27th December 2005 18:30-23:00
Llyn Brenig, NELM 6+.
Telescope - Obsession 18” f4.5 dobsonian
Eyepieces – 31 and 13mm Naglers, 24mm Panoptic
OIII and H beta filters.
First off, a horizon to horizon crisp and frosty Milky Way. The faint and unimpressive comet C/2005 E2 McNaught at mag 10ish was seen down in Capricornus.
Some interesting galaxies lie to the west of Pegasus, including NGC 7241 a nice pale edge-on spiral.
A failed attempt on a planetary in Cassiopeia resulted in a great sweep of some very interesting open clusters inhabiting the region towards Cepheus. Berks, Czerniks, Frolovs and Kings were seen alongside the usual NGCs and Messiers. PK 122-4.1 a mag 14 Planetary Nebula was found in this area.
Abell 2 and the local group galaxy IC10 were also found nearby Schedar.
Dropping off from the point of Triangulum resulted in a great find of a pair of galaxies, NGC 672 and IC1727, recommended for large scopes. NGC 784 is a nearby edge-on sliver.
A wallow in the splendour of NGC 891 was followed by some ticks of faint fuzzies that had been missed in previous years. UGC1841 (mag 13.5) and 1837 (mag. 15) are recommended.
An obscure gem is NGC 1579 a Bright Nebula in Auriga, this has an interesting dark lane and is quite bright. Put it on the list.
Swinging east of Polaris I ran through some bright mag 13 galaxies.
The Horsehead was very pleasing with the 24mm Panoptic and H beta filter.
Magical M33 finished off the session.
by Paul