Observing Report for NWGAA November Observing

It was a fairly good night for observing with the Northwest Georgia
Astronomical Association even though the transparency was not so great
and the occasional wispy band of cloud drifted out of the West. On this
night I was using the Oberwerk 20x80 binoculars.

I observed 8 more objects on the Astroleague's Binocular Messier Club
list, admired the Pleiades and the Perseus Double Cluster, casually
swept the star fields of the Milky Way and got my first look at Comet
17p Holmes.

The Comet was a pretty impressive sight in the binoculars. It was
visible to the naked eye as a large fuzzy just below the star Mirfak in
Perseus. It filled about 25% of the FOV of the binoculars and had a
fairly clear brighter core a bit off-center. I could make out a bit of
elongation, but nothing like a tail.

On the Messier List I got a look at these objects:

* M29 - A small cluster, but sharp and clear. Looked a bit like a
little butterfly or moth
* M56 - Small and very diffuse, I could not resolve the stars at
the center of the cluster
* M27 Dumbbell Nebula - Not hard to locate, but hard to really see.
No trace of the dumbbell shape with the binocs.
* M71 - Another small globular cluster, but the core resolved
reasonably well.
* M31 Andromeda Galaxy - Very large, of course, but not so clear
due to light pollution in the East. More or less a long oval light patch
with a brighter core.
* M32 & M110 Satellite Galaxies to M31 - Visible in the same FOV
with Andromeda, but very faint.
* M33 Triangulum Galaxy - Fairly large but faint. No real detail
apparent in the arms.

And, of course, I greatly enjoyed the companionship of my fellow amateur
astronomers.


--
Craig Jones
www.webjones.net