Quote:
Originally Posted by ngcles
Hi Rob & All,
Not much to add? Well I'll add a pat on the back -- 104 G.Cs in that aperture is very, very impressive. Congratulations ... and NGC 2419 is a very tough ask in that aperture so ... 
Best,
Les D
P.S ... there goes my emoticon allowance for the month. |
Thanks Les - I suppose I've blown my Brownie points now with the Crux names....
Well I had a shot at a few of the targets tonight - absolutely lovely dark skies and a shame I couldn't spend longer outside. Viewing using Tasco 4.5" f8 reflector and 21mm Celestron X-Cel eyepiece (43x).
Open cluster NGC 2243 in Canis Major was just a small dim background glow to me, not unlike a distant faint glob. Averted vision helped but not much to see. Globular cluster NGC 1261 is a gem, a lovely round bright centrally-condensed globular. NGC 2298 was much dimmer, slightly larger and less centrally-condensed. It seemed off-round to me. Missed NGC 1851, too hard right near the zenith and I didn't have detailed charts.
Had a quick scan around the Fornax galaxy cluster - lots of little fainties but I did that area in detail in an earlier obs report. Couldn't get much out of NGC 1365, one day I'm gonna see the bar!
NGC 1792 & 1808 in Columba were very nice, and I can't remember seeing them before. Both were very obvious scanning through the field, but I think I was lucky as there were zenith probs with these too. 1808 seemed the more edge-on to me - 1792 was slightly more oval-shaped. Both were fairly even glows (no bright nuclei showing), with slight extensions visible in averted vision. Separation was just over half the FOV. Didn't bother with galaxy NGC 1487 in Eridanus - at mag 12.3 it is probably out of my range, but in any case detailed charts and the investment of a slab of time would have been required (lazy astronomer!).
Planetary nebula NGC 1535 in Eridanus was bright but tiny, with no detail visible. I didn't have my 8mm EP outside so I left it fairly quickly.
Of Part II, I only had a look at M42 & M45. M42 was beautiful - you can tell you've got good conditions when it shows a really creamy texture, smooth as silk! Running Man was showing well, as was the Flame Nebula. Horsehead? Well, in my dreams!
Pleiades cluster was brilliant using the 40mm eyepiece.
Saw lots of other stuff - Eta Carinae nebula, Southern Pleiades, Tarantula Nebula, Omega Centauri, 47 Tucanae, NGC 2287 (brilliant open cluster near Sirius), Jewel Box etc etc.
Cheers -