The weather front which had been dropping large amounts of water earlier in the evening cleared away and at 00:00hrs (23:00ut) I walked out into my rain socked garden to find the sky clear. But not just clear but "REALLY CLEAR" I could see stars down to M+5.41 with M31 and NGC 752 visible the latter only with averted vision.
I set up my DX300 on the observing pad and by 00:30 I was able to begin.
Seeing= ANTIII (Fast seeing)
Transparency= 6
Mars
x240 x200 x150.
Mars appeared to lie in the only part of sky where the seeing was poor. x240 Orange disk with only visible surface detail when the seeing improves. x200 and x150 with a yellow filter, did improve the view. It was a pity as I have yet to see this planet under good seeing. Features visible during my period of observation.
Mare Chronium Lat 58 Long 137
Mare Sirenum Lat 33 Long 161
Possible hint of Southern Polar Cap.
Messier 33
24mm Panoptic with Lumicon Deep Sky and 8-24mm LV zoom.
I have not used my LDSF on the 12" with the new coating. What a difference!. Providing you don't mind blue stars (I don't) the sky is inky black with know sodium sky glow visible. This is certainly an excellent LP filter.
M33 x50. Round bright haze with stellar nucleus.
x150. You begin to see deeper. And the galaxy's spiral arms are faint but visible. There is some faint starlight glows visible with in M33 are these possibly the HII regions? . Visible in photographs.
NGC 891
24mm LDSF
x50 Grey needle with a bright center. x150 galaxy almost disappears. Darker skies then here for this one!.
NGC772
24mm and LDSF
Faint glow at x50 with know visible hint of any structure.
With the naked eye.
M31, M45, NGC 752, NGC 884/869, Auriga,Taurus, Gemini, Orion (is it that time again) . Perseus, Cassiopeia, Andromeda, Pegasus,Aquarius.
by Paul Brierley