Halloween Eve Observing Session!

Hi all

Halloween eve proved to be a night of clear skies and descent trans so i ended up doing a solo all night observing session from 19.00 - 06.00. The milkyway was beautiful with objects like M31 and M33 visible with the unaided eye as well as stars to mag 6.5. I uncovered the 16" and spent the next several hours comet hunting in a large sky sector spanning from the S to the SW through beautiful areas of the milkyway at low solar elongations then working my way higher into the sky up to Cygnus. I swept up a host of deep sky treasures including a very 3-D like M27 however the Veil nebula was the telescopic trophy of the search which i tracked for over 2* of sky. I glanced up at the sky regularily during the search as i was hoping to see Taurid meteor activity when i noticed for the 4th night in a row the very elusive Gegenschein that had rose above the neighbourhood trees in the eastern sky!

Remembering John Mc Connells last post, i grabbed a portable phone and rang John from the back garden while i stood near the telescope. It was cloudy at his location but it suddenly cleared when John spotted the Gegenschein as well from his back garden. This was the final confirmation if anyone needed it. We both could see a large oval patch to the immediate west of Mars and of considerable size located in the sky were Aries, Cetus and Pisces meet. I saw it as a green oval 15* in diameter, although John saw no colour he observed that it was elongated along its horizontal axis following the ecliptic. John and i watched it for a LONG time as the Earths rotation brought this elusive object to its highest position in the south and we reckoned it was at its best when it was placed just east of the Meridian. The patch seemed to move slightly westward with respect to the stars and John saw movement to the south as well. We both agreeded that this was an amazing ghostly sight. We talked about the phenomena and John told me that he had last seen it in the 1970's from the sea! Im sure it brought back alot of fond memories for him when he saw it again last night from his back garden! Clearly we have destroyed an ongoing myth on this object..that its impossible to see from areas of light pollution. The last 4 nights have proved that wrong!

This turned into an observing session over the phone were John and i described the sky conditions, constellations, planets, Pleiades counts, naked eye deep sky objects while discussing imaging and past bright comets. We ended up catching alot of meteors during our conversation, John would catch ones that i missed and vise versa until we seen a descent number. John caught a lovley bright green Taurid that was the best meteor of the night. The Taurid activity has been excellent lately and tonight provided good rates for the 3rd night in a row. John and i ended our call in the early hours of the morning...thanks for the chat John!

I continued the meteor watch on my own and ended up observing 73 meteors! If i had of been in a group then the count would have been alot higher. My own favourite was a golden mag 2 object that had a glowing blue train 60* long. Before dawn i saw the brillant Zodical Light in the NE sky like a massive green angled pyramind following the ecliptic through areas of S.Leo, Hydra and N.Virgo. It was very bright and 60* high and i could have sworen i seen a hint of the Zodical band? The sky was beautiful and deadly quiet so i called it a night as morning twilight stole the darkness from the sky. I also seen migrating Geese and witnessed brillant fireworks earlier in the night which lit my FOV up green periodicaly while i patrolled the sky but it alll added to the great atmosphere of this Halloween Eve observing session!!!

Clear Skies!