Scope: C100 EDR 100mm/900mm

Lenses: Celestron Plossl 20, TeleVue Plossl 8, 2xBarlow

Location: Back Garden

Visibility: Good

Light Pollution: High

After a beautiful sunny day we were in for a beautiful clear night and set out once more into the garden with a list of Messier objects and their coordinates printed out.

We first tried to look at the open clusters (M36, M37 & M38) in Auriga since these would be near the horizon and setting soon. We aligned the scopes setting circles on Pollux and rolled over to await the appearance of these clusters as the sun set. We were frustrated in our attempts however as by the time it got dark enough to possibly see the clusters they had crept behind a tree.

We then tried to check our setting circles accuracy by viewing Mizar overhead but were frustrated once again because Mizar was almost exactly at the Zenith so the tripod legs got in the way of the scope prevent us reaching it.

Next we took a look at Cor Caroli in Canes Venatici since it was on our list of colour doubles and far enough away from the Zenith to see. Cor Caroli was easilly split in our scope but we couldn't really discern much difference in colour between the two stars.

Calibrating the setting circles on Cor Caroli we then went looking for M3 and found it almost at once. This was our first view of a globular cluster and so we spent a good deal of time appreciating it, first at 45x and then at 112.5x. After watching it for a while we began to make out details in it using averted vision. It seemed as though every so often we would catch a fleeting glimpse of its structure. We could make out a granularity to it, quite an amazing sight. M3 seems to be at its best at 112.5x rather than 45x or 225x.

Next on the list was M94 which we found almost at once but I mistook it for a star at first. After scanning back and forth in right ascension I noticed that this 'star' was always out of focus so we watched it for a while and could make out its bright centre and a darker cloud around it. M94 also seemed to benefit from increasing the magnification to 112.5x and we enjoyed watching it slide across the sky.

We also took a look at Izar, being another colour double on the list. Izar proved to be a challenge to split appearing as a single star at 45x magnification but difficult to focus. At 112.5x we could just make out the smaller partner emerging from the main star. Inserting the cheap Barlow allowed us to see the two stars quite separately but they still seemed to be difficult to bring to sharp focus so we couldn't fully appreciate the difference in colour between the two.

By this point the moon had moved into a narrow window of opportunity afforded us by the gap between our house and our neighbours' so we moved the mount over a bit and tried to take a look. Ouch! At this phase the moon is incredibly bright in the scope and I could only bear to look at it for a second at a time. We shall definitely have to invest in a lunar filter before attempting lunar observation again I think!

By now it was 01:00 so we decided to retire.

Our first globular cluster.