All observations refer to 24.5” F4.5 Dobsonian (FL 2756mm) with fully inverted views unless otherwise stated.

Tue/Wed 22/23 Nov

NGC 206 in M31: Spiral dust lanes seen curving away from it.

M33 Observed the spiral structure and H II regions to an extent I’ve never seen before.

Fornax 1 GX cluster – 1316 and 1380 groups observed.

NGC 1365, barred spiral in Fornax; could see curving spiral arms.

NGC 1360 Stunning PN in Fornax – completely different to normal. Huge oval disc, brighter at one end, bright central star, looks more like an elliptical GX.

NGC 1679, GX in Caleum – irregular.

COLUMBA (in a bit of clagg in the SW)

NGC 1992, GX – Mottled

NGC 1808, GX – Mottled

NGC 1851, GC – well resolved, better than M79 in Lepus

NGC 1800, GX – tiny and faint, irregular, looked ‘V’ or triangular shaped.

Wed/Thur 23/24 Nov (Poor seeing – very blobby necessitating low power but reasonably dark & transparent)

NGC 253, Silver coin GX – loads of dk lanes/patches and structure.

NGC 288, GC – more like a tight open cluster, flattened, well resolved, evenly distributed cluster of stars. Reminded Mark of M71.

VEIL Nebula thro’ Mark’s 80mm apo, 26 mm Nagler and 2” UHC – could see all parts; Brideshead, Witch’s broom & Pickering’s triangle in the same FOV! Could see all parts well in the 10” without filter. Wind’s getting up.

NGC 55, edge on GX in Sculptor is absolutely huge. With 26mm Nagler it extends right across the FOV but at first glance you only think it’s extending halfway – the LHS is about twice as bright as the RHS. The bright side catches your eye and you think, ‘that’s big and bright’ and then you realise it’s extending twice as much but only about half the intensity on the RHS. The bright side is a bit knotted with a brighter core to it, then a dark notch to the left, with an elongated outer halo around the brighter core but to the right of the core it goes darker then a bit of a brighter knot, then it just extends at least as far again across the FOV. I would have sketched this but the wind was too strong – I was having to hold the telescope against it, let alone, sketch pad, pencil, light and glasses!

NGC 134, edge on GX in Sculptor – looks like dk lane down LHS of core with a companion GX at 10pm half way across the FOV in a 26mm Nagler. With a 20mm Nagler, it looked more like a dark edge down the LHS rather than a dk lane with a bright star to left of centre of core. Mark reckoned it looks more like M31 and the dark edge you get with that. Companion GX NGC 131 dead easy and prominent.

NGC 1232, GX in Eridanus, 20mm Nagler – not that good really, a bright core, a hint of spiral structure (a brighter part going from 8pm to 2am direction) but very grey – low contrast.

NGC 1275, Perseus 1 GX cluster – 20mm Nagler, only moved the scope a little bit and I lost count after 15 GX’s – just loads, getting lost in them all – superb!

Did have a look at NGC 246 and 247 but they were in a grey part of the sky on this night. Notwithstanding this NGC 247 showed mottling and a hint of spiral structure and dk patches. Milky way to the North however superb in a very dark transparent part of the sky.

NGC 681, Sombrero type GX in Cetus – wasn’t that impressive. 16mm Nagler, I could see a core which was bulging with an outer halo around it.

NGC 1022, GX in Cetus – 16mm Nagler, again nothing special, claggy part of the sky. With 20mm Nagler could see a hint of the bar and spiral arms. I think on a good night this would be quite good. (11pm)

NGC 1032, GX in Cetus – pretty poor view (Going to give up on objects west of South and moving to SE. 2350 hrs)

NGC 1532 in 10” quite a pleasant edge-on GX. NGC 1365 in 24.5 not as good as last night.

