Good evening, all.
I promised to give a report about Friday night's observing time in a parking area which was in front of Lough Tay.
There were 4 of us (Michael, Ben and Kevin) in the end using our telescopes. Although the sky conditions were appalling, the transparency was very good indeed. So double stars were extraordinarily difficult; but deep sky objects were very good.
Here is my own list as to what I observed with my William Optics 158 mm apochromatic refractor. My north is up; my east is to the right.
1. I must thank Michael for arriving before 6 pm. Because as soon as the Sun went behind the mountains, we caught Venus at about 6.30 pm. Its magnitude was -4. Its distance was 42,000,000 kilometres. The illumination was barely over 1% lit and its angular diameter was a very large 59.4 arc seconds. The sky was still a very bright blue, and at 40X, it looked featureless. As the sky conditions were plain bad, I refused to use higher magnifications. There was a lot of haze along our horizon.
2. Once Venus had disappeared, the planet Mercury was easy to find. This planet's magnitude was -0.9; even though its angular diameter was a mere 6.2 arc seconds. It is way beyond the Sun with a distance of 163.000.000 kilometres. The 70% lit disc was not easy to discern even at 112X as the conditions had not improved.
3. I even had difficulty seeing Rigel's B component at 112X which normally is easy.
4. However, straight down from Sirius, I found the glorious open star cluster M41. It had been some years since I last observed it. This time I noticed 2 K class orange stars near its centre. They gave a most pleasing effect. At 112X, M41 filled the field of view completely.
5. M42 / M43 was next. And I have to say nothing could prepare me for what I was about to see. Okay -I could not see the E and F stars in the infamous Trapezium. But at 112X, the Orion Nebula filled beyond my 35 arc minute FOV. The gaseous cloud was amazingly powerful. I could see a large arm of the nebula heading northwards on the western side. On the eastern side I saw another gaseous arm going southwards. I can safely say I have never seen M42 like this ever in my life!
6. M1 the Crab Nebula was next. It is small but easily identifiable at 40X and 112X. The magnitude is +8.5 and its diameter is 8 arc minutes.
7. Iota Leonis was split at 140X and 167X. Its magnitudes are +4.1 and 6.7. The separation is 2.1 arc seconds at present and the PA is 90 degrees. Again because of the bad conditions I was not going to give any estimations of its colours.
8. Nearby Iota Leo, I once again had the huge privilege of observing M65 and M66. But I had the additional excitement of seeing NGC 3628 for the 1st time. At just 40X, I could see all 3 galaxies very plainly in the same FOV. NGC 4628 is seen edge on and pointing downwards.
That is it from me.
Perhaps the others can chip in any of their observations.
Clear skies,
Aubrey.
  