It was not a great year, but some decent work got done with the 12" Dob. I skipped out on the entire summer skies, despite some very good nights, for personal reasons. Spring was almost a total washout due to clouds and wind. Autumn was fairly good, especially October. And my lone December outing was with binoculars to watch Mars slip behind the moon, amidst mostly cloudy skies. So I ended up with 40 hours of observing time at the telescope, and 14 separate outings. Compare that to 2021 with 22 outings, and 2020 with 45! In Spring I only managed 6 hours of observing; that's how bad the weather was. Autumn was much better, with 34 hours logged at the eyepiece.
In Spring skies work continues in Coma Berenices, a constellation I have observed years ago with my Edmund 8" reflector. I am now observing it in much more detail, aiming for all the NGC objects and as many IC objects as my scope can reach. In addition, I am including many UGC and M galaxies, and a large selection of double stars. It is a project that will take many years to complete, like my similar one in Leo. I also managed a small start on Canis Major in early Spring, before getting clouded over and postponed till 2023. Autumn work includes Sextans, Aquarius, and Cetus, and some good progress was made there. Sextans and Cetus have challenges due to low boundaries, but at certain times I get good southern skies, and was able to use them this year to advantage.
It was not a year of incredible discoveries from the NGC list, though I did retakes of some of the good ones seen previously with the 8". Eg 210 in Cetus stands out as worth a stop on a fine night, as does pn 246. This is the only NGC object in Cetus that isn't a galaxy. It's an odd planetary nebula, with some bright stars within. It's not that great an object until a filter is added; I used the Orion sky glow filter to good advantage to see this very large, often overlooked object. Eg 255 is very close, and quite a good sight in a 12" scope, too. And eg 217 looks like a tiny version of M 31.
eg 210 in Cetus.
Pn 246 (2nd above) and eg 255, in Cetus. One of the trickiest and most disappointing views was of gc 7492 in Aquarius. Good luck finding this faint globular in our southern skies! Other decent galaxies in Cetus include NGC 273, 74, and 75, the last two an actual pair.
Saturn and Jupiter were on full display, especially fine in early autumn. Virtually every night that I set up, I would begin and often end with these two planets. I was able to get decent views of Mars in late autumn, too (along with the December occultation).
Mapman Mike
