Canes Venatici Galaxy time !

[cotterless45]

Up and out at 1.30, no breeze, no Moon and no security lights. 
Some great excitement to catch Leo high in the south followed by Virgo and Coma Bernices. Hunting around at x50 showed the brightest galaxies fairly easily.
My list referred to old views in Canes Venatici,before which M3 showed resolution down at x220. The scattering of bright foreground stars against the dense shoals make this a fine sparkling globular cluster.

M51 showed gorgeous detail with the "bridge " being very clear between both cores. What was amazing was the detail of dust lanes and cores in M106 and M63. The needle shapes of NGC 4244 (C26) was very fine. I found NGC 4631 ("Whale"+9.3)  and NGC 4656/57 ("Hockey Stick +10.4).
NGC 4214 (+9.7) and NGC 4111 followed with the brighter complex of NGC 4490. NGC 4449 (C21) once again resolved into stars, right up to x220, an unusual stunning galaxy view. Followed by views of the bright NGC 5005 (C29) and NGC 5033.  Certain nights and 8" of aperture begins to open these galaxies up.

Jupiter looked very tempting and took up to x220. The band colour was deep, with a barge and a long festoon into the equatorial area. Focussing was like tuning an old radio, every now and again detail snapped into place at f6. 
I had a shot at the Leo triplet, but south being over the town, it's wasn't too great.

Worth getting up for some of the best views from Canes Venatici for this season and hoping for more ,
Clear skies !
Nick.

[Bart]

Great place for galaxies. Very fond of it. Great you got out.  

 

Barry

[YKSE]

Nice stuff, Nick, your obs always gives a good indication of coming DSO

[Paul73]

Nice report. Nick

You've pulled out the real highlights in a fun packed part of the sky. By my reckoning, there are 25+ observable galaxies in this anonymous constalation (2 Visible Stars! how can that make a constellation!!). The Cocoon Pair (NGC4485/90), Silver Needle(NGC4244), Whirlpool pair and the Whale/Hockey Stick combo are my highlights. I need to spend some more time with the Messiers. Can't remember extracting much detail.

Lastly, I like a look at the Cor Caroli easy double for no other reason than it is one of the strongest magnetic sources in the known universe (& I like doubles).

Paul

[estwing]

must land the whale soon....thanks Nick,clear skies...

[John]

Nice and interesting report Nick.

 

Particularly interesting because I was out at around the same time last night with my ED120 refractor observing a similar object mix. 

 

Here I found the transparency not so good for galaxies so my view of the M51 / NGC 5195 pair was not as distinct as I'd have liked and neither was Comet Catalina. The Leo area was better and I managed to bag decent views of M95, M96, M105 and NGC 3384  (all in the same FoV, which was nice ) and the triplet of M65, M66 and NGC 3628 (the last was pretty faint in the 4.7" refractor). 

 

When it came to Jupiter I had really crisp and steady seeing at 191x with great belt details, a couple of festoons and Ganymedes 

shadow creeping across the disk to top it off !

 

Sounds like your conditions were slightly the reverse of mine. 

 

 

[cotterless45]

That's neat John. I caught Catalina about 10, forecast told of mythical clear skies, so went to bed. Still trying to get comet P/2010 V1 ( Ikeya -Murakami) above the sickle.

In my excitement awoke at 1.30 ! Just completely in wonder at the Galaxy clarity, especially the "Whale ! " Still got unfinished business in UMa before going to the Coma Bernices, under 

clear skies !

Nick.

[Davey-T]

Sounds a great night Nick, I was trying for a last pic' of Catalina but a bit misty here and then clouded over by 1.00.

Dave

[baggywrinkle]

Nice report Nick....why does Swadlincote seem to get nice clear skies...

[alan potts]

Great as ever Nick, I keep getting so so evening sky but fabulous mornings, only trouble is I can't get the bed anchor off my left leg.

[Special K]

Great report, thanks for sharing the results. M3 sounds like a go'er and looking forward to trying again!  I've only looked in the CVe area once and could do with taking the tour again. It's nice to work a way toward M51 from what I remember. 

Clear skies!

[mapstar]

Brilliant report Nick and the second time I've read about your views up in Canes Venatici.

Hoping for clear skies next week to give the new scope a good run out if I can and hit some of the gems up there with a bit more aperture to tease out the details you have detailed above.

Keep up the reports they are a joy to read.