SD Home - 8th March 2008

Date: 8th March 2008, Saturday
Observation Time : 7pm to 8:05pm (1:05 hrs)
Location : Home Patio, SD CA
Seeing : Okay
Transparency : Okay
Cloud Cover : Somewhat
Instrument : My 6' dob

Highlight of the night: M42 - Great Orion Nebula

I took out my dob today, probably after 5 months. Until now, because of bad weather in SD, I really didn't get a chance to observe anything... but today, finally, I made my first observation of this year.

It was somewhat cloudy. From my patio, only SW sky is visible.. so some part of Orion and whole Canis Major was visible. so obviously the first choice was M42.

Its first time I observed M42 from my dob., since I bought it. Being the brightest nebula in the sky, I had high hopes.... and indeed..it didn't disappoint me. Observed through 35mm and 2x barlow eyepiece .

Initially M42 looked like a cloud, but more my eyes set on it, the true shape was visible. The dish structure - "wings" are truly awesome.. The "fish mouth" was dark and pretty big than I expected. 3 bright stars on SE are parallel to "fish moth". The Trapezium cluster at the top of the "fish mouth" is striking. I was easily able to resolve stars A,C,D, B .. From my 10x50 binocs, I guess I have seen only C star (not sure abt D) , but with the 6" dob, without any mistake the trapezium was visible. On SW of "fish mouth" another protruding dark tower is visible (don't know the name)..somewhat perpendicular to "fish mouth"and 1/3 rd in size. At SE of this tower there is bright a star hanging.

(Photo credit:.. from net somewhere.. the "visual" image is somewhat similar to what I saw, but I had clear and zoomed view..)

Had some focusing problem with the dob.. Stars weren't visible as precise points.. probably some parallax.. need to do some alignment.

Missed M43, at NE corner of M42... next time !!

Sirius was beautiful... like a big diamond.. because of clouds (or probably optics), there was some diffraction of light, causing visual of rays spreading out from Sirius.. it indeed gave me a feeling of "Tanishque / Jared" diamond... simply fabulous :) .... I wasn't aware that Sirius is a double star, but difficult to resolve... still.. will try it next time !!

M41 open cluster in Canis Major was easy catch. Its around 5 deg south of Sirius. Seems like it has ~50 stars, with lots of them in pairs. Wasn't able to resolve their colors.. but some of them seem to be reddish.. not sure.. In order to remember it, I tried to visualize some shape in the star cluster... Bright stars in the cluster seemed like forming a shape "E" with central line extended backwards, like a 3 pronged fork.. or its like a small "Trishul".

Any way... didn't spend much time today.. only 45 mins.. but surely a good start for year 2008... was planning for Messier Marathon at TDS today.. but weather sort of disappointed me..

Interesting Links:
- M42 at SEDS
- M42 sketches It looked somewhat similar from my 6" dob.
- Trapezium Cluster
- M42 Regional map