Dec 9th report

[Mike Q]

I had given up on any real observing, there was just too many clouds to mess with it and i called it a night early and went to bed around 9. At a quarter til 12 my wife comes home from work and enters the house with all the subtleness of Godzilla waltzing through Tokyo. I come down stairs because i am now wide awake and look out the window. Perfectly clear skies and very dark skies. So i grab my slippers and roll the 10 inch out for a fix. Jupiter was good with all sorts of color and bands visible. I decided to get a look at the Orion Nebula. The Trap was very clear. Its probably the best the Trap has looked to me. On a whim i decided to take a stab at the Horsehead. In goes the ES 14/82. i get the view where i need to be and very slowly i start to notice the very dim/faint line of the nebula that behind it. The faint outline of what i can only say is black on black started to show up and i was able to just pick up a curve of the dark nebula. I never really got the whole thing and i dont know how much a h beta would have helped. At that point i thought that cant be it, not in a ten inch in Ohio. The next morning i sent a text to a couple of my buddies and described what i had seen. They are much more experienced at this then i am. They both have confirmed that i have indeed seen the Horsehead Nebula. I consider myself a novice in this hobby and that to actually have pulled this off to be more luck then skill, but i will take it.

[Bigzmey]

Hi Mike. What you describes is matching my experience to. I think you got the Horsehead!

[Mike Q]

Hi Mike. What you describes is matching my experience to. I think you got the Horsehead!

I have the correct FOV burned into my head as to where it sits. Just make the image in the eyepiece match and wait. I will try it again later with the 16 inch and a H Beta in a 14mm 2 inch eyepiece and see what happens.

[helicon]

Thanks for the report Mike. Pretty sure you saw it. I never came close to seeing it in my 10" Dob at home but did, oddly enough, spot it in my 15x70 Celestron Skymasters as a tiny dark bay against a slightly brighter background, just on the other side of the Flame Nebula, which was obvious, bright, and highly structured.

Needless to say it was a pristine dark sky location......when you can get away to one it is so worth it it can almost be a life-changing experience!

Also, congratulations on attaining today's VROD! Seeing the HH surely warrants that!

[Mike Q]

Thanks for the report Mike. Pretty sure you saw it. I never came close to seeing it in my 10" Dob at home but did, oddly enough, spot it in my 15x70 Celestron Skymasters as a tiny dark bay against a slightly brighter background, just on the other side of the Flame Nebula, which was obvious, bright, and highly structured.

Needless to say it was a pristine dark sky location......when you can get away to one it is so worth it it can almost be a life-changing experience!

Also, congratulations on attaining today's VROD! Seeing the HH surely warrants that!

My mentor who has been doing astronomy for 30 years is pretty sure i saw it too. Ohio skies are not known for being great for astronomy, but occasionally we get a night that is very clear and very dark. I am fortunate that i live a fair distance from any major city so i dont have a ton of light pollution to deal with, mostly just some security lamps and a bit of sky glow from the smaller cities 8 to 15 miles away. So as far as Ohio goes, i am about as dark as it gets.

[kt4hx]

Well done Mike, and I concur you saw the HH. Definitely an HaB filter would help, by boosting contrast. Nonetheless you did it sans filter. Congrats on the VROD as well.

[Mike Q]

Thank you all.

[messier 111]

congrat for the vrod .

[John Baars]

Congratulations on the VROD!
Horse head is not visible from my observing locations. So I haven't seen it yet. It is great that you did! Thanks for your report!