Assaulted by an AZ4 18/4/18

[domstar]

I've been grinning all day- maybe because of the galaxies or maybe because I still have a handsome nose. It was a night to savour last night. I drove to the same dark(ish) area as on Saturday but this time there was silence apart from a hooting owl. There's a joy to finding things for the first time (yesterday I caught up with asteroid 51 Nemausa) but as I reach my second serious spring (a veritable veteran), I find I don't get tired of looking at the same seasonal objects, which is a relief. 

So I was back in amongst the spring galaxies, which is where I'd like to be every spring night. I love tracing them, getting to know their relative positions, finding them again, moving up from M60 and getting to M85. I also love the Leo triplet and the challenge of the Hamburger. Last night I could almost hold it directly in my sight.

I've been enjoying reading similar reports and Neil @Littleguy80 got me excited again over M51 and it was looking great in my skies last night (I wouldn't want a side by side comparison with his 10inch, though). I think maybe Bodes and the Cigar were the stars of the evening. Stu had suggested upping the magnification on them and it was a revelation. 

On the way home, as I straightened up after turning into my street, my AZ4 flipped over from the passenger seat and the protruding handle flicked my nose- just like a feather. Half a centimetre more and it would've been eye-watering at the very least. I don't know what gave me the biggest buzz, a near death nose experience, or a wonderful silent spring night of galaxies.

Thanks for reading.

Dominic

[Littleguy80]

Great report! Really pleased you managed a look at M51. Last night I ended up having a side by side comparison of M51 with an 18 inch dob!!! My 10 inch started to look pretty small! I also saw M82 at high mag in the 18 inch. Really impressive stuff. There were a few of us there with a variety of scopes and we all liked looking through the big dob but then took just as much pleasure finding the same targets in our own scopes. In an odd way, it took away any aperture fever the 18 inch dob might have given us. We all really enjoyed ourselves no matter what equipment we were using!

[David Levi]

12 minutes ago, domstar said:

I find I don't get tired of looking at the same seasonal objects, which is a relief.

As a second year amateur too I also find it a relief. A night's rest is usually enough for me to want to go back to the same objects 

[Alan White]

1 hour ago, Littleguy80 said:

Great report! Really pleased you managed a look at M51. Last night I ended up having a side by side comparison of M51 with an 18 inch dob!!! My 10 inch started to look pretty small! I also saw M82 at high mag in the 18 inch. Really impressive stuff. There were a few of us there with a variety of scopes and we all liked looking through the big dob but then took just as much pleasure finding the same targets in our own scopes. In an odd way, it took away any aperture fever the 18 inch dob might have given us. We all really enjoyed ourselves no matter what equipment we were using!

I was at my club last night and we had a few scopes out.
I was sat next to a 10" OOUK Dob and we looked at similar targets, my ED80 stood its ground bless it on many targets.
The OOUK again fed my Dob desires though!

 

As to Domstar's near nose experience, glad you survived and can see the funny side of the experience.

[domstar]

1 hour ago, Littleguy80 said:

We all really enjoyed ourselves no matter what equipment we were using!

I find my longing for more gear always grows when it's cloudy. When I'm out I'm usually happy enough with what I have (apart from the conditions etc). I'd still like a big one, though.

[Littleguy80]

7 minutes ago, domstar said:

I find my longing for more gear always grows when it's cloudy. When I'm out I'm usually happy enough with what I have (apart from the conditions etc). I'd still like a big one, though.

I’m the same. I got to look through a couple of different Televue eyepieces. They were good but nothing I used made me want to rush out and buy lots of new gear. It probably helps that I’ve bought quite a lot of new stuff recently with more in the post  Just wait for the cloud to return and I’ll be writing out a new shopping list!