Falling Stars and Grazing Planets

A short update to round off the 2020 log. The weather during December was mostly unsuitable for observing, with a couple of notable exceptions.

The Geminid meteor shower put on a really fine display on the night of Saturday 12 December to Sunday 13 December, despite this being a good 24 hours before the shower peaked. (The actual night of the peak was clouded out.) I went outside a little before midnight and lasted about 90 minutes before the cold drove me back indoors, seeing at least 30 meteors (including one sporadic) during that time. I didn’t observe any fireballs, but I did notice a strange effect during the first half-hour whereby the meteors appeared to arrive in pairs. After a gap of two or three minutes, one would flash through Orion or Taurus, quickly followed by another one on almost the same path. Then another gap of two or three minutes before the next pair. My attempts to photograph the Geminids were less successful; they seemed to know exactly when I had the shutter open, and the one meteor I did “catch” in the act wasn’t bright enough to register on the sensor.

The day of the Great Conjunction between Jupiter and Saturn was also clouded out, but on the evening before closest approach (Sunday 20 December) there was a period between about 16:00 and 16:30 where the clouds cleared briefly in the southwest. Viewing conditions were pretty terrible, but I was able to see both planets (plus several moons and an interloper star) in the same field of view at several magnifications all the way up to 240x (i.e. within a third of a degree). Sadly both planets slipped behind a tree just as I was about to start an imaging run (using the ZWO ASI120MM at 1,000 mm), but I don’t think the results would have been that great anyway. Seeing the conjunction in the scope was good enough. (The image above is a quick consolation shot taken with the TV60, showing the relative size/brightness of the two planets.)


Nature note:
With the dusk gathering, and while I was scanning the gaps in the clouds with my binoculars, one of the local sparrowhawks floated over the garden, heading towards the local park (where I presume it has a roost).

Globular Clusters in Ophiuchus and Sagittarius

22 – 23 June 2020, 23:30 – 3:30

Conditions: Very mild, light wind with occasional gusts. No clouds and no condensation tonight.

Seeing: Good
Transparency: Quite good considering the time of year

Once again I set up two scopes in the garden: the XT10 with the 13mm Ethos (92x) and the TV60 with the 9mm Nagler (40x). The XT10 was balanced on my observing table, enabling it to point a little further south than usual (and also so I could observe while sitting down).

After warming up with views of M13, M57, M56 and Albireo, I turned my attention south to a selection of globular clusters.

M19, globular cluster, Ophiuchus
92x. Bright, condensed globular, about the same declination as Antares. Speckled appearance with averted vision. One star resolved north of the core, another one east of the core.

NGC 6284, globular cluster, Ophiuchus
92x. Small, condensed blur, a little north of M19. Swells in size with averted vision. Faint star east of core.

NGC 6293, globular cluster, Ophiuchus
92x. Another small, condensed blur. No resolution, but the core seemed particularly bright.

M62, globular cluster, Ophiuchus
92x. Large, condensed blur (one of the Messier globulars below -30 degrees). Bright core, a little grainy with averted vision.

NGC 6316, globular cluster, Ophiuchus
92x. Very faint round blur, east of M19 and M62, and about midway between them in terms of declination (-28 degrees). Condensed with averted vision. There were also a few stars superimposed over the top, surrounding the core; I assume these are foreground stars and not true cluster members.

M9, globular cluster, Ophiuchus
92x. Bright, asymmetric globular. Starts to resolve with averted vision, but really needs a darker sky to get the best out of it. Apparent dark patches southwest of core.

NGC 6342, globular cluster, Ophiuchus
92x. Faint, condensed blur, south of M9. Brighter core with averted vision. Faint star SW of core.

NGC 6356, globular cluster, Ophiuchus
92x. Bright, condensed globular, northwest of M9 and only a little smaller and fainter than its M-designated neighbour. No resolution, but some faint stars visible on the outskirts of the cluster.

M6, open cluster, Scorpius
92x (and skimming the neighbour's fence!). Better-framed at this magnification (than at 133x), but still a little too large for the fov. More stars visible, giving it an almost “chunky” appearance. On this occasion its overall outline reminded me a little of M24.