NGC 1360, PN in Fornax – absolutely superb! Found with 26mm Nagler, a bit faint, stars are sharper than last night but sky a bit greyer. Put 20mm Nag in and struggling to see it, put UHC in and absolutely superb – came to life! It’s huge, definitely oval shaped, very bright central star, with a gap all around it, the bottom half is not as large as the top half but is brighter. Bit of ‘blotchiness’ in top half, the LHS is brighter than RHS which seems to have dark patches in it. Brilliant! Not a lot of difference with O III – preferred UHC, as did Mark.

Horse head found easily using 20mm Pentax and H-Beta filter. – like a crooked finger.

Thor’s Helmet superb, best ever. 20mm Nag, O III. Loads of detail in helmet, horns very prominent, chin strap well seen with large clump below it’s LHS.

Sh 2-301 EN in CMa found with 20mm Nag & O III, definitely fan shaped, moderately large, UHC slightly better – bit brighter and larger. (About the size of the helmet part of Thor’s helmet w/o horns etc).

Rosette Nebula found easily in 10” & 20mm Pentax w/o any filter.

NGC 2207, elongated GX in CMa. 20mm Nag, Tilted 10pm – 4am, at right angles from core is a fainter core with a halo connecting them.

NGC 2196 nearby in Lepus is brighter and roundish, probably elliptical GX, but nothing to write home about.

Thur/Fri 24/25 Nov (Commenced observing at 1am – definitely less light pollution to the S-SW so must be cloud keeping it down. Star images much tighter tonight. E & F stars easy. Noticed another faint star just below the trapezium, about twice the length of the side below the middle. Scope a touch out of collimation so re-collimated. Very good detail/contrast in Orion nebula – excellent!)

M42 20mm Nag & UHC just awesome. Moving the scope around there is a circle of nebulosity connecting the two ‘horns’.

Horse Head, 20mm Nag & UHC – we saw it but struggled. Replaced with 20mm Pentax and 1.25” H-Beta filter and easy! It looked like my bent or crooked finger.

Thor’s helmet again: With 20mm Nag & UHC a bit bland. With O III just awesome. Dark patches in the helmet part, detail in the horns, chin strap extends all the way around with a bigger detached clump at the bottom RHS (Overall view of helmet on it’s side with horns to the left). With 13mm Ethos and Lumicon 1.25” O III it is absolutely Mega! Fills the field, have to move the scope around to see it all. There are filaments of nebulosity connecting across between the two horns a bit like arcing between two anodes of a Tesla experiment. Also bits of nebulosity inside the chin strap – Mega!

NGC 2438 PN in M46, Puppis – 13mm Ethos (Filter doesn’t help) absolutely superb, quite large, annular ring, oval shaped, hole in middle, bit of structure and dark patches in the ring, what looks like a central star (But I know it isn’t) looks quite bright, a bit off centre. There’s another faint one inside the annulus at 10 o’clock just on the inside edge, another even fainter one at 3 o’clock in the middle of the ring nebulosity itself.

Sh 2-301 20mm Nag, UHC (better than O III) Quite a bit of detail. Overall it’s fan shaped, the ‘sharp’ end being blunt.

Running Man observed in 10” w/o filter, 20mm Pentax.

NGC 2613, edge-on GX in Pyxis. Elongated with a bright elongated core, extended halo extends more to RHS in the 2o’clock direction. Mark described it as like 891 in a smaller scope but w/o the dark lane.

NGC 2903 (0325 hrs and a bit of thin cloud has rolled in) with 16mm Nag, a bright extended core, a very large extended halo around it with dark patches in it giving a hint of the spiral structure. Mark’s description, “ definitely see it’s barred spiral in structure, arms/wings going off it with a bright patch down at 4 o’clock from the core.

Hickson 44 – easy with 3 GX’s in a straight line with a faint edge-on one below the middle GX.

M81 and M82 seen in my ‘finder’ 8x26 binoculars! – confirmed by Mark. M81 in 24.5” superb, outer spiral arms prominent, extended nebulosity around NGC 206. 4am and a bit of clagg coming in.

