Saturday night Jan 18th - Chilly, but beautiful!

It's bloody freezing out there tonight but the sky transparency is almost perfect.

Spent some time outside with the SkyWatcher 12" (in manual mode), and through various eyepieces I observed The Pleaides, Andromeda M31, Orion Nebula M42, Reflection nebula, some other DSOs, and I wasn't 100% sure if I managed to 'see' the Crab Nebula. When I applied the Astronomik UHC filter to the 15mm 1.25" Plossl, the contrast in M42 and M31 was quite remarkable.

Also spotted a piece of space debris burn up like a meteor through the Square of Pegasus. I reckon it was space debris because it seemed to travel at half speed compared to all other meteors, and was white and bright.

After just under an hour I decided to pack it in as frost was getting on everything!

Now for some hot chocolate...

Seanie.

Hi Seanie, 

I very much enjoyed reading your report. It sounds like it was a great session, and your description of observing some space debris is fascinating. 

Remember the marshmallows!

Darren. 

It sure is great to have you back on www.irishastronomy.org , Seanie!

And what a marvellous report you have sent us.

The only way I can observe M1 is under the darkest of skies.

Clear skies,

Aubrey.

It was a superb night; I observed asteroids Davida, Ausonia and Athamantis, all at opposition above mag 11 this week. M1 is visible in 20x80s down here in rural Limerick, but I still think it's one of those that Messier did well to locate with his primitive optics.

Finbarr.

What scope did you use for those asteroids, Finbarr?

Kind regards,

Aubrey.

It was my trusty old warhorse, the Nexstar SE8 Aubrey.