RRaubach
AstroCowboy
Reged: 01/26/05
Posts: 2173
Loc: Douglas (Converse County),WY
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I am posing the question *What was your best observation of 2007* a day late. As observers of the deep sky, we all are queating for some particular elusive object. This question is: did you find it?
Mine was a low surface brightness globular cluster: NGC 5053. I finally saw it using my Discovery 12.5" Dob.
I made very few other observations in 2007 due to my declining eyesight. I had cataract lens replacement surgery in November 2007, and I should be back in full swing as soon as the weather cooperates.
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Rodger
Meade SN-10 (UHTC) on Tak EM-200 mount/Antares rotating rings. Moonlite focuser.
Parallax 14.5" Newtonian on HD 200 mount (arriving soon!) w/ conical Royce mirror.
TMB 203 f/7 APO refractor on Tak NJP-160 mount.
Discovery 12.5" PDHQ
Schneider 18x80 "Flakfernrohr" binoculars/tripod mounted. Canon 15x50 IS binoculars
Unihedron Sky Quality Meter
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BlueRidge
sage
Reged: 01/12/07
Posts: 288
Loc: Blue Ridge Mtns., VA
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The Swan Nebula on a remarkable night of seeing in my C11 with binoviewers and a pair of D14s........it looked like cotton had invaded my EPs.
Happy viewing in 2008!!
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Celestron Skymaster 15 x 70's, Miyauchi BR-141's
Celestron Nexstar 11 GPS, SkyAlign upgrade
Celestron 9.25 XLT OTA, CG-5 Mount
Stellarvue SV90TBV
Denk II Binoviewers/#S2 Power/Filterswitch
21mm and 14mm Denk EPs
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Loren Toole
super member
Reged: 03/23/04
Posts: 138
Loc: New Mexico USA
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I observed several repeatedly pursued, faint OCs this year especially 6791 in Lyra and others. Spent a lot of time cruising the M24 starcloud with different scopes and binos. I'd have to say however my chance to sweep the far southern sky from Hawaii in May using 8x40 binos was a highlight. The area between Eta Carina and the Southern Cross is now burned into my visual memory. Outstanding crowded region loaded with clusters, nebula and spectacular MW starclouds.
Edited by Loren Toole (01/01/08 08:20 PM)
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jack45
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 07/07/03
Posts: 2576
Loc: Lacey WA
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Mine would be seeing all five galaxies in the Hickson 68 galaxy group. I used a 16"f/4.5 scope, a 20mm T/2 and 17mm T/4. Seeing all five was great!
Clear Skies!
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16"f/4.5 Discovery Split Tube/TV Paracorr
12.5"f/5 Discovery PDHQ/TV 2x Barlow/Filters
Orion f/4.9 XT12"Intelliscope
BV's/Bugress Model 24/Stellarvue Model BV3A
TV Smooth Side Plossls,7.4mm,10.5mm,13mm,17mm,21mm,26mm,all NJs
Nagler EPs 9mm T/1,13mm T/1,16mm T/2,20mm T/2,26mm T/5,24mm,28mm Meade SWA,40mm 5000s Plossl
Axiom EPs 23mm,31mm LX
Zhumell Planetary 9mm,12.5mm,14.5mm,18mm
UO EPs 5MM,6MM,7MM,12.5MM
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bicparker
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 02/07/05
Posts: 1759
Loc: Plano, TX
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A mess o' galaxies around M76! (sketched 14)
Fort Davis, TX
82" f/13.7
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Bic Parker
17.5" f/5 dob
10" f/10 SCT
5" f/8 refractor
80mm f/6 refractor
66mm f/6 refractor
Plus a few others out of the rotation
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walt r
Post Laureate
Reged: 02/13/07
Posts: 3524
Loc: Doylestown, PA
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NGC7331 with four of the fleas.
This is the one I was most excited about. There are lots of others this past year since receiving my 18" in Febuary.
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Walt
Obsession 18" f/4.45 #1370 AN/SC
MK67 Deluxe 6" f/12 Mak-Cass, Super Polaris GEM, JMI MicroMax DSC
DIY 60mm f/6 Achromat
Cookbook 245 CCD
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OldDeadOne
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 09/09/06
Posts: 1155
Loc: West Virginia
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Quote:
A mess o' galaxies around M76! (sketched 14)
Fort Davis, TX
82" f/13.7
Wish I had a 82" scope in my back yard  (Joking as I know you were at a observatory...)
