[orestis]

Hi Everyone,
I have been very lucky this past week and have had 3 clear nights in a row. On the first day it was cloudy all day and then as the sun set the clouds cleared every astronomers dream.

Equipment used were the 12’’ Dobsonian ,With the 26mm super plosoll a great wide field Ep that allows me to observe wide clusters and for finding objects. I then use my 9mm Tmb and 6mm Tmb to get a closer view .I have very much enjoyed observing with the Tmb’s and will try and post a review of them they are great Eps for the price.

Conditions on the evenings were of clear and steady seeing, though I observed about 10 metres away from the fireplace chimney and I think this is affecting my view when the smoke is blown towards my way.

Saturn- Is quite a sight through the 12’’ Dob and reveals some detail. At 250x I could see a dark brown band on the globe (I think on the northern hemisphere, sorry don’t know planetary directions), that contrasted very well with the yellow of the rest of the globe. The rings are still quite thin and seeing the Cassini division is something I have always wanted to do. I think I may have just glimpsed as a slight darkening on the rings edges. I could also see 5 moons. Night after night I saw the moons change positions and I noticed something strange about Titan. We all know that Titan has an orange atmosphere, but I didn’t know that I could see this through my scope. It was actually quite apparent, a sort of pale orange colour. On the 4/5/11 there were 3 moons on the west side arranged in a boomerang shape, which was appealing to the eye.

NGC 5128- I was surprised to find this easily visible in my 50mm finderscope. Through the 12’’ Dob the dark lane was very apparent. The dark lane which is quite broad bisects the glowing sphere into 2 unequal parts. The northern loaf (Sorry but it is called the Hamburger galaxy) is slightly larger than the southern with a bit of an extension to the west. Though the northern is larger the southern looks brighter and has 2 bright stars imbedded in it and one faint one. In averted vision I think I could see some faint streaks of light in the dark lane itself (Has anyone else seen this?).

M83- M83 was also easily visible in the Finderscope as a round glow. It looked magnificent through the 9mm Tmb at 167X .It was Faint but I was able to see some detail.The core of m83 is very star like with a small round halo surrounding it. Off the core there is a bright bar running NE-SW framed by 2 stars near each end. The galaxy almost fills the entire fov of the 9mm.There is an arm gently curving off the eastern end and swinging towards the west. Same on the west end of the bar but I think the eastern arm is brighter. So in total I saw 2 arms which were faint and I think I hinted at some unequal brightness’s which may indicate HII regions.

Omega Centauri- Is absolutely jaw dropping in the 12’’ Dob it is huge and almost covers the entire Fov of my 26mm Ep. At 167X it is an ocean of thousands of stars , it has a sort of sandy appearance to it. I also saw what many observers call the eyes which are areas in the globular where there is less concentration. They were 2 elongated patches near the center of the globular.

M104- I could also see this in the 50mm finderscope. It was by far one of the most enjoyable galaxies I have ever observed to date. The dark lane was very apparent cutting the sombrero right down its length. I was so pleased by the sight I made a sketch (attached) .What I love about this galaxy is that it closely resembles photos of it.

M66- It has been quite a long time since I had last seen the Leo triplet and to my surprise again this was also visible through my 50mm finder. (I didn’t know you could see so many galaxies through such small aperture.)Anyways the galaxies looked great in the same fov in the 26mm plossll. I thought I might try and tease some detail out of the brightest M66 and I did. At 167X M66 has a star like core and a distinct bar running N-S. There is a faint broad extension coming off the south end and turning west to almost touch a star near there. There is a little arm coming off the north end and turning east then abruptly turning south. It is very close to the bar and core.

NGC 5189- After Seeing Sab’s sketch and reading Paddy’s Obs on this object I decided to try and find. After scanning the area in which it should have been I found it as a fairly bright bar in the 26mm.At 250X it shows a wealth of detail and unusually planetary, though it is commonly known as the spiral nebula I didn’t really see the shape. There is a very distinct bar that runs E-W. On the West end there is a bright star. On the eastern part of the bar there is a knot of brightness. On the west end there is another fainter bar running N-S adjoining the main bar making the overall shape look like a T to me. The rest of the nebula looks very mottled In appearance and there is some knots of nebulosity near the main bar.The view I saw closely resembles Sab’s sketch.

Musca dark Voids- Observing In Musca using the 26mm Ep I came across a dark void where all the stars were dimmed. It filled the fov of the 26mm plossol .It was long and a little broad, I think maybe it was the dark doodad, but I’m not certain. Scanning around the area revealed many more dark voids some blobbish in appearance but fairly large dust clouds. This was interesting to observe.

NGC 4833-I was scanning around the constellation of Musca and accidently found this globular cluster later to be identified as NGC 4833.It was well framed in my 26mm Ep and looked roughly spherical in shape with a little elongation. It was fairly well resolved with some brighter stars standing out from the haze towards the middle of the cluster. It had a Bright star on its northern end which made for a nice pairing.

Eta Carinae nebula complex- It looked absolutely magnificent in the 26mm plosoll. I could clearly make out the keyhole shape near Eta Carinae. There were many dark lanes and wavy nebulosity which made for a grand sight.

These are all the objects which I observed over 3 nights. On the last night I also went for a swim around the Virgo cluster in search of some galaxies I spotted some, though I didn’t know the names of what I was looking at they were still enjoyable to observe.


And so concludes my Marathon Observation Report
Thanks for reading, Cheers Orestis