Had a short but nice session out back with the 8-inch. Seeing and transparency were both average, and at 10:30pm I lost the sky to some high clouds. There's another storm moving in for the next couple of days. But this weekend is predicted to clear; fingers crossed for a nice night Saturday, just in time for the new moon.
I chased down some carbon stars in Monoceros, and a couple other interesting sights along the way; all 184x:
FU Monocerotis: Strikingly orange-red. Small, dim, about 9th magnitude--as faint as two stars preceding it.
IC 448: a star about 7th magnitude with a small smudge of nebulosity around it. At first appears as mist on the eyepiece but follows the sky. Seems elongated N-S; brighter rim to the NE. Best view without filter; did not respond to OIII. I don't find much online about this one.
RV Monocerotis: Deep orange, about 7th magnitude [AAVSO pegs it at 8th]. Ragged string of stars to south. Visible in finder but no color.
V614 Monocerotis: Pretty orange in a dense field. Took a while for the color to show. A winking star is to the NE just preceding a double, at the edge of visibility. I wonder if it's a planetary nebula? [None listed in Uranometria...]
NGC 2311 Open Cluster. It must really look like something in a dark sky with more aperture. A dozen 7th-8th magnitude stars in loose concentration with a greyish mottling of faint stars trying to make it to my eye. This is a William Herschel find.
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