Details

• Telescope: 12" Greening Dobsonian 1500mm F5
• Eyepiece: Baader Hyperion MkIV 8-24 Zoom @ 24mm

Notes

Tonight was unexpectedly clear, although the seeing was average at best. M42 was just scraping above the houses begging to be sketched! The lack of Moon was a bonus and once the heat haze from the chimneys was no longer making the seeing even worse, I spent a fabulous hour observing Jupiter, the Pleiades, the Hyades and finishing with M42. The nebulosity was clearly visible from the outset in the fast Dobsonian and a 24mm eyepiece. With greater dark adaption the fainter nebula became visible and some of the darker lanes too. The trapezium shone bright and clearly separated. Although the amount visible through the big Dob was incredible it is notable that, under these Bortle 7 skies, M43 was not apparent, nor were any colours. Fainter nebulosity visible in the Stephen James O’Meara sketches was also, sadly, masked.

The sketch was made in graphite pencil on white sketching paper, then inverted in GIMP.

Seeing index: 3/1
Transparency: III
Jet stream: Poor
Moon phase: 1%