Sketches of Stephan's Q, NGC7331 & some fleas, + a few others

Lovely drawings. Tried to use your sketch to loacate the 'flees' around NGC7331 last Sunday night with the C9.25. All the other reference stars were correct but no sign of them flees.

By the way, what is a good reference book for someone with a C9.25? Looks like I need huge aparature for the books you are talking about here.
Donal

Donal --

Yeah, most of those books were written by (and for) big Dob users; even my 16" is at the lower end of suitability and can't reveal some of the targets.

As for the fleas, a lot depends on how dark your skies are. I suspect under pristine skies you could get them in a C9.25, but everything would have to be working in your favor. Within 30 miles of any town in Ireland you'd probably be out of luck.

For smaller instruments (say 4" up to 12"), I like O'Meara's books. If you don't have any of them the Messier and Caldwell books are obvious ones to start with, but I like his Hidden Treasures book best just because it includes a bunch of stuff you wouldn't normally hear about.

Oh, and one last thing that's often overlooked: observing experience plays a big part. I do about 50 sessions a year and for the first 2 or 3 years the curve was still pretty steep (that is I'd notice much more detail in a target one year later than I had earlier, or be able to see one at all that I couldn't pick out a year earlier). In year 4 my rate of improvement seems to be much slower, so I'm probably reaching "adolescence" as an observer. You may already be past most (or all) of that, but I mention it as a possibility.

Lastly, if you're in Louth on a clear night, drop by and we'll stomp some fleas....

Cheers,
-- Jeff.