Decided to do a little galaxy hunting and a first time find of Helix nebula NGC7293 and Saturn nebula NGC7009 last Thursday night. Very clear skies early although observing was a little hindered with a first quarter moon.
Using the laminated Star Charts by Wil Tirion I was able to browse Sculptor, Fornax and Eridanus locating 12 galaxies.
Now I know their location we can revisit on a better night.
We then waited til moonset around 12.30 pm and of course visability improved.
Our first time for Helix was a real surprise. It was much larger than we expected. Around the same size in the EP as the Dumbell and very much like the images we have seen of it.
Saturn nebula was the complete opposite. Very small and we were blown away with the bright blue colour.
By this time it was about 1.30am and we could see Rigel appearing over the roofline of our house so we decided to wait and see M42 for the first time with our Dob. And as you would expect when you really are keen to see something special the clouds rolled in
It was still beautiful in spite of the clouds. It would appear bright and clear one minute then disappear again. We spent about an hour watching and waiting for it coming and going. What a sight
so much more impressive than when we last saw it with our ETX125 earlier this year.
Whilst David was observing it with the 27 Pano he suddenly pulled back from the EP and said " WOW a meteor just passed through the EP " It covered more than half the FOV of the EP. The trail was very bright passing over the vision of the dark lanes above M42 and breaking up as it shot through the the EP in a split second.
What a thrill I wish I'd been the lucky one to see it. All in all a very satisfying night or morning I should say. We didn't get to bed til 4am.
Barb
