Tales from the observatory #563

I feel like I live in an observatory these days! The faff element with a go-to mount is substantial. I still haven’t mastered it. it’s going to somewhere near the objects I want to see. Ah well, I’ll keep trying.
Even so, I’ve seen some very nice sights indeed. Last night I was checking out the star clouds of M23 and M25, both very pretty and both in Sagittarius, the constellation which has more Messier objects than any other. It’s a shame it’s half-hid behind trees at the observatory. One night I’ll go up on the hill with my Opticrom bins and do a sweep.
What else? Ah, I’ve ticked off the weird M40, which is a bit of a quirk in the catalogue. It’s a double star in Ursa Major, and was left in the list because Messier conceded it could actually be confused with a comet. Hmmm. Anyway, it’s on the list.
‘Bright galaxy’ (yea, right), M101, I’m beginning to suspect, doesn’t exist.
Two cluster shapes to mention and remember – the arrowhead of M103 in Cassiopeia and the shape of the constellation of Hercules in the middle of M25 in Sagittarius.
The 32mm eyepiece of the 8″ Celestron doesn’t put M81 and M82 in the same field of view, so what I said about ‘limiting magnitude’ in my last post was poppycock.
The Whirlpool Galaxy (M51) is fainter than a faint thing, I can just make out the two central smudges. Ursa Major was quite low though, I’ll wait till it swings round before I re-visit this one.
Saturn and Jupiter looked fab through the Celestron, even though it was low, I could see the belts even through a 25mm eyepiece.
About three weeks ago, in the Elan Valley, (pic below), I could make out markings on Saturn’s disc. I think the hazier skies of Staffs/Shrops aren’t going to allow that.

The current Messier list. A denotes archived observations from old observation notes, and the recent new observations have years. All found with maps and star-hopping unless stated. I’ve started adding some of the (sometimes flowery) names from Stellarium.
M1 Supernova Remnant in Taurus (Crab Nebula)
M2 Globular Cluster in Aquarius (A)
M3 Globular Cluster in Canes Venatici 2018
M5 Globular Cluster in Serpens
M8 Diffuse Nebula in Sagittarius
M10 Globular Cluster in Ophiuchus
M12 Globular Cluster in Ophiuchus
M13 Globular Cluster in Hercules (‘the ‘Great Cluster’)
M16 Open Cluster in Sagittarius
M20 Nebula in Sagitta (Triffid)
M22 Globular Cluster in Saggitarius 2018
M23 Open Cluster in Saggitarius 2018
M24 ‘Star Field’ in Sagittarius
M25 Open Cluster in Saggitarius 2018
M27 Dumbell Nebula in Vupecula
M31 Galaxy (Andromeda Galaxy)
M32 Galaxy (Andromeda ‘companion’)
M33 Spiral Galaxy in Triangulum
M34 Cluster in Perseus
M35 Open Cluster in Gemini
M36 Open Cluster Auriga (Pinwheel)
M37 OpenCluster Auriga (Salt and Pepper)
M38 Cluster Auriga (Starfish)
M39 Open Star field in Cygnus
M40 Double Star in Ursa Major
M41 Open Cluster in Canes Major
M42 Orion Nebula
M43 Nebula in Orion
M44 Beehive Cluster
M45 Pleiades Open Cluster
M 46 Open Cluster in Puppis 2019
M47 Open Cluster Puppis 2018
M 51 Galaxy in Canes Venatici (Whirlpool)
M52 Open Cluster in Cassiopeia
M54 Globular Cluster in Coma Berenices 2018
M56 Globular Cluster in Lyra
M57 Ring Nebula Lyra
M63 Galaxy in Coma Berenecis (Blackeye)
M64 Galaxy in Coma Berenicis
M65 Galaxy in Leo
M66 Galaxy in Leo
M67 Open Cluster Cancer
M76 Planetary nebula in Perseus (Little Dumbell)
M78 Planetary Nebula in Orion 2019
M81 Galaxy in Ursa Major (Bode’s)
M82 Galaxy in Ursa Major
M84 Galaxy in Virgo 2018 (go-to)
M85 Galaxy in Coma Berenices 2019
M86 Galaxy in Virgo 2018 (go-to)
M92 Globular Cluster Hercules
M95 Galaxy in Leo
M97 Planetary Nebula in Ursa Major (Owl Nebula) 2019
M96 Galaxy in Leo
M103 Cluster in Cassiopeia
M104 Galaxy in Virgo 2018
M106 Spiral Galaxy in Canes Venatici (A)
M108 Barred Spiral Galaxy in Ursa Major
M109 Galaxy in Ursa Major

