....aaaaaaaaand here are
Messier 31 to 73!!!
I hope you enjoy going through them, I found it to be a real hoot.
Ian
+++++++++++++++++++
31,
User: Kanadalainen
Messier Object: M103 or
NGC 581
Date: 28/September/2017
Location: Winnipeg, MB (backyard)
Viewing Conditions: clear, good transparency, fair seeing due to the moon.
Light Zone/
Bortle Zone: 8
Telescope Name: Orion
dob
Telescope Model: XT10i
Telescope Size: 10” mirror
f-ratio: 4.7
Eyepiece model: Televue Nagler and
ES 82
Eyepiece mm: 13mm and 18mm respectively
Mount: dobsonian
Observation: Back to M103… I enjoy becoming familiar with distinctive Messiers and so went back to Cassiopeia for another look. Hopped from Ruchbah and found it with the terrific Explore Scientific 18 mm (it’s a 2”
ep). This time I recognized it immediately as a small fan or arrow-headed collection of stars in my
FOV. With the nice steady view offered by the
dob, it was easy to find stars of different colours and their pointed arrangement was very pleasing, as if some celestial hand had placed them just so.
32,
User: Kanadalainen
Messier Object: M39 or
NGC 7092
Date: 28/September/2017
Location: Winnipeg, MB (backyard)
Viewing Conditions: clear, good transparency, fair seeing due to the moon.
Light Zone/
Bortle Zone: 8
Telescope Name: Orion
dob
Telescope Model: XT10i
Telescope Size: 10” mirror
f-ratio: 4.7
Eyepiece model: Televue Nagler and
ES 82
Eyepiece mm: 13mm and 18mm respectively
Mount: dobsonian
Observation: I leaned heavily on my
ES 18 mm to visualize and find this new
Messier. A very large and loose open cluster of stars in Cygnus. Some of them bore distinct colouration, with a number of blue. Due to
LP I could not see it without my scope or binos. This was easily seen with my binos, after finding it with my
dob. From my reading, I understand that its approaching us (our system) at 28 km/sec and is only 800 light years distant.
33,
User: Kanadalainen
Messier Object: M15 or
NGC 7078
Date: 28/September/2017
Location: Winnipeg, MB (backyard)
Viewing Conditions: clear, good transparency, fair seeing due to the moon.
Light Zone/
Bortle Zone: 8
Telescope Name: Orion
dob
Telescope Model: XT10i
Telescope Size: 10” mirror
f-ratio: 4.7
Eyepiece model: Televue Nagler and
ES 82
Eyepiece mm: 13mm and 18mm respectively
Mount: dobsonian
Observation: A very pretty globular cluster in Pegasus. It appears as a distinctive and densely packed “pile of diamonds” with a large number of stars discernable and resolvable. I spent about 15 minutes gazing at this one, and despite the glare of the moon. I was barely able to see it with my binos, but again, it stood out nicely with the
dob. Estimated age is 13.2 billion years – one of the oldest globular clusters.
34,
User: Kanadalainen
Messier Object: M52 or
NGC 7654
Date: 28/September/2017
Location: Winnipeg, MB (backyard)
Viewing Conditions: clear, good transparency, fair seeing due to the moon.
Light Zone/
Bortle Zone: 8
Telescope Name: Orion
dob
Telescope Model: XT10i
Telescope Size: 10” mirror
f-ratio: 4.7
Eyepiece model: Televue Nagler and
ES 82
Eyepiece mm: 13mm and 18mm respectively
Mount: dobsonian
Observation: Running back to Saskatoon, um… Cassiopeia. Another globular cluster, very beautiful and in this case a bit more detailed than some of my other targets, due to its distance in the sky from the glare of the moon. I sought out this
Messier, in consolation, after failing at M33… I wanted to see the frog “spiralism” of yore as proposed by JG on this list. Alas M33 was blocked by houses and trees. Back to M52 - Globs within heavily populated stellar backdrops like M52 are especially nice. Individual stars of blue and yellow could be discerned with higher magnification.
35,
User: Kanadalainen
Messier Object: M34 or
NGC 1039
Date: 28/September/2017
Location: Winnipeg, MB (backyard)
Viewing Conditions: clear, good transparency, fair seeing due to the moon.
Light Zone/
Bortle Zone: 8
Telescope Name: Orion
dob
Telescope Model: XT10i
Telescope Size: 10” mirror
f-ratio: 4.7
Eyepiece model: Televue Nagler and
ES 82
Eyepiece mm: 13mm and 18mm respectively
Mount: dobsonian
Observation:
Messier 34 is an open cluster in Perseus. I moved back and forth through the sky searching for this one for a while before I decided that I actually found it. I did use my binos to help myself a bit, and voila. Two arms of stars are apparent, and I could make out about 15 stars in total. It may not be as spectacular as other open clusters, including M103.
