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M42 (Orion Nebula) (Bright Nebula, in Orion)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 127-mm other Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate Transparency: fair Seeing: fair
Time: Tue Feb 20 00:00:00 2007 UT Obs. no.: 1624
This evening, my brother Anthony and I observed several objects during a one hour period in 19 degree weather. The first thing we looked at was a beautiful pairing of the moon and Venus in the western sky. The earthshine was very bright and we could see some mares on the darkside of the moon. Saber's Beads were very obvious and this was my brother's first observation of them. They can be seen on the lower cusp of a crescent moon one or two days around full moon. The long period variable star Mira is currenly at 2nd magnitude in its cycle. When it is this bright, the star star appears to be orange in color. As Mira begins to fade, it will begin to look redder in color. We then began to switch our attention to Orion Nebula. Both M42 and M43 showed plenty of detail and exibited a pale green color. We then swithed to the belt stars were the nebulosity had a bluish tinge do to the blue color of the belt stars. The belt star Alnitak is a double star that was easilly split. We then went to Rigel were its faint companion was rather difficult to split. Its faint compaion was very close to Rigel. We swithed to Sirius in order to observe it with my Star Spectroscope. Its two hydrogen lines showed easily and this means Sirius is a healthy star. Next it was on to Saturn where I was able to show my brother his first view of the Seeliger effect which shows the rings of saturn in front of Saturn's face being brighter than usual because Saturn is at opposition. Saturn's moon Titan had a yellow orange glow to it because of its hazy atmosphere. Next we went to Regulus to split it and its companion. Regulus is a very wide double that even a small scope can easilly split. Finally I saved the best for last. Tonight was such a transparant galaxy night my brother and I decided to try for the small satellite galaxy Leo 1 which is located right next to Regulus. We found it almost instantly. It looked like a small oval shaped smudge. It looked about four Regulus' long and about two Regulus' wide. I thus finished my big day night double header of astronomy. During the day I saw no sunspots on the sun.
M42 (Orion Nebula) (Bright Nebula, in Orion)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 127-mm other Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate Transparency: fair Seeing: good
Time: Tue Nov 21 04:00:00 2006 UT Obs. no.: 1584
This evening, I observed the nebulosity of the constellation of Orion with my 127mm MAK and 12mm Televue Eyepiece. The Orion Nebula, M42 and M43 had a drab green color to it. There looked to be both tendrils and dustlanes in the nebula. The nebula does extend well beyond M42. An example is the belt stars of Orion in which each belt star is embedded in blue nebulosity. The nebula in that area is colored blue because the belt stars are so blue. Another nebula, NGC 1973 is just above the Orion Nebula and is an impressive nebula in its own right. In reality, NGC 1973 is really an extention of the Orion Nebula. Below M42, there is an open cluster in which some of the brighter members also seemed to have a little nebulosity. Finally, there is an impressive open cluster of stars around the three belt stars of Orion. This cluster is best seen with binoculars. A Leonid meteor zoomed by to the left of Orion to complete the evening's festivities.
