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if you come up with any bright ideas on the last bit then let me know - i'm not sure i need to (i haven't had 1st light on my SCT yet) but if i need to then i want to try and do it without sticking anything to the OTA itself... mmmh.

Sounds good @bosun21 - sounds like you may have enjoyed M13 quite a little bit 🙂 Insulation next or not needed till the autumn do you think?

Well. Thanks for the original heads up @JeremyS - what an excellent book this is. Great historical context/scene setting all in one place, Messier’s own observing notes translated directly as “the catalogue” (rather than piecemeal quotes used in other guides), and then really effective use of the large format for the full descriptions and images of each object. I am strongly motivated to complete my own Messier observations before reading the second half of the book as the descriptions are so thorough as to prejudice one’s own “discovery” process. A reference work indeed. 👍🏼

Super stuff @Lurcher - how do you manage your dose of red light when you're sketching galaxies - have you cracked how to keep it dim enough?

Nice one Ed, On a night a couple of weeks ago when I was supposed to be finishing a session on the sparkly high of M13 I also picked up this galaxy (for the first time). It was pretty subtle with an 8” at x141 and skies probably SQM ~20.5 or 20.6 or so. Though subtle it wasn’t terribly hard so a little bit strange why it was a first for me only recently given it’s location. I think you probably do have to look for it quite deliberately; in my skies you wouldn’t see it “by accident” when looking at M13 or drifting off it or hopping to that cluster or away from it. At least I haven’t. cheers

Yes @JeremyS sounds like it (maybe a very small print run?). For me personally it’s now fixed because still with a June ETA mine has been despatched this morning for delivery today. Not typical for Amazon.

Queue jumping! 😜 My original Amazon order is still not shipped - very weird.

That’s very nice @AlcorAlly - I like glow around the open cluster.

it was easy so far @ST_Steve - there is a handle on the back plate (doesn't really show in the pics) that is very convenient - it could do with a complimentary one at the front end for a two handed lift. I may look at adding something on the Losmandy if it feels a bit treacherous/slippy in the dead of night when cold and sleep deprived... It's keeping me busy and i haven't looked through it in the dark yet!

Thank you @Nik271 - i have higher confidence to go after NGC 2905 again then for a definitive "tick" with a carefully prepared red light readable map i think. With M101 sadly i think i have answered my own question with a bit of further reading - any bright spots i would see with my aperture could only be foreground stars x wishful thinking 🙂 Never mind.

to add another perspective, @cfinn has kindly allowed me to degrade (desaturate) and annotate his recent picture of M101: If i really was picking up for example NGC 5461 within M101 in that lower arm then the nearby galaxies NGC 5474 and NGC 5473 would have been positively jumping out at me (as out of focus "stars") wouldn't they? They weren't and didn't!

This is not exactly an observing report though there are observations, I'm using this post to actually ask a question about observing spiral galaxies and HII star forming regions within them... A couple of weeks ago i was observing NGC 2903 (with 185mm of aperture) with the express intent of trying to see NGC 2905 within it. I used exit pupils between 1.3mm and 0.6mm (!) with magnifications between x140 to x305. I'm not convinced i observed NGC 2905 but my observing notes for NGC 2903 are: Seen in all EP’s. All EPS used to try and tease out NGC 2905. Some bright (stellar) spots seen but i don’t think NGC 2905 conclusively. A rough edged and patchy “smudge” with bright soft stellar spots. This is the eyepiece sketch (unfortunately the bright bits are not correctly located to actually be NGC 2905 in this case 😞) This week with 85mm of aperture and using an exit pupil of 1.5mm (predominantly) and a scale of x56 i observed and sketched M101 like this: Notes: Easy find starting at Mizar, (STF 1831 & STF 1831 on the way). Took a while for it to first reveal itself as an averted vision smudge. Disappeared with any use of red light either to navigate SSP or sketch. Growing dark adaptation brought it more definitely even for direct vision. Large, hazy but with variation in the haziness. at least two stellar points or bright spots within it. No sign of the arm structure. Later returning from M102 with the 14mm in the diagonal it was markedly brighter and more definite. Sketch: the tidy version looks like this - it is sketched as i observed it at x56 but in this tidy version i have used the brightness of M101 i could achieve with a 2.6mm exit pupil (x32): My question is...when we observe nearly face on spiral galaxies and see brighter lumps and bumps are they brighter parts of the galaxy i.e. dense star concentrations and/or (if they are in the right place) even the NGC star forming regions (eg. possibly NGC 5461 at 8 o'clock within M101 above) or is it something else at play? Maybe a foreground star or stars perhaps or even "just" the core of the galaxy that we are not seeing as centrally as we possibly would in good conditions? With averted vision it is not easy to be precise with the exact location of these "bright" spots... Its unfeasible for me that i could see a Mag14 NGC within the Mag7.8 M101 with 85mm of aperture though i know that it can be funny how surface brightness works for concentrated objects. I'd love to hear the thoughts of experienced observers. Cheers

