EAAS Observing 11/12th February

This is from Steven Beasant's excellent report on the EAAS Forum:

11/2/08

Up to Killylane with about a dozen members of the EAAS for what turned out to be one of the best sessions we have ever had. The sky was crystal clear, although early on, a very bright moon, not even at first quarter, rather ruined the view. I took the lightbridge with me, but had some trouble getting it collimated properly, Sam, Jonathan and I wasted quite some time trying to get it right, but didn't really succeed, and it needed Eamonn to give it a couple of tweaks later on to get it right. Thanks mate. I also borrowed Jonathan's red dot finder later on, and its ease of use has now converted me from being a "proper" finder fan. It made life a lot easier later on in the evening. Thanks Jonathan.
The first hour or so was spent talking and looking through other people's scopes, Derrick and I used his excellent 10" reflector to locate M63 and M94, and I spent some time trying to find M65 and M66 with Veronica. I also got a superb view of M42 in Jonathan's 8" dob, and later used that scope to observe Beta Mon. I also got a very good view of M51 in the 16" lightbridge, but this was to be surpassed later on.
Most of the guys drifted away around midnight, leaving the usual suspects to spend another couple of hours under a by now moonless and very clear sky. I decided to try and find some of the galaxies in the Virgo cluster. I aimed the scope ( by now using the red dot finder) in the approximate direction of M86 and M84. I landed on one them almost immediately, and quickly found the other. They were not quite a bright as I had expected, but I was very pleased none the less. I then started to move the scope very slowly and more galaxies swam into view. I realised that I was probably following the line of galaxies known as Markarian's Chain ,and a look at Celestial sampler confirmed this. The galaxies definitely identified include NGC's 4438, 4435, 4461, 4458, 4473 and 4477. I was completely delighted with the view of these objects, the first time I have been able to see them in such detail.
I then decided to make hay while the sun shone, so to speak, and headed for some of the Coma galaxies. Starting at Denebola, I identified the star 6 Coma Berenices and centred it. A small nudge on the scope soon unearthed M98. I used an asterism of four stars to find M99 and the same asterism to then find M100. All three were fairly bright, and the spiral arms of M100 could be faintly seen. Again, nudging the scope very gently, I headed in the general direction of M85, and scooped up NGC4350, NGC4450 and five other unidentified fainter galaxies, including three in the same field of view, before eventually reaching M85 itself.
Meanwhile, Eamonn was also plucking other galaxies from the sky, the best included the Box galaxy, an excellent Silver Needle galaxy (Caldwell 26) and again, M51. This time, the view was little short of amazing, far and away the best view I have ever had of this object. The spiral arms were clearly visible on both M51 and NGC5195, and tiny globular clusters could be seen in the arms of the main galaxy.
We also used the 16" to get an extraordinary view of Saturn. Five moons were easily seen, and there were several bands visible on the planet itself, in both hemispheres. Again, this is probably the best view I have ever had of the planet.
We eventually packed up at 2.00am, for no other reason than the fact that work was calling the next morning. A brilliantly memorable night was had by all.

12/2/08

The clear skies carried on into another night, so Eamonn and I set off down to Clogher to meet up with Simon and then on to his observing site over the border in Monaghan It was quite a long trip, with heavy fog on the M1 between Lisburn and Craigavon, but the further we went, the clearer it became, and by the time we met Simon, the sky was very clear. It was anorther few miles to the site, but the long journey was well worh it, this is a great site, on top of hills overlooking Monaghan town away in the distance. There is a 360 degree panorama from the site, which is a fenced-in, concrete-based picnic area, with a couple of picnic tables to set the gear on. There is parking space for about 8-10 cars, and enough room for about a dozen people to observe in comfort.
Like last night, the moon was very bright, ruining the view of the sky somewhat, but it is obvious that on a moonless night, this would be a very dark site. The air was very clear, with a slight breeze. It was not particularly cold, although my fingers were freezing. One of Simon's mates, I'm sorry, I didn't catch his name, came up later and he stood in a jumper all night! He was a good bloke, and very knowledgable.
To be honest, there was not a lot of observing done, we spent most of the time talking and drinking coffee, because of the brightness of the moon. Simon has an excellent 10" reflector, and we used that to observe the Leo triplet, all three galaxies were easily seen. We saw Sigma Orionis through my C6, and then used the 16" lightbridge to tease out the very faint fourth star in the multiple.
Unfortunately, Eamonn and I had to leave at around midnight,
duty calls. The drive home was a lot easier, most of the fog had gone by now. This is a superb site, and I am really looking forward to getting down again on a moonless night. Messier marathon anyone?