2011-10-28, Sight Report

Friday, 2011-10-28 22:00 – 2011-10-29 03:00 CST
Home, Ankeny backyard
35 F, very transparent, good seeing even up to 416x on Jupiter.

Attached some photos my neighbor took. The Jupiter shot was without tripod, held up to eyepiece. With tripod it most likely would have been sharper.

What I saw:

* NGC 1528
Equipment: Zhumell Z10 10″ Newtonian reflector
open cluster near Perseus

* M1, Crab Nebula
Equipment: Zhumell Z10 10″ Newtonian reflector
Was unimpressive, but that was expected. Fuzzy blob, not a lot of definition.

* M37
Equipment: Zhumell Z10 10″ Newtonian reflector
Nice open cluster just below Auriga

* M36
Equipment: Zhumell Z10 10″ Newtonian reflector
Another nice open cluster in Auriga, above M37

* M81 & M82
Equipment: Zhumell Z10 10″ Newtonian reflector
Bode’s Nebula. Really cool to see both galaxies in the same FOV. Could make out shape and orientation of both without any issue. Very apparent.

* M42
Equipment: Zhumell Z10 10″ Newtonian reflector
Orion Nebula…magnificent. We could see tons of structure, even at magnifications of 83x and higher. Four very distinct stars in the core of the nebula. Need to spend more time on this one.

* M43
Equipment: Zhumell Z10 10″ Newtonian reflector
De Mairan’s nebula, on the other side of the dark separation of M42

* Jupiter
Equipment: Zhumell Z10 10″ Newtonian reflector
4 moons appeared bright and close and aligned with the planet. Three or four visible. Banding was VERY clear even up to 416x.

* NGC 884 / 869
Equipment: Zhumell Z10 10″ Newtonian reflector
double cluster near Cassiopeia

* M45, Pleiades
Equipment: Zhumell Z10 10″ Newtonian reflector

* M31 & M110
Equipment: Zhumell Z10 10″ Newtonian reflector
Andromeda and the small “dwarf” satellite galaxy (M32) that is near Andromeda. No effort at all to see either one. Could make out the disc and core of each very easily.