2008-11-22

When we first arrived at Woodland Waters the sky was partly covered with thin cloud. In the clear patches it was obvious that it was a good night because, even as soon as I'd turned up, and with no dark adaption having happened, I could clearly see the Milky Way.

I set the Antares 905 up and left it to cool down while we waited for the sky to clear. It took around 45 minutes but, eventually, it turned into a really nice evening.

Once the sky had cleared nicely I set the Lomo Lubitel 166B up on a tripod and pointed it in the general direction of Auriga. It was loaded with Fuji Provia 100F (120 roll film), the aperture was set to f8.

While I was setting up the Lubitel John had, while looking for something else, stumbled on what appeared to be an open cluster in Perseus. Using the 32mm eyepiece located it with my 905. Checking the position on a chart we worked out that it was NGC 1528.

The view was very nice. A small and tight collection of stars that stood out really well against the background. Next I switched to the 6mm eyepiece but the view was nowhere near as impressive, I suspect I was pushing the 905 past its limit in this case. Next I switched over to the 15mm eyepiece and the view was much better. The overall impression I got was that the shape of the cluster was something like a very wide arrow head.

Stopped the star trail I'd started earlier. Here's the resulting image:

Started a new star trail with the Lomo Lubitel 166B, this time trying to capture Gemini rising above some trees. Fuji Provia 100F with an aperture of f8.

John saw a very bright meteor head roughly from the general direction of Ursa Major, head between Cygnus and the zenith, and head towards the horizon. Sadly I wasn't looking at the sky at the time. However, I did happen to be looking towards the ground and at exactly the same moment he shouted it out I saw a very brief flash on the ground.

Decided to see if we could locate NGC 2392, also known as the Eskimo Nebula. I started with the 15mm eyepiece in the 905.

Got the 'scope pointing in the right place and, pretty soon, was wondering if I'd found it. Towards the end of a curved line of stars I could see a faint star that, with averted vision, appeared to be a little bit fuzzy. No other star in the area gave this impression.

I spent a little more time looking around the general area and couldn't find a better candidate. Going back to the area mentioned above I could still see the "fuzzy with averted vision" effect. However, I just couldn't be sure. Using higher power didn't help at all.

Checking later with a copy of Starry Night I can see that I didn't manage to locate the Eskimo Nebula. The "curved line" of stars that I'd been looking around comprised of TYC1372-1262-1, TYC1372-1306-1, HIP36307, 63 Geminorum and HIP36152.

Stopped the star trail I'd started earlier. Here is the resulting image:

Started a new star trail with the Lomo Lubitel 166B, this time trying to capture Orion. Fuji Provia 100F with an aperture of f8.

While I'd been sorting out the previous star trail John had also been looking for the NGC 2392. He had found an object that, while small and star-like, also looked a little fuzzy even with direct vision. This object was, however, in a slightly different location to where I'd been looking (pretty much the same position overall, just off a little).

There was no question that what he'd found looked like a small planetary nebula so I made a very rough sketch of the nearby stars and the location of the object so I could check at home.

Checking later with a copy of Starry Night I can see that, without a doubt, we'd been looking at NGC 2392.

Although I've observed it many times before I couldn't resist having another look at M42. First using the 6mm eyepiece in the 905 I was surprised at how much detail was visible. The dark lanes and "knotty" appearance in parts really stood out well. The trapezium could also be seen very clearly (probably the most clear view I've ever had of it). The slightly blue/green colour of the nebula was also very obvious.

Despite the fact that I wasn't using the better of my two 'scopes this was probably the best view yet that I've had of M42 and this probably says a lot about how good the air was.

Stopped the star trail I'd started earlier. Here is the resulting image:

For some time we'd noticed cloud increasing from the west. By 23:34 UT it had started to cover a fair bit of the western sky and, by 23:50 UT it had reached the zenith. Given that it was obviously going to obscure the whole sky pretty soon we decided to call an end to the session and pack up.