Observing session last night

[vindictive666 (John)]

hi all


i went out last night for a few hours to try and catch mars as it was rising
and whatta you know i actually saw a dark patch on the surface however by the local time 10pm it was getting covered by some clouds which i reckon made the dark spot stand out a bit better so go figure it was still swimming a bit as it travelled towards the edge of the ep (9mm 1.25 gso) it was the best look at the planet ive seen ever sofar (what i wouldnt give for a decent ep)

however to retrace my steps to a smidge earlier on i went to observe venus it was in a halve dark and light phase very clear to see at the time i was using the 32mm 2" gso and saw a star ? to the lower right of Venus which according to starrynight pro was Pluto? not quite sure if it was pluto or not it was a bluish in color Can anyone verify this ? So cool if it was Pluto

allso it was still reasonably small using the 9mm in the 2x barlow


swung around to the LMC and saw the old fav of mine the Tarantula
then swung to the SML and saw the huge globular cluster (NGC 362? )
i used all my eps on that one (9mm +barlow 15mm plossl) very nice.


also near venus i observed a single orange star and just below that was a fuzzy looking ball i magnified that with every ep i had and iam almost sure it was a galaxy
not sure which one or not can any one confirm this one or not ?

all in all it was acool evening untill the clouds started moving in

comments are very welcome here

[acropolite (Phil)]

Sounds good John, I haven't been able to get out for a session, last night here at 1AM was amazing, could see all of the seven sisters (pleades) with the naked eye, and mars close by, but I didn't have the time to spend as we're flat out preparing to go away. Pluto is very low mag I think around 13 at best so you would need very dark skies to see.

[vindictive666 (John)]

hey phil not talking to me on skype are u ?

Originally Posted by vindictive666

however to retrace my steps to a smidge earlier on i went to observe venus it was in a halve dark and light phase very clear to see at the time i was using the 32mm 2" gso and saw a star ? to the lower right of Venus which according to starrynight pro was Pluto? not quite sure if it was pluto or not it was a bluish in color Can anyone verify this ? So cool if it was Pluto

allso it was still reasonably small using the 9mm in the 2x barlow

Pluto is presently around mag 13.96 so I would imagine it's getting towards
the limit of your scope. It will look like many of the stars around it. The only
real way to identify it is by imaging the area over a period of time and you
will detect one star to be moving, that will be pluto. Unless you have an
accurately setup goto. Even then it will look like a star

Suggestion: it could of been the "little Ghost" or possibly the "box" nebulas

Originally Posted by vindictive666

swung around to the LMC and saw the old fav of mine the Tarantula
then swung to the SML and saw the huge globular cluster (NGC 362? )
i used all my eps on that one (9mm +barlow 15mm plossl) very nice.

It is my guess that your actually saw 47 tuc, N362 although very bright
and obvious it is somewhat smaller than nearby 47 Tuc which is one on my
all time fav glob's. It used to be Omega Centuri but I find 47 Tuc a lil more
interesting.

Originally Posted by vindictive666

also near venus i observed a single orange star and just below that was a fuzzy looking ball i magnified that with every ep i had and iam almost sure it was a galaxy

This Star could of been Antares the heart of Scorpious, not sure you will
detect to many galaxies in that area as you will be pretty much looking/shooting
through the center of our galaxy to get to it. My thoughts would be M4 but
more like you noticed N6144 which is a lil closer to Antares.


all and all sounds like you had a great night. I haven't had the chance to
get my scope out a 2-3 weeks now due to weather : (

regards,CS

[ving (David)]

wish it wasnt pouring down here... i wanna have a go too
thanks for the write-up
sounded like fun!