An almost perfect night of observation. Sky transparency was optimal, however seeing was only fair and so I could not use any magnification beyond my 25mm eye piece. I attempted several times with the 9mm however was never able to achieve focus due to poor seeing caused by turbulent air condition (jet stream).
First thing I need to mention is my telescope case if really heavy. I had to carry it for good bit loaded up with my backpack, battery pack and the tripod placed on top of the case. It was pretty hard on the back and I may now consider wheels or a dolly system. Now that that is out of the way lets go on to the amazing night of observation.
The first thing I noticed even before setting up the scope was the sky was magnificent and the milky way stretched from south all the way across to the eastern sky to the north. As the night progressed the Milky Way continued to gain latitude and climbs higher in the sky allowing a great amount of dense star clusters from our own galaxy to be observed.
I had brought a list or 35 objects, that I had researched, to view. Many were faint objects that were barely visible due to the seeing condition and so I will only mention a few of the show stoppers of the night.
First off was Bode’s Nebula, which is actually a galaxy, next up was the Omega or Swan Nebula and finally Andromeda. Of course I also took a long look at the Great Hercules Cluster (M13) as I do at almost every outing.
Omega Nebula, M 17
Also known as the Swan Nebula, Messier 17 or NGC 6618. The Omega Nebula has a bright elongated central area that was readily visible. M 17 is 5 to 6 thousand light years from Earth and is said to be approx. 15 light years in diameter, there is a lot of stellar dust that I could not pick up through the telescope and I hope to revisit the Nebula in the near future to photograph it and try to capture it’s full beauty.
Andromeda, M 31
Andromeda, also known as Messier 31 and NGC 224, is the closest galaxy to us at 2.5 million light years and is part of our local group of galaxies. While Andromeda is very large in the sky, stated to be 6 moons wide, through a telescope with your eye only the brighter central region was visible and while it was one of the largest and brightest galaxies I have seen through my telescope, I must admit I was a bit disappointed that I could not see more of it’s outer stellar dust lanes. Still fascinating and I will definitely revisit to photograph.
Bode's Nebula, M 81
Also known as Bode's Galaxy, Messier 81 or NGC 3031. Discovered by Johann Elert Bode and classified as a nebula it was Pierre Mechain and Charles Messier who later reidentified the Bode's object as a galaxy and entered it into the Messier Catalog. Bode's Nebula is a spiral galaxy some 12 million light years away. Visually it appears as most galaxies do, as a faint fuzzy with a bright core. I suspect much of the light coming from galaxies might reside in the infra red wave length and as such are proving rather difficult to see in all their beauty. Once again photographing these objects would be a great deal better visually and I can not wait to get a decent camera and try my hand at astrophotography.
Disclaimer: The above photo was taken by the Hubble space telescope.