As I turned my telescope towards Gemini last night, I realised I hadn’t yet tried hunting for ‘faint fuzzies’ at all this year, as my astronomy activities seem to have been devoted to photography.
I started using my new Skywatcher eight-inch mirror scope in 2015, after years using a ten-inch mirror dobsonian. I’m ashamed to say I’ve not mastered the equatorial mount on my new Skywatcher – I’m so used to the dobsonian method. I spent some time tonight watching some youtube tutorials of polar alignment, and I’m looking forward to trying it next clear sky.
So just for the sake of completeness, I thought I’d list the Messier objects I’ve found mentioned in my observation notes with the Skywatcher over 2015 & 2016. It reads like a list of the brighter deep-sky objects, with a summer bias.
- M13 Globular Cluster in Hercules (‘the ‘Great Cluster’)
- M27 Dumbell Nebula in Vupecula
- M31 Galaxy Andromeda Galaxy
- M32 Galaxy (Andromeda ‘companion’)
- M35 Open Cluster in Gemini
- M36 Cluster Auriga
- M37 Cluster Auriga
- M38 Cluster Auriga
- M42 Orion Nebula
- M44 Beehive Cluster
- M45 Pleiades Open Cluster
- M57 Ring Nebula Lyra
- M65 Galaxy in Leo
- M66 Galaxy in Leo
- M67 Open Cluster Cancer
- M92 Globular Cluster Hercules
I’m hoping to add a lot more to that list soon. A ‘goto’ mount would get round that lot in an hour, but I’m staying trad while I can still read a map.
I Need my Space 