M7, open cluster, Scorpius: 40x (TV60 + 9mm Nagler)
A slightly better view tonight, reinforcing my initial impressions: a large, loose cluster with the dozen brightest stars arranged in a wavy x-shape.

NGC 6520, open cluster, Sagittarius
92x. I picked this up by accident while sweeping the area south of M8. A compact and very distinctive open cluster comprised of bright, colourful stars overlying a rich unresolved haze. Prominent orange star near the centre. This cluster stood out well despite its low altitude (-28 degrees declination).

M21, open cluster, Sagittarius
92x. Rich cluster with bright stars; not particularly condensed. Bright pair near centre.

M28, globular cluster, Sagittarius
92x. Bright, condensed globular. Grainy appearance. Hint of resolution with averted vision. Somewhat overshadowed by its illustrious neighbour…

M22, globular cluster, Sagittarius
92x. Very large “flattened” globular – spectacular in the Ethos. A few dozen stars resolved in direct vision; countless more with averted vision. Appeared to be a dark lane or rift on the western side. Tonight at least, it surpassed even M13 in visual splendour.

M24, star-cloud, Sagittarius
92x. Incredibly rich star-field. Even in the Ethos it covers several fields of view, but this is probably the best eyepiece for appreciating this region’s grandeur and sheer density of stars. I could easily spend an entire session here. The dark dust clouds which give M24 its distinctive sharp-edged appearance are conspicuous by their relative absence of stars. I know this region is actually a window into a deeper part of the galaxy, but the impression I get is of an iceberg of stars caught in the process of calving off from the Milky Way.

M18, open cluster, Sagittarius
92x. Bright little cluster; not particularly rich, but the brightest stars seem to form the shape of a pointy toadstool, or a partially opened umbrella.

M54, globular cluster, Sagittarius
92x. Small, round condensed blur. Prominent bright core, but not even a hint of resolution. Apparently gravitationally bound to the Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy (SagDEG).

M69, M70 and M55 (the only Messiers I haven’t yet observed) eluded me tonight. M69 and M70 are only a couple of degrees lower than M54, but that’s a lot of atmosphere to look through, making them too faint for the TV60. They also don't quite clear the fence as viewed from the XT10 - even with it balanced on a table. At -31 degrees, M55 should be viewable in the XT10, but – being further east than the other objects – the sky was too bright by the time it emerged from behind the tree. However, as a consolation, the conditions were just right for viewing the planets (with the 7mm DeLite).

Jupiter, 171x: Possibly my best view yet of the giant planet. Some sustained moments of excellent seeing revealed superfine detail, including festoons trailing from the notably turbulent NEB. Io’s shadow was visible as a perfect little dark spot on the NEB, and I was able to follow Io itself as it nudged across the darkened Jovian limb to begin its own transit. I did briefly add the 2.5x Powermate to increase the magnification to 428x, but the seeing wasn’t quite that good.

Saturn, 171x: Same detail as noted in the previous session, but holding steady for longer. The Cassini Division showed particularly well. Again, despite the brightening sky, Titan, Tethys, Dione and Rhea were clearly visible, along with a nearby faint star masquerading as a moon; I’d have to do a same-night comparison with the 5mm Nagler to be sure, but the DeLite does seem to control light-scatter better than any other eyepiece I’ve looked through.

Mars, 171x: First telescopic view of the red planet for this year. The seeing wasn’t quite as good here (it was still only just clearing the neighbour’s rooftop), but the gibbous phase was obvious along with some vague dark markings that showed a little better when I added the Baader Contrast Booster filter*. Disc still small at 11 arcseconds, but the best is yet to come (barring another dust storm like the one in 2018).

(* I bought the BCB years ago for the Vixen SP-102; I had no idea it was useful as a Mars filter until I read about it recently on Cloudy Nights.)

The Southernmost Messier Object

14 June 2020, 00:30 – 03:30

Conditions: Mild, still (no wind), hazy and humid – heavy condensation. Cloud increasing over the course of the session.

