A Christmas Comet

25 December 2019, 19:00 – 21:00 GMT

Conditions: Cold evening (and getting colder), no wind. Slight haze affecting transparency. Condensation appearing after only a few minutes – by the end of the session the telescope was dripping wet and all exposed lenses were dewed over.

The session also served as the first test of a new Orion 9x50 RACI finderscope to go alongside the red-dot finder. It did a good job – until the condensation got to it.

After aligning the two finders (on Polaris), I began the session with a look at the Messier clusters in Auriga. All three showed up clearly in the finderscope, and looked particularly good in the Ethos 13mm, with M37 being the standout. M38’s neighbour NGC 1907 was partially resolved in the Ethos and more so in the 9mm Nagler. That extra 40x magnification does make a difference for pulling out faint stars.

M35 and NGC 2158, open clusters, Gemini
Again, M35 looked great in the Ethos, although I think M37 surpasses it (at least in the XT10). NGC 2158 started to show some resolution with averted vision, but not as good as 1907.

Comet C/2017 T2 (Panstarrs)
92x (Ethos). Small nebulous patch of about 9th or 10th magnitude high up on the Perseus/Camelopardalis border. Stellar nuclear region surrounded by a faint coma which swelled with averted vision. Suggestion of a faint tail fanning out to the south, but hard to be sure; the condensation was already starting to interfere. An improvement over the last comet I saw (ASASSN), but nothing to get too excited about. Still, at least I can say I made the effort to track it down.

M81, M82, galaxy pair, Ursa Major
The Ethos is large enough to show them in the same field of view, although both fall outside the central sharp zone. On individual examination both galaxies were bright and distinctive (shape-wise), but lacking detail on this occasion. Not really a night for galaxies.

NGC 2169, open cluster, Orion
The so-called Shopping Cart cluster or 37 cluster. A small but distinctive grouping of stars split into two halves. Comprising about 16 bright stars and a suggestion of fainter ones with averted vision. The Ethos resolved the brightest member of the cluster (in the eastern half) into a tight double: Struve 848, approximately 2.5” separation.

At this point the condensation had effectively taken both finders and the Ethos out of action. I struggled on with the 9mm Nagler for a while before eventually admitting defeat. The new finderscope proved its worth in the short time I was able to use it: it shows the same stars plotted in the Pocket Sky Atlas (and at the same orientation), which will make star-hopping much easier – particularly in galaxy season. I just need to make a dew-shield for it before I take the scope out again.