Sat am 26^th Nov (Friday evening was cloudy. I set my alarm for 1am and still cloudy. I then made a tactical mistake. I decided it wasn’t going to clear and instead of re-setting my alarm for 2 or 3am decided to have a good nights sleep and go and see my wife during the day who was staying down at Los Gigantes. I woke at 5am for a call of nature and it was totally clear – couldn’t bring myself to miss even an hour and a half and woke Mark cursing myself for not setting the alarm again)

M46/M47 N/E. Came across another spectacular OC in Puppis which I identified as NGC 2477, just above Zeta Pup.

NGC 2440 , PN – 13mm Ethos, smallish disc, fairly roundish, no central star, maybe a hint of a hole in the middle, extended halo in N-S direction (1-7), O-III didn’t help much. N.B. 2/3 aperture obstructed by corner of building.

Vela SNR located, very large and diffuse – just a brightening in the FOV as you move the scope across it.

Pencil nebula detected just as a narrow brightening in the field as you moved the scope across it but it was 6.30am now and starting to get brighter!

6.45am and finished on Saturn which was making a nice pairing with Spica.

Sat/Sun 26/27 Nov (Totally clear all night and I missed it all, as did Mark. We both had a tummy bug and I had to suffer getting up to go to the bathroom several times during the night, observing that it was clear and dark out and having to crawl back to bed!)

Sun/Mon 27/28 Nov (Had an excellent all-nighter from 8.30pm until 7am – made up for the lost night before. The only caveat being that I had been dictating my observing log into a digital dictaphone and around about 1am I inadvertently put it back into my pocket still recording and every time I took it out to dictate an observation I effectively paused it thereby losing over 4 hours of probably the best views of the week! – Doh!).

NGC 672/IC 1772 in Aries – 13mm Ethos. Very nice view.

NGC 253 Silver Coin GX in Sculptor – 13mm Ethos extends beyond the FOV, elongated 10-4, bright core, just below the core is a brightish star superimposed on it, another one just above, going along the core in the 10 o’clock direction there’s a dark lane on the LHS, the core then seems to taper with a dark lane either side of it and an outer bit, a bit like a fork and they eventually when you move the scope so that the core’s at one edge you can see it tapering to a point right at the other end. If I move the core to the top there’s not as much definition there, you can see the ghostly spiral arm structure with a bit of a dark lane in the middle and again tapering towards the end of the field. Awesome!

Helix Nebula: Located/seen in my 8x26 binoculars! Absolutely superb in the 15x70 bins –really prominent. Mega in the 24.5” with 26mm Nagler & O III filter. Filling half the field, oval shaped, several stars inside it, At 10 o’clock a thinning or dimming in the ring and to a lesser extent at 4 o’clock also. At this point realised that ¾ of the aperture was obstructed by the corner of a building. Moved the scope and it has to be the brightest view of the Helix I’ve ever had. You can even see nebulosity across the centre of it. With 13mm Ethos and UHC virtually fills the FOV and just looks like a bigger version of the Ring Nebula and just as bright as the Ring appears in average scopes from the UK. Central star easy. Awesome. 20mm Nagler and UHC gives nicest overall view although more detail in 13mm.

NGC 7284/5 ARP 93 located with 20mm Nag but low down in SW in a bit of clagg (left it too late – 2130) Just a brighter fuzz and a fainter fuzz near it!

NGC 246 Skull Nebula – 10” Dob, 20mm Pentax UHC, really nice, contrasty, dark patches in it, stars in it. With 24.5” 20mm Nagler, really prominent, roundish, slightly elongated E-W or left/right. Quite a few dark patches in it, 4 stars embedded in it and a couple just outside it. With UHC slightly oval in 10-4 direction, A couple of dark patches at 10 o’clock, a dark patch in the centre, a fainter star at 4 o’clock and it almost looks like the chin is missing, but with averted you can see it almost as a complete ring with 5 dark patches in it. With 13mm Ethos and UHC it actually looks like a skull. Mark says it’s like the Jaw’s open laughing at you. You can see the two eyes at the top, a bigger hole around the central star with a hole off to the right of this and then the big hole round the jaw and with averted vision it does extend all the way around. It does indeed look like a skull with it’s mouth open! WE both agreed, ‘no point in ever looking at this again from the UK after that view!’ The O III dimmed it too much, much better view with UHC.

