#18 GRAND TOUR LIMPS ON.

 27th MAY 2022

  Making my first observation of the year at the end of May was not what I planned but at least I get up and running ( ....limping?) with one of the finest galaxies in the sky.

M51

M51 The famous Whirlpool galaxy and its companion NGC 5195 ( passing behind M51 )  Even on my 20 x 12" exposure plenty of structure is visible in the spiral arms. 31 million light years away in Canes Venatici .  GT 147

M3

 Although already observed on the Grand Tour I could not resist another look at Globular Cluster M3.

#17 CHASING THE SWAN

 30th October 2021

  Despite being considered a summer constellation Cygnus is still high enough for viewing deep into Autumn.

NGC 7027  I observed this magnitude 8 Planetary Nebula visually with the 8" SCT.   At  x222 its double lobed structure is apparent aligned  North - South with the N component appearing slightly larger. Appears somewhat blue/grey in colour. No internal structure can be made out.

NGC 7026  Small magnitude 11 Planetary Nebula about 20" across. Also has a double lobed structure. No colour apparent.

NGC 7008    Magnitude 11 annular Planetary observed with Infinity camera.  Elongated N - S and with some structure apparent. Bluish colour with green patch to South. Two stars within are probably field stars.

NGC 6960  Western part of Veil Supernova remnant adjacent to52 Cygni. I have seen this well visually in the past but tonight it is only just visible on the image. 

IC 5146

IC 5146  Cocoon Nebule.  Large, faint red nebulosity crossed by darker lanes. Very rich field.  12' x 15'.

NGC6866  Rich Open Cluster discovered by Caroline Herschel

  Heading North over the border into Cepheus to have a look at.....

NGC 7129  Small red nebula with dark lanes.Several bright field stars obscure the view.

 

4th November 2022

    Two Open Clusters in Cepheus were observed visually and sketched with the 8" SCT  x77.

NGC 6823  Four of the brightest stars in this cluster  including a double lie at the center. Many fainter stars are seen with averted vision. Scattered outer stars blend into the field stars.

NGC 6940  Rich magnitude 6 group surround magnitude 7 orange variable star FG Vulpecula.  Cluster stars are around magnitude 10 to 11 mainly to SW of FG Vul.

  This brings The Grand Tour total to 146.

# 16 Grand Tour heads to Cepheus

 29th September 2021

 At this time of year the constellation of Cepheus lies overhead in the evening so it seemed a good opportunity to take a tour.

NGC 7510

NGC 7510   Striking wedge shaped open cluster that stands out from the field stars. About 4'  in size  and magnitude 8  it lies right on the border with Cassiopeia. It lies about 11,400 ly away in the Perseus spiral arm and is around 10 million years old.

 NGC 6939   Very rich magnitude 8 open cluster about7' across. Apparently it is over 1 billion years old and is about 4000ly distant.

NGC 7023

NGC 7023   The"Iris Nebula" is a reflection nebula surrounding the 7th magnitude star SAO 19158.  My image shows only the brighter  inner parts of the 18' diameter nebula. Blue colour is evident as well as a lot of structure. It is about 6 light years across and 1300 ly away.

NGC 6946

NGC 6946  I  was not aware that Cepheus contained any bright galaxies so this beautiful face on spiral was a surprise. Multiple spiral arms emanate from a relatively small nucleus. Lots of structure can be seen including blue star forming regions and dark dust lanes. Its diameter is around 40,000 ly and lies 25 million ly away, just beyond our Local Group. This galaxy is notable for hosting ten supernovae over the last 100 years, more than seen in any other Galaxy

NGC 436

NGC 436   Small, rich magnitude 8.8 open cluster in Cassiopeia. Brightest stars make a similar wedge pattern to NGC 7510 observed earlier.

 And with this little jaunt over to Cassiopeia the observing session ended as the clouds rolled in. NGC 436 brings my Grand Tour total up to 137.

# 15 Spring Galaxies.

16th March 2021.

  As the evening sky darkens the Winter constellations are already sinking into the west. I took a visual look at two open clusters in Monoceros.

NGC 2264  The Christmas Tree Cluster.  Does indeed resemble lights on a Christmas Tree, although an upside down one when viewed north up. Fills field of view at x 33, fairly scattered.

NGC 2301  Chain of stars going north - south with a branch going east intersecting at a bright double star with an orange primary and green tinted secondary. Many fainter magnitude 10 to 12 stars complete quite a pleasing looking cluster.

16th April 2021.

 A clear night and an opportunity to tour the spring galaxies with the Infinity camera, but first a visual look at a Messier Open Cluster in Hydra.

