Telescope Reviews: Fabulous Night !!!

Don't be fooled by how this starts...

!)

12-31-07 7PM-9:15PM EST Bishop GA: the day started off with fog.

Not a light fog, mind you – a dense fog, where stop signs at intersections suddenly appear virtually 100’ or less from the intersection. So I don’t need to describe how much FUN it was driving 80+ miles to Atlanta Hartsfield to drop the kids off for their flight back to Philly …

HOWEVER … by about 10AM, the fog burned off, leaving a sky that was blue but milky … humidity …

Blue skies and cloudless all day. Sunset was pretty, orange-yellow jewel behind pines. The sky seemed OK for a foray into the Heavens.

Part I - DSO Adventures

Started fresh with NGC 253, OK, my new favorite galaxy, each time I look at it it appears different. Tonight at 71X (21mm Stratus, 12"), skies were very clear, mottling was marked, and extent was dramatic, best view ever! M33 also was the best I've ever seen, but near the zenith helps a lot, too; quite a bit of spiral structure evident. NGC 891 was remarkably distinct as well, dim but with prominent dark lane. NGC 2403, somewhat low, was still obvious, but near the horizon haze level.

M42, first time this year at any altitude, spectacular as always, 12" of aperture gives a near-photographic quality image

!!

Using the COL feature of objects within a constellation, I went through the galaxies in Cetus & Eridanus - some old friends, many new acquaintances

.

Unexpectedly failed on NGC 147, 185, 278 in Cas

?

M31 was spectacular, M32 was vividly bright, M110 almost seemed granular !! NGC 7814 JUST cleared the housetop, other galaxies in Pegasus were through the house (I had to set up on the driveway because of MUD - mud everywhere, sticky, gluey red mud, stains everything...gotta build an observatory

!) Same story for PN NGC 7094.

PNs: NGC 7662 was awesome at 115X, but a bit greyer (???) than I recalled. NGC 6543, low in altitude, was prominently cyan colored and the Cat's Eye shape was unmistakable. NGC 40, NGC 1514, easy objects. NGC 1535 in Eri was superb.

Then I inserted the DGM NPB !

M42 at 71X- wisps, tendrils, festoons, clots, excruciatingly lovely details enhanced by the added contrast! For fun, inserted 6mm Expanse - Carlos excellently drew what I saw...'nuff said! (minor disappointment: no E&F in Trapezium...)

NGC 1360 - WOW, huge egg-shaped glow at 115X.

NGC 246 - still to my eyes a semi-elusive object; clearly a nebula, looks like it is incubating stars (whimsically, not in actuality), but never so very distinct or prominent that I can define a shape.

Back to NGC 40 & 1514 - ahhh, much better.

NGC 7635 - another maybe on this one. ***Perhaps*** there was some nebulosity, could not confirm...

OCs - M52, NGC 457, NGC 7789 & all of Cas (favorite re-stomping ground, that one!) at 115X, 71X...and the group I keep going back to, NGC 663-654-659 in the Paragon 40mm at 38X. NGC 2266 in Gemini appears as a one-edge-enhanced triable. NGC 6939 is peppery, and there's NGC 6946 too!

M34 sparkles. So do M36, M37, M37, the pair M38-NGC 1907.

M35 is brilliant, but so low in the sky I am surprised at the detail in the sprinkling that is NGC 2158....bodes well for later in the season when the pair will be a LOT higher

!

Double Cluster was topping on the dessert...always amazes in the 106' TFOV of the 40mm Paragon

!

Doubles: Rho Ori, Sigma Ori, STF 231 in Cetus (separate post in Double Stars), others...

A great night for DSOs

!!!

Part II - Holmes & Tuttle

Comet Holmes was a distinct but diffuse object nearly overhead by 9PM or so. Now far from the bustling Melotte 20, it floats contentedly among obscure stars…maybe it’s more obvious there anyway? I keep thinking “Magellanic Cloud”, but I’ve never seen either of them and so can’t know…but “you can’t be court martialed for thinking”… The seeing here is spectacular, I guess the humidity settles out as dew pretty darn fast – my hat AND beard are dew-covered

!!! Double Cluster appears almost nebulous, M31 is huge and bright and elongated, M33 is a naked-eye object…

In the 7x35 binocs, Holmes is a huge diffuse oblate object, paired lovelily (I know that’s not a word, but I like using it anyway

) with M34. The comet has GOT to be 4x the diameter of M35, say around 100’ – like 1.5° !!! Hints of brightness variation, hard to put into words, dim cloud on dim cloud.

In the 12” at 38X with the Paragon 40mm, Holmes is wasted, only the central cigar is visible, and that tenuously. I had hoped under darker 9PM skies for more …

Regarding Tuttle and M33, the pair was so near the zenith that I had no hope of sweeping up Tuttle...but M33 was SPECTACULAR in the 12" Dob !!! And the pair, now much farther apart, was beautiful in the 7x35 binocs

!

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Good Seeing!

Mark

Orion 12" XTi f/4.9

VERY old Edmund 6" f/8 reflector
Assorted binoculars