M3 and Lovejoy.

[cotterless45]

Just a few hours after the Moon set and before fog quickly rolled in from the south.

Madame growled in sleep to ask where I was going. In truth out to loose the counterweight bolt in the grass,bang my head on the shed eaves and spend a long time looking for my glasses with a dull red torch.  There was a horrible light glow from the amount of moisture above.

I noticed Vindemiatrix rising behind Leo in the east. Promises of the galaxy season ahead.

M3 was delightfully tight at x100. Quite easy to find halfway between Arcturs and the lovely double Cor Caroli. Then over to M64 and M51, not great but still there.

A line from Arcturus through Alphekka found the bright magnitude 8.4 comet Lovejoy. Although the seeing was poor it showed a bright nucleus and a wide tail. Plenty material coming off the other end.

Then up to the bright high Jupiter , any more than x150 produced a blurred view, but this was sufficient to show the ragged belt edges.

Mars presented a disc at x200, but non of the magical detail of last year.

Leo now melted into fast fog.

Do try for Lovejoy, it's on the edge of CrB and heading into Hercules. It's brightened up considerably and I have picked it up in x8 bins.

The forecast looks better tonight with hopefully

clear skies,

Old Nick.

[Paul73]

Thanks Nick - allways a good read. This gives me a few targets to this weekend if the fog clears.

Hope that you found the glasses before stepping on them.

Paul

[Special K]

Fog very thick here. Must know I'm keen to see Lovejoy again. Sounds like you went bump in the night!