Clear, Crisp and Cold - 21 Oct

The day has been quite clear and bright with only a few wisps of clouds around. At about 10:30 this morning, I managed to grab a decent shot of the moon.



The sun set without a sign or hint of any cloud, a good sign. I setup the scope as normal at about 20:00 with the camera and remote timer, thinking to grab M52 before it got to high. After an hour, when I'd grabbed 80 x 30 second exposures, and darks, I used the goto to take me to Neptune. A bit low, barley over the hedge and my little scope doesn't have the FL to provide a decent scale. I couldn't pick it out from the stars. I tried NGC6885 and I'm not convinced the goto took me to the right place. However, by this point the Sisters were over the rooftops, so I went to them instead. Once aligned and settled, I took a couple of test shots to see how long I could get. At 90 seconds ISO1600 I was able to see a little nebulosity on the camera screen which was a surprise. I decided however to go for 60 second subs as I lose less to errors this way.

I went and grabbed the 15x70's and started having a meander around the heavens. M45, the obvious first target and one of my first from a year ago, also in bins... Cool. I had a look at the Hyades also, as this was up above the roog by the time I went out with the bins. Then onto the Mirfak association, the S very clear. I then realised that the peculiar shape to the north of there was in fact probably Auriga. The orientation had thrown me but hey, I quickly got my bearings, and went and found the little fish, followed by the smiley face. From the smiley face, M38 was easy, followed by the other two M's nearby, M36 and M37.

I moved from here to the Double Cluster, and easily found several others in the area, I think NGC633 and friends that I imaged the other week. Moving on up into Cassie, M103 and NGC457 were easy spots. A streaker dashed through the bins at about 22:30 heading West to East, so I doubt part of the Orionids.

I then went looking for M31. No problem at all, I looked around, star hopped along Andromeda and up, lifted the bins and there in the FOV a large dim shape, almost looking like a blurred propellor as seen from the side. I then star hopped on downwards and found the smudge of M33, first time I've been able to see this visually.

I then went back to Cassie, and drifted on down to Kembles cascade. There were a long line of stars. It's interesting how easy it was to find tonight. Also, there's a very clear marker. Follow to top of Cassie to the left of the W (from the centre to the left tip), until you come to a line of 4 bright stars in the same direction. The Cascade cuts this line just before the bottom one. At the end of the Cascade there's a cluster, NGC1502 and that was a very easy spot too.

I then had a meander along the line of the Milky Way. I always find it incredible at the sheer number of stars that even a humble pair of binoculars will reveal and I got lost again. At 22:35 another streaker shot past in the same direction as the first one, so again, not an Orionid I guess.

I then spent some time, just viewing the sky without any optical aids, hoping to spot some Orionids. At 22:45, a really bright fireball blazed it's way across the sky. It seemed to appear from between Perseus and Auriga heading west across probably 40 degrees of the sky leaving a bright trail behind it, seeing this certainly made me go WOW quite loudly. I then went back to scanning without the bins. I was amazed to find that I could clearly see the band of the Milky Way and it seemed to glow with an unearthly (an apt description if I do say myself) light. I was even more amazed when I found I could make out the faint glow of the Double Cluster and on a bit more the glow of M31.

After the M45 capture had completed. Well, actually I stopped it as M45 was drifting across the screen and soon to move off the edge. I slewed the scope to M38 which is capturing whilst I type this. I've managed to position it so I've got mr smiley in the FOV too. I then noticed the top of Orions head poking up above the roof and stepped sideways a little, and there was the belt and sword. Using the bins for the final time, I could clearly see M42. I'm really tempted to stay up and image M42 as well, but I have to get up for work early tomorrow, and he'll be around earlier each night for the next few months, so I'm not going to worry.

Typing this has allowed me to thaw out, that's even with wearing three fleeces and a coat... Hmm, need to think about the insulation a bit more.

I really enjoyed that, and I'm looking forward to more nights like that to come.