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Old 29-07-2011, 04:01 PM
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esky (Craig)
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Join Date: May 2011
Location: Maitland
Posts: 21
First Observation Report 28Jul11

Well thought it's about time I posted an observation report. Been tinkering with the new GSO 12" Dob for a couple of months but this is the first time I've planned what I was going to look at. I decided to give some of the Messier objects a crack as they are pretty good practice before I go off to find fainter fuzzies. Really enjoying the new scope. It's a real gem.


Started observing at around 1900 in my backyard. It was close to the new moon, nice and clear out and just a little wind. I have to put up with the usual street lights where I am but the light pollution isn't too bad. I live near Nelson Bay in NSW. You can usually make out the milky way quite easily, even with a fullish moon. My house blocks the view of the small and large magellanic clouds in the evening, much of the East and the North horizon is fairly blocked by next door.


The eyepiece I used for the following was a 25mm, which gives me a magnification of 60X. I intend to start at the beginning of the Messier list and work my way through in order where I can.


Started with M4. A nice easy Globular Cluster (GC) in Scorpious. At Mag 5.9 it stood out in the finderscope making it quite easy to spot. Through the eyepiece, the stars were resolvable and looked much better than through the small refractor I used to have. GC M80 I noticed was close by so I pointed the scope at it next. All I could see was a smudge, like a small cotton ball of light. M80 was Mag 7.2 and smaller than M4.


Next was M5, another GC but this time in further North in Serpens. A small smudge that appeared dim but stars were resolvable when the atmosphere calmed down. It was closer to the horizon than the previous obs.


Next were M6 and M7. Don't even need the chart for these now. Just look for the scorpion's tail. Great open clusters for small scopes and even better through the 12". M7 is bigger and brighter than M6 and I can notice bright blue stars.


M8 next. The lagoon Nebula. Now I'm pretty sure I got the right one... There's a fair bit going on in that part of the sky I could see a nebula easily and there was a dark lane through the middle. On one side there was a cluster of stars and the other side was dimmer and had just a few brighter stars. Pretty sure it's the right one as it's the first of several brighter fuzzies when you come across from Scorpious. It's a rewarding sight and a nice change from the globulars!


Next was GC M9. Spent ages trying to star hop to get it. At mag 7.9 its barely visible in the finder scope and because its near 2 more dim globulars it a bit tough to figure out if you have the right one. Finally found it after 20 mins of looking. All I could see was a tiny smudge. The 9mm eyepiece didn't show any more detail.


Next were M10 and M12. They are 2 nearly identical globulars, similar size and same magnitude (6.6) and a bit of a challenge to spot. Star hopping is hard since there are no bright ones close by. Stars were resolvable once I found both the GC's.


M11 was next. "Better not be a globular again", I was thinking... Yay, it's an open cluster! Was just above the roof next door at the time of observation. "Wild Duck Cluster? Why do they call it that", I thought? Got the book out and it said it looked like a flock of ducks flying. I could kinda make out a V shape and could see the brightest star in the apex of the V.


Last one of the session was M14, another GC that had me pulling my hair out. There's no really bright stars near enough to it as with M10 and M12. There's a star with a GC 6366 next to it. I was trying to use that as reference but at Mag 10 the globular cluster was probably too dim to spot. Think it was more luck than anything, but I found the little bugger. Magnitude 7.6, reasonably close to next door's roof. Thats enough for one night! Pretty happy with all that so far
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