After a busy day today I decided that as the skies were clear again I would head out to Cookham Dean Common for a less polluted viewing session. I loaded up the car and head out, arriving on plot and completing set up by 20:30. Venus was getting quite low in my available sky but it was perfect for checking the zero of my finder scope.
After last nights view of Venus, tonight was a little disappointing, the atmospherics making the crescent less defined. Still a pleasant 5 minutes though.
I then turned my attention to Pleiades, working up through the magnification range of my kit then back down again through 25mm- 10mm- 25 + X2 Barlow- 10 + X2. I am finding this is a good way for me to gain an appreciation of each object I observe. Start low mag to get the overall picture then upping the magnification to hone in on particular aspects of the object. Having done this, reducing magnification and increasing FOV brings the whole object out from the background again.
From Pleiades I moved on to The Orion Nebula. As others have mentioned, this is fast turning into one of my favourite areas of the sky. Using my work up and down through the mag range, I really got a handle on just how much nebulosity there is in this area. A fantastic view for me.
My next mission was to try for that pesky elusive M31. I scanned the sky by eye and located Cassiopeia and Andromeda, then did a bit of rough alignment, sighting along the top of my tube. I then rotated the tube in its rings to make the finder scope more accessible. I fired up the iPad and opened Stelarium. With frequent references back to the iPad and lots of peering through the finder scope, I finally saw what looked like a tiny hazy blob. I quickly reverted to the EP and bingo! M31 and I were reunited. More working up and down the magnification gave me a good look at the object again. After 20 minutes or so, I started to cast about the vicinity using the slow motion wheels on the EQ3-2 mount. By slewing slightly down and left (South and West in the sky?) I came across a smaller slightly hazy bright spot. I am not certain but think this may have been M33?
I was really enjoying my session so thought I would try for something else. I consulted Stelarium and saw The Cone Nebula marked in the vicinity of Gemini. Doing naked eye scanning and comparison with Stelarium I identified Castor and Pollux and, through this found the feet stars Alzirr and Alhena. By now however, my neck was complaining about my finder scope use. I therefore gave up on the cone (it may be too small/ faint for my equipment anyway) and decided to return to The Orion Nebula for a few minutes before packing up. Another 10 minutes on this object also saw me rewarded with a bit of satellite bombing.
The time by now was 22:00 so I dismounted my kit, loaded the car and returned home for a nice cup of coffee to finish the evening.
All in all a fantastic evening for me. I hope others out there were able to enjoy their evening as much as I did.
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