36,
User: kanadalainen
Messier Object: M73 or
NGC 6994
Date: 29/September/2017
Location: Winnipeg, MB (backyard)
Viewing Conditions: clear, good transparency, fair seeing due to the moon.
Light Zone/
Bortle Zone: 8
Telescope Name: Orion
dob
Telescope Model: XT10i
Telescope Size: 10” mirror
f-ratio: 4.7
Eyepiece model: Televue Naglers and
ES 82
Eyepiece mm: 7mm, 13mm and 18mm respectively
Mount: dobsonian
Observation: This is a nice moment – detailing my first observed
asterism (stars of different distances from earth, and moving differently relative to one another, but which appear to be grouped in a physical cluster). Little did I know, but M73 is one of the most well studied asterisms in the sky. Its only four stars so I cruised over the locale in Aquarius in low power with the 18mm
EP, thought I may have seen it, checked around the vicinity, then went back to the likely suspect (round up all the likely suspects!), with a bit more power, first at 13mm and then to 7mm. M73 presents itself as Y shaped group. A fun and memorable find for me.
37,
User: kanadalainen
Messier Object: M2 or New General Catalogue 7089
Date: 29/September/2017
Location: Winnipeg, MB (backyard)
Viewing Conditions: clear, good transparency, fair seeing due to the moon.
Light Zone/
Bortle Zone: 8
Telescope Name: Orion
dob
Telescope Model: XT10i
Telescope Size: 10” mirror
f-ratio: 4.7
Eyepiece model: Televue Naglers
Eyepiece mm: 7mm, 13mm
Mount: dobsonian
Observation: A pleasant surprise, from a first-time viewer of M2. A rich and easily found globular cluster in Aquarius, located near beta Aquarii. This is a great
Messier, highly recommended . I read up on the history of M2, and found that this one was discovered by JD Maraldi, while observing a comet, with his buddy Jacques Cassini. In my binos it looked like a small unresolved smudge, but with the
dob and some modest magnification, I was able to resolve many stars in the main cluster. I like globs as some of you know, and this
Messier is gorgeous, majestic. Again, the descriptor of “ball of diamonds” comes to mind, first mentioned to me by an AF lister (Steve, IIRC). The core is very prominent, the cluster itself is tightly compressed, and forms a relatively symmetric ball in space. This
Messier contains 150,000 stars, and is about 37,500 lya, and relatively old – 13 billion years.
38,
User: kanadalainen
Messier Object: M11
Date: 7/October/2017
Location: farm darksite, near Morris, MB (52 km south of Winnipeg)
Viewing Conditions: Rainstorm to the north (lightening), otherwise clear, very good transparency, waning moon.
Light Zone/
Bortle Zone: 4
Telescope Name: Orion
dob
Telescope Model: XT10i
Telescope Size: 10” mirror
f-ratio: 4.7
Eyepiece model: ES82 for the entire evening
Eyepiece mm: 11mm
Mount: dobsonian
Observation: The wild duck cluster was a big pleasure to observe. My research tells me that an Admiral Smyth named it for wild ducks as the stars reminded him of their flight (which it actually does). Lots of blue stars apparent, very dense and compact cluster. I should have backed off from the 11 mm, but it was pretty spectacular at that. Within the cluster are lumps and lanes.. Fun to watch for a while.
39,
User: kanadalainen
Messier Object: M26
Date: 7/October/2017
Location: farm darksite, near Morris, MB (52 km south of Winnipeg)
Viewing Conditions: Rainstorm to the north (lightening), otherwise clear, very good transparency, waning moon.
Light Zone/
Bortle Zone: 4
Telescope Name: Orion
dob
Telescope Model: XT10i
Telescope Size: 10” mirror
f-ratio: 4.7
Eyepiece model: ES82 for the entire evening
Eyepiece mm: 11mm
Mount: dobsonian
Observation: The thing with Messiers is that you never know what you’re gonna get (shades of Forest Gump). This little open cluster was satisfying to find, and record, but was not as impressive as M11. Having said that this cluster is distinguished for its lack of many stars in its nucleus. Located 5000 light years distant.
40,
User: kanadalainen
Messier Object: M14
Date: 7/October/2017
Location: farm darksite, near Morris, MB (52 km south of Winnipeg)
Viewing Conditions: Rainstorm to the north (lightening), otherwise clear, very good transparency, waning moon.
Light Zone/
Bortle Zone: 4
Telescope Name: Orion
dob
Telescope Model: XT10i
Telescope Size: 10” mirror
f-ratio: 4.7
Eyepiece model: ES82 for the entire evening
Eyepiece mm: 11mm
Mount: dobsonian
Observation: A beauty of a cluster, right in there with M13. It has the sack of diamonds in a velvet black bag je n’est ce quois to it. But, nowhere near the brightness of M13. It is slightly elongate, and has a very dense core. Total luminosity is modest. Difficult to see specific stars in the centre. This is no shrinking violet of a globular cluster, but it is 30,000 light years distant, so the net effect is classy but not garish. This cluster holds several dozen variable stars.