Seeing: Average / poor
Transparency: Poor

I don’t normally observe in the two weeks either side of the summer solstice because the sky doesn’t get reasonably dark until gone midnight – and it doesn’t stay dark for very long. However, if I’m to do justice to the Scorpius/Sagittarius region I figured I should at least try to observe some of the brighter objects this month rather than tackle them all in a mad scramble in July or August. (And of course there’s no guarantee the skies will be clear then anyway.)

Also, encouraged by my glimpse of M7 last time out, I had the TV60 set up on the Super Polaris mount. However I hadn’t taken into consideration just how much the trees and plants can grow in barely a month, so I was contending with foliage as well as the neighbour’s fence. Fortunately, the TV60 is easier to move from side to side than the XT10.

After warming up with a look at M13 in both scopes (it appeared hazy and a little washed-out tonight, despite being nearly overhead), I switched to the main target for the evening.

M7, open cluster, Scorpius, 40x (TV60 + 9mm Nagler)
The scope was almost horizontal, but I was able to get just enough clearance over the neighbour’s fence to centre M7 in the field of view. The object itself appeared faint and washed out, but enough stars were visible to at least give a sense of a very large, splashy open cluster. The brightest stars seemed to form a distorted x-shape with a double star at the centre (although the atmospheric distortion and low magnification made it hard to split). There was also a haze of unresolved stars, plus an incomplete ring of brighter stars surrounding the central cluster. Even if M7 were high enough to be visible in the XT10, the TV60 would still be a better choice of scope to view it simply because of the larger field of view (2 degrees in the 9mm Nagler). By comparison, M6 – which is itself a fairly large cluster – appeared more traditionally condensed at the same magnification.

I also had the XT10 set up in the garden, but another thing I hadn’t taken into consideration was how bad the condensation would be tonight. I had planned to use the 13mm Ethos, but unfortunately the eye-lens misted over while I was looking at M7, so I swapped it out for the 9mm Nagler. The sky was getting hazier too, so I stuck to only the brightest objects. (The fainter stuff could wait for a better night.)

M21, open cluster, Sagittarius
133x. Loose, bright cluster, a little north of M20. Star pattern at centre in the shape of a teacup, or a backwards “3”.

M23, open cluster, Sagittarius
133x. Rich, large cluster. Uniformly bright stars filling the fov. Bright star to north. Concentration of fainter stars at western end of cluster.

M25, open cluster, Sagittarius
133x. Bright, large cluster, with a distinctive “D” shaped pattern of stars at the centre. Unlike M23, the stars come in a mixture of brightnesses.

With the condensation worsening and the sky already starting to brighten, it was almost time to pack up. However while taking the TV60 indoors I noticed that Jupiter and Saturn were starting to emerge from behind the tree, so I (carefully) moved the XT10 and changed the 9mm Nagler for the 7mm DeLite.

Jupiter, 171x: the seeing was variable but in the fleeting moments that it steadied, the DeLite gave a very sharp, comfortable view. All four Galilean moons were on view and I could see the Great Red Spot moving onto the disc, showing its familiar brick-red colour when the seeing allowed.

Saturn, 171x: Titan and three faint moons were visible, despite the brightening sky. Saturn was its usual exquisite self with the Cassini Division showing well in moments of good seeing, as well as the shadow of the planet on the rings, and the dusky equatorial band.

First Impressions of the Tele Vue 13 mm Ethos

3 September 2019, 21:45 – 23:45 BST

So I’m a little late to the Ethos party, but this particular eyepiece has been in my sights for a while, for the following reasons:

As much as I love the 24 mm Panoptic (I originally got it for my 102 mm Vixen refractor), the large exit pupil and lower contrast at 50x means that a lot of the fainter stars and low-surface brightness DSOs that would otherwise be visible in the XT10 are washed out in my somewhat light-polluted sky. The Nagler 9 mm resolves those problems, but its smaller true field of view (0.59 degrees) makes it harder to tell where I am, and the larger star clusters and DSOs lose some of their visual impact. In the XT10 the Ethos produces nearly the same TFOV as the Panoptic, but at almost double the magnification. (For more on why this matters, see Al Nagler's essay on the Majesty Factor.) I'll still use the Panoptic (for large objects like the Veil and the North America Nebula that respond well to filters, it comes into its own), but the Ethos fills a gap in my eyepiece collection.

