Winter Clusters

30 December 2019, 20:00 – 23:15 GMT

A cool, still night, but relatively mild for the time of year (although my feet were very cold towards the end of the session.

Seeing: good
Transparency: a slight haze mixed in with smoke from somewhere, but still much better than the 25th.

This time I came prepared with a makeshift dew-shield for the 9x50 finder – constructed from a piece of black card and some duct tape. It doesn’t look pretty, but it worked a treat. The condensation (while nowhere near as heavy as the previous session) started to appear on the body of the XT10 after about an hour, but the finder remained dry throughout. With hindsight the conditions were probably good enough for imaging too – and maybe I should have done; clear moonless nights seem to be rarer than usual this winter.

As before, I started with a tour of the Auriga Messier clusters using the 13mm Ethos. M37 was the highlight once again, with the dark rifts and overall “beetle” shape showing up particularly well.

Betelgeuse has made the headlines recently and it does look noticeably dimmer to the naked eye (though probably not for the reason most professional astronomers would like). It was one of the first stars I learned to recognise by name, and I can’t remember it ever looking this subdued. Through the eyepiece of my still cooling telescope it regained some of its lost grandeur, appearing as a bright, boiling red-hued star.

NGC 2169, open cluster, Orion
Follow-up observation from last week, at 92x and 133x. Tilting my head 90 degrees really made the “37” asterism become obvious, although the top-left star of the “7” is rather faint compared to its companions. The double star Struve 848 is located in the top right corner of the “3”.

NGC 2194, open cluster, Orion
Faint “boxy” cluster. Looks like an inconspicuous misty patch at first glance, but gets more impressive the longer you look at it. Some stars resolved; even more with averted vision. Quite rich and dense. Long tail of stars extending to the south.

NGC 1662, open cluster, Orion
Sparse but distinctive bird-shaped cluster with long wings and a diamond-shaped asterism forming the head. Red-hued star at the neck of the diamond.

NGC 1807 & 1817, open clusters, Taurus
The poor man’s double cluster. The northern one (1817) is rich and faint while the southern one (1807) is sparse and bright, with a prominent triangle asterism at its centre. Both clusters are well-framed in the Ethos.

NGC 2403, galaxy, Camelopardalis
A galaxy I've struggled to locate in the past (it resides in a barren area of the sky), but the new finder made it much easier. At 92x it appeared as an amorphous cloudy patch with two bright field stars at either end and a fainter one off-centre. Averted vision revealed an extended faint outer region, presumably corresponding with the spiral arms, although no structure was seen on this occasion.

M45, Pleiades, Taurus
Although this cluster doesn’t need a finder, it certainly helps me get my bearings when switching back to the eyepiece (M45 is too large for the fov even at 50x). At 92x the Merope reflection nebula was visible mainly by contrast with its surroundings. The nebula was large and fan-shaped, but I couldn’t see any of the banded structure apparent on photographs.

M78, reflection nebula, Orion
As previous observations. Two stars embedded in fan-shaped swathe of nebulosity (like condensed version of the Merope nebula). Prominent dark gap between M78 and the more diminutive NGC 2071.

M42, Orion Nebula
Spectacular in the Ethos despite condensation starting to creep in. Five stars resolved in the Trapezium at 92x. Exquisite detail in and around the Huygens region. The little arc of nebulosity in the opposite cavity wall showed up really well in the Ethos; it wasn’t quite so obvious at 133x, despite the better contrast. The higher magnification is better for picking out fine detail in the core, but overall, the view in the Ethos was much more majestic. Adding the OIII to the Ethos reinforced previous observations with this filter: it filled in the northern half of M42, giving the nebula a lopsided, asymmetric appearance.

NGC 2174-5, emission nebula + open cluster, Orion
Nebulosity (2174) faintly seen with Ethos and OIII. Switching to the 9mm Nagler (no filter) revealed the central cluster (2175) – stars arranged in a neat little parallelogram.

