autoguiding system and about 10pm got in dialed in pretty good so I did some test pics on NGC891 (just for you Dean) and worked up a color version of M42. Didn't get back into the house until nearly 3am. Great night of viewing.
I shot the Luminance with a nebula filter at 120 seconds, 20 frames, the R, G, & B at 60 seconds and 10 frames each. Next time out I noted I will need to nearly double the Blue channel images for my Meade imager to get better color from this channel.
NGC891 was shot at 180 seconds for each L, R, G & B., autoguiding was good but at only 10 frames each and not using every frame I will need to up the amount of frames to really get the smooth detail I want, but the dust lane came out very nicely. Pretty proud that I could get the detail of a Mag 10 object.
Additional notes from last night that my new portable battery pack worked great and the autoguiding is a life saver as no matter how good I had done polar alignment I could never go over 25-30 seconds without the stairs trailing off and getting at least 70% of the frames on a 2-3 minute exposure nice and clear was fantastic. I also found M1 which I've been trying to locate on several occasions, it was very vague much like M27, just a mist in the sky on my laptop.
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Wow! That is one helluva shot of NGC 891! Well done, John.
I hope we get some of these great shots by our budding imagers into the newsletter!
John — nice shots! I love the detail of the triangulum region, and of course the dust lanes of NGC 891.
Dean — thanks for the nice report. Your detailed and recorded observations are a pleasure to read (and something I need to learn).
I got out for a while on Friday as well but the humidity was really high. Lenses would fog over every minute or two, even after using a hot-air dryer to warm them up. You could see thin fog under streetlights too, so I should have known better than to try imaging M33. After 30 minutes of exposures (and dryer operation), the result was a disappointing orange skyglow with a slightly brighter patch at the center of M33.
Following the M33 photo fiasco, star clusters would be about the only thing worth finding in the fog. Saw M objects 35 36 37 38 44 which looked very nice even through the haze. Somehow managed to also see M1 M78 M77 M81-82 and of course M42-43. After packing up and getting ready for bed, I grabbed the finder scope and from the living room floor stumbled upon M41; it was fun to "find" something new without specifically looking for it, especially while wearing pajamas and staying warm.
Hey Roger, if you ever want to check my journal out to see how I record my observations, you are very welcome to do so. When you journal, you record the date, time, temp., wind, location, equiptment and what you are looking at and who you are with. It is an indelible record of what you have done and proof of what you have seen.
I know for a fact I have missed a lot of cool meteors, but on the other hand, when you journal, you can go back to any date that you have been out, check your data (especially for asteroid observations), and follow up on what you are doing.
A lot of times when it's cloudy or cold, it is just plain fun to go thru your records. Right now, mine date from Oct. 29, 2002. I journaled my observations when I was a kid, but not as carefully as I do now, but sadly, those crude notebooks have been lost over the march of time. I wish I had them, I observed the occultation of Venus by the Moon around Christmastime on the ballfield one block south of my childhood home in Spring Grove around 1970 at about 4 or 5 o'clock in the morning. My Mom thought I was crazy. It was colder than the ninth circle of Hell in Dante's Inferno. I'd love to have that one back.
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