And, if that isn't justification enough, having started this hobby squinting through "drinking straw" 0.965" eyepieces, I can really appreciate the value and sheer comfort of looking through a high quality wide-field eyepiece. A recent S&T article on "hobby-killers" warned against small telescopes and their small eyepieces, but I think a case could made for starting small. It forces you to hone your observing skills and certainly gives you a greater appreciation for the good stuff when you can afford it.

Usually the purchase of new astronomical equipment is immediately followed by a month of bad weather, but fortunately I got a chance to try out the Ethos only the second night after it arrived. The forecast wasn’t promising and there were indeed a lot of clouds passing overhead, but there were just about enough gaps to make it worthwhile.

Initial Findings
The eyepiece needs the 2-inch extender to reach focus with the XT10’s Crayford focuser. The Ethos is heavy, but it’s nothing that a tightening of the altitude tension bearing can’t fix (and it’s not as heavy as the Canon 80D / 2.5x Powermate combination).

Because I was chasing the gaps in the clouds, the session was more of a whistle-stop tour than I would have liked, but I was able to make the following observations.

Field of View
I doubt I'm the first one to make this comparison, but going from an 82-degree Nagler to the 100-degree Ethos is like moving from CinemaScope to IMAX. I had to practically bury my eyeball in the eye-lens and move my head around just to see the field-stop. To call it immersive is an understatement. It’s the perfect eyepiece for sweeping along rich star fields, and I found it a very comfortable viewing experience. For telescopes which don't track - like Dobsonians - it's a godsend; you can keep the target in view for longer without having to constantly keep nudging the scope. If you’re into astro-sketching you might prefer a tighter field of view to work with, and putting bright objects outside the field-stop (to reveal faint neighbouring objects) is a little trickier than usual, but otherwise I can’t think of any downsides.

Sharpness
Star-testing confirmed my daylight observations with the TV-60: this eyepiece is extremely sharp on-axis – perhaps the sharpest I’ve ever looked through (and my other Tele Vues aren’t exactly lacking in this regard). I’ve read about this finding previously but I put it partly down to reviewer hyperbole until I saw it for myself. The stars boiled down to perfect little pin-pricks of light, which also made it easier to snap them into focus. As expected (the XT10 is a fast f/4.7 scope), stars towards the edge of the field exhibited the arrowhead shape characteristic of coma, but it wasn’t obtrusive, and the field of view is so huge I didn’t really notice the effect unless I specifically looked for it.

Colour
I couldn’t honestly tell if the eyepiece gave “warm” or “cold” views (I think that test will have to wait for when the moon is high in the sky), but I did notice that star colours stood out particularly well. The red giant stars in and around the Double Cluster were easy to pick out and the pale yellow / pale blue combination of Almach (Gamma Andromedae) made a lovely contrast.

The intensity of planetary nebula NGC 7662 (The Blue Snowball) seems to vary slightly each time I look at it (though that probably has as much to do with my eye as it does with the equipment and the sky conditions), but on this occasion it seemed to have a turquoise tinge. (I struggle to tell the difference between green and blue in low light, so take these types of colour observations with a pinch of salt.)

I won’t go through everything I looked at (for the most part I stuck to “showpiece” objects that I was already familiar with), but here are a few notes on specific DSOs worthy of mention:

The Double Cluster looks great in just about any scope, but this is by far the best view I’ve ever had of it. The field of view is just wide enough to encompass both clusters and some of the surrounding star field. Pinholes in black velvet? Diamond (and ruby) dust on silk? Words can’t really do justice to this vista any more than photos can.

M2 and M15: I think the 9 mm Nagler is still my eyepiece of choice for globular clusters, but the Ethos really makes it feel like you’re looking at them from a vantage point somewhere in deep space. M2 was a little washed out by light pollution, but still partially resolved, whereas M15 showed a sprinkling of stars all the way to the core.

