vings magical mystery tour

[ving (David)]

observing in my light poluted backyard can be darn fustrating at times. to the north and north east is the super bright light polution of campbelltown. it reduces my visual limiting magnitude from about 5.5 (on a good night) which i get in the south to west down to about 3 to 3.5.

anyhow lastnight was a night of good clarity and fair seeing so I decided to brave the cold and take the scope out. orion had just about set and saturn was sitting behind a tree so I headed over to jupiter which only offered fair views as i watched one of the moons disappear behind the giant.
show over i side stepped to centaurus to do some widfield views of omega cent... beautiful! I love it high in the sky. its hard to beat! cent A was next and was showing the dust lane clearly, I put in my new TV 10.5 and saw even more detail with a couple of stars seemingly embeded in the galaxy and even more detail in the dust lane. I so want to see this at a dark site!
wide field again and lower to a small globular (ngc 5286). this would have made a great pic as it sits close to a bright star.

off to corvus i went. my very first planetary is in corvus and I guess it makes my a bit biased when i say it my favourite constellation. I then went above to go galaxy hunting but to no avail for some reason

m104 was a brilliant white/grey streak with a bright blob in the middle. I should have, in retrospect, bumped up the magnification... nevermind

it was at this stage I decided to do wht i have never done. I headed over to virgo. virgo is normally wipped out by light pollution and tonight was no different. I dont know why i did it but i am glad i did!
GALAXIES GALORE!!!!
I didnt identify any of them and they didnt have any structure (because of the light pollution) but I saw quite a few. I did see m61 and 49 then scanning down a bunch more.....

then the sun came out!!!! cheryl decide to wash the dishes...
gah! bright light bright light!!!
bye night vision
time to pack up.

cool night tho, even if cut short

[atalas]

Hi Ving

What night was this ?cloudy in Bankstown last night ,I set up my gear wanted to image ( still learning my ST7) looked up and could see the cloud coming from the east,bummer !
Anyway I'm glad you enjoyed the night and thanks for the report.

Louie

[ving (David)]

campbelltown was clear as a bell last night
clouds threatened for a bit but all cleared

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Cool David!

Ain't Virgo excellent. I love looking in there. Glad you had a clear night as weather report for your area was for cloud.

TIP: Stick a red globe in the kitchen LOL

[CosMos (Rich)]

Hey Ving, you gotta see Cen. A under dark skies, looks small but great even in 7x50 binos. If the sky is dark enough, you can even read the catalogue numbers alongside those Virgo galaxies

I used to live within a 20 minute walk of the main street of Auckland City. A Pacific Island church next door was always lit up like a fairground and the neighbours down the back had a spotlight which was for some reason pointed toward me.

I used to observe with my trusty 8" Dob. under the clothesline which was draped with an old sheet. Don't try the sheet off the bed as it is hard to get to sleep after observing when covered with dew

Anyway, I found that the sheet blocked enough direct light spillage and I was able to easily see 11th mag. stars and under high power get down to around 12th. NGC 253 in Sculptor was faint but obvious and even the Trifid, M20, showed itself through the sky glow. They were all observed when well overhead. It is amazing what can be seen under the most primitive of conditions with a little care and perserverance.

Look forward to hearing more about your discoveries as you explore the sky

Rich