41,
User: kanadalainen
Messier Object: M16
Date: 7/October/2017
Location: farm darksite, near Morris, MB (52 km south of Winnipeg)
Viewing Conditions: Rainstorm to the north (lightening), otherwise clear, very good transparency, waning moon.
Light Zone/
Bortle Zone: 4
Telescope Name: Orion
dob
Telescope Model: XT10i
Telescope Size: 10” mirror
f-ratio: 4.7
Eyepiece model: ES82 for the entire evening
Eyepiece mm: 11mm
Mount: dobsonian
Observation: Quite an impressive nebula, one of my first! It was rewarding to visualize the cluster of stars within the nebula. I probably used too much power to see the entire nebula, but no harm done, I moved from locale to locale with nudges. I could see more than two dozen stars in all. A very impressive object and one I will revisit often, especially now that I am becoming a bit more at ease with Serpens Cauda, Scutum and Sagittarius. Again, I’m sure this will be impressive with the right tracking and a fast optics scope.
42,
User: kanadalainen
Messier Object: M17
Date: 7/October/2017
Location: farm darksite, near Morris, MB (52 km south of Winnipeg)
Viewing Conditions: Rainstorm to the north (lightening), otherwise clear, very good transparency, waning moon.
Light Zone/
Bortle Zone: 4
Telescope Name: Orion
dob
Telescope Model: XT10i
Telescope Size: 10” mirror
f-ratio: 4.7
Eyepiece model: ES82 for the entire evening
Eyepiece mm: 11mm
Mount: dobsonian
Observation: My second nebula of the evening. Conditions were favourable to see this lovely bright object. I couldn’t discern much color, but the shape and outline was readily apparent. Three distinct blobs of nebulous light. I really enjoy this part of the sky, and this one is in close proximity to M16. Visual magnitude of 6. Discovered by de Cheseaux and
Messier, with
Messier coming a close second.
43,
User: kanadalainen
Messier Object: M18
Date: 7/October/2017
Location: farm darksite, near Morris, MB (52 km south of Winnipeg)
Viewing Conditions: Rainstorm to the north (lightening), otherwise clear, very good transparency, waning moon.
Light Zone/
Bortle Zone: 4
Telescope Name: Orion
dob
Telescope Model: XT10i
Telescope Size: 10” mirror
f-ratio: 4.7
Eyepiece model: ES82 for the entire evening
Eyepiece mm: 11mm
Mount: dobsonian
Observation: Busy neighborhood. This
Messier is close to M17 and M16. A smallish open cluster of stars in an irregular group. Blue stars dominate, and so this is a young cluster. 4900 ly distant.
44,
User: kanadalainen
Messier Object: M23
Date: 7/October/2017
Location: farm darksite, near Morris, MB (52 km south of Winnipeg)
Viewing Conditions: Rainstorm to the north (lightening), otherwise clear, very good transparency, waning moon.
Light Zone/
Bortle Zone: 4
Telescope Name: Orion
dob
Telescope Model: XT10i
Telescope Size: 10” mirror
f-ratio: 4.7
Eyepiece model: ES82 for the entire evening
Eyepiece mm: 11mm
Mount: dobsonian
Observation: A very pretty cluster of about 100 stars (visible), very enjoyable to watch this and let the eyes acclimate. I get much better looks after first processing, looking away and then coming back to this object.
I counted up to 80 stars at higher power, before guesstimating the total.
45,
User: kanadalainen
Messier Object: M24
Date: 7/October/2017
Location: farm darksite, near Morris, MB (52 km south of Winnipeg)
Viewing Conditions: Rainstorm to the north (lightening), otherwise clear, very good transparency, waning moon.
Light Zone/
Bortle Zone: 4
Telescope Name: Orion
dob
Telescope Model: XT10i
Telescope Size: 10” mirror
f-ratio: 4.7
Eyepiece model: ES82 for the entire evening
Eyepiece mm: 11mm
Mount: dobsonian
Observation: The small Saggitarius star cloud! Very exciting. Hard to call this a cluster, I spent at least 30 minutes on this
Messier. Dark lanes and blotches, rays and arches of stars seem to punctuate this rich swarm. I think it’s the most star-packed object that I’ve viewed to date. Researched this and found out that it’s a part of an interior spiral arm of our galaxy.
46,
User: kanadalainen
Messier Object: M72
Date: 7/October/2017
Location: farm darksite, near Morris, MB (52 km south of Winnipeg)
Viewing Conditions: Rainstorm to the north (lightening), otherwise clear, very good transparency, waning moon.
Light Zone/
Bortle Zone: 4
Telescope Name: Orion
dob
Telescope Model: XT10i
Telescope Size: 10” mirror
f-ratio: 4.7
Eyepiece model: ES82 for the entire evening
Eyepiece mm: 11mm
Mount: dobsonian
Observation: A small and faint glob, not an easy target. I had to come to this transparency to see it after three separate trials. I could not resolve many stars at all in this glob. Grainy, pale patch. 55,000 ly distant.
