Observing report - January 1, 2016

It has been a rare bout of mid-winter clear weather here. I couldn't head out somewhere dark like Boundary Bay 'cos I'm on call at the moment, but I could set up on the front porch. Sure, it's filled with lights and isn't terribly private, but it does have the advantage of being as close to home as you can be while still asserting that you're outside. Plus, the Intelliscope makes it, like, really really easy to find things.

First up was NGC 1514, a planetary nebula in Taurus that's either 600 ly or 4300 ly or some other distance away. This took a bit of tracking down, since it was not immediately obvious -- but once I started panning aroudn with a 15mm Plossl and an O3 filter, it didn't take long to find. (Incidentally, I'm coming to love that Plossl. Plossls 4eva!) Confirmed that I got it by looking at some other folks' sketches. The Wikipedia entry says that William Herschel discovered this (as he & Caroline discovered so very much), and it changed his mind about the nature of the universe; it made him doubt his own theory that all nebulosity was just distant, unresolved stars. Neat!

Next up was NGC 1931, an emission/reflection nebula in Auriga. This took even more tracking down, not least because M38 was right close by and who doesn't want to look at M38? But at last I found it (confirmed with this image from Deepskypedia.com), and it was neat. Barlowed 15mm showed 2 stars; Barlowed 6mm showed three. No sign of the extensive nebulosity other folks seem to see.

These two were on the Finest NGC list from the RASC, which means I'm starting another list now. (4, maybe 5, out of 110 since you're asking.) I also got in looks at M36/37/38/35 (no sign of that nearby NGC cluster) and M42 briefly briefly briefly just as the verdammt fog was rolling in. Boo for that! But yay for just five steps to bring everything in and sit down.