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October Observing Report
The night of 11th October brought arctic air co-insiding with new moon to make for a fantastic deep sky viewing session with the 250px Dobsonian.
M2A first time view of yet another globular cluster
Mars - A messy orange/yellow blob in the refractor
NGC's in Cassioppiea - First time look at various open clusters in Cassioppeia, quite impressive
eta Cassioppiea - a pretty double star in Cassioppeia with contrasting colours
Double Cluster - One of my 'regulars' but this time round a stunning view due to excellent conditions
M31 - Andromeda - The best view I have with M32 and neighbouring M110 clearly visible
M45 - Pleaides - First time I've looked at them through the dobsonian and yes I saw some nebulosity around the brighter stars
Blinking Nebula - Easier to find this time round as it's moved away form the zenith. I've gotten used to finding this tiny object now
Other 'regular' objects that I always look at! Albireo, 61 Cygni, Hercules Cluster, M15, M27, M57, M92
I also managed to take my first photo of the Andromeda Galaxy with the DSLR camera and refractor.
Comet 17P/Holmes
Undoubtedly the highlighting astro event of the year. Comet Holmes, a faint, regular visitor to the inner solar sytem exploded in an outburst on 24th October. It brightened by almost a million times to visual magnitude 2.5 making it an easy naked eye object. The result of this explosion is what looks like a perfect circular cloud of gas and dust with a bright nucleus. Quite large in a telescope, quite small to the naked eye as the comet has no visible tail. The most impressive thing about this event is the sheer scale of the explosion. The object is very large visually considering it lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
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