NGC 247 GX in Cetus – 20mm Nagler, completely fills the FOV, 2am – 8pm, core also elongated but off-centre towards the 2 o’clock position, the outer halo tapers down from that towards a narrow point  and in the opposite direction towards 8 o’clock it extends about twice as far and gets broader and fatter as it does so. Overall it looks V or arrow shaped. 2230 hrs.

NGC 1232 GX in Eridanus – Huge! Bright central core with largish outer halo around it which is mottled, hint of tiny bar on the core, faint outer spiral arms quite some distance top and bottom of it, overall filling about 2/3 FOV. (20mm Nagler?)

Theta Eridani (Acamar) 3 degrees below horizon from my U.K. location is a very nice double [had to get one in J].

NGC 1022 GX in Cetus – 13mm Ethos, quite bright, a bright core, outer halo - mottled, core is extended like a bar in the 10-4 direction, averted vision shows a very very faint outer ring quite some distance away – extends to about a 1/3 FOV. A bright star in the 4 0’clock direction which this outer ring passes thro’ (probably just clagg – I dictated at the time but checking images just now – spot on!)

NGC 1300 – 20mm Nagler; is clearly a barred spiral, It’s a bit claggy where we’re looking but there looks to be an arm going from the LHS up to the top. There is definitely a companion to the right, distance about the width of the extended halo of the main GX. Outer spiral arms top & bottom detected with averted. Companion more obvious with 16mm Nag. (Looking at images, the companion is presumably a brighter H-II region in the spiral structure).

NGC 1032 edge-on GX in Cetus – 11-5 orientation, brightish core, hint of a dark edge on RHS. 16mm Nag. 2315 hrs.

NGC 1055, 16mm Nag, at first glance looks like an elongated GX in 10-4 pos’n, but on careful inspection has a roundish outer halo top and bottom a bit like a sombrero GX. Averted vision shows a dark lane on the underside of it – more like a dark edge on the underside, with very tenuous faint stuff beyond it.

NGC 1097, 16mm Nag, very long elongated GX, 2-8 direction, very bright core, slightly oval, outer halo very thin and extends quite a way either side, at tip of left hand extension is a brighter knot which I assume is a companion GX. Very nice view, can’t see any spiral structure but it is in a claggy bit of the sky. Actually, you can see some outer spiral structure, there appears to be a large arc curving downwards from the LHS and upwards from the RHS and they both extend as far as the middle – a little bit more than the middle. Time is M/N.

NGC 1421 GX in Eridanus. 16mm Nag, edge-on GX with 2 or 3 dark notches in it. It looks very reminiscent of M82. Orientated 2-8. If I put this to the edge of the field at 1 o’clock dead in the centre of the FOV is a very faint tiny round fuzz which I presume is another GX.

NGC 1357 next as nearby but nothing to write home about, looks a bit like an elliptical, stellar core with a mottled oval outer halo.

NGC 1532 is a beautiful edge-on GX, very thin, orientated 11-5, brightish core, very thin tapered halo, tangential to the core to the left/underneath is an ovalish companion. Either side of the core into the extended outer halo there’s a dark patch either side.

NGC 1964 GX in Lepus, nothing to write home about, not too big, a bright core, elliptical halo. 0045 hrs.

NGC 1499 California Nebula. 26mm Nagler, 2” UHC, extends beyond FOV, curves down at either side in a ‘banana’ shape, seems to split into filaments/dark lanes at RHS.