Rigel, Beta Orionis
0.1 magnitude blue-white star (currently considerably brighter than Betelgeuse) with 7th magnitude companion 10 arcseconds away. Clean split at 92x and 240x, not hindered by diffraction spikes on this occasion. The best view I’ve had of this double.

M1, Crab Nebula, Taurus
At 133x it appears as a faint, amorphous “puff of smoke”. Not a "frame-filler" by any means, but still a potential imaging target for the TV60, after M45 and the Horsehead.

NGC 2022, planetary nebula, Orion
Quick look at 133x. Pretty little disc of light, somewhat faint tonight.

NGC 1999, reflection nebula, Orion
At first sight it appears as a small hazy halo surrounding 11th magnitude V380 Orionis. At 133x the dark hole is visible with averted vision.

IC 418 (aka the Spirograph Nebula), planetary nebula, Lepus
Very small, looked like a bloated blue star even at 133x. Much more obvious at 240x (5mm Nagler). A pretty little blue-green disc surrounding a bright 10th magnitude star. Maybe a very slight yellowish tinge to the central star, but admittedly that’s a stretch. No structure apparent on this first viewing, but the northern half of the nebula seemed brighter than the southern half.

M79, globular cluster, Lepus
Viewed at 240x. Faint (very low in sky) grainy fuzzball with condensed core. Distinct 12th magnitude star north of core – as noted previously.

Hind’s Crimson Star (aka R Leporis), carbon star in Lepus
Viewed at 240x. Didn’t seem especially bright (though currently listed as 7.6m), but striking red colour, like a glowing ember or coal. One of the reddest stars I’ve seen.


Other notes:
Didn’t see any frogs when I looked in the pond (although I did see one when I was imaging the moon the previous month), but I did hear a distinctly frog-like “plop” at one point.

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.

Double Stars (and Galaxies) in the Moonlight

2 December 2019, 18:15 – 20:30 GMT

Not quite as chilly as Friday – at least not to begin with, but my feet were seriously cold after two hours. Negligible wind. No clouds until 20:30, but some patches of haze from what I think were lingering vapour trails (they were visible at sunset and didn’t look like they were going anywhere fast - unlike the planes that created them).

Transparency: Slightly better than Friday but some interference from six-day old moon (improving as it sank towards the horizon). I was able to see M74 through the scope so it couldn’t have been that bad.
Seeing: Good

The session began with a long-overdue first look at the Moon through the 13mm Ethos (with the Baader ND filter) and it didn’t disappoint. Wonderful, field-filling view with crisp detail right across the lunar surface. The image rippled a little bit (because the moon was low in the sky and near the rooftops), but the field was so large I could easily switch my attention to an unaffected part of the disc without having to touch the scope. Shadows were deep and very black, and (perhaps most impressively) the Ethos controlled the light scatter better than any other eyepiece I’ve looked through. I’ll be interested to see if this observation holds up at fuller phases. Notable features included the Theophilus crater group, Posidonius and the Messier A and B crater pair. The earthshine stood out clearly against the black sky and I was even treated to a bonus occultation at 18:26 of the 7.4mag star HIP 107610 (HD 207208) in Capricornus.

With the sky still relatively bright I exchanged the Ethos for the 5mm Nagler and observed a few double stars, including Polaris, Gamma Arietis and Almach (Gamma Andromedae). Zeta Persei looked much the same as it did on Friday, but the higher magnification revealed a few more faint stars in the background.

Omicron Persei wasn’t split, but it did look elongated, with the companion roughly due east of the primary. I noticed a small cluster of stars a few arcminutes south of Omicron, corresponding with the star forming region IC 348.

NGC 404 (Mirach’s Ghost), galaxy, Andromeda
Faint, but obvious at 240x. Clear brightening towards the core, even with Mirach still in the field of view.

Uranus
Similar view as Friday – tiny little green-grey disc. Titania suspected at 133x, but not at 240x.

