Observing from Sea Ranch

The whole family is in Sea Ranch for a few days. I packed all my gear. 

Tonight I did some visual observations with the Dobsonian and the binoviewers. I switched briefly to the Baader zoom and did some quick observations with the 12x70 and the 2x40 and with the naked eyes as well. I set up the telescope on the deck of the house so it's not a 360 degrees view. Also for a while, a neighbor had some lights on, so I had to move the telescope so that I wouldn't be looking straight at it when putting my eyes on the eye pieces. At the end, I took the finderscope, laser and binoviewers off and put the cover on but left the telescope out (we will see if I come to regret that decision tomorrow).

Great conditions, probably better than Lake Sonoma. Milky Way looked about the same, but DSOs were easy to find and see. I saw some that I had never managed to observe through the EP (Flame Nebula, Rosette Nebula, M78, Hamburger galaxy etc). I managed to see a lot of galaxies. Most of time, I see just the bright nucleus. Sometimes, I can guess the elongated shape. I can never make out the arms.

I observed the moon (last quarter) after waking up in the morning. It was quite low in the sky (less than 20 deg), so I had to sit on cushions on the floor. Daytime moon is not impressive as nighttime moon. I tried both the binoviewers and the Baader zoom.

Observations:

  • M42 Great Orion Nebula: very nice
  • NGC 2024 Flame Nebula - Orion: first time through EP
  • M78 Casper the Ghost Nebula - Orion: another first
  • M44 Beehive Cluster - Cancer: visible with the naked eyes
  • M67 Golden Eyes Cluster - Cancer
  • M41 Little Beehive Cluster - Canis Major: "visible" with the naked eyes
  • M35 and NGC 2158 next to it - Open Clusters - Gemini
  • M36, M37, M38 - Open Clusters - Auriga: also with the binoculars, so easy to find
  • NGC 2169 - Little Pleiades - Orion
  • C49 Rosette Nebula - Monoceros - could actually some of the darker clouds around - another first
  • M95, M96, M105, NGC 3384 - Galaxies - Leo
  • M65, M66, NGC 3628 - Leo Triplet - first time I can see the Hamburger Galaxy (NGC 3628)
  • Mel 111 - Open Cluster - Coma Berenice - with the naked eyes
  • Markarian Chain - Virgo: M84, M86, NGC 4387, NGC 4438 & NGC 4435 (The Eyes), NGC 4481, NGC 4473, NGC 4477 and probably a few more
  • More Virgo cluster Galaxies: M60, NGC 4638, M59, M58, M89, M90, M87 and more
  • M53 Globular Cluster - Coma Berenices, but failed to see the nearby globular cluster NGC 5053
  • M3 Globular Cluster - Canes Venatici
  • M109 Vacuum Galaxy - Ursa Major
  • M108 Surfboard Galaxy - Ursa Major
  • M97 Owl Nebula - Ursa Major, just a disk but clearly visible
  • M106 Galaxy - Canes Venatici
  • Failed to locate/see NGC 3148 Galaxy - Ursa Major: it was getting late and I was rushing with the star hopping
  • Moon (last quarter): in the morning