Waddensky

Great results given the circumstances, congratulations! Seeing detail in galaxies requires excellent conditions, but just the idea that these photons travelled such incredible distances makes detecting even the faintest smudge a wonderful experience, in my opinion.

That's a great sketch! You don't see that many naked-eye sketches around. Careful observation reveals a lot of nice details!

I noticed this too, but I also noticed the comet is a bit larger than M82. It's quite possible the surface brightness of C/2019 Y4 is lower because the total brightness is spread out over a larger area.

Just had a view of C/2019 Y4 with my 10x50 binoculars. A quite large, diffuse glow, conveniently placed between two stars of mag 8.4 and 8.7. The 'triangle' is still useful to locate the comet, which can be found on a line between the tip of the triangle Rho UMa (mag 4.8) and HR 3182 (mag 5.3). While I was in the neighbourhood, I visited M81, M82, M51, all bright and easy. Even got a glimpse, to my surprise, of a ghostly, subtle, but unmistakable M101.

You're welcome! This table on Wolfgang Steinicke's website lists some other interesting statistics for both the NGC and IC catalogues.

There are many objects in the original NGC that ar either stars (5.2%) or not found at the listed coordinates (1.1%). NGC 1990 is a famous example. The NGC was compiled in the 19th century, partly based on earlier observations, and long before the nature of many deep-sky objects was known. Both Steinicke's Revised NGC and Verga's OpenNGC list NGC 6199 as a single star.

Maybe Messier 35 is visible with the naked eye from a really dark location, but I doubt it can bee seen without optical aid from a suburban area. It should be visible though through a finder scope or binoculars, but again - light pollution can make it very difficult to see the cluster against the bright background sky. NGC 2158 is a whole other story - this cluster can be quite elusive and difficult to see with moderately-sized telescopes, even from reasonably dark sites.

Surprisingly, Wikipedia has assembled some interesting views from several reputable sources on the brightness predictions of C/2019 Y4.

I regularly observe from reasonably remote places. Most of the time I meet with other observers, but at times I'm on my own. Takes some courage the first times, but I really enjoy the darkness and distant sounds of nature. My car is always nearby in case I need it. It all depends on the neighbourhood. As said in this thread, some private land where you know the owner, a sports club or attending a star party may be your best bet.

Don't worry, we've all been there haha. Venus' brightness is always overwhelming, no matter what eyepieces you're using. The resolving power of a telescope determines the amount of detail you can see. This depends mainly on the aperture of the telescope. If you mask your aperture too much, it may be more difficult to discern details like Venus' phases for example. Another idea is to observe Venus earlier in the evening or even before sunset. Because of the lower contrast between the background sky and the planet, the glare is less overwhelming. But be VERY careful not to point your telescope to the Sun accidentally.

Masking works great to reduce the glare, but keep in mind that it reduces the resolving power of the telescope too.

It happens to moons - Saturn's Janus and Epimetheus for example - so I'm pretty sure it is possible for planets too. Don't know if these Saturnian moons were formed in this constellation, however.

The Crab Nebula (Messier 1) resulted from a core-collapse supernova in 1054 on a distance of about 6500 light-years. The current size of the remnant is about 420 arcsec, that's 0.4 arcsec per year. Correcting for the proximity of Betelgeuse (700 light-years) gives an expansion rate of about 4 arcsec per year. I'm sure the rate of expansion will decrease over time, though.

There is a mailing list alert service for when those neutrinos are detected (for Betelgeuse or any other galactic core-collapse supernova): https://lists.bnl.gov/mailman/listinfo/snews-alert. Still, the chances of Betelgeuse going supernova during our lifetime is very, very small.

Yes, the phone sensor is most likely not accurate enough to point your telescope, other than just a general direction like so many star charting apps do. The metal of the tube will certainly make things even worse. But there's nothing wrong with giving it a try. Maybe the alignment is good enough to find an object in your finder scope. Velcro or a strap around the tube are probably the best ways to attach your phone to the OTA. Good luck!

If you have an eyepiece that magnifies 50x or more, you should be able to discern Saturn's rings. Good luck!