Observing
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Ok. So what have I seen so far? The short answer to that is "not a lot" at first. I didn't have goto or setting circles originally but with my copy of "Turn Left At Orion" and a bit of perseverance with star hopping things began improving dramatically after a while, and I'm getting to grips with finding even more interesting stuff now my goto setup is sorted
Below is a list of what I've seen so far, and what I thought at the time
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Solar System
On our doorstep there are planets, moons, comets, meteors etc, lots of which are very easy to find as a novice by naked eye, with a pair of binos or a small scope. I spent my 1st few weeks looking at Solar System stuff while I learned the ins & outs of observing and I still enjoy having a look at the planets etc when there are any to be seen from my observatory
The Sun I've done a bit of Solar observing using Baader Solar Film. Interesting when there are some sunspots to see.
Mercury With the naked eye when it was at greatest eastern elongation and easy to spot at dusk on the western horizon
Venus High in the west in a dark sky at max eastern elongation. It looked like a mini half moon. Very nice
The Moon Of course. Much more interesting than I imagined. Jaw droppingly stunning at a few days old. My 2nd "wow" moment
Mars Disappointingly small. Polar ice caps? No chance. Maybe when I'm more experienced I'll be able to see them (see below)
Update - Dec 2007 . Mars is much closer. Could see lots of surface detail! Better with a 32A red filter but detail visible without one
Jupiter A truly superb site in decent seeing conditions. Lots of challenging detail to pick out but needs lots of practice to see it
Jupiter's Galilean Moons Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. Nobody ever mentions seeing them. Beautiful. My first "wow" moment
Saturn A stunning site in good seeing. Cassini Division & a cloud belt visible. Poor seeing seems to affect the rings quite badly
Saturn's moons Rhea, Tethys and Titan. 3 in a line. Nice. There were others in the field but could not spot them. Must try harder!
Update - Dione & Enceladus spotted along with the 3 above. A fabulous site
Uranus Low in the South and not well resolved but a tick in the box all the same
Neptune As above
Pluto Not yet but I'll bag it soon!!
Comet Swan (C2006 M4) Only visible from my hideously light polluted front lawn, so the view was not great but at least I saw it...
Comet Mc Naught (C2006 P1) WOW!! Possibly the brightest and most spectacular comet for decades. Absolutely awesome site!
Comet Holmes (17P) In Oct 07 it's brightness increased 1,000,000 times without warning giving naked eye visibility and great views
Perseid Meteor Shower A very active meteor shower caused by The Earth Moving through the tail of Comet Swift Tuttle each July
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Deep Sky
Messier Objects. The Messier catalogue is a list of 110 deep sky objects. Compiled by Charles Messier as a list of objects to be avoided by comet hunters it has ironically become the bible for most up & coming (Northern Hemisphere) deep sky observers
M1 - The Crab Nebula. The seeing was awful but this famous supernova remnant is a nice one to have under my belt as a novice
M3 - A globular cluster in Canes Venatici. Nice large globular. Bright and well defined
M5 - A globular cluster in Serprens Caput. Small but crisp & well worth finding
M8 - The Lagoon Nebula. Lots of nebulosity visible with a UHC filter and a nice cluster (NGC 6530) to the south
M11 - The Wild Duck Cluster. Absolutely superb open cluster. Large with lots of easily resolved stars. My favourite OC
M13 - The Great Globular Cluster in Hercules. Probably the best known GC, it's dense but lots of stars can be resolved on a clear night
M16 - The Eagle Nebula. Questionable whether any nebulosity was visible, even with UHC filter as it filled the field
M17 - The Omega (Swan) Nebula. Easily visible as a long thin diffuse nebula.
M20 - The Triffid Nebula. Nice large diffuse nebula with a large star cluster. Very nice but always low in UK skies
M21 - An open cluster in Sagittarius. Quite sparse but nice OC
M22 - A globular cluster in Sagittarius. The best globular I've seen. A huge globe of easily resolved stars. A beautiful sight
M23 - An open cluster in Sagittarius. Very sparse cluster
M25 - An open cluster in Sagittarius. Fairly sparse open cluster.
M26 - An open cluster in Sagittarius. Very wide, hardly even a cluster, more of a rich star field
M27 - The Dumbbell Nebula. Easy to locate and quite a site
M29 - A strangely symmetrical open cluster in a busy part of Cygnus. Very nice
M31 - The Andromeda Galaxy. Observing this galaxy often, and it's getting better as the evenings get colder / clearer
M32 - Small satellite galaxy of M31. It's a lot further from M31 than I expected as I can only see M31's core from my observatory
M33 - The Triangulum Galaxy. Very faint indeed from light polluted skies and no detail is visible from my obs
M34 - An open cluster in Perseus. Sparse, unremarkable "salt & pepper" open cluster
M36 - An Open Cluster in Auriga. Nice small cluster with all stars in the field of similar magnitude. "Diamonds on black velvet" effect
M39 - An open cluster in Cygnus. Wide sparse open cluster. Very nice at low power
M42 & M43 - The Orion Nebula. The brightest diffuse nebula in the sky. Loads of subtle detail. Needs a good long look
M44 - The Beehive Cluster. Very easy to find and a very nice cluster at low power
M45 - The Pleiades. looks like seven stars (hence "Seven Sisters") but is actually a few hundred. Nice in binos, great in my scope too
M50 - An open cluster in Monoceros. I couldn't resolve any individual stars
M51 - The Whirlpool Galaxy. Not difficult to star hop to but difficult to see anything other than the cores unless you have dark skies
M52 - A fairly faint open cluster in a rich Milky Way star field in Cassiopeia
M56 - A globular cluster in Lyra. Very faint under summer skies. No detail, just fuzz
M57 - The Ring Nebula. An easy hop and well worth the effort. A textbook planetary nebula
M63 - The Sunflower Galaxy. Very nice spiral galaxy. One of my 1st decent deep sky pics
M64 - The Blackeye Galaxy. Couldn't make out any detail in this spiral galaxy, just the bright core
M65 & M66 - 2 of the 3 galaxies in the group known as the Leo Triplet. These are at least 20 million light years from Earth. Wow...
