A good time was had by all!
The first sight for the night was the brilliant light of Jupiter on the western horizon. Through the telescope we could just make out the main cloud belts.
Bert on the hunt for a more eclectic and lesser known object honed his Meade LX90 SCT onto M15 a faint globular cluster in Pegasus in the northern sky.
We were treated to a view of the Andromeda Galaxy as it popped up over the northern horizon at about 10pm. For most in the group this was our first viewing of M31 mainly due to limiting magnitude and light pollution from nearby Grindlewald and the limited time of year where M31 is visible.
The Magellanic Clouds are high in the southern sky with good views of 47 Tucanae and the Tarantula Nebula. Eta Carinae, low in the sky over the southern horizon, was also a good site with the key hole very clear in the eye piece.
With Eridanus high in the sky we trained our telescopes to the faint galaxy NGC1316 in Fornax. This was just visible in our peripheral vision just being detectable when looking just slightly to the side than directly upon it.
Simon spied the Trifid Nebula in Saggitarius. When viewed through his 12 inch telescope and a nebula filter this revealed good contrast of the dark intersecting dust lanes, a good result considering the mucky high level cloud that was clinging to the western horizon.
The newest member of our group, Eppo, brought his brand new Skywatcher 8 inch Newtonian. This was the first chance for us to see first hand some of the nice design features of this particular brand of Dobsonian Mount. It was great to see the satisfaction of viewing 47 Tucanae and the Orion Nebula for the first time. After a quick introductory lesson in calibrating finderscopes and checking collimation Eppo was set for a good first night of observation with his new telescope. He even beat me to M31.
Attn Tasssies - Brigdenorth Sat 10th November