…in which I try a go-to mount

Crivvens! I’ve gone over to the dark side! The local society has a go-to mount and it’s now in the observatory with an 8″ Celestron Schmitt Cassegrain on it. And I’ve spent several hours already with it.

The alignment process is actually quite easy once you know what you’re doing. I’ve spent a few hours faffing unnecessarily due to the scope being upside down when I did the North alignment the first night, and last night I got confused with the two star alignment process. But by the end of the evening, (I was there four hours with a friend from the society), I’d got it aligned pretty good. Dew on the glass and a 3/4 Moon stopped any real deep sky observing, but I do have a short list of objects…
M13 Globular Cluster in Hercules – very bright in 25mm eyepiece.
M92 Globular Cluster in Hercules – smaller but still really pretty.
Saturn, low in the south west but nice and sharp in the 25mm eyepiece. We tried a 9mm but the lower power was much more pleasing. Two weeks ago I saw banding on the disc in the Elan Valley, I could almost tell myself tonight I could see the same.. but …
M27 Dumbbell Nebula in Vulpecula – Much brighter than I expected, dumbbell shape easily seen.
M57 Ring Nebula in Lyra – again, nice and bright, green tint?
M56 Globular cluster in Lyra – very dim, quite large in 25mm but looked more nebulous than starry. Only really seen when the scope moved or using averted vision.
M81 Bode’s Galaxy in Ursa Major – Most interesting, saw Bodes at 7.9 mag (Messier Album Mallas/Kreimer) but couldn’t see M82 at 8.8. Proving the limiting magnitude for that part of the sky (Ursa Major was quite low, and it really wasn’t fair to go galaxy hunting on such a bright moonlit night).
M36 across the other part of the sky showed only the brightest stars of this fine open cluster. So after some average lunar photography (in which I found my Canon with T-ring and barlow will get good focus with the 8″ Celestron, hooray!), and a dewy glass, we shut the dome at 12.30. Very pleased though, to eventually aligned the mount, and once a small glitch with the cable connector being loose is rectified, it’ll be full steam ahead for some useful observing.
The morality of using a go-to, of course, is another subject for another time. I have lots of thoughts on that!

Back in the Valley

The wonderful Elan Valley.
An astronomer’s paradise. At the visitor’s centre they even give you a map showing you the best observing spots on the estate, astronomy is welcomed and encouraged. Trouble is, when you’re there and the Milky Way is overhead, you really feel a bit silly looking for deep sky stuff when our own galaxy is there. It’s just as much fun recognising the various dust lanes and star clusters that you can see with the naked eye. Jupiter and Saturn were both low, (Jupiter bottom right in this photo), but still offered up some sharp viewing. I took this with a 50mm lens, and it wasn’t even astronomically dark yet. This shows you the quality of the skies at Elan.

I took with me a pair of Helios 15×70 which proved to be fantastic for wide-field viewing of the Sagittarius star-fields. I was pleased to see the Lagoon Nebula (M8) show up on my photo. I also took my 8″ Skywatcher reflector. With so much to see, I didn’t make notes on my few hours there, though it wasn’t a Messier marathon. I was an hour from the camp site and decided to try and get some more observations in back there, and was pleased when I saw the skies were wonderfully dark also, from where my caravan was in Shropshire. I spent quite a while star-hopping with my bins. Around 1am the Pleiades rose in the east, and there was Taurus later.  The week before, I’d sat in the same field and watched the Milky Way slowly move. The whole band of bright star clouds seemed to head westward, and I’d never felt the spin of the Earth so absolutely as when I realised my view along the plane of our galaxy was slowly changing as the Earth spun round.