M67 - Nice small open cluster in a sparse piece of sky
M71 - A globular cluster in Sagitta. Very faint under summer skies. No detail, just fuzz
M76 - The little Dumbbell Nebula. Similar to M27 as the name suggests
M78 - Diffuse nebula in Orion. just a small fuzzball on the night I observed it despite good seeing
M81 - Bode's Galaxy. Face on spiral galaxy. Bright and easy to observe. A Northern Hemisphere favourite. See M82
M82 - The Cigar Galaxy. Edge on irregular galaxy which fits in the same field of view as M81 at low mag. A great pairing.
M92 - A globular cluster in Hercules. Small but takes magnification well with lots of stars resolved
M94 - A faint spiral galaxy in Canes Venatici. Could not resolve any detail
M101 - A large spiral galaxy with scruffy broken spirals. Unusual and interesting
M103 - An open cluster contained within a triangle of brighter stars. Nice view
M110 - Small satellite galaxy of M31. After looking at M31 for months I finally spotted it's neighbour M110
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Finest NGC Objects. A list of 110 targets chosen from the 7840 non stellar deep sky objects in the New General Catalogue
NGC281 - The Pacman Nebula in Cassiopeia. Easy to see from dark skies but couldn't resolve any detail at all
NGC457 - The Owl Cluster in Cassiopeia. An unusual open cluster which looks like a flying owl staring down your scope. great site
NGC869 & NGC 884 - The double cluster in Perseus. Nice in binos, but fabulous in my 42mm 2" WA eyepiece
NGC 3628 - The faintest of the Leo Triplet galaxies. 20 million light years (or maybe more) from Earth
NGC 6826 - The Blinking Planetary Nebula. Disappears when you look straight at it, reappears when you avert your gaze. Use low mag
NGC 7662 - The Blue Snowball Nebula in Andromeda. Small bright vivid blue planetary nebula. Looks like a star at low mag
NGC 7789 - a 1000 star open cluster which is quite large but also quite faint
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Other NGC Objects. Not the finest but still great! Enough stuff for a lifetime of deep sky observing
NGC 6530 - Cluster at the centre of the Lagoon Nebula. Nice. Worth a short hop
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Stars & Other stuff. Not from any particular catalogue, these are interesting stars, multiple star systems & asterisms etc
Ras Algethi A distant red giant with a close (can't be split) double star orbiting it. Striking colour contrast. B star Has greenish tint
Epsilon Lyrae - The Double Double. Two doubles orbiting each other. Could just about split each double in summer skies
Struve 2470 & 2474 - The Double Double's Double! Similar to above but the 2 doubles are not gravitationally bound to each other
Albireo A very nice double. A giant orange K class being orbited by a hot blue C class. easy to split, excellent colour contrast
Gamma Delphini Nice double star, Orange A star, greenish blue B star
Upsilon Andromedae Unspectacular star to look at but is at the heart of the 1st multiple exo planetary system to be discovered
51 Pegasi Again not much to look at but orbiting around it is the 1st exo planet to be discovered orbiting a Sun-like star
Schedar Alpha Cassiopeiae. Looks like a Binary but just a line of site double. Nice
Hip 7559 Found this nice double whilst sweeping Cassiopeia without charts. Don't know if it's binary or just a line of site double
Theta Tauri wide contrasty red / blue double star in the Hyades cluster just west of Aldebaran, the eye of Taurus. Great Contrast
Dubhe The northernmost of The Plough's pointers. Nice wide double star. Orange giant A star, much smaller yellowish B star
The Hyades A nice open cluster in binos @ 10x mag but any more mag may spoil the view.
The Trapezium Tight grouping of four stars at the centre of the Orion Nebula. Nice group.
Cor Carolli. Very nice double star. Bright blue A star and dimmer reddish B star
Algeiba. Nice double star
Omicron1 Cygni. Superb orange/blue/white treble star. Not a multiple star, just "line of site" but one of the best and my favourite
61 Cygni. A lovely cat's eyes double in a very busy Milky Way field, both stars are red.
Eta Cassiopeiae. Sometimes called Achird. A nice yellow / orange double. A true binary system
Mu Ursae Majoris A beautiful double. Huge red giant and dimmer (but still bright) yellow B star
Xi Ursae Majoris Very close double. both the same colour and same magnitude so tough to split
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