Mid March Delights

Hi all, I am just in from a beautiful hour’s observing with my APM 120mm APO binoculars under superb clear skies here in rural east cavan, Venus was so bright in the western sky it actually cast a shadow.

i wanted go to off the beaten track tonight to get a rare glimpse of some sight we rarely report on namely:

1. Spiral galaxy Ngc2683 in lynx, very high in the south east at magnitude 9.1 ‘cigar shaped’ galaxy about 10” x 3” in size moderately brighter at its centre. I got the impression of it being very lonely out there with not many neighbours around it, floating in space at over 30 million  light years away

2. Ngc3190, ngc3193 & ngc3185 galaxies in Leo ranging from magnitudes 10.9 to 12.0. This was a lovely faint group together up to 110 million light years away. Pleasantly visible at x52

3. Starcluster M46 with planetary nebula ngc2438 were a beautiful combination with incredibly crisp stars of 8th magnitude and lower

4. M93 starcluster in Puppis was a long stretched ‘V’ shape pointing southwest, a beautiful glittering sight

I would encourage anyone to take some time looking at these, this was a short session in all of about an hour, I just wish we had more nights like this

Keith..

Hi Keith,

Very many thanks for your report. I very much enjoyed reading it.

Many of the objects you observed earlier in the night are new to me, so I found reading about them fascinating. I particularly like the sound of Starcluster  M46 and planetary nebula NGC2438.

Also, it must have been a beautiful sight to see those shadows cast by Venus - a real wow moment I'm sure!

Clear skies,

Darren.

They truly are a very superb pair of binoculars, Keith.
It must be very frustrating to have cloudy nights repeatedly month after month in county Cavan.
But it is a big MUST to get out to do some observing whenever the skies clear.

Thank you for taking the time to observe these excellent galaxies in Lynx and Leo.
Puppis is a glorious constellation which is crammed full of celestial wonders.
If only it was a bit higher in our Irish skies.

Clear skies to you all in Cavan.

Aubrey.

Thanks guys, I love M46 with the superimposed planetary nebula, you should both give it s go soon before it’s list for many months, a lovely sight !!

Keith.