I did make a silly mistake that didn't end in disaster. I started adjusting my tripod legs, forgetting that I didn't have my mount head securely screwed in, and after a bit of pushing and pulling my mount head feel off but lucky I my reflexes were fast and most of the mount landed on my hand. I had very sore fingers for a while but my hand will heal my mount wouldn't. The worst of the damage was some minor cosmetic chips.
The drop kind of turned out to be a blessing in disguise as it messed up polar alignment so I had to redo it from scratch and ended up with my best polar alignment yet.
The night sky was beautiful with a dominant milky way running from east horizon to west. The wind had died down to a gentle breeze that eventually died down to an infrequent breeze for most of the night.
Some light cloud did role in around 01:00 spoiling views but this gave a welcome time out to get the kettle on and warm up with some hot coffee and good conversation. It took slightly over an hour for the cloud to clear and when it did the beautiful skies returned with awesome Orion in the sky with Sirius creeping above the eastern horizon.
These exceptional skies gave me a chance to learn some new constellations that I normally wouldn't see very well and with help from Stevie I can now see Pieces, Lacerta and Monoceros.
There was some very light meteor activity through the whole night.
I also took some time out to try imaging Jupiter again and my best image results are at the bottom.
Stevie and I stayed on after Mark and Jonathan left for home to do an all nighter and didn't call it quits until sun rise had started. We slowly packed up and then watched the sky brighten with beautiful colours on the east horizon and fog filling the low lying ground in the distance.
It was great and another memorable night.
Location = Bragan
Seeing = 3
Trans = 4
Equipment = EQ6 Pro, 10" Orion Europa, Toucam II and Laptop.
Start Time = 21:33
My observations for the night are as follows:
M22 = A really beautiful sight, filling the FOV marvellously with the stars appearing rich and very well defined. A really good and memorable open cluster.
M8 = This is the first time I've been able to see the nebula itself. Even without the UHC-S filter it looked good, filling half the FOV. A real delight to see this.
M20 = Not much to see here. A very faint haze was all I could pick out, even observing with the filter or low power made no difference.
M21 = A spare, scattered open cluster that showed up nicely.
M23 = A beautiful, wide, open cluster giving wonderful views in the 25mm (56x). I never looked at this object before and I am so glad I did now. Certainly one to remember.
M9 = A faint globular cluster with average detail but a fist time see for me so I am very pleased in the respect that I have nailed another new Messier object.
M18 = A small and sparse open cluster with only a handful of stars to count but still a nice sight.
M17 = A breathtaking view with stunning detail and the UHC-S filter gave a great amount of extra contrast with in the nebula. Without a doubt a treasure of the sky.
M14 = This globular cluster looked large in the eyepiece but stars were not resolving well and could only really see individual stars with AV.
M26 = Looking as good as always. This is starting to become one of my favourite open clusters.
M11 = Another stunning view of this magnificent open cluster. I honestly do think I could look at this all night.
NGC 6781 = What a surprise this planetary nebula was. A large nebulous disk filling a lot of the FOV and showing good detail.
NGC 6804 = A small but nice planetary nebula. Not much detail to see but well defined.
M94 = A good view considering how low this was in the sky. The galactic disk was bright and easy to see.
M51 = Not a good view but even when so low down the nucleus of this and the background galaxy was visible and a faint airy disk surrounding M51.
M63 = Very faint and not much to see. One to leave until spring time.
M101 = The disk was fairly noticeable but no detail or spiral arms to be seen.
M97 = An average view, the structure was decent and some detail was there but nothing near as good as the last observation on a previous night.
NGC 7331 = A very nice view. A long disk with a bright core. I could also clearly see a fuzzy patch slightly south (visually) that looked like another galaxy to me. I believe it to mostly likely be another member of the deer lick group.
Stephen's Quintet = Two of the galaxy members were to be seen with a hint of a third.
NGC 891 = For a few moments I had a fantastic view with the galaxy easily seen from edge to edge along with the dust lane running right through the centre of the disk.
I took another look later on in the night and the view was more consistent and the details slightly easier to see.
M34 = A lovely scattered looking open cluster that comfortably filled the FOV of my 25mm.
NGC 752 = A vast open cluster extending beyond the FOV. A very nice cluster but one for binoculars.
NGC 1023 = I never seen this galaxy before and a beautiful sight it is. Appearing almost edge on with a bright nucleus and a nice wide airy disk with hints of spiral arms towards the south of the galaxy using AV.
NGC 1275 = Another first see and not much to look at. Just the appearance of a small nucleus and a very faint small disk.
NGC 147 = Disappointing. Just a vague, very faint, fuzzy looking object.
NGC 185 = This galaxy appeared face on and was faint but the disk could be seen with out AV.
NGC 457 = Another one of my favourite open clusters and looking great. 175x in the 8mm allowed the cluster to fill the FOV perfectly.
NGC 1501 = My first time seeing this rather pleasant planetary nebula, with its nice airy disk easy to see - even unfiltered.
M82 = Almost looking as good from the previous night.
M81 = Looking very nice with spiral arms easy to pick out around the edges of the galaxy's disk.
M1 = A decent view. Well defined and strong structure but not much detail.
M78 = An average view. Nebulosity was, even when filtered. The star that lights up this reflection nebula could be seen well.
M42 = A breath taking sight. Long arching arms extending outwards from each side of the nebula and extending well beyond the FOV and dark regions and lanes was visible around the trapezium area.
IC 424 (Horse Head) = For a few moments I was getting vague impressions of nebulosity but I can't be 100% sure so it's one to retry again on the next good night.
NGC 2244 = A lovely open cluster in the heart of the Rosetta nebula but sadly no sign or hint of the nebula itself.
NGC 2261 (Hubbles Varible) = A really fine sight on a nebula I thought I wouldn't be able to see. A nice irregular shaped nebula. It was quite faint but the shape was easy to make out.
Finish Time = 05:45
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