Orion in Forty Minutes

30 January 2019, 19:00 – 19:40

One of those frustrating nights where you collimate the mirror, extricate a spider (a real spider, not the structure that holds the secondary mirror in place) and its web, take the scope outside, let it cool down, and then – just as you’re ready to begin observing – the clouds start rolling in. That said, I did manage to see a few new targets through the ever-narrowing gaps, although the observations were brief and my eyes weren’t fully dark-adapted.

All observations with the Nagler 9mm (now established as my eyepiece of choice for this scope).


NGC 2169, open cluster in Orion
A small, condensed grouping of bright stars. Not particularly rich, but visually pleasing – worth a longer look under more favourable conditions. Begs the question: at what point does a multiple star system become a cluster?

NGC 2022, planetary nebula in Orion
Appeared as a small faint annulus at 133x, like a diminished version of M57. Suggestion of brightness variations – Ultrablock and/or higher magnification should give an improved view.

NGC 1999, reflection nebula in Orion
Small patch of nebulosity roughly south of M42. (I noticed this on the uncropped frames of my December image and thought it might be bright enough to detect visually.) The central condensation looked stellar, but I suspect that higher magnification may prove otherwise. Suggestion of dark patch/hole with averted vision. I wonder how many other DSOs are neglected because of their proximity to the Great Nebula?

Rigel (Beta Orionis)
Close double, easy split at 133x even though the companion coincided with one of the diffraction spikes. Cloud starting to interfere, but used this as an opportunity to fine-tune the alignment on the EZ Finder.

NGC 1788, reflection nebula in Orion
Very faint patch of light north of Beta Eri. Faint star at centre? Literally had less than two minutes to look at this before the clouds finally put an end to the session.