If it works @bosun21 then it may get a bit of aluminium tape as well as a treat. Actually I already did take a crafty look at gold foil on Amazon for a tongue in cheek JWST type look 🤣 I have a good dew band inside here (under this insulation) a few cm back from the font glass. This insulation is foiled backed camping mat. Foil on the outside. I have an aluminium dew shield on back order so when that is fitted that and the front of the tube will also get a layer (temporary - I.e. each session) of car windscreen foil shield or “reflectix” type material. Till the dew shield arrives I will just use a wrap of reflectix as the actual dew shield. I feel like I have crossed some kind of rubicon with this OTA.

Yes I do also wrap the Xmas presents in our house 🙂

Great kit @Littleguy80 - the very best kit is kit that disappears and get's out of the way of the experience. Can take some fussing with details but its always worth it in the end 👍

Hah. Nice. Great minds think alike and all that 👍 - i have the JM Laws book on nature journaling (lovely) and also a "how to" draw birds book by him. Both incredibly useful. I like the approach (in both) that drawing and recording is a skill (can be learned) not a talent (innate). Gives me hope :-). Super transferable to astro journalling. Cheers

you remember Steve i hate hate HATE dew - it just feels so wrong getting astro optics wet! A birding scope i would use in the rain but unsealed/unpurged lenses - ouch. It was a bonus to be out though - it's "nip and tuck" for clear spells isn't it! .. and M57 'in colour' sounds fantastic!

Great list @Size9Hex - Barnard's Star is in a recent Sky & Telescope and it IS appealing to mark something like that over several years and have a little arc in the sky on an atlas (or series of sketches) representing decades of observing.

With the RH forecast to be so high last night i reverted to light and manageable GnG kit even though i was GnG'ing out of the back of the Landy. Just a lazy waltz around the brighter Messier in and around UMa and including a good long look at M101. What a tantalising galaxy this is - even with minimal aperture it rewards just sitting and waiting (for it to reveal itself). No spiral arms for me (nowhere near) but a definite "unevenness" and a couple of brighter "bits" that didn't ought to be stars but i also can't imagine they were any of the NGC HII star forming regions either. Dripping wet through kit and dewed finder and main EP by 00:30 even while a little 5V dew band had kept my main objective clear. I left a door open on the Landy all evening and it was running with water (like a shower screen) by the end. Swampy!

i think you would enjoy this @SwiMatt https://nigelgbruce.com/book-review-explorers-sketchbooks-the-art-of-discovery-adventure/ I have a few of that ilk "for inspiration" 😉

Outstanding looking set-up @Xsubmariner - there's no wonder you don't want to break it down now for a visual peek! Wowser. ...and never mind the scope what a fabulously capable looking mount. I have an Astrozap dew shield on back order and will probably receive a kendrick dew band and Pegasus dew controller today.

I really like that @SwiMatt - a very nice way to collect and log the details while preserving a nice view of the whole. 👍

That is phenomenally fast progress @Armand Popa - really productive sessions. So many Herschels are in the spring sky. How do you find H400 II vs H400 I - does it feel like more of the same or does it feel meaningfully trickier? I keep track of what i've seen in both lists (though i don't deliberately go looking for H400 II ever and don't really focus on H400 I very often). I have a whopping 10 objects ticked on the H400 II list 🙂 In a few years time when i can tell what i have left to go after in either/both of these 400 lists (and assuming those things are at the harder end) i will get serious and rent or buy an appropriate scope to chase the last few and/or depending if they are seasonally concentrated or not - go to a good dark reliably clear sky for a "mop up" set of sessions. I am years away from that though at my current rate of progress. Are the ones you have left doable within the calender year or do you have to wait for any misses to come round again to favourable viewing elevations?

nice @Xsubmariner - did you ever use your 12" visually before you dialled in your imaging gear? I assume you have it permanently mounted? Any dew management tricks you want to pass on? 🙂 i'm probably going to wrap my OTA this week with a dew band under the insulation towards the front of the OTA. I'm waiting for a dew shield and when that comes i will probably also add a 2nd layer wrap around the OTA and dew shield combined at each session...

Nice sketches and notes @AlcorAlly Izar particulary. I also struggle with "too much" red light sometimes and i do turn it on and off and i do have a two stage dimmer on my red light. Have you tried having it behind/under something so it is shadowed when your eye is at the EP but is illuminating your sketch pad when you look up/away to sketch? If i hang a red light head torch from the focuser of my scope pointing down it sort of achieves this effect...Not perfectly - i could still do with something dimmer for the very best dark adaptation...