Tuesday morning’s off-track observing session left me a little disappointed but it hadn’t diminished my determination to nail down M44 and M67 in Cancer as well as M76 and NGC 1499 (The California Nebula) in Perseus. As Tuesday’s unsettled sky wavered in and out of clear spells and overcast gloom, I slowly felt any chance of another observing session slipping away; how wrong could I be?
Well, a lot as it so happens! As I glanced out of the window for the final time late on Tuesday night I saw that the clouds had all but drifted away and large patches of clear sky had managed to break through. Taking a chance, I waited till the constellation Cancer had cleared the roof tops and then headed out at 01:30 UT early on Wednesday morning.
Unlike my previous session I decided to use the 10×50 Bresser bins to find my quarry rather than the hefty Strathspey 25×100s. Moving out into the middle of the back yard I turned to the south east where I could see the mighty Leo rising into the sky. Moving slightly to the west of Leo I began scanning the sky for Cancer unaided. It was a little hard to make out against the orange haze being cast up by the local light pollution, but I eventually found Acubens and Al Tarf, the two stars that make up the lower portion of the constellation. Moving up from here I could just about see Asellus Borealis, and by using a little averted vision I then managed to make out Asellus Australis. This was the important part of my search as I knew finding these two stars would lead me to M44, The Beehive Cluster.
Reaching for my 10×50 bins I tracked back across my original path in the sky and star hopped my way to The Beehive. It really was a fantastic sight and well worth the effort. The cluster itself showed up as a myriad of glowing stars that traced out an almost spherical shape in the sky. A beautiful DSO and one that I’m sure I’ll get around to sketching very soon. Unfortunately a small blanket of cloud slowly drifted over Cancer forcing me to temporarily postpone my search for the smaller cluster M67.
Instead I turned my attention to Collinder 70, otherwise known as Orion’s Belt. Now, I didn’t have a clue that this was an open cluster of stars until I read one of The Rev Aaron’s posts over at Caffeinated Astronomy. This is a truly amazing Deep Sky Object on a par with the Pleiades and is really best viewed through binoculars so you can truly savor it’s delights. From here I moved up Orion to Collinder 69, the group of stars that form Orion’s head. This open cluster doesn’t offer the same WOW factor as Collinder 70, but it’s a beautiful little cluster all the same.
By this point the clouds over Cancer had been swept away eastwards and I could resume my search for the open cluster M67. Having found Acubens, the search for this Messier object was quite easy and in no time at all I was gazing upon this distant DSO. Now this open cluster was a lot smaller and a lot fainter, but was observable none the less.
By about 02:03 UT I decided to turn my attention to Perseus and that’s when something very bright exploded in the sky above me. This actually made me physically jump, but It lasted all of two to three seconds and was then gone. I never actually saw what is was, but I’m sure I heard a crackling or hissing sound that vanished with the light. My best guess is that it was a meteorite fireball, but I can’t be sure because I didn’t actually observe it (more’s the pity).
Feeling a little bewildered I returned to Perseus and began ambling over the constellation towards the location of NGC 1499. Gazing through the 10×50s just above Xi Persei I could make out a rich star field but unfortunately no nebulosity. To be honest I wasn’t expecting to see that much detail but it was still a worth while view.
M76 or The little Dumbbell Nebula as it is also affectionately known was the final stop on my short list and try as I might I couldn’t locate this DSO. It was only later on once I was back inside that I queried the exact location of M76 in Stellarium. I could have kicked myself, I was trying to find M76 around the locality of Tau Persei instead of Phi Persei!
Having no luck with M76 I ended my session by rambling over the north western sky. First up was the stunning Double Cluster in Perseus (NGC 869 and NGC 884) which I have neglected over the last month or so. From here I worked my way down to the beautiful and often over looked open cluster M34. Finally I let the binoculars land on the small and elusive M33 or The Triangulum Galaxy as it is also known. I always find that this galaxy varies in brightness, something which I have put down to it’s position in my light polluted skies.
As I prepared to call time on my session I took in an unaided view of Saturn rising from the south east into the early morning sky. After spending a few moments taking in the distant but bright point of light of this planetary marvel I turned just in time to catch of small, faint meteorite pay me a ‘flying visit’ as it glanced the handle of Ursa Major and disappeared in to the east. Bidding farewell to my fleeting astral visitor I decided to wrap things up at around 02:30 UT and head indoors to warm up.