A great night in my Messier hunt

[almcl]

What a night! For the first time this year it seemed worth going to the dark sky sight - no moon, no cloud, mild temperatures and light winds predicted. This last was a little off - at times the scope wobbled alarmingly in the gusts.

Started setting up a little after 21.30 and had a list of not-yet-seen Messier objects that I was hoping to get at least some of. Before it was even Astro dark had bagged M47 and M46 low on the SW horizon, but more surprising, also found M93. An unexpetced bonus.

Flushed with this success, repositioned via Jupiter (4 cloud bands visible with averted imagination) to Denebola and used this to star hop to M98, M99 and M100. Must have spent an hour and half going through the Virgo cluster, but unlike this time last year when I was lost within two hops, everything came up where expected. Maybe the RACI finder helped, although I still have difficulty geting it on the 'first' star.

Finally dropped down to M49 via rho Vir, for a total of 10 awesome Messiers in one night - a record for me.

Now to go back and image them all.

[Tinker1947]

It makes it all worth while when things come together all at the same time......

[Matt Scunthorpe]

Sounds like a very successful night! Always good for the morale.

Matt.

[FenlandPaul]

Sounds like some great star hopping progress - it's nice to look back and see how far your skills have developed.

Paul