Perseus – Taurus Border

29 November 2019, 18:30 – 20:30 GMT

The first clear night in over a month(!), although there were some clouds passing over during the evening (moving from west to east to begin with; direction changing to north to south by the end).
A cold evening, temperature dropping steadily.

Transparency: average to poor
Seeing: very good, extremely steady once the scope had cooled down

Observations at 92x (Ethos 13mm) unless otherwise stated.

Zeta Persei, double? star, Perseus
Lovely multiple star system, labelled as Atik in the PSA (although other sources attribute this name to nearby Omicron Persei). Bright blue-white primary with close faint companion to the south and a fainter one further west. Two more stars of equal brightness further south (probably not physically associated with the main grouping).

Uranus
Distinct grey-green disc holding steady even at 333x (9mm Nagler + 2.5x Powermate). One moon suspected with averted vision to north; still present when I dropped down to 240x (5mm Nagler), although it was constantly flitting in and out of view, making it hard to be sure. A look at the S&T app later on confirmed there was a moon in that location and that I had most likely seen Titania.

NGC 1579, emission/reflection nebula, Perseus
Very faint, extended patch of light near field star. (Poor transparency made it tough to find, needed careful star-hopping to be sure I was looking in the right place.) Seemed mottled with averted vision. No improvement with OIII filter (if anything it made it even fainter).

NGC 1514, Crystal Ball Nebula, Taurus
Observation with the Ethos 13mm and Astronomik OIII filter. Delicate cocoon of light surrounding bright central star; quite large as planetary nebulae go. Flanked by two field stars. Seemed to have two or three dark bands cutting across the nebula. Somewhat faint without the filter. Not the best view I’ve had of it, but still a lovely sight.

By now the cloud cover was increasing overhead, so I spent the rest of the session looking for NGC 253 (the Silver Coin Galaxy) way down south in Sculptor. Unsurprisingly, that part of the sky was too bright for me to say I saw it with any degree of confidence. I think on an exceptional night (or an early morning in late August or September perhaps) I might be able to spot it, but any galaxy south of -15 degrees is always going to be a challenge from my location.