M48   Fills field of view at x33. Bright and faint stars form a round cluster condensed at the centre. View partially obscured by the washing line

M95

 M95     Barred spiral galaxy in Leo with a bright nucleus.  The two spiral arms appear to form a closed ring around the centre.  

M96  Lies close in the sky to  M96 and also has a bright nucleus

 Just below the head of Leo lies the relatively small and sparse constellation of Sextans. It does however contain a couple of fine galaxies on my list.       

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

NGC 3115

          NGC 3115  Edge on " Spindle Galaxy" . Very striking bright galaxy with a large almost intensely bright central bulge, Magnitude 9 and 14" x 60".

NGC 3166  Bright and condensed forms a pair with NGC 3169. Fainter more elongated galaxy to NW?

Ursa Major  contains many interesting galaxies that I have never really explored so tonight  was a good opportunity to hunt down a few.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

NGC 3184

NGC 2841   Large magnitude 9 spiral at an oblique angle with a bright centre

NGC 3184  Large  face on  magnitude 9 spiral. Two  extensive and open spiral arms extend from a relatively small nucleus.  A couple of "branches" extend from these arms. A lot of structure is visible including blue star forming regions. One to add to my "must have a closer look" list.

NGC 3665   Small magnitude 9.8 elliptical with a bright core

NGC 3675

NGC 3675  Striking magnitude 10 spiral lying at an oblique angle.  Well defined spiral arms surround a bright core. Another interesting and attractive galaxy in Ursa Major!

NGC 3941  Magnitude 10 spiral. Large, bright core with bright extensions North - South.  Fainter oval disc at a slight angle to this.

   Back down to Leo and Leo Minor to conclude the evenings observing.

NGC 3504

NGC 3810  Large Spiral galaxy in Leo. Small, bright nucleus surrounded by a disc from which extend at least three spiral arms.

NGC 3344  Face on spiral in Leo Minor. Small, well defined nucleus from which extend several diffuse spiral arms. Two magnitude 10 stars lie on the west edge.

NGC 3504 Compact spiral in Leo Minor. Bright nucleus with elongated disc / spiral arms extending from it. Rather curious brighter structures lie at the ends of this disc. NGC 3512 lies in the same field to ENE and a faint galaxy lies between.

Orion's Nebula

11th March 2021

M42

   March? So what happened to January and February I hear you say. Well cloudy skies that's what happened. Yes there were some partly clear moonless nights but never at at a convenient time and yes there were one or two nights I just didn't feel like it.  However with Orion rapidly sinking towards the early spring evening horizon a clear night in early March saw me setting the telescope up for the first time this year.

M42 The first object viewed this year was the last one I looked at last year namely the Great Nebula itself.  Of all the deep sky objects on my tour this is the most spectacular and even with a short exposure time the Infinity camera brings out a lot of the structure and colour that fills the field of view.   M43 is the smaller nebula to the north of M42.

NGC 2024

NGC 2024  Large emission nebula similar in size to M42 lies just east of  Alnitak the eastern star of Orion's belt. Ultraviolet light from the star causes the nebula to emit light. A cluster of young stars apparently lies behind the dark gas and dust obscuring the central regions.  

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

NGC 1999

NGC 1999  From huge emission nebula just observed this  small 1.5 arc minute reflection nebula is quite a contrast. It surrounds and is lit by the variable star V380 Orionis. The dark patch in the center is now believed to be a hole in the cloud rather than dark material. This is my first observation of this object.  

NGC 1788 Another reflection nebula surrounding some tenth magnitude stars and is rather faint on my image.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

NGC 1973

                                                                                                                                                                                      NGC 1973 Large reflection nebula to north of M42. Rather nice blue colour. The darker lanes bisecting the nebula form the well known "Running Man" feature.    

This brings my Grand Tour total to 117 objects.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

#13 Review Of The Year

 31st December 2020

 So as this year of the plague draws to a close I thought I would look back at one of its more positive aspects. For me this was getting back out under the stars and doing some observing. The Grand Tour Project was created as motivation to get out though my initial plan of it taking two years was over ambitious. The observation of Perseus open cluster NGC 1513 ended this years observing run which had started 111 objects earlier with the giant elliptical galaxy M86 in Virgo on the 11th May. These early observations were done at a rush just ticking objects of the list rather than doing them justice. Later on I decided to take more time with each object and find out more about each of them.

  As a comet fan the highlight of the year was without question Comet C/2020 F3 Neowise. A bright naked eye comet reaching above magnitude 1  and visible from suburban skies occurs maybe once every decade. This one also looked like most peoples idea of a comet with a long sweeping tail. Other highlights include the bright Supernova in M61 and getting a look at Mars during this favourable apparition.