47,
User: kanadalainen
Messier Object: M40
Date: 7/October/2017
Location: farm darksite, near Morris, MB (52 km south of Winnipeg)
Viewing Conditions: Rainstorm to the north (lightening), otherwise clear, very good transparency, waning moon.
Light Zone/
Bortle Zone: 4
Telescope Name: Orion
dob
Telescope Model: XT10i
Telescope Size: 10” mirror
f-ratio: 4.7
Eyepiece model: ES82 for the entire evening
Eyepiece mm: 11mm
Mount: dobsonian
Observation: This is a strange one. Why call it a
Messier, it’s a double star. An optical double at that, not a true double.
48,
User: kanadalainen
Messier Object: M5
Date: 8/October/2017
Location: farm darksite
Viewing Conditions: windy, cool, a few clouds, excellent transparency
Light Zone/
Bortle Zone: 4
Telescope Name: Orion
dob
Telescope Model: XT10i
Telescope Size: 10” mirror
f-ratio: 4.7
Eyepiece model: ES82
Eyepiece mm: 11mm
Mount: dobsonian
Observation: Near 5 Serpentis. Visible in the finder scope as a fuzzy dot. With the XT10i
dob it is a very impressive glob, with hundreds of stars resolved in the 11mm
EP. There isn’t much nearby to distract the view. I noticed a segment of the glob on the western edge to be a bit brighter than the rest of the object. My research tells me that it’s a very old glob (13 billion years) with many of its constituent stars in red giant phase. I was unable to find many of these (red coloured) stars.
49,
User: kanadalainen
Messier Object: M9
Date: 8/October/2017
Location: farm darksite
Viewing Conditions: windy, cool, a few clouds, excellent transparency
Light Zone/
Bortle Zone: 4
Telescope Name: Orion
dob
Telescope Model: XT10i
Telescope Size: 10” mirror
f-ratio: 4.7
Eyepiece model: ES82 for the entire evening
Eyepiece mm: 11mm
Mount: dobsonian
Observation: This one took some digging. It is apparent as a glob with faint stars in indistinct clumps, with a discernable core of stars, fully resolved in the main mirror of the scope. Nevertheless M9 is faint in Ophiuchus. This glob is near the centre of the Milky way, 26,000 ly distant, absolute magnitude of – 8. The brightest individual stars were just discernable, their mag is in the neighborhood of -13.5.
50,
User: kanadalainen
Messier Object: M12
Date: 8/October/2017
Location: farm darksite
Viewing Conditions: excellent transparency, windy
Light Zone/
Bortle Zone: 4
Telescope Name: Orion
dob
Telescope Model: XT10i
Telescope Size: 10” mirror
f-ratio: 4.7
Eyepiece model: ES82
Eyepiece mm: 11mm
Mount: dobsonian
Observation: A sister glob to M10 in Ophiuchus. M12 is about the same size to my eye, but fainter. Its magnitude is 6.7 and is a loosely arranged cluster with a typically dense centre. It has outlier stars, some noticibly yellowish and gives one the sense that this cluster is “coming apart”. Well worth the view, and not difficult to find. Its proximity to M10 allow for window shopping between the two globs.
51,
User: kanadalainen
Messier Object: M21
Date: 8/October/2017
Location: farm darksite – 52 klicks from the edge of the city.
Viewing Conditions: great transparency and seeing… the clouds dissipated even as they approached me out of the west
Light Zone/
Bortle Zone: 4
Telescope Name: Orion
dob
Telescope Model: XT10i
Telescope Size: 10” mirror
f-ratio: 4.7
Eyepiece model: ES82
Eyepiece mm: 11mm
Mount: dobsonian
Observation: A small galactic open cluster. Charming and cute, subtle beauty. Without trying to be glib it also appears as a round-headed stick man waving “hello”. A small
Messier with about 25 stars discernable under the conditions last night (55 or so stars in total). Total magnitude is 6.5. A strand of stars seems to reach out to its neighbor – M20 (which I left for another evening). A nice double resides in the centre of this
Messier.
52,
User: kanadalainen
Messier Object: M22
Date: 8/October/2017
Location: farm darksite
Viewing Conditions: windy, excellent transparency
Light Zone/
Bortle Zone: 4
Telescope Name: Orion
dob
Telescope Model: XT10i
Telescope Size: 10” mirror
f-ratio: 4.7
Eyepiece model: ES82
Eyepiece mm: 11mm
Mount: dobsonian
Observation: Beautiful, massive, mighty. This tremendous globular cluster is so much fun to view, and moments like this make me so pleased to have purchased my dobsonian. M22 is very full globular cluster, extremely fine and densely packed. My terse field notes indicate “resembles a grinning jack o’ lantern” which is the pattern of the impression that the brighter stars gave me. Perhaps that’s too demeaning for such a glorius object such as this. I spent as much time as I could shivering in the wind to try to allow my eyes to adjust to the darkness. After some time, I could make out colours of a number of the nearby stars and even those close to the centre. This
Messier might grab M13’s spot as my favourite globular
DSO.