Abell 7: I thought I saw a very huge faint glow (26mm Nagler w/o filter) in the area filling about 2/3 FOV, quite a uniform glow, if anything a bit elongated 2-8 direction. Mark moved the scope a little and found a tiny faint glow which he thought was the PN but I thought was a galaxy with a twin core 10-4. UHC made it dim a lot. N.B. A filter made it worse re the large faint glow I identified.

It must have been shortly after 1am that I ‘lost’ up to 5 hours of dictating of probably the best period of observing of the week! I had put the dictaphone back in my pocket whilst still recording and every time I took it out to record an observation I paused it! I have 4 hours of muffled conversation but all the proper observing notes for the period are lost. I have listened to some of this to see if I can retrieve anything but it’s not promising –Doh! Mark and I did make some notes from Memory on the Monday afternoon whilst relatively fresh, not best but better than nothing. They are in italics below:

IC 418 PN in Lepus, tiny bluish disc, central star.

NGC 1888/9 ARP 123 in Lepus edge on GX with tiny round companion but can’t remember what we saw.

NGC 2090 GX in Columba

NGC 2188 Edge-on GX in Columba

Abell 21, Medusa Nebula – absolutely superb with dark patches in it. If you rotated it 100 degs anti-clockwise it looked like Darth Vaader’s helmet J

NGC 2784 GX in Hydra

NGC 2440 PN in Puppis.

NGC 2292/3 GX’s in CMa

NGC 2298 GC in Puppis – partly resolved

NGC 3115 – Spindle GX in Sextans absolutely superb! Really extended narrow core, with a thin extended halo all around it. There was more detail but can’t remember it.

NGC 2818 and 2818A in Pyxis. This is a twin of M46 and NGC 2438 with a PN in a cluster. The cluster is lovely, very uniform and flattened and the PN is easy and obvious – superb! highly recommended viewing. Also remember looking at NGC 2613, an edge on GX in Pyxis.

Log re-commenced 5.50am on the Monday morning! I’m struggling now and Mark is having to find all the objects.

NGC 2835 – elongated GX in Hydra. Brightish oval core, ghostly halo extending either side, very nice.

Hydra 1 GX cluster, NGC’s 3311, 3314, 6am and well flagging now (been going since 8pm) but just counted 9 GX’s in the field just by moving the scope a little. (16mm Nagler) Mark counted 10. Really lovely group, some look edge-on, the main brightest core seems to be between two orange stars – really nice. 6.15am.

NGC 3621 GX in Hydra is a really nice sight, nestled between 3 stars, a ghostly glow, clearly an elliptical GX, hint of a core, loads of mottling throughout it – impressive! Sky just not black enough now otherwise more detail would have been had I’m sure.

Zodiacal Light – Just noticed it extending all the way up to Regulus, about 40 degs altitude.

NGC 3717 together with Companion IC 2913 observed. Really is a nice elongated GX, it’s tilted btwn 10&11 – 4&5. There is a brighter core to one side (10 o’clock direction) there’s a star vertically below the core, and the companion is at1 or 2 o’clock about 2/3 the distance from the centre in the 16mm Nagler and looks roundish.

NGC 4105/6 Double GX in Hydra, 16mm Nagler, really nice pair of GX’s, quite close together, the brighter one at the bottom, oval shaped, brighter core and outer halo, slightly fainter one at 1 or 2 o’clock from it is roundish, again with a brighter core and fainter halo.

M68 with 16mm Nagler is a reasonable size and quite well resolved for a change. 6.30am now and a bit of daylight coming up over the Eastern horizon.

M104 Sombrero GX absolutely superb in the 16mm Nagler, it extends quite a long way, 8-2, bright core, halo above it and such an obvious dark edge. Superb and in a brightening sky.

NGC 4361 PN in Corvus, central star, largish halo, which is bright at the centre and gets progressively dimmer.

SATURN – finished on at 0640 hrs.

A thoroughly enjoyable trip.

Andrew Robertson