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Bert O'Dell
PROUD GOTO USER
LX200 10" Classic
various meade plossi's eyepieces
Konig MX70 40mm" eyepiece
11mm T6
7mm T1
Insane under a full moon
I duck from Iron Skillets
Charleston WV clearsky
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desertrefugee
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 08/06/07
Posts: 1341
Loc: Arizona
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1) Stephan's Quintet
2) Markarians' Chain
3) Veil complex at dark site with rich-field scope and OIII filter.
(Sorry, hard to pick just one)
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"Illimitable ocean, without bound, Without dimension, where length, breadth, and height, And time, and place are lost." - Milton
-Darrell
N. Phoenix, AZ
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rocco13
Got Milk?
Reged: 07/29/06
Posts: 2862
Loc: Phoenix, Arizona
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I also would have to say Markarian's Chain.
As a galaxy junkie, trying to find some of the fainter NGC's interspersed with the brighter Messiers in this cluster always makes for an interesting night.
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Rocco
Zhumell Z12
Super C8 (1984 vintage)
Celestron 102 f/5
and a cheap pair of binoculars
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Mike K
professor emeritus
Reged: 04/01/07
Posts: 626
Loc: Central Texas
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The Horesehead nebula!
Clear skies,
Mike K.
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Clear skies,
Mike K.
30°31" N 97°44" W, LP: Red
Observe: Once or twice a week back yard, once a month under dark skies
Favorites: Globulars, planets, face-on spirals
Equipment: CPC925/XT10i/TMB-92SS/Lunt LS60THaDS
Eyepieces: Naglers, Ethos, UO HDs, Hyperion Zoom
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Carol L
Reged: 07/05/04
Posts: 6048
Loc: Tomahawk, WI 45N//89W
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Mine was definitely April 15th.  Good transparency allowed me to finally bag Holmberg II (aka UGC 4305) with my 8" SCT.
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 Authoring the monthly AstroSketch page in "Sky at Night" magazine
Lunar Sketch Tutorial
CN Gallery
Photo Gallery
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proud uncle
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 01/22/07
Posts: 1631
Loc: Central Texas
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As 2007 was my first year with a decent scope, I have many. A few memorable DSO observations for me were the Swan nebula, M42, and M22. Just last weekend, a few days before the end of the year, I bagged M1 for the first time!
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Kenneth
Zhumell 10" Dobsonian (f/4.9)
2" 32mm WA eyepiece
9mm, 12.5mm, and 20mm Plossls
9mm Enhanced WA
6mm TMB/BO Planetary
2" 2x ED Barlow
Nikon 10x50 binocular (6.5 deg FOV)
Edited by proud uncle (01/03/08 11:29 AM)
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Downward Bound
Adrenaline Junkie
Reged: 03/29/06
Posts: 2741
Loc: Seattle
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Not the most interesting to view but the most surprising to see was M81 naked eye.
My first view of Omega Cen through a scope was the most impressive sight at the EP during the year.
Oh yeah, I also observed Charles Messier's gravesite at Père-Lachaise cemetery, but that really doesn't qualify.
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Bill
'flector: R200SS, 22" f/3.6 (on order)
'fractors: PST, AT-66, TV-85, FS-102, NP-127, TMB-152
'bins: 15x63, 10x52, 22x85
410+028B, Sphinx, Telepod, EZ Touch, G-11
Edited by Downward Bound (01/03/08 02:25 PM)
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bicparker
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 02/07/05
Posts: 1759
Loc: Plano, TX
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Quote:
Mine was definitely April 15th. Good transparency allowed me to finally bag Holmberg II (aka UGC 4305) with my 8" SCT.
Good catch Carol! What magnifications did you use to observe it?
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Bic Parker
17.5" f/5 dob
10" f/10 SCT
5" f/8 refractor
80mm f/6 refractor
66mm f/6 refractor
Plus a few others out of the rotation
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Alvin Huey
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 10/18/05
Posts: 1870
Loc: NorCal
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Not sure of the "best", but these two come from the top of my head.
