Posts Made By: Dmitri Kulginov

1: Dust bands in M82 - A (dark, 8")
2: Spiral arms of M61 - E
3: Equatorial dust band of NGC891 - B (dark, 8")
4: Spiral arms of M33 - B (suburban, 80mm)
5: The obscuring cloud of M64 ("Black eye") - B (dark, 8")
6: Spiral arms of M51 - B (dark, 8")
7: Emission nebula, NGC604 in M33 - A (suburban, 8")
8: Dust bands in NGC3556 - E
9: Spiral arms of M99 - E
10: One dust band in the Andromeda galaxy - B (dark, 8")
11: Spiral arms of M101 - D
12: Equatorial dust band of NGC3628 (The one near M65/66) - B (dark, 8")
13: Two dust bands in the Andromeda galaxy - D
14: Emission nebulae in the spiral arms of M101 - E
15: Spiral arms of M100 - E
16: Equatorial dust band of NGC4565 (Coma Berenices) - B (dark, 80mm)
17: "Bend" of galaxy NGC4656 (Canes Venatici) - E
18: Spiral arms of NGC2403 - C (dark, 8")
19: Spiral arms of NGC2903 - E
20: Bridge between M51 and companion galaxy - D

Inge, thanks for setting some interesting winter/spring targets with your list!

Dmitri

The regular punishment for such posts is one week of clouds; hope this doesn't happen to you!

Dmitri

Dave,

I was able to see this nebula with 80mm short tube achromat on February 1, 2005. The place was dark, I used UHC-S filter and it was only visible at 100x with averted vision about 50% of time. An APO in this case obviously allows for much lower power.

Another highlight of that night was Hubble's variable nebula.

Dmitri

Sorry Dale, not even close. You will be able to see down to -60 degrees of declination, and MC are basically at -70 - and they should be high enough above the horizon to be seen at all. I repeatedly could not see them from the tropic of Capricorn (but I hope to).

Dmitri

Incidentally, yesterday evening was clear - against the forecast, and I rushed out with my emergency gear, 80mm APO and the new 15x70 high quality binocular. The sky was unusually transparent, with some light pollution SW.

First I looked with 80mm at M42/43, M78, M1 and M50. The stars in Trapezium had pronounced colours. The satisfaction from seeing them again was great! On my star-hop to M50 I found a small, but rich cluster NGC 2360 that showed some 20 stars at hight power. After that I looked at M35 and its neighbour, 2158. The contrast between these two clusters is amazing. The latter showed no resolution and looked like a small nebulous spot even at high power.

After that I mounted the binocular to proceed with its obligatory Messier survey. I looked at M42/43 (of course); they looked very bright, but the view at higher magnification was better. Not so with M50, M47 and M46: they looked phenomenal, especially M47 and M46 that were in the same field of view. Again, a striking contract between a close M47 and a much more distant, large, ancient and mysterious M46. One of the best views in the sky with any instrument!

Just for kicks, I looked at the Rosette nebula. The nebulosity was clearly seen - a tenuous bluish glow with black darkness in the middle around 2244. This binocular is probably the best instrument for it. After that, to Auriga: contrary to my expectations, M38 looked best of the OC trio. It was large, rich and well resolved. M37 was compact and bright and showed some resolution with averted vision. M36 had brightest stars.

After looking at M34 (nothing special), I tried the California nebula, but could not see it - probably because of the city lights in its direction. M31 was very long, I would say 4 degrees, with a sharp SW edge where the dust lane is. M32 and M110 were obvious. M33 was also very obvious, but I could not see the spiral arms. I think I will be able to see them from a dark location. I looked for M76, I think I saw it as a 'star', but will need to revisit it with Millennium Atlas. I finished the session with Double cluster, Stock 2, M103 (that looked like a Christmas tree), NGC 663 (big, rich, half-resolved) and NGC 659 (compact and nebulous). I had had a very pleasant observing session, nothing exotic - the showpieces of the winter skies.

The binocular is truly excellent, I fullheartedly recommend it to anyone with slightest interest for deep sky. Unfortunately, in Europe it is twice as expensive as in the US. The views are much brighter than in my 80mm, and about as bright as in 120mm refractor at low power. For some objects it has perfect magnification, some objects ask for more.

Dmitri

Is he writing a H400 book?

Dmitri

What an outing... wonderful!

Dmitri (from Paraguay)

Yesterday I looked at 2477. It is brighter than 7789, a large (20'?), round swarm of small stars with no apparent concentration. Low power shows a dozen of faint stars against a nebulous glow, medium power shows many tens of stars and a bit of unresolved glow, at high power the cluster is fully resolved with averted vision. I used 80mm APO, the best view was with 13mm Nagler. There is a long chain of stars going North (does it belong to the cluster?) that makes this cluster look a bit like a stingray.

Full report from Brazil to follow.

Dmitri

I've seen it with 15x70 binocular very clearly from my dark place.

Dmitri

I kind of prefer Ultimas to Naglers during daytime, both with 80mm refractor and 200mm SCT.

Dmitri