 Every year I am going to pick ten objects from my observations to return to sometime and have a closer look. These will be objects that have either intrigued me or surprised me or maybe I have just taken a fancy to. This year I have selected the following:

NGC 1275 and the Perseus Galaxy Cluster. Vast group of galaxies in one field of view, awe inspiring.

NGC 520  This pair of colliding galaxies in Pisces looks unusual even on my small image. 

NGC 891  Impressive perfectly edge on spiral galaxy in Andromeda.

NGC 7662 Blue Snowball Planetary Nebula Andromeda. Surprising amount of detail on small image.

M33 Local Group spiral galaxy. Amazing star clouds. Want to take a more detailed image.

NGC 7320 and Stephans Quintet.  Just dots on my image. 

NGC 7479  Beautiful barred spiral in Pegasus.

NGC 6819 Surprisingly rich open cluster in Cygnus.

NGC 6631 Could not quite work out where this Scutum cluster started or finished.

NGC 6857 I need to have another look at this Cygnus Planetary Nebula.

   Although I prefer visual observing my light polluted skies do not allow proper dark adaption to see faint objects. This year I  acquired an Atik Infinity colour video camera so I can view faint objects "live" on a laptop screen. This camera has made a big improvement to my observing and I hope to do a review of it sometime.

  Writing this blog was inspired by  "Uncle" Rod Mollise' astro blog which I have followed for a long time. Like "Unk" I have made an effort to observe the Orion Nebula M42 every Christmas Eve and this year despite being swamped by moonlight I got a nice view with my 4" f5 refractor.  With direct vision the Great Nebula looked red in colour but with averted vision this effect disappeared. A little more magnification separated the quartet of stars at the heart of the nebula.  As I packed the telescope away Leo  and the realm of the galaxies were rising in the east where the Grand Tour began in the Spring.  It was a nice way to round off the year.

M42

  So what are my plans for next year? There are a number of variable stars on the tour that I would like to follow over the year and there are also a lot of double stars to look at. Other than Mars I did not do much planet observing this year so I hope to do more. Otherwise I will carry on tracking down objects on the list and hopefully enjoy it as much as I did this year.

#12 Seeing Double

 20/12/2020

   Up to now on The Grand Tour I have only observed one double star; and that was an all to superficial glance at the showpiece double Beta Cygni. There are in fact 89 doubles on the list so tonight I decided it was time to hunt down a few more starting with three in Aries. All observed visually with the 8" SCT  f10 x210.

Gamma Arietis   Both components are magnitude 4.8  and separated by 8".  Both appear white with maybe a hint of yellow

Lambda Arietis  Separated by 37" with components of magnitude 4.9 and 7.7. The primary is a golden yellow colour and to me the secondary has a lavender blue tint.

1 Arietis   Very widely separated by about 3'  and magnitudes 6.2 and 7.4.  The primary has  a golden yellow tint and the secondary white / blue but the colours are not so obvious as Lamda just observed. 

.   A quick trip to Andromeda now with my wide field eyepiece x60 to observe Open Cluster               NGC 752  At 50' across this large cluster fills the field of view. The brightest star on view is orange and terminates the southern end. A white double terminates the northern end. The main body of the cluster sprawls out between these and is moderately rich. No fainter stars are hinted at with averted vision.

 The Infinity video camera was now attached for some galaxy hunting.

NGC 672  Spiral galaxy in Triangulum with what appears to be a diffuse elongated core. Forms a nice group with at least two other galaxies rather like the Leo triplet but fainter.

NGC 925  Barred spiral galaxy also in Triangulum. Elongated and also has a diffuse, spread out central area. Faint spiral arms are visible. A bright spot near the centre is, I guess, a foreground star.

   I never associated Perseus with galaxies but two rather fine ones make my list.

NGC 1275 and Perseus Galaxy Cluster

 NGC 1275  Magnitude 12 galaxy classed as peculiar but appears like an elliptical with a bright core. Brightest member of compact cluster of galaxies with at least 10 in the field of view. Apparently the closest super cluster  to Virgo.

NGC 1023  Magnitude 9.4 elliptical galaxy with a very impressive, bright core.

 Staying in Perseus for two fine Open Clusters.

NGC 1245

 NGC 1245  Very rich in relatively faint stars and fairly compressed. Has chains of stars curving away from centre rather like a loose globular.

 NGC 1513  Rich group of stars of varying magnitudes elongated north to south.

 To finish of the evening I had another look at Comet M3 Atlas.

Comet M3 Atlas

Well condensed nucleus with tail fading away to north - east. Around magnitude 10.