After the worst Autumn and winter on record, with constant freaking Melbourne cloud, it was, by a MIRACLE, clear! This was completely surprising, as Melbourne has a pathetic climate. Move over Britain
I removed several kilos of dust from the 12" truss dob, collimated it and hauled it outside. Left it for 3 hours, then I got KFC to solve my hunger issues for the night and to satisfy my KFC addiction. I'm happy to say, there is alot of left-over KFC, but no toilet paper
Got started at about 9.30pm. There was a bit of wind which kept dew at bay so that was good. Seeing was poor (Melbourne-style), transparency seemed ordinary (lots of haze on the horizon during sunset). Despite this, it would prove to be a stunning night. I did the obligatory dusting of the primary mirror and found it was covered with cat hairs! I was like z0MG WTF!?! It was scary sight, but it blew off easily. Well that's what happens when there's 4 cats in the house.
Scope: 12" F/4.6 truss dob
Time: 9.30pm - 1am
Seeing: 3-4/10
Transparency: 3/5
Jupiter
I was quite impressed with the view at 176x and 208x. Despite seeing, I could see a series of ovals in the STeB and a series of streamers in the SEB. During one moment of good seeing it started to take on a semi-photographic appearance. Also spotted a couple of white ovals in the area adjecent the southern edge of the NEB, while the NEB itself was interesting, appearing like a dark brown streak set ontop of a wider paler band. Hints of festoons in good seeing.
M27 Dumbell Nebula
The Nob Head next door decided it would be fun to turn his lights on and off, so I was just brainstorming ways to kick his butt and nuke his light while observing the Dumbell for the first time with this scope. Luckily, his light is hidden behind my house, but the darned thing floods my backyard...
At 108x, it was bright, apple core shape with a brighter blob on its southern edge. I tried it with the OIII filter and stuff me the thing was just blazing!
The whole football shaped literally glowed a flourescent blue-green and just shone out of the eyepiece. Infact, I closed my eyes, and I could still see it....next time i'll have to double stack the OIII with the moon filter lol
NGC 6572
Stumbled across the sky's 3rd best globular while hunting a galaxy cluster in Pavo. Pretty much resolved at 44x. Bumped it up to 217x and I could see a tiny, strange bar spiking out of the core in a southwesterly direction. It was tiny, didn't extend beyond the core area but anyone out there know what this is? Alignment of stars perhaps?
NGC 6744
Big face-on spiral galaxy in Pavo. All I saw was a tiny fuzzy core at 83x.
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Abell S 805
Now this is a galaxy cluster in Pavo. I printed out an iamge so I can use it to find the galaxies. The main galaxy is
IC 4765 which was easy to spot as a formless glow at 217x. I spent about an hour picking off objects in this cluster.
The other objects I spotted:-
PGC 62408
Tiny elliptical galaxy adjacent a 10th mag star, whose glare made it difficult to observe this galaxy. That aside, the galaxy wasn't too difficult. I can't find magnitudes for this object anywhere. Anyone can help me out?
IC 4766
Located east of 12th mag star USNAO0225-29566556, I did managed spot this galaxy intermittently, it was very faint and difficult to observe. Magnitude???
PGC 62412
I got rare glimpses of this galaxy, but it was extremely difficult to see, excessively faint and only manged to spot it maybe 25% of the time. Located about midway between IC4765 and 12th mag star USNAO0225-29566556. Any got the mag for this one?
PGC 62391
Located midway between IC4765 and 11th mag star TYC9073-1126-1, I could only detect hints of this object, I may have seen it but not sure.
Now for some observations of a few stars in this area which astounded me:
USNOA2 0225-29556543
This star is located just north of a 12th mag pair. I could *just* detect this star, and so I jotted it down in my notes. I did a bit of sluething this morning was almost fell off my chair when I found it is
magnitude 15.95!!!!!! IS THIS POSSIBLE!!?!
I also definately saw the stars
USNAO2 0225-29553970 and
USNAO2 0225-29551360, but are they really mag 15.75 and 15.5 respectively
FYI, all these observations were done at 217x.
I have attached an image of the cluster+stars so if anyone can help me out that would be great.
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Grus Quartet
I only ever saw 3 of these 4 galaxies in my 4.5" and was totally stunned how easy they were in the 12".
NGC 7552 was a somewhat circular orb with a stellar core at both 83x and 176x.
NGC 7582 is the largest of the lot, a lovely spindle of light with a bright core at 83x while increasing mag to 176x bought out a tiny stellar core.
NGC 7590 appeared as a bright, small sliver of light at 83x while a mag of 176x gave it a fatter, more diffuse appearance.
NGC 7599 was larger and much more diffuse than NGC 7590, hence it appeared much fainter and infact was the faintest of all the Grus Quartet. At 176x I could see a tiny starlinke object just offset from the center of the galaxy towards the northeast. The core? Or a faint foreground star? All in all these 4 galaxies are very pretty in the 12"
Helix Nebula
Visible as a large round glow at 44x, hint of a brighter ring with fainter inner region. Dropped in the 17mm LVW for 83x and the OIII filter and wow there was a HUGE bright ring looming infront of me! The shape was defintely recognisable from photos and I could see that the north and south sides of the ring were brighter than the east-west. The central region was distinctly fainter than the outer ring but definately brighter than the background sky. Saw about 4-5 faint stars superimposed on the nebula (with OIII in place).
Saturn Nebula
Seeing was poor and this being a small object with detail, it would probably be not as good as it could be. At 217x I could see a greenish eye shaped ring bathed in a diffuse glow. I increased the power to 353x, defying the seeing and I could actually glimpse the 2 extensions which give the nebula its name!!! It took averted vision and concentration, but they were there!
NGC 253
One of the highlights of the night for sure. At 108x, i could suspect mottling, and the core that's visible on photos was seen and I could even hint at a dust lane just to the northwest of the core. I increased mag to 176x and despite everything else, the galaxy was clearly mottled and uneven! The texture visible on photos was becoming apparent!
NGC 247
Just a fat, stubby streak at 83x, framed by 3 11th mag stars.
NGC 55
NGC 253's sister IMO! At 176x, it started to take on a mottled, knotted appearance. 3 tiny clumps of brightness were visible towards the western end, while another less conspicious blob was seen just east of the main bunch. Like ngc253, would be a stunner from dark skies!
NGC 134
Lovely bright streak of light at 217x. I got the impression that the northwestern edge of the galaxy was obscured by a dust lane. A 13.5 mag star lies just to the northeast of the core with another 13.5 mag star a bit further away on the opposite side.
I was going to go for the Pegasus cluster but ran out of steam. Packed it in at about 1am and topped it off with a hot chocolate. A fantastic comeback to observing!