Apr 9, 20052 min
Updated: Sep 2, 2020
LOCATION: Yarnshall Hill
INSTRUMENT: 127mm f/8.03 OG
MAGNIFICATION: mostly x41
SEEING: ANT III Transparency Good
DATE/TIME: 08 04. 20:30 23:05.
NLM +5.1
Members present.
Kevin and Norman, Colin, PaulC, Nick and Richard Bullock.
At the request of Kevin Thurston and also the forecast of a clear sky, myself and members of the society ventured out to one of our observing sites. Yarnshall Hill nr Shuttlings Low is a good site and offers shelter if windy. The sky was lovely and clear but not quite as dark as we had hoped nlm+5.1. I was using my 127mm f/8.03 Konus refractor and I was able to pick out a good selection of DSO's despite the telescopes small aperture.
M65 & M66. Both galaxies were very bright and I could see in the same field NGC 3628 which was just visible as a faint haze.
M84 & M86. Visible as two patches of bright stellar light with a couple of other faint galaxies visible in the same area.
M3. I was Just able to resolve M3 and through my LV zoom set to 8mm x125 M3 is a bright granular ball.
M51 NGC 5195. Both galaxies were visible and were very bright. I was only using the 24 Pan (what an eyepiece). And you could see the connecting gas between M51 and NGC 5195. M51 has a bright nucleus with faint spiral arms just visible with averted vision.
M94. Another galaxy this time in near by Canes. It's bright and looks rather like a round unresolved globular cluster.
Jupiter. Plenty of detail visible at x125. With both the NEB and SEB clearly visible as were other belts and zones.
I then returned to the centre of the Virgo Cluster and just spent a while hopping from one galaxy to the other.
Although my 127mm 4.75" Konus is small, it doesn't half pack a punch.
by Paul