[DougAdams]

Location: Oakleigh
Time: 11:30pm - 1:15am
Seeing: 4/10 (early) to 7/10 (late)
Transparency: 7/10
Scope: 4" Refractor
Eyepieces: 24mm Pan (22x), 11mm Nagler (49x), 7mm Nagler (77x).

An impromptu grab and go session, nothing was planned. Conditions were quite windy early, with a south easterly sea breeze gusting often. Lots of star twinkle. The wind gradually eased away to nothing, and seeing was very steady by the end of the session.

M74 - a galaxy in Pisces. I've tried to locate this before from the suburbs and haven't been able to spot it. Same again tonight. Line up on Nu Piscium, nudge 1 degree south east, and take a long, hard look. Nothing!

M77 - a galaxy in Cetus. Quite easy to pick this one out, 1 degree east of Delta Ceti. Forms a pair with a fairly bright star of around magnitude 6. It almost resembles a double, however M77 is obviously non-stellar - has a bright core with an envelope of haze around it. The best view was with the 7mm Nagler. Quite bright.

Chi Ceti - double star. The Pocket Sky Atlas has this flagged as a double, so I thought I'd check it out. It's right on top of Zeta Ceti, so easy to locate. I don't know anything about this double, so this could be hogwash - a wide separation, gold primary of magnitude ~4, with a fainter white/grey companion of magnitude 5 or 6. I didn't note the separation.

NGC 253 - Silver Coin galaxy in Sculptor. Easy to pick out, almost at the zenith. I seemed to see more detail in it tonight, and the object seemed both longer and wider than previous views. Filled most of the triangle of 9 magnitude stars. Brighter in the centre.

NGC 288 - Globular cluster in Sculptor. Faint, but easily spotted, circular hazy patch. Quite large, no stars resolved.

NGC 247 - Galaxy in Sculptor. Don't know much about this one, but spotted it in the Pocket Sky Atlas. Put the scope right on the spot, but didn't see anything. Stared for 5 minutes with my jacket over my head, nothing.

M1 - Crab Nebula in Taurus. I've looked for this for 10 years in various scopes, never spotted it from Oakleigh. Looked again, low down in the north east. Just a degree or two away from Zeta Tauri. Again, no luck. Popped the DGM narrowband filter in, still couldn't make it out. Frustrating!

Rigel. Easily split, although not as easy as a few weeks ago when the seeing was rock steady. Faint companion visible at 44x, better at 77x.

Sirius. Couldn't split it. Sirius is blindingly bright - just scintillating.

M42. Easily spotted 5 stars in the Trapezium at 77x, with a hint of the 6th. Couldn't be sure, and couldn't be bothered going inside for more magnification.

M41 - Little Beehive . Open cluster in Canis Major. Three or four degrees away from Sirius, viewed at 77x. Counted around 40 stars easily, with mottled, misty patches throughout. The 7mm Nagler is almost too much for this object.

30 Dorado - Tarantula Nebula. Having a frank debate with myself as to whether to wait for Mars, as the seeing was very good. I judged it to be nearly an hour away from clearing the neighbouring houses. I glanced up and could see the Large Magellanic Cloud naked eye overhead, so had a sweep at 77x. The Tarantula really is a beautiful object, just drawing the eye with more and more detail - loops everywhere. Quite tiny in a 1 degree field of view, but so much to explore in there.

My wife came out to announce it was 1:15am and we had to work later today. I gazed to the north east - no Mars. Called it a night.