M8 (Lagoon Nebula) (Bright Nebula, in Sagittarius)
Observer: Mel Dawson (e-mail: dawsonian2000@yahoo.com, web: http://www.vega-sky-center.com)
Instrument: 10-inch equatorial reflector Location: Riverview, Florida, United States
Light pollution: light Transparency: good Seeing: good
Time: Sat Jul 15 02:15:00 2006 UT Obs. no.: 1550
This day marked another pinnacle in the history of the Vega Sky Center with the testing of the new SAO 10" Newtonian Equatorial Fork Mount reflector. Gary Barabino of the VAO travel from Waggamans, LA on vacation to the Sunshine State to witness first light of this grand instrument.I had just complete test assembling the 10" Newtonian fork mount and decided to go ahead with mounting the optics since Gary was in town. The scope was rolled out of the garage and the first object interest we spotted was Jupiter, looming in the constellation Libra. We had not fully aligned the optics in the scope, but they were setup sufficiently for the test.Upon targeting Jupiter using a 26mm 2" GSO eyepiece, we were graced with a splendid image. The jovian moons Calisto, and Ganymede were on one side while Io, and Europa held tight on the other. The Red Spot was not visible, but I could see the shadow of Io just grazing the limb of Jupiter. Though the optical combination only yeild 55x, this gave me verification of the integrety of the mirror.Next it was time to test the optics on a deep sky object. We chose M8, the Lagoon Nebula. Gary took the drivers seat and quickly landed the nebula in the field of view. He focused and gave out Vega's infamous yell of "Look at that!...". The intense center nebulosity glowed fairly bright, and the cluster just to side glistened. Not bad for a set of optics created back in 1986 and being used for the first time. We continued sweeping the area of the center of the Milky Way in and near Sagittarius and saw countless stars. Star cluster sparkled like hand fulls of diamonds!Unfortunately, the testing/ observing came to a rather sudden end when clouds begin to filter in from the east obscuring the sky completely in a matter of minutes. Nevertheless, we accomplished what we sat out to do, and that was to verify the optics were of good quality.We concluded the session with removing the OTA and taking out the mirrors to complete the finishing process of the scope. The check out the step-by-step construction process for this grand instrument, please go to http://www.vega-sky-center.com. We are updating the website on a regular basis. Also check out the drop-down boxes to reveal a list of our favorite sites.Clear Skies, Forever!Mel DawsonThe Vega Sky Center
M20 (Trifid Nebula) (Bright Nebula, in Sagittarius)
Observer: Joe Caggiano (e-mail: jcaggiano@mindspring.com, web: http://home.mindspring.com/~jcaggiano/)
Instrument: 6-inch equatorial reflector Location: Glenside, Pa, USA
Light pollution: moderate Transparency: good Seeing: good
Time: Sat Jun 17 05:45:00 2006 UT Obs. no.: 1544
After having some decent luck with the UHC filter, I moved further south along "nebula row". Closer to the star Kaus Borealis (the top star in the Tea Kettle) I spotted M20. It was located approx. 6.2 NW of the star. Using the filter made all the difference in the bright southern sky. The nebula appeared as a roundish cloud with multiple bright regions around the edges surrounding darker lanes in the center. It appeared about twice as large as M16 though not as bright. Stars dotted the perimeter of the cloud. It is listed as magnitude 6.3.
M42 (Orion Nebula) (Bright Nebula, in Orion)
Observer: Joe Caggiano (e-mail: jcaggiano@mindspring.com, web: http://home.mindspring.com/~jcaggiano/)
Instrument: 6-inch equatorial reflector Location: Glenside, Pa, USA
Light pollution: light Transparency: excellent Seeing: excellent
Time: Wed Mar 8 01:45:00 2006 UT Obs. no.: 1508
Nice viewing of M42 and M43 region. Using binoviewers at 71x and 142x and a Nebula Filter, the Great Nebula Region was huge! Long whisps of mist coiled around inside my FOV and the M43 cloud was also readily visible. The trapezium yielded 5 stars without the Nebula filter but only 4 stars with it on the eyepiece. The stars lose about a magnitude or so when using the filters in order to draw out more contrast for the nebula,s visibility.
M42 (Orion Nebula) (Bright Nebula, in Orion)
Observer: Joe Caggiano (e-mail: jcaggiano@mindspring.com, web: http://home.mindspring.com/~jcaggiano/)
Instrument: 6-inch equatorial reflector Location: Glenside, Pa, USA
Light pollution: light Transparency: excellent Seeing: excellent
Time: Mon Feb 20 02:00:00 2006 UT Obs. no.: 1496
Simply beautiful view of the Great Nebula. It was crisp and easy to view at any power (71x up to 203x). Made out 5 stars in the Trapezium. M43 appeared larger than usual due to the excellent observing conditions. Still have not been able to see any real detail to NCG 1973, 1975 or 1977 as of yet. Perhaps through time exposure I will have some luck.
M42 (Orion Nebula) (Bright Nebula, in Orion)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 10-mm binoculars Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate Transparency: fair Seeing: good
Time: Mon Feb 13 23:15:00 2006 UT Obs. no.: 1490
This evening, after finishing work, my friend Don Hartlin and I took a ten minute binocular view of the night sky. First we went to M42 the Orion Nebula. In 10X50 binoculars, M42 looked like a small nebula with two blue stars in it. We then shifted to the three belt stars of Orion to observe Colandor 70, which is an open cluster of stars around the three belt stars. M45, the Pleiades, looks great in binoculars. However, because it wasn't quite dark out, we could not see the blue color of the stars. Finally The Hyades open cluster was really impressive with its mostly yellow stars. All in all, a nice evening of observing.
