Report: The Hunt For Small Messier Globular Cluster

Alright, this is for sharing of your observation experience. Or, if you are arranging gatherings, star-gazing expeditions or just want some company to go observing together, you can shout it out here.
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weixing
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Joined: Wed Oct 01, 2003 12:22 am
Favourite scope: Vixen R200SS & Celestron 6" F5 Achro Refractor
Location: (Tampines) Earth of Solar System in Orion Arm of Milky Way Galaxy in Local Group Galaxies Cluster

Report: The Hunt For Small Messier Globular Cluster

Post by weixing »

Hi,
Tonight (05 Aug 2004) was another clear night, seeing and transparency was also quite good. I planned to observe those small Messier Globular Cluster that I normally "forget" to observe. I arrived at the multi-storey car park near my house at around 20:00. A big patches of cloud was passing over and the wind was quite strong. I setup my scope and wait for the cloud to clear.

I start my observation at 21:30 when the cloud clear. The site was quite bright and the light pollution was quite obvious, so quite hard to find those small globular cluster under a "bright" sky. My low power view was too "bright" and those small globular cluster was relatively dim. The Light Pollution Filter does help a bit, but it dim those globular cluster even more. Anyway, once I found M69 and M70, I think my eye started to get used to the bright background and I was able to detect those globular cluster much easier.

I end my observation at around 23:30 and I manage to observe 9 Messier Globular Cluster: M69, M70, M54, M19, M62, M9, M80, M55 and M10. I failed to found M107 which I think the main reason may be that part of the sky was in a very light polluted zone.

By the way, most of the globular cluster I observed tonight didn't show much details... just a patch of fuzzy light... I think mainly due to the light pollution of the sky and the car park. Hope that next time can go to a darker site to observe these small globular cluster again :D ! Anyway, I think my averted vision "skill" had improved a lot during this observation session :wink:

Have a nice day.

PS: These small globular cluster look really like a comet!!! :) :)
Yang Weixing
:mrgreen: "The universe is composed mainly of hydrogen and ignorance." :mrgreen:
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