Observing report 9/4/07

[Andrew]

Got out tonight for a couple of hours. Sky a little darker than for the last week although still not great (limiting mag ~ 4.5/5). Seeing was pretty poor (Cassini barely visible).

Went on a tour of some of the usual suspects (M81, M82, M51, M53, M3) before taking in a handful of galaxies on the Virgo/Coma border. M3 was spectacular despite the seeing, with more stars resolved than could easily be counted. M81 and M82 were very nice, both individually and in the same FOV. In fact, several galaxies seemed to show more detail than I'd remembered. I'm really looking forward to some darker skies (hopefully at the SGL star party) to find out how much more can be seen under better conditions.

[GazOC]

Nice report Andrew. I took in pretty much the same 'usual suspects' as you. Due to the seeing the galaxies were very disapointing but the globs were fine, I needed averted vision to resolve the central stars in M3 and couldn't resolve any in M53 (150mm refractor). The Leo galaxies were such a disappointment I didn't bother going onto the Virgo cluster, I doubt I'd have found/ seen much, the sky was very 'milky'. Still, I've been in work the last two nights so its better than nothing!

[Andrew]

M3 certainly shows a lot more in the way of resolved stars than M53 which was pretty indistinct last night. I also took a quick look at the Leo trio - I was trying out all my eps in my new focuser (a Moonlite supplied by Steve ) and wanted to look at some galaxy groups at low power. Surprisingly the Moolite seemed to improve the views on galaxies which was unexpected. I'll post a mini review later.