M42 (Orion Nebula) (Bright Nebula, in Orion)
Observer: B (e-mail: brilbri29@hotmail.com)
Instrument: 8-inch equatorial reflector Location: Denver, Colorado, USofA
Light pollution: moderate Transparency: good Seeing: poor
Time: Thu Dec 29 16:00:00 2005 UT Obs. no.: 1459
Bright Nebula in Orion. Very bright. Could see the wavy fingers of the nebula, if you know what I mean.Slit the trapezium easily, I was going to go for the fainter star 1F but forgot!! Can't believe it.
M42 (Orion Nebula) (Bright Nebula, in Orion)
Observer: Akarsh Simha (e-mail: akarsh_simha@fastmail.fm)
Instrument: 8-inch equatorial reflector Location: Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Light pollution: none Transparency: excellent Seeing: excellent
Time: Thu Dec 8 22:00:00 2005 UT Obs. no.: 1447
This observation was from a village about 50 kms from the city, where light pollution is practically nil. The Orion Nebula looked like a grayscale version of David Malin's photograph of the same. It was breathtaking. The city of Bangalore offers enough light pollution to mar the view completely.M 43 in the field appeared as a separate patch of nebulosity with a star in the center.The whole thing looked like a bird with wings spread out.
M42 (Orion Nebula) (Bright Nebula, in Orion)
Observer: Joe Caggiano (e-mail: jcaggiano@mindspring.com, web: http://home.mindspring.com/~jcaggiano/)
Instrument: 70-mm binoculars Location: Glenside, Pa, USA
Light pollution: light Transparency: excellent Seeing: excellent
Time: Thu Dec 8 04:00:00 2005 UT Obs. no.: 1428
Viewed the Moon and M42 last night. Started with the moon shortly after coming home from work. I was able to take a few pics of it with the LPI and have posted another mosaic on my webpage. About 5 hours later I viewed M42 with my 15x70 binos and a nebula filter. The view at 15x with the filter was amazing! The nebula looked completely different than what I am used to. Overall, it was about 1 1/2 times larger than usual. The filter really brought out subtle features that are invisible otherwise. The nebula took on a flame-shape with smaller nebulae being just visible above. (I believe this was NGC1973, 75 and 77). There was also a definite green hue clearly visible. On previous viewings through my scope I have picked up hues of pale green without having the filter. But with the filter, a much darker green is definetly visible even through much smaller aperature binos. I will target this nebula region with much more scrutiny this weekend if given the chance. We are due in for a major snow storm tonight through the weekend.
NGC2467 (Bright Nebula, in Puppis)
Observer: Sriram.M.Gubbi (e-mail: sriram_gubbi@yahoo.co.in, web: http://dino.lm.com/artists/display.php?name=sriram_gubbi)
Instrument: 6-inch other Location: Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Light pollution: moderate Transparency: good Seeing: good
Time: Sun Nov 13 04:30:00 2005 UT Obs. no.: 1417
I'm not completely sure that I've seen the nebulosity but I remember that I saw a patch around the cluster using the Orion Skyglow filter.
M78 (Bright Nebula, in Orion)
Observer: Sriram.M.Gubbi (e-mail: sriram_gubbi@yahoo.co.in, web: http://dino.lm.com/artists/display.php?name=sriram_gubbi)
Instrument: 6-inch other Location: Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Light pollution: moderate Transparency: excellent Seeing: good
Time: Fri Nov 11 04:15:00 2005 UT Obs. no.: 1408
It can be easily found with a wide field scope. It appeared comet like with about 2 stars surrounded by it.
NGC7000 (Bright Nebula, in Cygnus)
Observer: Joe Caggiano (e-mail: jcaggiano@mindspring.com)
Instrument: 70-mm binoculars Location: Glenside, Pa, USA
Light pollution: light Transparency: excellent Seeing: good
Time: Mon Nov 7 00:45:00 2005 UT Obs. no.: 1395
Spotted the North American nebula just a few degrees off from Deneb. Using a nebula filter and my 15x70 Skymaster binos, I spotted the formation of stars that form what appears to be a sidewards "A" in the stars. It was so large and diffuse that I passed it numerous times before in my scope at 30x. In the binos it took up a great portion of my FOV. No wonder I could not spot it before! It appeared about as large as M42 appears at about 100x. VERY faint, at low power I can just make out the continental shape as well as the rift between it and the pelican nebula just next to it.
