An exceptionally clear evening on Monday night (22.09.08) meant that another, albeit short observing session was on the cards. As always, the first port of call was a view of Jupiter through my 25×100s’. This time, observing was much easier than my previous outing as Jupiter was not obscured by structural obstacles. This was mainly due to the fact that I was out an hour early.
The render below details my observation taken from 20:20 UT to 20:38 UT. The moons from left to right are Ganymede, Callisto, Europa and Io.
As the moon was to rise much later, I took the opportunity to resume the DSO hunt by returning to my search for M51. I began by sweeping the sky eastwards around Perseus and Andromeda with my Bresser 10×50s’ to give my eye’s a chance to adapt to the dark. M31 was well placed as was the double cluster (NGC 884 and NGC 869) in Perseus. While there was not a cloud in the sky, the transparency was not that brilliant.
After about twenty minutes I couldn’t resist a look at M31 through the 25×100s’, and what a view. Amazingly, some of the dark subtle veins of the spiral structure were just visible while the small faint companion M110 was positioned about 10 arcminutes above.
From here I began a refreshed search for M51. I searched for over an hour and think I may have found the elusive spiral galaxy, but the view was so faint that I couldn’t be sure. The final diagnosis . . . I need more light gathering power to fully see M51. This is one DSO that I think I’m going to have to let go for the moment.
I ended my session at 22:30 UT with a view of the Pleiades rising in the east. The orange haze of the light pollution and the bad sky transparency made the open cluster appear quite faint to the naked eye, but through my 10×50s’ was easily recognizable. Not the best view due to the LP, but still a rewarding sight.
Tags: Andromeda, Callisto, Europa, Galaxies, Ganymede, Io, Jupiter, M110, M31, M45, M51, NGC 869, NGC 884, Perseus, The Pleiades