Sunday 15th March

[Sconesbie (Scott)]

Tonight (last night) the skies were fairly clear in Northern Tassie.

I only had a small amount of time so went for a few favourites.

-M42. Tonight it looked a lot different that what I had seen before. It was quite spread out. The bulk of the nebula appears to form a head like shape. It then appeared to form some sort of a body and a tail quickly falls away. I thought the whole shape resembled a seahorse and so did my wife when I showed her my very rough drawing.

-47 Tuc. Looked good. My wife was impressed too. Beauty. She liked something.

-Tarantula Nebula. Found it accidently while looking for 47 Tuc. I've found it before too. Very bright tonight.

-Juputer. Looks good through 10. Three moons to the right and one to the far left.

My finder scope is still fogging up somehow. It only looks foggy right in the centre of the viewfinder though for some reason. Everything around it appears clear. I gave it a quick "wipe" with my finger and nothing seemed to happen. It's like it's out of focus or something but I dont think it is. Hope that makes sense.

Overall, quite quick tonight. Street lights annoying. Need to find a dark place like a farm or something but when I have more time.

[acropolite (Phil)]

Good to see you're finding your way around the sky, look for Alpha Centauri, another glob but more impressive than 47 Tuc and Centaurus A, a Galaxy looking much like a hamburger.

Re your finder scope, it's not good to have optics fogging, yours sounds like condensation inside the finder. If it doesn't dry out completely, fungus can form inside the elements. Might not be a bad idea to get some dew straps.

[Sconesbie (Scott)]

As I mentioned below that the nebula I saw looked like a seahorse, could this be the Horsehead Nebula? I have never seen this before and certainly looked different to M42 as I've seen in the past. It was very bright and had three stars in a line going down the body of it with four other stars forming a small square in the "head" region of it.

[barx1963 (Malcolm)]

Originally Posted by Sconesbie

As I mentioned below that the nebula I saw looked like a seahorse, could this be the Horsehead Nebula? I have never seen this before and certainly looked different to M42 as I've seen in the past. It was very bright and had three stars in a line going down the body of it with four other stars forming a small square in the "head" region of it.

The Horsehead is a dark nebula, basically an area of dust and gas superimposed over a glowing nebula. It is very faint, at a dark site it may be possible with a 10" ( I think that is your scope size? that is why it is a good idea to specify when doing a report what scope you used) but anyway, very bright is definitely not a description of the horsehead, and it is a fair way away from M42.
What you saw was M42/43. The square of stars you describe is the "Trapezium" which are the brightest stars in the cluster of new stars that are causing M42 to glow. M43 is the small comma shaped lying just to north of the bulk of M42.

Cheers

Malcolm

[barx1963 (Malcolm)]

Just to clarify, it is not the Horsehead itself that is faint (being a dark neb it has no choice about being faint!) but the background neb that is faint. That glow is very faint and has a very low surface brightness.

Malcolm

[astrospotter (Mark)]

I see Orion with the belt 'above' M42 from north skies but since down there you are saying 'below' I take it you mean north in declination as 'below'.

You describe 3 stars in a row running through it so that is almost certainly the running man as that has a row of stars right in the nebula and from up north the dark areas are described as a man running and taking a jump over the stars with spread out legs. You would have to 'flip' that image.

There is 'The Running Man' which has enough texture in it so that maybe you envisioned a sea horse in that nebula. The Running Man is a bright nebula with a complex but fairly big darker area runing throughout it for about 20 minutes length which is rather big as deepsky objects go but far smaller than the massive M42 size.

There are thousands of pictures but a quick look for one that highlights the darker area well I see this one where north is to the left so what you would see is this picture rotated 90 degrees CCW (approximately)
http://eldoradostarparty.org/ngc-197...of-waco-texas/

Again, your description really sounds like this which is also called Ngc1975 or the cluster part of it is called Ngc1977

We have been getting skunked with clouds for this week and maybe even through the new moon. Glad you have nice skies

Mark Johnston