21+ members of Abell 2065
The ring structure of Arp 147
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Clear Skies,
Alvin #26
22" f/4.0 reflector and 30" f/4.3 StarMaster
FaintFuzzies | TAC | TAC-Sac
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Josh U
member
Reged: 07/10/07
Posts: 42
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Mine would have to be from Spruce Knob, WV...
Stephan's Quintet, NGC 891, and dark nebulae. Man, the B's looked like interstellar pollution! (Well, I guess they are...!) On second thought, seeing the milky way back lighting the clouds at Spruce Knob was neat! And the clouds were black. That's my kinda dark sky site.
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"How you do anything is how you do everything."
Zhumell 10" dob
80mm Refractor
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george golitzin
member
Reged: 02/24/06
Posts: 65
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I had my first really good look at the spiral arms of ngc 1365 and 1300 last January, and of M83 last May--objects I had thought too southerly to really show great detail from northern California--in that I was happily mistaken! (16" homebuilt dob)
--George
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novbabies
Postmaster
Reged: 06/05/05
Posts: 15678
Loc: Northern Georgia!
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So many, but NGC 5053 stads out most strongly, followed by the breathtakingly wide 106' TFOVs of the Paragon 40mm in my 12" f/4.9 and how many objects can fit in it at once, not to mention that it redefined to me how some objects got their (e.g.) NGC designations in the first place: while at 115X they are hard to differentiate from the backgroound, at 38X they stand out as little patches  !!
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Good Seeing!
Mark
Orion 12" XTi f/4.9
VERY old Edmund 6" f/8 reflector
Assorted binoculars
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Starman1
Vendor - Scope City
Reged: 06/24/03
Posts: 12488
Loc: Los Angeles
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It had to be discovering that, visually M17 and M16 are merely bright parts of the same nebula.
One night, while looking at M17 with an O-III filter, I noticed that there were ropy segments of nebula extending all the way out of the 30' field of view. I moved the scope to follow the nebula to see where it ended, and kept moving the scope and moving the scope until another bright section of nebula swam into the eyepiece--it was M16!.
I don't even see the connection in most photographs! Simply amazing.
A close second was seeing that the center of the Veil nebula is filled with nebulosity from one side to the other. Moving from the 6960 side to the 6992 side one night I noticed that at no time was the field not filled with clumps of nebula. I don't mean Pickering's triangle, either. There were clumps of nebula everywhere all the way up to the other side of the nebula. Most pictures that show the entire Veil don't show as much interior nebulosity as I saw that night.
Though I've had some amazing views through the 12.5" (including some stars in M31), those two views were my "Best of 2007".
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Don Pensack
12.5" Truss Dob, 5" Maksutov, Fujinon Binos
Sustaining Lifetime IDA member
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LumpyDarkness
sage
Reged: 08/06/07
Posts: 406
Loc: San Francisco bay area
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Easy one for me. Lassen Volcanic National Park, 8500 feet elevation, very dark, very transparent. 18" Obsession. Some of the Sharpless catalog:
Sh-2-105, the Crescent Nebula. Detail galore. The section crossing through the Wolf-Rayet star extended clearly all the way across. Knots were all over the nebula. Yeah, the Veil is a great object, but at Lassen, I always feel the Crescent somehow steals its thunder. Perhaps because I can get good views of the Veil elsewhere.
Sh-2-108, or IC138 - the nebulae surrounding Gamma Cygni. What a blast! There was tons of thick ropey twisted stuff all over the place. I'd *never* seen it before - and the area it covers it tremendous. Put *this* on your list for next year *right now*. Again, this view is worth the price of admission by itself!
Finally, in the Sharpless objects, I enjoyed the picking out the gentle arch Sh-2-157 in Cassiopeia, and finding it literally no more than an eyepiece field away from a highly detailed Sh-2-162 - aka The Bubble Nebula.
Observing report at:
http://observers.org/reports/2007.7.18.2.shtml
That night will be hard to beat!
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Mark Wagner
Deep Sky Observing Blog
SF Bay Area Observers - TAC
Adventures In Deep Space
NGC/IC Project
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