Observations of M41
These are the observations available for M41. If you have any of your own that you'd like to submit we'd love to put them on the website.
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Observing at Teggs Nose with Binoculars
I was lucky enough to see a clear sky during Friday evening. After the rain had cleared off. The skies were clear although. There was a lot of moisture around. This moisture eventually froze out. Leaving a sharp hoar frost at dawn.
Tegg's Nose country park was my destination. I travelled up there from my home in Macclesfield. Although this site is not far from the centre of the town. The skies can be quite dark. Normally we can see magnitude 4.6 stars, and on those rare occasions, magnitude 5.
The Moon was visible during the early evening. But she wasn't a problem. It was a thin crescent hanging majestically in the western sky.
I was with members from my local astronomical society's observing group. And we had a good time.
I was up there to take pictures of Orion and the famous nebulae. But I also wanted to use my 20 x 70 observation binoculars.
M42 was a magnificent sight through my tripod mounted binoculars. I counted all four stars of the trapezium, and I was able see Sigma Orionis and see the companion stars.
Lepus the Hare was very clear last night. The Alpha and Beta stars were crystal clear. I thought I might see M79. But I failed. I will try again on the next clear, Moonless night we have.
Messier 41 was very clear, together with Sirius.
NGC 2237, the open cluster at the centre of the Rosette nebula. Was another easy target. And comet Catalina was a large fuzzy blob just North of Alkaid.
M42 and the nebula NGC 1973-75-77 are shown in this picture. I used a Canon 1000D with a 200mm Pentacon telephoto lens. This was attached to my Skywatcher Star Adventurer.
Paul Brierley - (16 January 2016).
