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Originally Posted by orestis
Hi Everyone  ,
Yesterday night was a nice clear night and so i decided to observe.
Telescope-130mm reflecter
I saw the march obserserving challenge and thought i'd try and observe some of the objects.
Eta Carinae Nebula- A truly amazing nebula which spanned basically all the field of view in my 25mm plosoll (36x).There is a big Central dark lane that bisects the nebula in 2 parts and then there are many other dark lanes spidering of the main 1.On the bright eastern section of the nebula there is a bright orange star embedded in the gas(i was not sure if this was Eta).I could see a lot of stars around the nebula.And finding it was the easiest thing in the world  . |
G'day Orestis, yes that is Eta Carina.
Great report once again, just makes me itching even more to get out there.
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Unfortunatly i did not observe any of the other march observing challenge objects.But....
Mars- Using the 10mm and 2x barlow(180x) i was able to see only the polar cap outline with a dark rim.It was quite small so i couldn't see any other detail and it was beginning to become a little bit blurry.i did a very basic sketch (attached) showing the polar cap.sorry about the quality of the detail but thats all i could see .
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lol you're not alone mate this is a very poor Mars season for us with its small angular diameter and far northern declination. It's actually a worst case scenario for us. Smallest opposition, plus the planet is/was at it's northernmost declination to boot. Its max diameter was only 14" back in January and is now getting smaller and smaller. We'll get an excellent opposition in July 2018 when the planet will reach a diameter of over 24" and will be overhead with Jupiter and Saturn nearby
But until then each forthcoming opposition will be an improvement over the last
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Saturn- At 180x magnification was of Reasonable size to see some considerable detail.I could see the ring as a line going straight through saturn,unfortunately i couldn't see the cassini division which i haven't seen yet.I saw a brightish dot to the right of saturn which i presume was Titan and i also saw a fainter dot to the left(don't know what moon it was).
I tried to find the eight burst nebula again and failed again(how small is this thing?).I also tried to find the leo triplet and failed.Well it was getting late and i decided to pack up.it was an enjoyable night being out there with the stars again.
Thanks for reading
Orestis
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