Observing at the end of February

The winter was extremely bad to do astronomical observations.  We had a lot of storms, rain, clouds, and only a few clear nights, but mostly at moments when the moon was too bright to observe. But for the last weekend of February, all weather prediction sites prognosed nice clear nights around the new moon.  I could observe on Friday and Sunday evening.  There were some high clouds on Saturday before midnight, so I did not observe.  On Monday evening, the sky was only good for 2 hours before the clouds covered the whole sky.  As some rain was predicted during the second part of the night, I moved the telescope inside and did not observe.

Friday 25: Family stargazing, testing new stuff, C/2019 L3 ATLAS and NGC 1501

It was still raining in the afternoon, but as predicted, the sky cleared out totally and it was a very clear night.  After collimating the Obsession telescope, around 20:00, Lotte and Sara joined me to see some spectacular objects. We looked at the following objects:

• M 45, the pleiades:  The field of view of the Obsession telescope using the Tele Vue 31mm Nagler is a little bit more than 1 degree, while the whole open cluster spans around 2 degrees, so the pleiades could not all be seen in one field of view.  It is however always impressive to see a large amount of bright stars in one field of view.
• M 35, the open cluster in Gemini: This open cluster has a size of 40' and fits perfectly in the Tele Vue 31mm Nagler.  A lot of - compared to M 45 less bright - stars filled the field of view.  I could also spot the small open cluster NGC 2158 in the same field of view.
• M 42, the Orion nebula: A real spectacular sight!  A lot of details could be seen in the nebula and the nebula was clearly greenish.

Lotte and Sara looking at M 35.

After Lotte went to bed, I set up everything to start observing.  I made a wireless connection between the Nexus DSC Pro and SkySafari.  The connection worked very well and no problems were encountered during the two observing nights.  The Nexus DSC Pro was really accurate and all objects I looked for were nicely in the field of view.

I ordered and received a Dew Control controller and a dew heater for my eyepieces, but the cable I have is not long enough to reach the upper cage from the power distributor in the mirror box.  The tests of the dew heater will be for later, when the extension cable arrives.  

During my stay in the US, I bought a Tele Vue 13mm Ethos and a Tele Vue 8mm Ethos eyepiece.  I took some time to test these eyepieces and the views are very nice.  The enormous field of view give very nice views.  

Real observations started at 20:40 and ended at 22:15.  Seeing was not good at all, and also the SQM was bad.  Temperature dropped from 4.0° to 0.5°.  Humidity went from 85% to 92%.  There was not a lot of wind.

I observed comet C/2019 L3 (ATLAS) and NGC 1501.

Some light painting in the garden°

Sunday 27: Orion nebula, C/2019 L3 (ATLAS) and NGC 2022

I started observing at 20:45 and ended at 22:35.  Seeing was a bit better than Friday, but the SQM was still worse than can be expected from the backyard.  Temperature dropped from 3.9° to 0.6°.  Humidity went from 67% to 79%.  There was not a lot of wind.

I observed M 42, comet C/2019 L3 (ATLAS) and the astroforum object of the month NGC 2022.

After these observations, I had a quick look at M 1, M 78, M 81 and M 82.