With the addition of the Astronomik OIII filter, the Veil Nebula was an impressive sight. The view through the 24 mm Panoptic is perhaps aesthetically better (but only marginally) simply because the nebula covers such a large area of sky, but the fainter parts of the eastern and western arcs were easier to trace out in the Ethos, and I could see substantially more of Pickering’s/Fleming's Triangle, including part of the wispy section that trails off to the south. I think for detailed study of the Veil, the Ethos wins out.

With the OIII filter still in place I had a quick look at the Crescent Nebula in Cygnus before the clouds got to it. It resembled a letter C hanging in space, not unlike the white C on the underwing of a Comma Butterfly.

The Andromeda Galaxy was big and bright, with M32 occupying the same field of view. It only took a slight push of the telescope tube to locate M110, which also showed up very well. I'm looking forward to exploring the Virgo Cluster with this eyepiece.

The star clusters of Cassiopeia were rich and numerous in the Ethos; this eyepiece really gives you the best of both worlds in that you can view them in the context of the surrounding Milky Way and resolve them at the same time. I could easily spend a whole session just sweeping back and forth across this constellation, but perhaps the stand-out cluster was NGC 7789. In the 24 mm Panoptic many of its stars are just a little too faint to be resolved properly with direct vision, whereas in the 9 mm Nagler it fills the field of view to the point where it looks more like a rich portion of the Milky Way. The Ethos showed it in its full glory; lots more stars were resolved and I could see dark lanes appearing to curve through the cluster (not unlike the straight ones which cut through the Wild Duck Cluster). For the first time I could appreciate how it got its nickname “The Rose Cluster”. The individual groups of stars really did look like unfurling petals.


Disclaimer
I was not offered any incentive (financial or otherwise) by Tele Vue to write this post. Other wide-field eyepieces of similar focal length are available, comparison reviews of which can be found on sites such as Cloudy Nights, Stargazers' Lounge and Scope Reviews.

Exploring Delphinus

1 September 2019, 21:30 – 01:00 BST

A cold night, and too breezy for imaging. Instead, for a change, I put the TV60 to use as an observing scope while the XT10 cooled to ambient temperature.

Transparency: not as good as 30 August
Seeing: Good to begin with, but worsened as the night progressed.

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TV60 + 24mm Panoptic (15x)
It’s a treat to just ramble along the Milky Way at this magnification, but the most noteworthy observations came when I added the OIII filter:

Veil Nebula, supernova remnant, Cygnus
Both arcs were visible (albeit faintly) in the same field of view. (This wasn't a surprise to me as I'd already tried this some years ago using the Ultrablock filter, although my notes from that time state that the western segment 6960 was only just on the threshold of visibility.) I think from a really dark site, Pickering’s/Fleming's Triangle might even be possible with this combination. Something to bear in mind perhaps the next time I take the TV60 on holiday.

NGC 7000, North America Nebula, Cygnus
Large and prominent at this magnification, and the OIII filter confirmed it as clearly nebulous in nature and not just a star-rich section of the Milky Way. The brightest section was the part adjoining the “Gulf of Mexico.” (Again, this replicated an observation made some years previously using the Ultrablock filter.)

NGC 281, Pac-man Nebula, Cassiopeia
Showed up well as an amorphous little glow, albeit devoid of detail.

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Other observations for the night were carried out with the XT10, using (unless otherwise stated) the 9mm Nagler (133x).

NGC 6716, open cluster, Sagittarius
Tight, boxy little cluster, shaped a bit like a backwards “2”.

Cr 394, open cluster, Sagittarius
Sprawling cluster, larger than 6716.

NGC 6818, Little Gem Nebula, Sagittarius
Tough to find (in a bright part of the sky with no naked eye stars nearby), but when I did track it down, it presented as a bright little disc, becoming even brighter with the Ultrablock filter (the OIII was still on the TV60). Prolonged examination revealed a dark core – a typical summer planetary. I also looked for the nearby Barnard’s Galaxy, but (as expected) it was hopelessly lost in the light pollution.

