Seeing as it was clear on the evening of Jan 4th, I set up my 10" Dob in my putridly hot concrete backyard. I was aware of terrible seeing, but that was to be expected when you have 12 hours of 36慢 sunshine cooking every rooftop and road in Melbourne beforehand. As a check of seeing, I observed the Trapezium at high power and got one of the worst star images I can recall.
To cut a long story short, I was getting eaten alive by mosquitos. This made astronomy nearly impossible, and I tolerated it for a while. I then had enough and grabbed a pair of tracksuit pants and a jumper and endured the 30慢 temps like that. Not fun. The mosquito situation was one of the most wretchedly appaling I had ever experienced. I had 5-6 of the annoying *******s biting me at any one time. However, despite the appalling heat and insect infestation, I did make an observation of NGC 1999 which had me jumping for joy.
Telescope: 10" GSO Dob
Seeing: 2-3/10
Transparency: 3/5
Wind: no
Dew: no
NGC 1999
Started of with 250x, and using averted vision and intent observation I was surprised to find the Bok Globule. I could really only see a notch adjacent the star. I increased power to 357x and the view was similar. I then dropped in the 2.5x powermate and the 5mm LVW which gave 625x. Careful observation, averted vision and patience was the key here, and during 15-20 minutes of observation, I could not only see the dark notch adjacent the star, but the whole T-shape of the Bok globule presented itself momentarily several times during the observation, despite horrid seeing. The crossbar of the 'T' was more difficult (hence the momentary glimpses) than the section next to the star as the brightest section of nebulosity is in the immediate vicinity of the star itself. I was lead to believe that this feature is tiny, but was surprised by how big it loomed in the FOV. Only after glimpsing the 'T' several times did I confirm my sighting.
Putrid conditions - but finally caught something I always wanted to see! Will try again in more favourable conditions. Until then - clear skies!
I really enjoyed reading your observation of NGC1999 - shows that patience, time and effort reward the observing experience. Whistle-stop tours through big bright stuff just don't offer the same sort of satisfaction. Great that you included a sketch of what you saw......