53,
User: kanadalainen
Messier Object: M26
Date: 8/October/2017
Location: farm darksite
Viewing Conditions: excellent transparency, lots of wind
Light Zone/
Bortle Zone: 4
Telescope Name: Orion
dob
Telescope Model: XT10i
Telescope Size: 10” mirror
f-ratio: 4.7
Eyepiece model: ES82
Eyepiece mm: 11mm
Mount: dobsonian
Observation: An open cluster in Scutum. The single most interesting feature of this
Messier is the miniature “big dipper” or ursa grouping of stars in the centre of the cluster. About 50 stars in this cluster – no central concentration of stars is found. Easily picked out from other stars in the near vicinity, with an apparent magnitude of 8. This
messier is 5000 ly distant.
54,
User: kanadalainen
Messier Object: M33
Date: 8/October/2017
Location: farm darksite, near Morris, MB (52 km south of Winnipeg)
Viewing Conditions: very good transparency, waning moon, very windy
Light Zone/
Bortle Zone: 4
Telescope Name: Orion
dob
Telescope Model: XT10i
Telescope Size: 10” mirror
f-ratio: 4.7
Eyepiece model: ES82
Eyepiece mm: 11mm and 18 mm
Mount: dobsonian
Observation: Swinging my
dob around to the east, I went after the Triangulum (pinwheel) galaxy, one of the closest to our own galaxy in a group that includes M31, for example. This is my third crack at this
Messier in the past three weeks, and I was frustrated by the nasty
LP in the city. So happy to view this beauty in
Bortle 4 skies. The moon had already started to peek out and wash the skies at this time of the evening. Nevertheless I was able to spot spiral arms, especially with the 18 mm ES82. It took some effort to find the best view of this lovely
Messier. Difficult to see any color – most of it appeared to be washed out white. A very nice
Messier, certain to be visited many times in the future.
55,
User: kanadalainen
Messier Object: M55
Date: 8/October/2017
Location: farm darksite
Viewing Conditions: excellent transparency, milky way visible
Light Zone/
Bortle Zone: 4
Telescope Name: Orion
dob
Telescope Model: XT10i
Telescope Size: 10” mirror
f-ratio: 4.7
Eyepiece model: ES82
Eyepiece mm: 11mm
Mount: dobsonian
Observation: A large globular cluster in Sagittarius. Loose and grainy in the 11mm
EP. Apparent magnitude ~6. The distinguishing factor is that this
Messier is more loosely organized than most. I had to push the scope far down to the south to pick it up.
56,
User: kanadalainen
Messier Object: M69
Date: 8/October/2017
Location: farm darksite (Morris, MB)
Viewing Conditions: excellent transparency, 7*C, windy
Light Zone/
Bortle Zone: 4
Telescope Name: Orion
dob
Telescope Model: XT10i
Telescope Size: 10” mirror
f-ratio: 4.7
Eyepiece model: ES82
Eyepiece mm: 11mm
Mount: dobsonian
Observation: Globular cluster in Sagittarius – I made a point of gathering as many of these grouped Messiers as I could this deep in the southern sky. This was a challenging globular cluster – by this time of the night, I was able to mentally correct for the small systematic error made by the Orion (Intelliscope) computer on my push-to. It took about 10 min to locate this small faint glob, even with help from SkySafari 5 in my phone and the
dob itself. This is a magnitude 7.6 glob. A relatively bright core is apparent.
57,
User: kanadalainen
Messier Object: M71
Date: 8/October/2017
Location: farm darksite (Morris, MB)
Viewing Conditions: excellent transparency, 7*C, windy
Light Zone/
Bortle Zone: 4
Telescope Name: Orion
dob
Telescope Model: XT10i
Telescope Size: 10” mirror
f-ratio: 4.7
Eyepiece model: ES82
Eyepiece mm: 11mm
Mount: dobsonian
Observation: Globular cluster (looks like an open cluster) in Sagitta. De Cheseaux discovered this one many years before
Messier included it in his catalogue. Not difficult to find this
Messier, as it appears as a mag 8.2 cluster. I could see distinct stars in my
dob, very loosely arranged for a glob. 13000 ly distant.
58,
User: kanadalainen
Messier Object: M107
Date: 8/October/2017
Location: farm darksite (Morris, MB)
Viewing Conditions: excellent transparency, 7*C, windy
Light Zone/
Bortle Zone: 4
Telescope Name: Orion
dob
Telescope Model: XT10i
Telescope Size: 10” mirror
f-ratio: 4.7
Eyepiece model: ES82
Eyepiece mm: 11mm
Mount: dobsonian
Observation:. A loose globular cluster in a rich star field in Ophiuchus. This is one of the toughest targets in Messiers catalog to my knowledge and in my limited experience “in the hunt”.. Magnitude 9, it is just visible in my
FOV. With some manipulation of the focus and a relatively calm period of viewing I was able to just discern a small number of stars in this glob. Open and loose organization.
