A taste of late spring.....

[Walshie79]

Woke up at 4.30 (not intentionally), let the dog out, noticed it was clear, have to take opportunities like this at the moment. Out I went with the binoculars...

I love late winter early mornings. You get the stars of late spring and early summer in a fully dark sky, the -2C temperature small price to pay. Virgo and Corvus were already past south, Libra and Arcturus were there, Antares had risen. I started with M104 which was still above the trees, go off the top of Corvus, find those two asterisms, there it is. To think I'd only remembered it by accident last year... Then M3, an easy target but always good, and up into Canes Venatici and Ursa Major. M94 off Cor Caroli, small but surprisingly clear, the underrated M106 and the always reliable M51. Then for something a bit more difficult- M97 isn't such an easy one, but once I remembered where it was (off Merak not Phecda) it showed up direct vision. Then did my neck no good by pointing straight overhead and yes, the ghostly glow of M101 was there, a good sign that it's a proper dark night. It's quite doable, given the right conditions. M81 and M82 (very prominent), finished off with M5 which was just coming into my "southern window". May skies in February darkness are a lovely sight...

[Bodkin]

I had a similar experience over in mid Wales; woke up about four and then it was an inevitable drift from looking out of the window, to a quick scan of the constellations with the naked eye, to getting out the fourteen inch dob.  Lots of galaxies in the Canes-Virgo-Coma-UMa area for me plus a few extras.  The skies were definitely pretty good because I was able to see NGC5053 relatively clearly, with a glimpse of a few of the constituent stars for good measure.