After a unbelievable bad run of weather through February & March, this is actually the first out of Auckland observing session since Stardate. The highlight of this night was the debut of Dave Moorhouse's 16 Inch Bionculars under a dark sky.

The forecast was for scattered showers and the weather was marginal but we went anyway. Dave M was debuting his 16 Inch Binoculars tonight so we were all keen to see how they would perform after the impressive ’First Light’ 5 days earlier. We travelled though some heavy showers on the way down and a good evenings observing seemed to be not on the cards.

 We arrived just after 7 PM and Dave B arrived from Hamilton only about 3 minutes later. Jason Harris and Guy Thornley had managed to contact us as we were heading south and they decided to come down also. They would be another 40 minutes yet. Dave B and I had completed setting up and then assisted Dave M with his Binos. The others arrived and Guy took over the seeing up with Dave M as Dave B and I had a good look at the comet.

Jason did not set up his 16 Inch Dob preferring to look though the other scopes.

I have planned to work through some unobserved galaxies in the Leo region and finsh off in the LMC looking at nebulosity in the that region. Basically still working through the Hartungs & Herschel lists. I will reobserve some brighter galaxies in Leo.

Object	Type	Magnification	Notes
C/2001 Q4 NEAT	Comet	88x	Comet filling a large amount of the FOV. Comet in conjunction with very close 6 Mag star clearly naked eye. No magnitude estimate conducted.
NGC 5139	Globular Cluster	88x	Omega Cen beautifully framed in the 22mm Nagler.
NGC 5128	Galaxy	88x	Easy in the finder and beautiful in the field. Clear sharp dark lane.
NGC 4945	Galaxy	88x	Suprisingly easy through the 80mm and contrasty at the lower power.
NGC 3628	Galaxy	88x	The Leo triplet was tightly framed in the 22mm but clearly inside the FOV. Extra magnification offered detail inside the Messier galaxies in particular.
M 66	Galaxy	88x	The Leo triplet was tightly framed in the 22mm but clearly inside the FOV. Extra magnification offered detail inside the Messier galaxies in particular.
M 65	Galaxy	88x	The Leo triplet was tightly framed in the 22mm but clearly inside the FOV. Extra magnification offered detail inside the Messier galaxies in particular.
NGC 5189	Planetary Nebula	88x	Widefield look at the Sprial Planetary nebula. More of a confirmation of how to find this object. Although viewed regularly it has need confirmation on exact location.
NGC 3373	Galaxy	88x	Compact grouping of three galaxies including M105, M105 being the largest and brightest. NGC3371 & NGC3373 are the junior members.
NGC 3371	Galaxy	88x	Compact grouping of three galaxies including M105, M105 being the largest and brightest. NGC3371 & NGC3373 are the junior members.
M 96	Galaxy	88x	M95 and M96 just fit inside the FOV of the 17mm Nagler. Both large and bright. No detail observed so they are probably elliptical.
M 95	Galaxy	88x	M95 and M96 just fit inside the FOV of the 17mm Nagler. Both large and bright. No detail observed so they are probably elliptical.
M 105	Galaxy	88x	Compact grouping of three galaxies including M105, M105 being the largest and brightest. NGC3371 & NGC3373 are the junior members.
M 104	Galaxy	114x	Sombero Galaxy needs more power than the 22mm has to offer so I am switching to the 17mm Nagler now that the seeing is better. Easy in the 80mm Finder in a rich field.
NGC 4039	Galaxy	114x	Nice views of the Ringtail Galaxies at 114x. Nice comma shapes. Perhaps this object could have responded better at higher powers.
NGC 4038	Galaxy	114x	Nice views of the Ringtail Galaxies at 114x. Nice comma shapes. Perhaps this object could have responded better at higher powers.
NGC 2070	Bright Nebula	176x	Trantula at higher power. Beautiful and nice to compare with the 16 Inch Binoculars and Dave Brock's 16 Inch Dob. Contrasty.
M 83	Galaxy	114x	Easy in the 80mm Finder and hints of a spiral nature with the 17mm Nagler.
NGC 2442	Galaxy	114x	Contrasty view with shape difficult to detect without adverted vision. Nice views through the 16 Inch Binoculars. Sometime was spent on this object looking through the other telescopes.
NGC 2434	Galaxy	114x	Bright elliptical galaxy in the FOV of NGC 2442. No special detail to note.
NGC 3608	Galaxy	114x	A four galaxy grouping between Chort & Zosma. NGC 3608 & NGC 3607 being equally bright with 3607 being slightly larger. NGC 3605 is fainter and closer to NGC 3607 while NGC3599 is further way to the west being fainter than NGC 3608 & 3607.
NGC 3607	Galaxy	114x	A four galaxy grouping between Chort & Zosma. NGC 3608 & NGC 3607 being equally bright with 3607 being slightly larger. NGC 3605 is fainter and closer to NGC 3607 while NGC3599 is further way to the west being fainter than NGC 3608 & 3607.
NGC 3605	Galaxy	114x	A four galaxy grouping between Chort & Zosma. NGC 3608 & NGC 3607 being equally bright with 3607 being slightly larger. NGC 3605 is fainter and closer to NGC 3607 while NGC3599 is further way to the west being fainter than NGC 3608 & 3607.
NGC 3599	Galaxy	114x	A four galaxy grouping between Chort & Zosma. NGC 3608 & NGC 3607 being equally bright with 3607 being slightly larger. NGC 3605 is fainter and closer to NGC 3607 while NGC3599 is further way to the west being fainter than NGC 3608 & 3607.
NGC 3193	Galaxy	114x	One of a gouping of four galaxies between Gamma & Delta Leonis. Round and even in brightness probably elliptical. Similar brightness to the more oval looking NGC 3190.
NGC 3190	Galaxy	114x	One of a gouping of four galaxies between Gamma & Delta Leonis. Oval looking and slightly irregular in brightnessl. Similar brightness to the more oval looking NGC 3193.
NGC 3187	Galaxy	114x	One of a gouping of four galaxies between Gamma & Delta Leonis. Very faint and only a smear. Adverted vision detected the galaxy.
NGC 3185	Galaxy	114x	One of a gouping of four galaxies between Gamma & Delta Leonis. Round and at least 15 arc minutes to the SE. No special detail or features. Slightly dimmer than the brighter NGC 3193 & NGC 3190.
NGC 2100	Open Cluster	114x	Back to the Trantula Nebula. Just to the east of the Trantula is a globular cluster that is fairly bright, which is listed in Skymap as a globular. This object is definately a globular cluster.
NGC 2074	Bright Nebula	114x	Nebulous patch associated with a rather open cluster looking group of stars. Not large but noticable without the assistance of filters. Contrast is good in this direction of the sky tonight.