59,
User: kanadalainen
Messier Object: M30
Date: 10/October/2017
Location: Rural park, south of Winnipeg
Viewing Conditions: excellent transparency, 5*C, no wind
Light Zone/
Bortle Zone: 5
Telescope Name: Orion
dob
Telescope Model: XT10i
Telescope Size: 10” mirror
f-ratio: 4.7
Eyepiece model: ES82
Eyepiece mm: 11mm and 18 mm, used both
Mount: dobsonian
Observation: A nice glob in Capricorn, magnitude 7.2 not too difficult to spot, despite not too many nearby stars to landmark this
Messier. It appears to be slightly out of round, but has a nice bright, dense center. Some interesting chains of stars emanate out from the core.
60,
User: kanadalainen
Messier Object: M75
Date: 10/October/2017
Location: Rural park, south of Winnipeg
Viewing Conditions: excellent transparency, 5*C, no wind
Light Zone/
Bortle Zone: 5
Telescope Name: Orion
dob
Telescope Model: XT10i
Telescope Size: 10” mirror
f-ratio: 4.7
Eyepiece model: ES82
Eyepiece mm: 11mm and 18 mm, used both
Mount: dobsonian
Observation: A faint glob in Sagittarius, with a total magnitude of 8.5. At 67,000 ly distant, it is a remote
Messier, and is well beyond the galactic centre. This one was reasonably difficult to find and there was no resolution of the central stars in this glob. A small dim object, slightly mottled.
61,
User: kanadalainen
Messier Object: M76
Date: 10/October/2017
Location: Rural park, south of Winnipeg
Viewing Conditions: excellent transparency, 5*C, no wind
Light Zone/
Bortle Zone: 5
Telescope Name: Orion
dob
Telescope Model: XT10i
Telescope Size: 10” mirror
f-ratio: 4.7
Eyepiece model: ES82
Eyepiece mm: 11mm and 18 mm, used both
Mount: dobsonian
Observation: Little dumbbell in Perseus. A difficult object to see, but readily observable nonetheless. This one does not have any doughnut shape to it, more of a dumbbell – if one imagines hard enough. Grey to white in appearance, I would like to someday take a long time-lapse pic of this
Messier, to allow resolution of some colour. Its gratifying to find this dim
gem.
62,
User: kanadalainen
Messier Object: M45
Date: 10/October/2017
Location: Rural park, south of Winnipeg
Viewing Conditions: excellent transparency, 5*C, no wind
Light Zone/
Bortle Zone: 5
Telescope Name: Orion
dob
Telescope Model: XT10i
Telescope Size: 10” mirror
f-ratio: 4.7
Eyepiece model: ES82
Eyepiece mm: 11mm and 18 mm, used both
Mount: dobsonian
Observation: The Seven Sisters do make me feel “full”, even with no optical help in visualizing them. This may sound corny, but while I have seen these before, I could never be sure of their ID. This time I spotted them without the scope. I had to wait until relatively late (10:00 pm) to see them well above the horizon. At that time, I could easily see this
Messier without any binos or the
dob in the Eastern sky. In fact the large
dob pulled the view in too tightly to appreciate the entire formation, although with the
dob and the 18 mm, I could make out dozens of stars. The blueness of this cluster was apparent. I now know why Peltier mentions them so many times in his writing, beautiful. Perfect with low powered binoculars.
63,
User: kanadalainen
Messier Object: M38
Date: 10/October/2017
Location: Rural park, south of Winnipeg
Viewing Conditions: excellent transparency, 5*C, no wind
Light Zone/
Bortle Zone: 5
Telescope Name: Orion
dob
Telescope Model: XT10i
Telescope Size: 10” mirror
f-ratio: 4.7
Eyepiece model: ES82
Eyepiece mm: 11mm and 18 mm, used both
Mount: dobsonian
Observation: The starfish cluster. This is a great little cluster, with a bunch of triangles of stars highlighting this
Messier. Its not difficult to see how this cluster got its name. This
messier stands out easily from the background field. Stars of various magnitudes are easily visible.