M42 (Orion Nebula) (Bright Nebula, in Orion)
Observer: Lee S (e-mail: nospam-laspain123@aol.com, web: http://cgi.tripod.com/astro-cracker/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl)
Instrument: 2.8-inch refractor Location: Atlanta, GA, USA
Light pollution: severe Transparency: excellent Seeing: excellent
Time: Sat Oct 29 08:00:00 2005 UT Obs. no.: 1384
As impressive as M42 is with binoculars, it was fun to get a closer view with my Orion Observer. The Trapezium (Theta 1) was easily resolved into 4 stars. With 25mm Explorer II, I could see there were 4 stars, the 10mm Explorer II made it more clear, and the 8mm Plossl provided a good view as well. The only downside that I saw was that the general impression of the gas cloud area was slightly diminished for me when looking through the scope.
M42 (Orion Nebula) (Bright Nebula, in Orion)
Observer: Lee S (e-mail: nospam-laspain123@aol.com, web: http://cgi.tripod.com/astro-cracker/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl)
Instrument: 50-mm binoculars Location: Atlanta, GA, USA
Light pollution: severe Transparency: excellent Seeing: excellent
Time: Sat Oct 29 07:15:00 2005 UT Obs. no.: 1383
I was glad to stay up late enough to greet Orion for the first time this fall. With an old pair of 10x50 wide angle binoculars, I could see M42 and get a general impression of the gas clouds around the region.
NGC6960 (Bright Nebula, in Cygnus)
Observer: Emil Neata (e-mail: forvert2000@yahoo.com, web: http://www.nightskyinfo.com)
Instrument: 6-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: No location given
Light pollution: light Transparency: good Seeing: good
Time: Mon Oct 10 23:00:00 2005 UT Obs. no.: 1361
You can find NGC 6960 (Lace - Work Nebula, part of Veil Nebula) around the fourth magnitude star 52 Cygni.The nebula is very difficult in less than perfect skies, but visible with a 114-mm telescope from a dark location. Use averted vision, and keep 52 Cygni just out of the field.A UHC or OIII filter can really improve the visibility of the nebula, it allows much more contrast and detail to be seen, even if you observe from a slightly light polluted location.
M1 (Crab Nebula) (Bright Nebula, in Taurus)
Observer: Emil Neata (e-mail: forvert2000@yahoo.com, web: http://www.nightskyinfo.com)
Instrument: 6-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: No location given
Light pollution: light Transparency: good Seeing: good
Time: Mon Oct 10 23:00:00 2005 UT Obs. no.: 1360
M 1, the Crab Nebula, is a supernova remnant in Taurus. At 36x is very spectacular, one of the very few deep sky objects that when seen through the eyepiece looks almost exactly like when seen on a photograph. The light is evenly spread and the elongated shape is easily visible.
M20 (Trifid Nebula) (Bright Nebula, in Sagittarius)
Observer: Emil Neata (e-mail: forvert2000@yahoo.com, web: http://www.nightskyinfo.com)
Instrument: 4.5-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: No location given
Light pollution: light Transparency: good Seeing: good
Time: Mon Oct 10 23:00:00 2005 UT Obs. no.: 1352
M 20 is bright and very impressive. The nebula surrounds the triple star HN 40. Towards the edges of the nebula, some darker areas are visible, but I've didn't manage to see the three dark lanes that cross the nebula.
NGC2071 (Bright Nebula, in Orion)
Observer: Emil Neata (e-mail: forvert2000@yahoo.com, web: http://www.nightskyinfo.com)
Instrument: 4.5-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: No location given
Light pollution: light Transparency: good Seeing: good
Time: Mon Oct 10 23:00:00 2005 UT Obs. no.: 1351
NGC 2071 is extremely faint, I've only managed to see it by using averted vision. It has a round shape, surrounds a 8th magnitude star.