I debuted the 22mm Nagler Type 4 and the 24mm Widefield in my Finder tonight. Both performed extremely well and every other aspect of the observing went well. The finder was just fantastic with sharp star images and deep sky objects easily seen.

 Cloud scooted through on occasions and a mean shower put all observers into overdrive to cover the scopes quickly. It lasted about 5 minutes but the associated cloud lingered on for about 10 further minutes. We all piled into Dave B’s van and kicked back and discussed the performance of Dave M’s 16 Inch Binoculars.

 Nothing of note tonight but It was good to do a comparison on all the telescopes on NGC 2442, the spiral galaxy in Volans. Add to that nice views of M83. I also worked the brighter galaxies in Leo, the including the Messiers. 

Comet was seen naked eye and was showing a large coma and a tail which was outside the field of 1 deg Max FOV of the Dob.

I do have some photos of interest.

     13 Inch Dob Car & Trailer

     Observers, Car & Trailer

     Fellow Observers From the Left; Jason, Dave Brock & Dave Moorhouse with the new bioculars

     The 'Weta' Nebula. This Weta found its way onto the eyepiece on its own. Nothing like a feeler in the eye !!

All the best.

Paul Kemp

3.1" Reflector

Auckland, New Zealand

36° 55' 16" South, 174° 43' 30" East

-- The Southern Sentinel --