64,
User: kanadalainen
Messier Object: M54
Date: 13/October/2017
Location: Rural park, south of Winnipeg
Viewing Conditions: good transparency, seeing average with cloud dodging, 3*C, breezy
Light Zone/
Bortle Zone: 5
Telescope Name: Orion
dob
Telescope Model: XT10i
Telescope Size: 10” mirror
f-ratio: 4.7
Eyepiece model: ES82
Eyepiece mm: 11mm and 18 mm, used both
Mount: dobsonian
Observation: A small extragalactic (wow!) globular cluster in Sagittarius, magnitude +7.59, but the sky was reasonably dark and it was easily detectable in the 18 mm. I love this part of the sky, as there are so many Messiers. This little glob is yet another treasure and was apparent as a smooth smudge in the 18 mm with the 11 mm view yielding some resolution of bordering stars. The dense core of the cluster remained smooth with no further resolution of stars, perhaps just on the bleeding edge of resolution. To my eye, no colours within stars of the cluster was observable. However this did not diminish the pleasure of its observation. I found this cluster at exactly 7:50 pm, which is one of my earliest timed observations in my log book. This glob is receding at the same pace as the Sag dwarf elliptical galaxy (DEG), and so is likely part of that galaxy. 87,000 ly distant from us. In 2009, a medium mass black hole was discovered in M54’s core.
65,
User: kanadalainen
Messier Object: M20
Date: 13/October/2017
Location: Rural park, south of Winnipeg
Viewing Conditions: good transparency, seeing was fair with cloud dodging, 4*C, breezy
Light Zone/
Bortle Zone: 5
Telescope Name: Orion
dob
Telescope Model: XT10i
Telescope Size: 10” mirror
f-ratio: 4.7
Eyepiece model: ES82
Eyepiece mm: 11mm and 18 mm, used both
Mount: dobsonian
Observation: The Trifid nebula, a pale blue (to my eye) emission nebula in Sagittarius. Magnitude estimates for this
Messier are all over the map, varying from 6.8 to 9.0. At the time of viewing, the sky was probably not dark enough to appreciate the full nebulosity of this wonderful
Messier (more on this below). Herschel coined the name and sub-divided the
Messier by its dark lane divisions. My reading on this object note that it was discovered by Le Gentil ~15 years before it was noted in
Messier’s catalogue.
Two for the price of one? A very interesting and striking feature of this
Messier is the close proximity of M20 to M21 (upside down and backwards in my
FOV) – these two objects were nicely visible in the 18 mm explore scientific eyepiece. I spent a lot of time on M20 to allow my eyes to dark adapt and attempt to improve the resolution of the nebula as the sky darkened. By 815 pm conditions had improved in the southern sky to the point that I could clearly distinguish the nebula. This is an extremely pretty
Messier and I will be back to do more visual work and possibly to image this
Messier when I do decide to take the plunge down the
AP or video astro rabbit hole. M20 is estimated to be 5200 ly from our system. This is a young nebula, at 300,000 years old, with many embryonic and newborn stars (discovered in 2005).
66,
User: Kanadalainen
Messier Object: M109
Date: 16/October/2017
Location: farm
Viewing Conditions: clear and very good seeing with excellent transparency
Light Zone/
Bortle Zone: 4 – milky way easily spotted
Telescope Name: Orion
dob
Telescope Model: XT10i
Telescope Size: 10” mirror
f-ratio: 4.7
Eyepiece model:
ES 82
Eyepiece mm: 11mm, 18mm, 28 mm
Mount: dobsonian
Observation: A barred spiral galaxy in the bear, with low surface brightness. A difficult
Messier to spot, particularly if there is any residual twilight. Discovered by Mechain in 1781,
Messier a few years after that, and by Herschel in 1789. This was a tough galaxy, initially just the faintest smudge in the
FOV, with my “seeker”
EP 18mm working well with averted vision. 84 million ly distant, receding from us fast (1200 km/sec), with three satellite galaxies that I could not detect.
67,
User: Kanadalainen
Messier Object: M108
Date: 16/October/2017
Location: farm
Viewing Conditions: clear and very good seeing with excellent transparency
Light Zone/
Bortle Zone: 4 – milky way easily spotted
Telescope Name: Orion
dob
Telescope Model: XT10i
Telescope Size: 10” mirror
f-ratio: 4.7
Eyepiece model:
ES 82
Eyepiece mm: 11mm, 18mm, 28 mm
Mount: dobsonian
Observation: A barred spiral galaxy in the bear. Another difficult
Messier to spot, and I spent 10 minutes searching around the projected region. I found it by jiggling my scope slightly back and forth, and then allowed my eye to acclimate to the light. Mechain found this one in 1782, and then again by Herschel in 1789 (a good year, apparently). This galaxy appears edge-on and again is a very faint
Messier object. A faint bar in the early evening, but improved slightly as the evening wore on. I think the seeing was partially obscured in this part of the sky due to smoke in the atmosphere from a stubble fire a few km west of my dark site. I could not detect a central bulge to this galaxy.Chandra observatory found evidence of a black hole at its core.
