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Finally a break in the cloud cover here in Minnesota that matched up with my schedule. I headed out to Baylor and started setting up around 9:00pm. It
was a little windy and there were bands of clouds moving in that kept getting thicker.
I started by trying to star hop to M1, the crab nebula in Taurus. Unfortunately I wasn't able to find it. Oh well, on to easier targets! I followed the
Orion star hop in
"Star Hopping - Your Visa to Viewing the Universe." Starting at Rigel, the lower right leg of Orion, I hopped my way over to Orion's sword, catching M42, the Great Nebula and M43, another bright nebula. M42 was incredible. It was huge and very bright. I could make out a lot of detail in the base of the nebula. It looked as though the stars at the end of the base had carved out parts of the nebula. There was what looked like a buffer zone of empty space around the stars where the nebula stopped. From there I journeyed north at came across three small nebulae, NGC 1973, 1975, and 1977. Next was a small open cluster NGC 1981. Then on to Alnitak, a multiple star on the left end of Orion's belt. This is where the famous Horsehead Nebula lies but unfortunately, it's not easily seen without an H-Beta filter. The rest of the nebula, IC 434, that surrounds the star was easily seen. The middle star in the belt is embedded in another bright nebula, NGC 1990. Lastly, just east of the western most star in Orion's belt lies another bright nebula, M78, that is easily identified by two stars in the middle.
By now, the clouds were really starting to cover the sky. I made an attempt to star hop to M46 and M47 from Sirius but the clouds came too quickly. Even
so, it was a great
night that allowed me to finally try everything I got for Christmas. The rollup table was great and both of my new eyepieces performed very well. I have ordered a Telrad finder and when that comes things should be even easier to find. I've also purchased 3 of Celestron's vibration suppression pads. They are supposed to make vibration from wind and other things damp out quickly and hopefully will provide a more stable observing platform. Before going out tonight, I pulled my focuser out and cleaned and regreased it. It performed very well tonight. I don't need to buy a new one after all, I just have to take care of the one I have.
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