M75, globular cluster, Sagittarius
Grainy little fuzzball, washed out by light pollution. No stars resolved. Seemed quite small compared to other globulars, but perhaps I was only seeing the core region.

NGC 6934, globular cluster, Delphinus
Another grainy, unresolved glow. Appeared to have a slight bluish tinge. Bright field star to west.

Gamma Delphinus, double star
Impressively bright and close double star with an equally close (but fainter) pair of stars to the north. Reminiscent of Epsilon Lyrae.

NGC 7006, globular cluster, Delphinus
Faint round glow, brighter towards centre, but lacking the grainy appearance of the previous two globulars viewed tonight. Looked more like a comet than a globular cluster.

M72, globular cluster, Aquarius
Weak round glow, very faint for a Messier globular.

NGC 6891, planetary nebula, Delphinus
Very small disc of light, almost stellar (which explains why I overlooked it on 25 August). Needed the Nagler 5mm (240x) plus the Ultrablock to confirm its nature. Seemed slightly elongated at high magnification.

Couldn’t find NGC 6886 (I’m guessing it’s even tinier than 6891), but NGC 6905 (the Blue Flash Nebula) showed up well at 240x. Smoke ring of asymmetric brightness sitting in a triangle of stars.

NGC 185, galaxy, Cassiopeia
An exercise in frustration (the sky conditions didn’t really justify the amount of time I spent on this and 147), but eventually I located NGC 185 (one of M31’s outlying satellite galaxies). Soft round glow – very faint and featureless. No sign at all of NGC 147. Not a night for faint galaxies.

NGC 7293, Helix Nebula, Aquarius
A little more washed out by light pollution / poor transparency compared to Friday, but still impressive. With the Ultrablock I could make out several field stars surrounding the helix.

More Galaxies (and a Quasar)

4-5 April 2019, 21:45 – 01:15 BST

A chilly, gusty evening – again, not optimal for imaging. The seeing was excellent (the scope reached ambient temperature very quickly) and condensation wasn’t an issue. Transparency improved as the night went on (aided by all the neighbours’ lights being switched off – for once).

All observations at 133x (9mm Nagler) unless otherwise stated.

Polaris, double star, Ursa Minor
I don’t why it’s taken me so long to point the XT10 at Polaris, but it resolved nicely as a white/pale yellow primary and a much fainter secondary directly above it in the field of view. Both stars showed near-perfect little Airy discs – not bad considering the scope had been outside for less than half an hour. I hope the seeing is this good the next time I look at the moon.

I also looked for high northern planetary nebula IC 3568 but I couldn’t locate it (probably because I was unaware how small it is). But I did find an interesting “headlight” double star in the area.

3C 273, Quasar, Virgo
With only a red-dot finder to assist me (and a distinct lack of naked eye stars to "hop" from) I wasn't at all confident of tracking this down. However, more through luck than judgement I found the area covered by the close-up finder chart in the field of view of the eyepiece, and from there it was a relatively simple matter to locate the quasar. At 133x it was faint, but easily visible with averted vision, a little brighter than the adjacent “G” star. At 240x it was just about visible with direct vision. On a purely aesthetic level it was unremarkable, but it's staggering to think I was looking at something 2 – 2.5 billion light-years away (sources vary) – or, to put it another way, a thousand times further away than the Andromeda Galaxy.

M53, globular cluster, Coma Berenices
Grainy at 240x, some stars resolved with averted vision. Good, but not impressive as globulars go. Two field stars east of cluster. Reasonably bright star on northern edge, separated from main body of cluster by an apparent dark bay or rift. Couldn’t see NGC 5053 for some reason; perhaps I was looking in the wrong place.

NGC 4214, galaxy, Canes Venatici
Irregular, vaguely diamond-shaped galaxy with grainy texture. Two faint stars to west, brighter one east. Central bar aligned east-west.

NGC 4244, galaxy, Canes Venatici
Fairly large, long streak of light, slightly fatter and brighter in the middle. Star on northern tip of galaxy.

