16/01/13
I was hoping to stay up and do an all nighter,with the culmination being to get a view of Comet 2011 L4 Panstarrs which is low on the East South East horizon,but for the the haze/mist beating me
Comet 2012 k5 is fading fast as Comet 2012F6 Lemmon is brightening.
I did a bit of Supernova and galaxy hunting plus some old favourites such Omega Cen, M104 and the Leo Triplet M65/66 and Ngc3268.
Spent a great deal of time finding the Supernova 2013e in a galaxy in ANTILIA, IC 2532
Magx13.The nucleus is star like and the spiral arms are very low surface brightness,in fact I was not able to see the galaxy and was only able to confirm the supernova, at magx 14.3 with the image from the BOSS Supernova image I downloaded and printed off.
Distance to the galaxy 125 million light years.
I was able to give my Nagler 3.5mmn type 6, magnification x 522 it's first real workout with a fairly good observation of Saturn, seeing was just going off by this time but at times of some stillness was beautiful.
The temp got down to a cool 15C,Track suit and beannie required.
called it a night at 03:45 due to a high haze, and the ARGO NAVIS running out of battery
Great night under the beautiful Southern Sky.
17/01/13
Comet 2012 k5 LINEAR was fainter than last night, I think it will be a bit of a struggle for scopes under 12" by next week.
SN 2012fr in ngc1365 is also fading fast,now about 15xmag but was able to see it with the 6mm radian
Supernova 2012hr in discovered by Peter Marples last year in Pictor is still visible at around 14.x mag.
Comet 2012 f5 Lemmon was easily found close to Gamma Crusis and was plainly seen in my 10x60 Bino's but best view was seen in my 9mm type 6 Nagler, quite splendid
Spent some time again on SN 2013e, as the seeing was better than last night was able to get a better view of and confirmation of my last observation.
I had a great view of the Coma Cluster,using the 17mm Nagler I counted 8 galaxies in the FOV
One cannot finish without mentioning Jupiter which at the moment is just such a brilliant planet to observe, I came back to it at regular intervals during the night,what a target to watch the moons moving just like Galilieo did all those centuries ago.
I also invited my neighbour over to have a look at the Moon through the 17mm nagler and she was blown away
Other objects I observed were NGC's 4594,4038/4039,5128 M83,M104,M46. and Omega Cent.
Called it a night at midnight.
A great couple of nights observing
Cheers