68,
User: Kanadalainen
Messier Object: M106
Date: 16/October/2017
Location: farm
Viewing Conditions: clear and very good seeing with excellent transparency
Light Zone/
Bortle Zone: 4 – milky way easily spotted
Telescope Name: Orion
dob
Telescope Model: XT10i
Telescope Size: 10” mirror
f-ratio: 4.7
Eyepiece model:
ES 82
Eyepiece mm: 11mm, 18mm, 28 mm
Mount: dobsonian
Observation: A bright and easily spotted galaxy in Canes Venatici. Mechain discovered this one in 1781. Magnitude 8.4 galaxy, one of the brighter galaxies to be found in this part of the sky. Faint outer halo and a very bright dense core. This one stands out well with averted vision. Spiral structure nuances were observed – a very rewarding
Messier, and a great example of a spiral system. 25 million ly distant and receding at 550 km/sec. This is a Seyfert galaxy with a likely supermassive black hole at its core.
69,
User: Kanadalainen
Messier Object: M97, The Owl Nebula
Date: 16/October/2017
Location: farm
Viewing Conditions: clear and very good seeing with excellent transparency
Light Zone/
Bortle Zone: 4 – milky way easily spotted
Telescope Name: Orion
dob
Telescope Model: XT10i
Telescope Size: 10” mirror
f-ratio: 4.7
Eyepiece model:
ES 82
Eyepiece mm: 11mm, 18mm, 28 mm
Mount: dobsonian
Observation: The Owl Nebula in the bear. A lovely but somewhat dim planetary nebula. Named the “Owl” for the distinctive eyes (voids), which were just barely discernable to me. I only saw this in whites and greys, unlike all the textbook shots. Discovered by Mechain in 1781, added by
Messier to his catalogue the same year. Lord Rosse coined the term Owl Nebula in 1848. This was a faint object in my conditions and with my scope. I would love to see this in darker skies.
70,
User: Kanadalainen
Messier Object: M25
Date: 16/October/2017
Location: farm
Viewing Conditions: clear and very good seeing with excellent transparency
Light Zone/
Bortle Zone: 4 – milky way easily spotted
Telescope Name: Orion
dob
Telescope Model: XT10i
Telescope Size: 10” mirror
f-ratio: 4.7
Eyepiece model:
ES 82
Eyepiece mm: 11mm, 18mm, 28 mm
Mount: dobsonian
Observation: Slewing around back to Sagittarius to see M25, an open cluster. This cluster is marked by the presence of spectral type M and G giants. This cluster is only 2000 ly distant. I counted around 30 bright stars in the cluster under medium power. These stars are oriented in two lanes. Mag – 6.5.
71,
User: Kanadalainen
Messier Object: M28
Date: 16/October/2017
Location: farm
Viewing Conditions: clear and very good seeing with excellent transparency
Light Zone/
Bortle Zone: 4 – milky way easily spotted
Telescope Name: Orion
dob
Telescope Model: XT10i
Telescope Size: 10” mirror
f-ratio: 4.7
Eyepiece model:
ES 82
Eyepiece mm: 11mm, 18mm, 28 mm
Mount: dobsonian
Observation: M28 is a globular cluster in Sagittarius, discovered by
Messier in 1764. Smaller than most of the neighbouring globs such as M22. A tight globular, easily spotted, with a dense core. I could see granularity on the outer edges and those quickly thinned out to a loose halo of stars. Total magnitude of 6.8. 18,000 ly distant.
72,
User: Kanadalainen
Messier Object: M36
Date: 16/October/2017
Location: farm
Viewing Conditions: clear and very good seeing with excellent transparency
Light Zone/
Bortle Zone: 4 – milky way easily spotted
Telescope Name: Orion
dob
Telescope Model: XT10i
Telescope Size: 10” mirror
f-ratio: 4.7
Eyepiece model:
ES 82
Eyepiece mm: 11mm, 18mm, 28 mm
Mount: dobsonian
Observation: An open cluster in Auriga. Remarkable in its placement, as if a giant celestial hand stole a patch of the milky way and glued it into open space. Upside down and backwards it did look like a pinwheel, as advertised. Hodierna, Le Gentil and
Messier discovered this one independently and in that order. Total magnitude of 6.3. A concentrated patch of stars, very noticable when sweeping the sky north to south. 4100 ly distant.
73,
User: Kanadalainen
Messier Object: M37
Date: 16/October/2017
Location: farm
Viewing Conditions: clear and very good seeing with excellent transparency
Light Zone/
Bortle Zone: 4 – milky way easily spotted
Telescope Name: Orion
dob
Telescope Model: XT10i
Telescope Size: 10” mirror
f-ratio: 4.7
Eyepiece model:
ES 82
Eyepiece mm: 11mm, 18mm, 28 mm
Mount: dobsonian
Observation: A remarkably tight “open cluster”, appearing to be a partially dispersed globular cluster, like M10 after partying to hard – blown up as it were.
Very pretty and very much worth the long wait as it slowly ascended in the Northern sky. Discovred by Hodierna first around 1654.
Messier found it without Le Gentil’s help, kind of a rare event. This is a very rich cluster of multiple colours, with orange and red stars clearly visible. I could see about 4 or 5 red stars at high power. A great
Messier.