M51, Whirlpool Galaxy, Canes Venatici
Best view of spiral structure since 10 Feb, showed particularly well in averted vision. Dark areas between arms just about visible in direct vision. Also found a faint, round little galaxy roughly south of M51 – not plotted in PSA, but later identified as NGC 5198. After this and 3C 273, it’s starting to dawn on me just how much I can see through this scope given the right sky conditions.

M101, Pinwheel Galaxy in Ursa Major
Hint of HII/star-forming regions with averted vision; most prominent one appeared to be east of nucleus. Suggestion of discontinuous spiral arms. Each time I look at M101 the view gets fractionally better, but still very challenging. Maybe I’m asking too much of my suburban skies but I feel like I should be getting more out of this galaxy.

NGC 4565, edge-on galaxy, Coma Berenices
Beautiful needle galaxy with narrow dust lane. Otherwise, not much I can add to previous notes.

NGC 4147, globular cluster, Coma Berenices
Small, condensed; grainy appearance with averted vision, but not resolved.

NGC 4293? galaxy, Coma Berenices
Stumbled across this one while sweeping for M85. (I thought I could ease my way into the heart of the Virgo Cluster from the north, but I quickly lost my bearings.) Presented as elliptical blur; distinctive line of stars to north of galaxy.

M85, galaxy, Coma Berenices
Back on track again. An elliptical galaxy with a stellar nucleus. Bright star north of core. Fainter galaxy (NGC 4394) to east.

M100, galaxy, Coma Berenices
Large, round, extended envelope; brighter towards centre. Faint star northwest.

M98, galaxy, Coma Berenices
Extended ellipse – like smaller, fainter version of M31.

M99, galaxy, Coma Berenices
Round blur, brighter towards centre. Suggestion of mottling and reverse-s spiral structure. Might be worth revisiting this one at higher magnification.

Markarian’s Chain, galaxies in Virgo
Counted ten galaxies in total, starting from NGC 4459. Almost an embarrassment of riches. It’s hard to give one galaxy your full attention when another one is creeping into the field of view. Maybe this section of the Virgo cluster needs to be viewed at low magnification or high magnification to get the best out of it – not intermediate.

M87, elliptical galaxy, Virgo
(Yes, that galaxy.) Appeared as a large oval blur, brighter towards centre. Sharing same field of view with NGC 4478 – smaller, fainter.

M104, Sombrero Galaxy, Virgo
Streak of light, bright core. Long, straight dark lane seen very clearly with averted vision south of nucleus despite low altitude.

Moved down to Corvus to look for the Antennae galaxies again. Didn’t see them (again), but I did find:

NGC 4361, planetary nebula, Corvus
Faintly visible at 133x, but still obvious. The OIII filter improved contrast, but hard to make out any detail other than a rough round shape with ragged edges. Still, it's encouraging I can see planetary nebulae this far south; perhaps the Helix Nebula is a possibility after all.

NGC 6210, planetary nebula, Hercules
Small, bright little disc of light; seemed slightly elliptical. Very bright in OIII filter; a typical summer planetary. Would need very high magnification to show significant detail, I think.

Other notes:
Also saw two meteors falling N to SE through same part of sky (Virgo), separated by at least half an hour.

Comet 46P/Wirtanen and M42

9 December 2018

A night of imaging Comet Wirtanen and M42 with the TV60.

Conditions: surprisingly mild, and a good dark sky. Opportunities like this are few and far between at this time of year, so on this occasion I left the XT10 indoors to make sure I could give polar alignment, BackyardEOS etc. my full attention. Though I did have time to scan the Milky Way with the 7x50 binoculars once the imaging session was up and running.

Comet 46P/Wirtanen was faintly visible to the naked eye and appeared as a little fuzzball through binoculars, like a defocused globular cluster, or a diminished version of Comet Holmes during its famous outburst. Not the most exciting comet admittedly, but the first naked-eye one I’ve seen in quite a while.

I saw five meteors, four of which were Geminids. I also saw several winking and flaring objects east of Orion’s belt – presumably geostationary satellites (another one also photobombed a few of my M42 light frames).