No sketches from me this month, but managed a quick 'whistlestop tour' of the October targets tonight, under pretty good skies. It was a bit late to go for the Eagle Nebula (too low, in the lights of town), and NGC 300 escaped me because it was too close to the zenith to reach.
Using Tasco 4.5" f8 reflector (apparently these are a heap of plasticky junk that you can't see anything through, according to some threads in the Beginners sections) with Celestron 21mm X-Cel & 40mm E-lux eyepieces (the latter newly acquired and my first run under good skies).
OK, started with the Helix Nebula, a big round faint ghost - got a lot of 'flickering' in averted vision and all in all the view wasn't very satisfactory, not as good as I've had. The Saturn Nebula was bright but very tiny and seeing as I'd left the 8mm EP inside I didn't linger. SMC was awesome, with little bright knots and patches, and its sky neighbours gcs 47 Tuc and NGC 362 were great too.
NGC 253 was pretty good, spanning half the field at 43x (21mm), but in better skies I've seen mottling. Checked NGC 247 while I was there, a bit like the ghost of 253! Moved on to gc NGC 288 - just a grey blob with a hint of gradual brightening to the centre, very different to Patrick's description, LOL!
Went to the Grus Quartet - all four galaxies visible, little faint gashes that fitted easily into the FOV. Wanted to linger but had no time. Moved to NGC 55, which I haven't seen for a while, and it didn't disappoint - lovely, with the bright core offset and nice extensions. Spanned over half the FOV. Did linger, just a little! Then to NGC 7793, a nice bright little galaxy that strangely enough looked a little like NGC 288, only elongated slightly.
Then went to NGC 1365, a bright face-on spiral. Couldn't see much detail so moved down to the rich galaxy field near it. Wow, little tufts everywhere - didn't have charts but I've done this area in detail before. Just enjoyed what I was seeing! Thought I might try the 40mm, but while the little galaxies were bright they were very, very tiny - better with the 21mm. So I flashed back to NGC 253. The 40mm EP put it in a wider field and brightened everything up - a classic bright edge-on spiral sitting in a nice starfield. Just beautiful, stunning in fact. OK, why not try the SMC again? Again, beautiful! But 47 Tuc amazed me - it seemed to be literally blazing, so bright was the core! Similar with NGC 362, but smaller.
That was so good, wonder how Tarantula Neb would look? Went there but funnily enough the 40mm didn't do much for it.
But the LMC itself was magic, drool!
Well, it's taken me longer to type this than I spent out there - hope you enjoyed it. It's just so good to get some clear sky therapy. Pity I can't see anything through the heap of junk I own!
Cheers -