Spotting Galaxies - Just About 27 March

The weather once again denied the accuracy of the forecasts and instead of being heavy cloud with a few gaps was clear with a few light clouds last night.. Hmm, maybe it's just the forecasts should be inverted, nah, it's raining heavily here now and that's spot on.

I stepped outside early on, to have a look around and see about the clouds. About 1915 I could see Sirius and Mars, some of the constellations were beginning to burn through the twilight sky, and I could make out the main shapes of Orion, a few stars in Gemini and a few others. Whilst I was watching the stars come out to play, I spotted a fast moving one. I hadn't checked on Heavens Above, as I hadn't expected a clear night. Anyway I watched it travel from the Northwest to the Southeast through Gemini. After it had gone, winging it's way around the Earth, I stepped back in and had a look, to discover this was Meteor 1-4. I had a good long look then at Heavens Above to see what could be seen. I only caught one more, and that was the ISS. It was low in the sky in the South, but I caught it coming up out of the murk, pass under Sirius and fade into shadow. Good to see this speeding chariot of the heavens again, just a shame I hadn't set up the camera, as the framing with Sirius would probably have been pretty good. Ah well.

I had some things still to do, so went back indoors for a little while. When I came back out, I had everything with me. I set up the scope, and this time was very picky over leveling. I took out a proper spirit level and using this on the accessory tray, leveled each leg, so a three way, rather than a two way. Powered up, and went through the Skyalign. I used the 5mm Ortho to centre each star, this was much easier as the FOV on the Ortho is so much less than the Hyperion. I used Polaris and Aldeberan as the two primary stars, and I don't know what the third reference point was, and whilst I was centering bumped one leg of the tripod. I put it back as closely as poss, using the RDF as a guide (I'd already got this lined up before I bumped it), I probably should have started the align again I guess, but I wanted to get going. So once the NexStar had worked out the sky, I changed ep to the 17mm Hyperiona and I slewed to Saturn to check on the goto. She appeared just below center in the FOV of the Hyperion, this is the best yet and I think it was down to the leveling at first. I didn't spend long, as this was just a quick check of the goto and slewed to M44 which was my intended target all along.

I had to make a minor adjustment on the mount to centre M44 in the Hyperion, but that was ok. I'd mounted the Z2 on the piggy back bracket ready to attempt some cluster imaging. So I took a couple of framing shots, and tweaked the aim slightly. Then I set about snapping away.

As I was snapping, I used the Bins to have a look around and a brief tour of some objects that are disappearing from the skies at the moment. First up, I had a look at M44. I wanted to get an idea of the sort of framing I was going to get on the image. Given that the magnification on both the camera at full zoom and the bins are about the same this gave a very good indication. From there, I had a look at M42. Looked very small and forlorn in the bins as it sank into the low level murk around the horizon. Then I found the sisters. They were hiding their glory in the tree at the end of the garden, but as it's not started to blossom yet, this wasn't a good hiding place really and I spent some time looking through the tree branches.

I then turned around and spotted the Kite asterism of Bootes. Had a quick look at Arcturus whilst I was there, before turning my attention to Coma Berenices and Melotte 111. It took a little while with the bins to hunt Mel111 down, but eventually I managed to locate it in the bins. A pretty V shape, but looking, I was pretty sure there were hints of more detail lurking just beyond the limits of the bins and my eyes. Meanwhile I'm still clicking away on the camera. From Mel111, I went to take a look at Saturn. I could just about make out the slight lumpiness that the bins showed of the rings around the middle. To be honest, that was more than I was expecting. Up from there to Algeiba to have a look at the double. I then turned around, still clicking away, and had a look through Auriga before this too disappeared behind the trees. Firstly I found the Leaping Minnow and nearby the Smiley Face. Using these as guide posts, I found M36, M37 and M38. I hopped into Gemini and found M35 and had a quick look at Mars. Through the bins, Mars looks like a red star. Clickety click goes the camera.

The middle of Orion's sword had now dropped below the line of the hedge so it was goodbye to M42. But I was still able to pick up Cr69 and Cr70 as they were still clear of the hedge, if only just. From here, I went back to Mel111 and had a further look. It was at this point that I noticed the images being displayed on the camera were all looking quite blobby. I took a couple more, still the same, and stopped. I then took a bunch of darks for DSS to process, and started using the scope for looking at things, rather than as a tracking mount for the camera.

I slewed to Saturn and now had a good long look. I left the 17mm Hyperion in and at 30x I could see the bulge of the rings, I believe some shadow between the planet and the rings and one moon, which I reckon was Titan. I then used the goto to try and find a few very dim fuzzies.

First up M81 and M82. I hit the buttons for M81 and off went the scope. Having spotted these two a couple of times, picking them up was easier, although the fact that there are now nearly overhead, rather then in the murk over Gatwick is probably a bigger factor. In the 17mm Hyperion, they both fit in the FOV. I used the scope jiggle to check that the grey patches were actually up there, not in my eye or marks on the lens. Then just to make doubly sure, I told the Goto to slew to M82, and sure enough, after a moment, the scope was now targeting the other grey fuzzy and M81 was still there. I thought I'd try got a few new ones, now I knew that all was working ok. First up I tried for M101. As the scope slewed around, I spotted a thin streamer of cloud wafting it's way across the sky. When the scope stopped, it was pointing at the cloud. That was a non starter. So onto M51. A much harder spot than M81 and M82, but after a few minutes staring into the ep, the mount motors quietly ticking away to themselves, I spotted a very dim grey patch using averted vision. Again I jiggled the scope slightly, and it stayed with the star field and was definitely there, but I couldn't believe how faint it was. I then tried for M63. There was something there, but even averted, it was at the edge of visible. I think this is pushing the limits of my gear here, but I think I'll add this to the list, as I'm pretty certain I saw something.

I then kicked a leg again. Damn. Set the mount back to Saturn, and whilst it ended up a little low in the FOV, the alignment was still reasonable, so I carried on. I should point out, that as I was getting cold, I must have left a gap somewhere in the outer layers and the cold air was seeping in, if the slew to Saturn had not been ok, I'd have given up. I then tried for M65, M66, M106 and M94. In all four cases, I followed the same processes. Once the scope had slewed to the correct location, I stared for a few minutes, then using the mount motors on really slow speed nudged the scope a little up and down and left and right. In each case, there was something very dim and slightly fuzzy, so I've chalked these all up. This adds 6 to my list of observed Messier objects.

I then slewed back to Saturn, changed ep, to the 5mm Hyperion and used the x2 barlow. Ah, much better to see her with, although somewhat dimmer. I then tried out a Baader Contrast Booster filter instead of my Fringe Killer (Hmm, note to self, next time I go looking for dim and fuzzies, remove the Fringe Killer why didn't I think of this last night, DOH!!!). The brightness of the view was noticeably lower, and I don't think the view was any better. I removed the filters altogether and had a look at Saturn, and apart from brightening, there wasn't a lot of difference, then put the Fringe Killer back in, and there was a slight dimming, only just noticeable, so maybe it hadn't made too much difference in the fuzzy hunt.

At this point the cold got the better of me, and I came inside to attempt to process the images of M44 and warm up. The image still needs work.

A successful evening, spotting a few early friends from a few months ago, when I started in this hobby, possibly for what could be the last time till next year. Confirmed that the mount works really well, but the setup is very important and must be done as accurately as possible, I think I'm going to have to invest in a small spirit level to keep in the case. And added 6 to my Messier list objects found, although I'll revisit whenever the next time the weather breaks for me without the filter to see how much difference it makes. I enjoyed and needed that.