NGC1973 (Bright Nebula, in Orion)
Observer: Emil Neata (e-mail: forvert2000@yahoo.com, web: http://www.nightskyinfo.com)
Instrument: 4.5-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: No location given
Light pollution: light Transparency: good Seeing: good
Time: Mon Oct 10 23:00:00 2005 UT Obs. no.: 1350
NGC 1973 surrounds a 8.3 magnitude star. It is easily seen without averted vision, round shape, the northern part is the brighter.
NGC6979 (Bright Nebula, in Cygnus)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 25-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: Colchester, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: light Transparency: good Seeing: good
Time: Sun Oct 2 02:00:00 2005 UT Obs. no.: 1347
I just returned from the Connecticut Star Party. The largest scope there was the 25" dobsonian brought to the star party by members of the Westport astro group. One object I had the pleasure of observing, was the Veil Nebula. By moving the scope we were able to trace almost the entire length of the nebula. The best way to describe it was it looked like a long pale yellow veil, brighter in some spots and dimmer in other spots. For the first time in my life, I was able to also observe a planetary nebula called the blue snowball. The blue color was striking and it looked just like a snowball. In an 18" dob, I was able to observe M31 at high power. There was a dust lane cutting through one side of the of the galaxy that was very obvious. In a 6" refractor, I was able to observe Mars. The shrinking south polar cap was easily seen as was the blue colored north polar hood. I was not able to identify the dark areas of Mars that were visible. The 6" scope was then moved to Neptune. At high power, Neptune had a very bright blue disk. I had to go to an SCG 8" scope to observe Uranus. Its disk was pale blue with just a tinge of light green in it.I also had a stunning view of the double cluster with a mounted 25X100 binocular. Believe me when I say this is the best way to look at the double cluster. During the day, we observed the sun with white light, hydrogen alfa & continum filters. In hydrogen alfa, there was a prominence that we estimated was the size of four earths. There were also smaller prominences also. The sun showed no sunspots in white light. All in all, it was a great weekend.
M1 (Crab Nebula) (Bright Nebula, in Taurus)
Observer: Sriram.M.Gubbi (e-mail: sriram_gubbi@yahoo.co.in, web: http://dino.lm.com/artists/display.php?name=sriram_gubbi)
Instrument: 8-inch equatorial reflector Location: Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Light pollution: light Transparency: fair Seeing: good
Time: Sat Oct 1 01:10:00 2005 UT Obs. no.: 1409
Though there was very little or no light pollution, we could not see the crab nebula without averted vision because of haze and a little bit of fog.
M1 (Crab Nebula) (Bright Nebula, in Taurus)
Observer: Akarsh Simha (e-mail: akarsh_simha@fastmail.fm)
Instrument: 8-inch equatorial reflector Location: Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Light pollution: light Transparency: good Seeing: good
Time: Fri Sep 16 22:55:00 2005 UT Obs. no.: 1326
A hazy patch of nebulosity near the star Zeta Tauri. The SNR (SuperNova Remnant) is quite faint, but very large: Probably as large as M27 (The Dumbbell Planetary Nebula) but much fainter: nearly twice as faint as M27. Under the city viewing conditions, it was hardly visible and required averted vision to reveal a large irregular patch of light. Best at 100x or so on a 8" f/8 Newtonian Reflector. When I've seen it earlier from the countryside (A nearby village by name Shivanahalli), I saw a little more detail, but since I had just began this hobby, I couldn't appreciate it much. I just remember seeing a patch of fairly bright light.
M43 (Bright Nebula, in Orion)
Observer: Akarsh Simha (e-mail: akarsh_simha@fastmail.fm)
Instrument: 8-inch equatorial reflector Location: Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Light pollution: light Transparency: good Seeing: good
Time: Fri Sep 16 22:45:00 2005 UT Obs. no.: 1325
The star near the great orion nebula's trapezium clearly shows nebulosity. This is M43. The nebulosity was faint, hardly visible. I could not see any detail.
M8 (Lagoon Nebula) (Bright Nebula, in Sagittarius)
Observer: Vedran Vrhovac (e-mail: vedran_vrhovac@yahoo.com)
Instrument: 8-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: Velika Gorica, Croatia
Light pollution: moderate Transparency: fair Seeing: good
Time: Mon Jul 25 22:30:00 2005 UT Obs. no.: 1269
Its belived that M8 is easy target for amateur astronomer, but not for me. In 3" scope I could only see open cluster without trace of nebulosity. In 8" dob i saw open cluster and small nebula in SE.
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