21.04.20 three more Messier's

[miguel87]

Hi folks,

Another decent night and my messier sketch catalogue has hit double figures.

Waited for proper dark whilst watching Venus with the naked eye, so stunning against the twilight. Caught the 9pm starlink train but it was much fainter than sunday night as there was so much light in the sky.

At about 9.45 I uncapped the tube and thought I would start with something easy for the eyes, M67, an open cluster in cancer. However, the constellation is relatively dim and I struggled to star hope from alpha cancer. The third attempt was successful and the view very pleasant with my 20mm Vixen NPL.

By 10.20 it was pretty well dark and next on my list was the globular M3 in canes venatici. I star hopped from coma berenices and located M3 quite easily with the 2inch SW panaview. After testing out some higher magnification I settled on my new (first light) 12mm starguider to sketch as it appeared to give the best resolved view. I really enjoyed M3.

After spending an hour or so reclined in my deck chair watching the lyrids (2 excellent meteors, 1 of which broke into to obvious pieces almost overhead) I decided to move to my final target for the evening as the sky was sufficiently dark with perhaps a hint of high cloud.

M100 in coma berenices is one of those objects that is quite easy to notice despite being incredibly dim. My stargazing handbook lists it as a binocular object which is hard to believe whilst studying the image in my 8 inch newt. It is definitely there, and probably quite big but the light is spread really thin. The 20mm NPL gave the best view for sketching.

Tried my luck for another 30 minutes with lyrids as it was now past midnight. Unfortunately I saw nothing significant.

Really enjoyed another relaxing sessions a 3 more messier's in the book 😁

 

Edited April 22, 2020 by miguel87

[ShrewView]

Lovely stuff. 

I like your M3. I always find them a bit intimidating to try and draw....too many stars!

[miguel87]

1 minute ago, ShrewView said:

Lovely stuff. 

I like your M3. I always find them a bit intimidating to try and draw....too many stars!

Yeah, I think on reflection I have been a bit harsh with the size, probably should have drawn it a little bigger but I was too concerned with getting the density right I didnt notice!

Thanks

[scarp15]

Very concise sketches, descriptions thanks for posting. Messier 3, I have indulged to on this over two evenings with my 8" dob, along with Messier 53.  Quite as I recall it, an actuate interpretation, I used 4,5,6 and 8mm on this subject. Varied between each session 5 and 6mm on session one was preferred 8mm on session two, a touch of averted vision revealed the sparkling density.  

[Jiggy 67]

M3 is a beautiful object and that’s an excellent sketch of it. It’s one of my favourite objects, but then, globs are my favorites!!