h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Okay, 15 for now.
M81 and M82 sounds good enough to me if you've seen them. But just let me know when you want to claim them.
All the best
A.M. .

Drove off to a nearby dark country car park last night to make the most of a relatively clear, dark evening. Sweeping an unfamiliar part of the sky with my binoculars, I spotted a fuzzy patch I didn't recognise After a bit of head-scratching, excited pointing, discussion with Phil and checking with the books, I can now add M5, the globular cluster in Serpens to my list.
Running total now 16 please

Okay, 16 it is.
I had a great night last night. Caught the two clusters in Cygnus and one glob in Lyra. Also the Ring Nebula in Lyra. I've never seen that before despite looking many times, although it took the 'newt to get it clearly. I couldn't make out much colour though, but it was a real buzz to see it.
A.M.

Sounds exciting! I've been looking at pictures of the Ring Nebula and it's certainly one I'd like to get my telescope on to too.

Friday night was clear and dark so the binoculars and telescope came out for a session
Found M29 in Cygnus. A small open cluster, in the middle of the Milky Way so the field of view in the telescope is full of stars anyway. The handful of stars close together in the telescope were definitely where M29 is supposed to be, although I have to say I was having trouble seeing it at all with the binnies.
So please add 1 to my running total

I went to bed soon after this to catch a couple of hours sleep before waking up to drive to somewhere where we could watch the eclipse. Got a clear morning and seeing the sun rise as a red crescent was brilliant

Hi MC
Running total 17

I've got a hill about a mile and a half away that I can get a good view of the horizon from, but its only accessable by footpath. I should have been able to get a good view of the eclipse from there. I set the alarm but took one look at 10/10ths cloud and drizzle and went back to bed.
When's the next one, 2093 ???

I won't be around for the next couple of weeks but keep the observations coming. If you can just date them I'll bring it all up to date when I get back.
All the best
A.M.

Took the telescope out last night (June 14th) to look around in the midsummer midnight twilight.
Following the directions in my book (Turn Left at Orion, recommended for this sort of exercise ) managed to find M57, the Ring Nebula, in Lyra Even in the not very dark sky, this was an excellent sighting, with the nebula just about visible as a ring. Looking forward to spotting it again on a darker night now.

Running total + 1 to 18 when you've got a mo.

Hi again
Updated total to 18
A.M.

Aha! For the first time this week H2G2 is behaving sensibly and I'm finally able to post here
You will no doubt be surprised to hear that on the gloriously clear night of last Friday, August 29th, I looked at the Andromeda galaxy through the telescope and also spotted the two companion galaxies M32 and M110
Running total up to 20 please

Surprise.. surprise!!
I got those two last week as well. I've been having some really clear nights for the last couple of weeks and even getting a hint of the MW, which is really unusual around here. M32 was difficult until I found it.

Great views of Mars with a hint of some surface markings in the centre, but not clear enough to make out anything positive.

The connection speed has been sooo slow over the last week...
I've hardly been able to connect at all.

Anyhoo its twenty to you
All the best
A.M.

Dressed up very warm last night to enjoy the clear skies of a dark but night. Pointed the scope at and a couple of easy faint fuzzies. Then with a little help from my friend ( Phil, for setting the scope up ) I got a look at M2, a globular cluster in Aquarius. Which I've not claimed before
So please add one to my total. That makes it 21 today!

Okay, 21 today it is.

It certainly is cold out there at the mo. . I've been scraping ice off the car in the mornings. Only last week it was it was quite warm and I was out in shirtsleeves. Quite a change in a week.
All the best
A.M.

It's been cold all weekend but the clear night-time skies are almost worth it.
Drove a couple of miles further into the countryside on Friday and had a good look round with the binnies. So many stars to look at and with the changing seasons some more old friends from last winter's observations have come back into view.
And an extra one for my list. Had a look at M33, the Pinwheel Galaxy. Just a faint slightly bright area in the sky. If we'd not known exactly what and where to look for I'd have missed it.
So that'll be 22 now, please sir

22 duly noted.
Yes it's nearly full circle. Funny, but it doesn't seem nearly a year since we started this, Hmm...
All the best
A.M.

Tonight fulfilled the early promise of clear, dark skies and I'd like to add another couple of fuzzies to my running total please.

Pointed the scope at Orion and got a good view of both M42 and M43. I've seen the Great Orion nebula before with the binnies but it took a bit bigger light bucket and a good night to get both. Pretty aren't they
Then with the help of the book to guide us to exactly the right spot, finally managed to find M1, the Crab Nebula. Just a very faint oval blob, don't think I'd have been able to see it at all his time last year.

I make that 24 now

Okay it's 24 for now.

I'll refer you back to posts 20 and 21 in this thread where you saw M81 and M82 but didn't claim them. Do you not want to do that now? After all you did spot them and I see no reason not to claim.

I've got a couple more planned before the end of the year including M1 which is the one I've always wanted to see but just couldn't get with binnies. This time I'm going to try with the 'scope. It was sucessful with the ring in Lyra so I'm hoping for a clear dark night in about a week. Might even spot Rudolph

All the best anyway and let me know about the two above.
A.M.

Hi A.M.
The thing with M81 and M82 was just that I wanted to try and find them for myself before the end of the year. Call it a bit of friendly competition with Phil
But then it's getting late on in December, not many observing days left before New Year, so better swallow my pride and say can I add those two into my total please. Cos I DID see them and that was exciting - 2 galaxies in a single view through the eyepiece

That'll be 26 then please

Good luck with M1. You need as dark a night as you can get, well dark adapted eyes and remember the averted vision trick to help spot faint things.

Okay two more to score and 26 it is.

I went out four nights ago to find it surprisingly clear, grabbed the binnies and hunted around for M1. I thought I got a suggestion of it but not enough to be positive. The next two nights were rained in but last night at around 2 am it was as clear as a bell although very windy and cold. I got the scope out but try as I might I just couldn't centre onto it. No luck there then. When I got back inside I found that I'd been using a f4 eyepiece, the highest magnification I possess.

Ah well try again.
A.M.

I've closed up the Marathon for the year and your final total was 26. Well done.
Thanks for keeping me company on this. It's been a real pleasure.
Personally, I'm going to carry on next year to see if I can do better. If you still feel like posting I'd love to have you along again.

Anyway, thanks again and best wishes for the new year.
A.M.