Stargazing with my parents

Whilst I have shown my parents the odd sight through my telescope from the back garden I was actually quite surprised when my father asked about me taking both my mother and him out to Harperrig Reservoir to see what we could see from a darker site. I was more than happy to oblige as it would mean I would have company if no one else was out there. It turned out that this was a pointless worry as a fair amount of people from the Central Scotland Observers Group forum were there.

Anyway because I was showing off things to my parents I actually scanned a fair amount of the sky but from a personal point of view I saw my first sights in Cancer and Gemini constellations which I have highlighted in the image below.

Messier 44 / Beehive Cluster
RA: 08 40.4 Dec: +19 59
Type: Open Star Cluster
Magnitude: 3.7

The Beehive Cluster is an open cluster in the constellation Cancer that I had seen through other telescopes  so it was nice to finally get a look at it through my own scope. The Beehive Cluster appears as a nebulous object to the naked eye and has been known since ancient times, in fact it was one of the first objects that Galileo looked at through his telescope.

The cluster is around 520-610 light years away and the title of Beehive Cluster is supposedly due to it supposedly appearing like a swarm of stars in a dance of activity. Personally it didn't really strike me as being much different that many other open clusters. Either way it was still a nice view in the lower power eyepiece although I think there was still a little bit to much magnification.

Messier 67 
RA: 08 51.4 Dec: +11 49
Type: Open Star Cluster
Magnitude: 6.1

Messier 67 is another open cluster in the constellation Cancer although this one is dimmer that the more famous Beehive Cluster. The interesting thing about this cluster is that it is actually the oldest one in the Messier list at between 3.2 and 5 billion years old. This could explain why it isn't the brightest of clusters as beyond the odd blue stragglers there are no bright blue stars left in the main sequence stage.

Overall, it was quite a nice cluster to see as there are a lot of stars present and it easily filled up my field of view and there are some nice reds and yellows present.

Messier 35 
RA: 06 09.1 Dec: +24 21
Type: Open Star Cluster
Magnitude: 5.3

The third open cluster of the night was Messier 35 which sits in the constellation Gemini and is around 2,800 lights years away. With several hundred stars present it is quite a nice sight to see although I suspect I could barely see more than sixty myself but even that was an enjoyable view. The interesting thing I noted about this cluster is that it didn't appear to have any core region where stars are condensed  together.

NGC 2392 / Eskimo Nebula 
RA: 07 28 10.8 Dec: +20 54 42.5
Type: Planetary Nebula
Magnitude: 10.1

It was great to finally look at something that wasn't an open cluster although with a magnitude of 10.1 I can't say NGC 2392 was the easiest object to see. The nebula which is named the Eskimo Nebula or Clownface Nebula supposedly resembles a person's head surrounded by a parka hood although to me it just looked like a tiny faint nebulous region more akin to a fuzzy star. I suspect on a darker night I may have tried to up the magnification to see if I could get a better look but I knew there was little point at the moment due to the spring night quite simply not being that dark at the time I was looking.

One additional object I want to highlight in addition to those I saw within Cancer and Gemini is the Whale Galaxy (Caldwell 32) which is an edge-on spiral galaxy within the constellation of Canes Venatici at RA 2 42 8.0 & DEC +32 32 29 and is is approximately 30 million light years away. I had previously tried to see this magnitude 9.8 Galaxy but hadn't managed to pick it up so I was pretty happy when I slewed to its location this night and was able to make out a very faint elongated shape that reminded me of the Cigar Galaxy (Messier 82). Of course I couldn't make out its tiny companion, NGC 4627 which is as dwarf elliptical galaxy with a magnitude of only 13.1

Besides the objects above that I have highlighted I also showed off a few of the usual targets such as the aforementioned Cigar Galaxy (Messier 82) along with Bode's Galaxy (Messier 81), Whirlpool Galaxy (Messier 51), Messier 3 Globular Cluster, Caldwell 21 Galaxy, Mars, Almach and Mizar. I have to be honest and say that most of the Deep Space Objects were a bit washed out as it just wasn't dark enough for my scope to capture them. However, due to the Cigar Galaxy and Bode's Galaxy being pretty much at the zenith they came out superbly. I even managed to get both of them in my field of view at the same time and was quite impressed.

Overall this was actually a successful night with me seeing a target in Canes Venatici I had failed to see in the past and seeing a few new deep space objects in both Cancer and Gemini. Very soon the astronomy season will be over due to the long summer days but I want to try and get out like this as much as possible for the time being.