M77, Seyfert Galaxy, Cetus
Viewed at 133x – obvious despite moonlight. Very bright nucleus; size of galaxy swells with averted vision. Could easily be mistaken for comet by unwary observer. Bright field star to west. Holds brightness well at 240x but no real increase in detail other than an extended core region (distinct from the nucleus).

Alpha Piscium (Alrescha), double star, Pisces
Very close double (1.8” separation), but clean split at 240x. Bright companion due west. Some occasional colour fringing where the diffraction rings overlapped, but the stars themselves looked white to me.

M74, spiral galaxy, Pisces
Viewed at 133x. Very faint, but not what I would class as difficult (at least compared to some of the Caldwell objects). Given the moonlight and the condensation I was surprised I could see it at all. Brighter towards the core with averted vision. With prolonged observation there almost seemed to be an impression of spiral structure, but I think this was an illusion caused by the 3 field stars east of the core and another one to the west.

At this point a combination of cloud, condensation and cold drove me back indoors.

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.

Star Clusters in Cassiopeia

22 October 2019, 20:00 – 21:45 BST

Cool evening, getting colder as the night progressed. No wind.
Transparency: poor to average (improved slightly towards the end of the session)
Seeing: started out good, but suddenly deteriorated from about 21:15 onwards (opposite direction to the transparency)

NGC 7789, open cluster, Cassiopeia
Stumbled upon it while sweeping. Very pretty in the Ethos (if a little subdued by the poor transparency). Looked like a spiral galaxy without a core.

NGC 381, open cluster, Cassiopeia
Faint, boxy little spray of stars with bright tail of stars to north.

NGC 637, open cluster, Cassiopeia
Small, condensed haze – resolves with averted vision. Four bright stars at corners (double on eastern corner). Brighter field stars to west.

NGC 225, open cluster, Cassiopeia
Loose, sparse group comprised of equally bright stars. Online images show a reflection nebula (vdB 4) associated with this cluster (not sure if it's bright enough to see visually - even on a good night). NGC 225 is also nicknamed the “sailboat cluster”; I think I’d have to look at it again to see that, but I did get a sense of some kind of shape: the stars were arranged in angled lines, like a folded piece of cardboard seen from the side. I guess the “cardboard cluster” doesn’t have quite the same ring about it, but the sailboat shape didn’t jump out at me, certainly not as much as it does in NGC 1502.

Stock 24, open cluster, Cassiopeia
Spotted while sweeping area around NGC 225. Tight little fuzz with double star at eastern apex.

NGC 129, open cluster, Cassiopeia
Narrow “v” formation of stars pointing at bright star to south. Rich cluster.

NGC 136, open cluster, Cassiopeia
Small starfish or whirligig-shaped fuzz of stars. Resolved with averted vision.

Comet C/2018 N2 (ASASSN)
Small, very faint patch of light close to prominent asterism in Andromeda. Would be easy to overlook if I didn’t have the finder chart. Prolonged averted vision showed a condensed core and the suggestion of an extended coma.

At this point heavy condensation was setting in – even affecting the Ethos eyepiece – so I switched to the Nagler 9mm (133x) for the remainder of the session. I also noticed a featureless band of cloud rising slowly from the southeast.

NGC 1245, open cluster, Perseus
Rich spray of faint stars.

NGC 1023, galaxy, Perseus
Bright (relatively speaking) little galaxy, aligned east-west. Condensed core. Faint extension to east?

M76, planetary nebula, Perseus
Faintly visible unfiltered, but the poor transparency meant that I needed the OIII filter to do it any kind of justice. The familiar bi-lobed structure was apparent, with the south-western lobe clearly brighter – particularly with averted vision. On this viewing it was vaguely reminiscent of the famous Hubble image of the Homunculus (Eta Carinae).

Other notes
One tadpole in the pond (!); other frogs nowhere to be seen.
Also, the characteristic “tseep” of a migrating redwing.