Many firsts

[Orange Smartie]

A clear night was promised for yesterday and I was full of eager anticipation to try for some new objects.  As often seems to be the way, the cloud persisted a lot longer than I had thought it might; looking out at about 11pm, thin cloud was visible pretty much across the whole sky.  Not wanting to stay up late only to be disappointed, I almost shelved my plans for an observing session, but I thought I would hold on just a little bit longer to see how things developed - and I'm so glad I did.

By about 11.25pm, the cloud had all but cleared and the moon, not yet up, was not around to spoil the party.  I had a little self-imposed pressure, therefore, to crack on with observing (or at least trying to observe), many of the objects that had eluded me under brighter skies.

First, to get my eye in, I turned my scope high to the East and Canes Venatici, to split Cor Caroli - an easy split in my 12mm eyepiece (about 63x).  Then, since Leo was sitting to the South and high, to the Leo trio.  I really just pointed my red dot sight between Chertan and Iota Leonis and there it was, all three galaxies, very clearly visible albeit with little detail to see.  A good start!

To Cancer next and I spent some time comparing the M44 and M67 clusters, the former appearing larger and "loose" and the latter much more compact.  Took a quick glance at Tegmine - split to look like a "double" at 5mm (150x), but I was unable to resolve the brighter part in to two separate stars.  Iota Cancri split easily at 30x, looking much clearer at 63x; a yellowy primary with a blue-white secondary.

Back to Canes Venatici and I picked out M94 and M63 - 94 appearing to my eyes as a fuzzy ball and 63 like a broader smudge, with a bright spot (star?) close by.  Since I was there, I thought I'd try for M51 and there it was, a larger disc with a smaller spot of brightness close by.  Finally, in Ursa Major, I took a look at the large, but very faint disk that was M101.

Hercules was now quite visible and the "keystone" high above my horizon.  M13 was dead easy to find, appearing as a large, tight, fuzzy ball.  It stood up to a higher power (up to 150x) no problem, and with averted vision I was beginning to grasp just how many individual stars must be sitting in that cluster.  As I wrote in my notebook, "amazing!".  By comparison, M3, between Cor Caroli and Arcturus was a little less impressive - perhaps I felt a little sorry for it, living in the shadow of its more impressive cousin - "still good", I wrote.

I next took my first look at Bootes.  The split of Epsilon Bootis eluded me, even at 150x.  I had the feeling that there was a double to be seen, but I think the seeing was just not good enough, with the star boiling and changing shape as I watched.  Mu Bootis was an easy split at 30x and Xi just split nicely for me at 150x - a yellow primary and an orange secondary.

Coma Berenices was my final target for the evening.  24 Coma Berenices, a nice yellow/blue double, nicely splitting for me at about 94x magnification.  My last two new objects were M53, a globular cluster appearing as a small tight fuzzy blob and the Black Eye Galaxy, M64 - very easy to spot, but without a lot of detail.

After taking one last long look at M13, I concluded a fairly short, but very productive session, many of the targets being completely new to me and many, like the Leo Trio, only having been dimly visible beforehand.  Just goes to show how much the viewing conditions impact what can be seen. 

Pete

[RobertI]

Nice report! You covered some really interesting objects there. What scope were you using?

[Zermelo]

Nice session.

You've bagged several galaxies there that I've yet to see.  I had a similar forecast here, clearing up at around midnight, but I decided against.

[Orange Smartie]

9 minutes ago, RobertI said:

Nice report! You covered some really interesting objects there. What scope were you using?

Thank you! It's a heritage 150p dobsonian. 

[Orange Smartie]

1 minute ago, Zermelo said:

Nice session.

You've bagged several galaxies there that I've yet to see.  I had a similar forecast here, clearing up at around midnight, but I decided against.

Thanks.

I was on the verge of telling myself it wasn't worth it, but so glad I waited.

[Froeng]

Very nice report! Cannot wait for those Spring objects! If only the weather...

[Waddensky]

Great report and some wonderful targets, congratulations! If you think of M13 as "amazing" and M3 as "still good", I'm very curious what your opinion would be of M92 🙂.

[Epick Crom]

Good report Pete. I'm also unfamiliar with observing galaxies ( LMC, SMC, M77 and NGC 2822 are my only "discoveries" so far). Can't wait to get observing the galaxies in Leo, Virgo, Coma Bernicies etc. Your report has given me great hope! Been cloudy here for over a week, can't wait for a clear night! Clear skies to you!

Regards

Joe

[Orange Smartie]

1 hour ago, Waddensky said:

Great report and some wonderful targets, congratulations! If you think of M13 as "amazing" and M3 as "still good", I'm very curious what your opinion would be of M92 🙂.

I haven't even thought about M92 before, but now you mention it, I'm keen to look! It's on the list.

[Kon]

Nice report! A lot of nice targets.

[SuburbanMak]

Super report thank you and sounds like a fantastic session - you’ve definitely given me some new targets there! 
 

Here’s to clear & dark skies! 

Edited March 6, 2021 by SuburbanMak