Telescope Reviews: A great night observing in Taurus!

Last Friday night (12.28.2007) I devoted almost my entire observing session to Taurus (except for one short diversion to M42). My first attempt was for M1, without success. I know it is faint so wasn't expecting much. I then searched out a couple double stars (already commented on in that forum) and two new (to me) OCs -- NGC 1647 and NGC 1746.

Those are huge! The ideal viewing for these, IMO, would be with big binos. I first easily found both with my binocular, even resolving individual stars. I could not help wondering how Messier missed these.

My preferred power for both with the scope was 39x, with some viewing of the central region of 1647 at 62x. The 20mm plossl, though at higher power with narrower FOV than my 2" 32mm, yielded brighter star images. Through the binoculars, and at 39x, I noticed two bright stars to the side of 1647 -- one distinctly orange, the other bluish. They are obvious, as the brightest stars in the FOV. Are these part of the actual cluster, or just "nearby" spectators?

In overall size and surface brightness, 1746 reminded me of M44 or M24 (star cloud in Sagittarius). I could not place the whole cluster in my FOV. But, the view was still astounding!

Next, I viewed M45 (the Pleiades). Of course, astounding! But, the most noteworthy for me was I was able to resolve all 6-7 of the principle stars and their characteristic "little dipper" asterism with the naked eye. Of course, I can easily see the Pleiades naked eye, but usually as a smudge, resolving maybe one or two stars.

Then I decided to try again for M1, and there it was! A nice elliptical nebula with slight flattening of one side. What I saw easily resembled the body of a crab. I could not resolve enough detail for the head or legs of the crab. I expect a UHC or OIII filter would have helped with detail, but for now just finding it and observing it was a highlight moment!

My final object was Mars, but the seeing was not good. It was my only object of the night over 100x. Though I could detect some surface detail, it was smudgy at 200x -- I had a much better view just a few nights earlier.

On reviewing my Pocket Sky Atlas, it looks like for OCs there are NGC 1807, 1817, and 1662 (in Orion) next time I'm observing in the Taurus region. I really enjoy open clusters, and Perseus, Auriga, Gemini, Taurus, Orion, and Canis Major are happy hunting grounds for such treasures!

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Kenneth

Zhumell 10" Dobsonian (f/4.9)
2" 32mm WA eyepiece
9mm, 12.5mm, and 20mm Plossls
6mm TMB/BO Planetary
2" 2x ED Barlow
Nikon 10x50 binocular (6.5 deg FOV)