September 5, 2010 – Perseus planned

11:30 pm, back deck

Conditions:
no clouds, dark sky, a bit hazy, cold

Scope:
150mm/1200mm dob

The plan

Some of the dso’s in Perseus:

• NGC 957 – open cluster mag 7
• NGC 884 & NGC 869 – Double Cluster
• NGC 744 – open cluster mag 7
• M34
• M76  (Little Dumbell) planetary nebula

Starhop:  Alpha — Gamma – -Eta Per –957 — Double Cluster — 744

Starhop: Beta — Pi — 12 Per — M34

Starhop: Phi Per — M76

Observations

Image via Wikipedia

• Double Cluster: Starhopped Alpha Gamma Eta through the finder scope, then aimed at what I thought would be NGC 957, but nothing showed through the dob — scanned around a bit and came upon the Double Cluster. Very Nice! Alone each cluster would be cool and together they are breathtaking. They filled the view of the 25mm EP.
• I tried to find NGC 957 in the finder scope and when I aimed at what looked like it, it turned out not to be in the scope. I would aim the finder scope at the double cluster, but they wouldn’t appear on the scope. I checked the finderscope alignment using Vega — alignment was way off! I aligned using Vega and then all is good….
• Jupiter: By this time (12:30) I’m too tired to star hop, so I looked at Jupiter for a bit. Very nice view — I can see 3 bands, but not  the great red spot. 3 moons are visible, the fourth is behind Jupiter I suppose, since I see no shadow.

Note to self: check alignment at the beginning of the session!