M78 was a visible as a moderately large glow surrounding two magnitude 10.5 stars with a magnitude 13.5 star to the SSE. There was a bit of structure visible, the brighter area to the NNE and surrounding the magnitude 10.5 stars then just under the nebulosity where it became very thin places until it faded out.
NGC 2022 - 8.75 inch reflector
NGC 2022 at low power was a very faint star and I confirmed the sighting by blinking it with an OIII filter. At 208x and using a Lumicon UHC filter it was seen as a moderately bright circular glow possibly slightly elongated but no detail was seen in the nebula, it appeared smooth. Without filters it was very ill-defined, the OIII filter made some improvement but the UHC gave the best view and I estimated size between 25- 30" in diameter and no central star was seen probably because it is of magnitude 15.2.
NGC 1980 - 8.75 inch reflector
This was seen as a bright loose open cluster of about 20 stars which the brightest star is Iota Orionis and is surrounded by nebulosity though I only saw this surrounding the brightest stars only
M 42 - the Orion nebula - 8.75 inch reflector
This was well seen without filters as a large bright wreath of nebulosity and inserting a UHC filter the central region stood out in sharp relief and was very bright. A dark area was seen near the tip of the Central region and appeared to be bar shaped cutting into the nebulosity in SW direction called the fish's mouth. The central region was very mottled at this power (65x) and also with the UHC filter the western arm was seen joining onto the central part of M42 and was slightly fainter than the centre and stretched out for about 20' in a NW direction then arched upwards in a SSW direction for another 20'. Inserting a Lumicon H beta filter the above-mentioned arm was very bright and wide showing some variations in brightness, this arm was invisible without filters. The inner region extended out into a faint haze extending well past the main bright region at the centre of M42, the brightest part of this haze was really a continuation from the central part of the nebula running in a WSW direction. Inserting a OIII filter the first thing you noticed was that it did not show this huge arc of the western arm, the base of this arm just faded off into space but the central region was very bright and quite detailed in fact more so than the H beta filter showed. The OIII seem to to show the outer arm better than the H beta filter, a slight arc of moderately bright nebulosity running in a southerly direction plus a second arm was also seen splitting off from the main arm pointing SE. M43 was seen as a moderately bright circular nebula and careful viewing showed it to be shaped like a backwards comma. This observation shows that M42 shines in the light of ionised hydrogen in some parts of the nebula for example the western arm and ionised oxygen in other parts like the central region and the southern arm and it is an interesting to view this subject with different filters as you get a totally different nebula with each individual filter.
NGC 1981- 8.75 inch reflector
This is a large scattered cluster of fairly bright stars of which I counted 23 with a close pair south of the cluster, all stars looked white and there was nothing to get excited about this one!
M 42 - the Orion nebula - 16×80 binoculars
M 42 is a fantastic sight in large binoculars because the whole Sword of Orion was seen in the 3° field and a number of separate deep sky objects were seen in the field of view. Just south of in M42, NGC 1980 was seen as a small cluster of stars and looking northwards you could see M42, the Central region stood out in sharp relief and arms could be seen stretching away from the nebula, the eastern arm stretched southwards. Using averted vision M42 looked nearly circular as the faint outer regions became visible as a soft haze and M43 was detected using averted vision as a tiny patch of fuzz. Looking further to the north NGC 1977 was seen, a small open cluster immersed in nebulosity but on this occasion the nebulosity wasn't seen. You could also see NGC 1981 which is a large scattered open cluster of fairly bright stars and better seen in binoculars than in a telescope at low power
NGC 2169 - 8.75 inch reflector
This is one of those quirky little objects because this open cluster has the unusual appearance in the telescope that it looks remarkably like the number 37! I counted 17 stars in the cluster making up the 37 shape but there were a couple of outlying stars that may be a part of the cluster and I also observed that a couple of the stars in the cluster were distinctly red in colour which looked nice. The cluster was about 5'in diameter which is pretty small but the cluster was very obvious in the 10×50 finderscope is a small knot of light.
NGC 1999 - 8.75 inch reflector
NGC 1999 was visible as a very faint haze unfiltered at 130x and inserting a Lumicon deep sky filter only made a slight improvement and any other filter kills it as it is a reflection nebula and no structure was seen at this power. Using a higher power of 208x unfiltered showed NGC 1999 with a possible ring structure and possibly more pronounced on its northern side, the magnitude 10.3 illuminating star is easily seen
Horsehead Nebula - 8.75 inch reflector
The famous Horsehead made with a magnification of 65x and a Lumicon HBeta filter. This took a long time to observe and at first absolutely nothing was visible as are most faint astronomical objects so I ended up draping a thick dark coloured bath towel over my head and eyepiece to shield myself from any external light sources and so there I sat desperately scrutinising the field for any sighns of nebulsity. Over the course of 30 minutes I began to detect the faint glow of IC434 stretching across the field of view but nothing else and after what seemed like an eternity I started to notice something cutting into the side of the nebulosity and the more I desperately scrutinised the area using averted vision the more it revealed itself...Bloody hell...its the horsehead...or words to that effect! I was a little confused as it was much larger than I expected, this was I consider a large chunk out the side of IC434, not a tiny bite of which I was expecting and of course I couldnt see any horsehead shape but I wasnt expecting to. After 30 minutes I had seen all I was going to, IC434 was now I would consider rather bright, the eastern side was quite well defined which made the horsehead stand out that much easier, the western side simply faded into darkness. This is the only time Ive ever seen this object and I saw it visually, not by any electronic means, a re-visit is on the cards!