M51 and Leo Triplet

[dark star]

Last night the sky was clear and there was no moon. So I drove with my 14 inch dobsonian to a reasonably dark site in Essex, around 40 minutes drive away. I saw M51 for only the second time. I managed to see the Leo Triplet galaxies for the first time ever. All these galaxies are totally invisible from my light polluted back garden, I live on the edge of London, just inside Essex.

It was great to see the galaxies, but they all looked like faint smudges of smoke. According to the Clear Outside website where I was, Margaret Roding, is Bortle 4. I am curious if it should be possible to see more detail in the galaxies? With M51 I could see  hints of the spiral arms, but the Leo Galaxies were just vague shapes. Where I live is classed as Bortle 8. I haven't managed to find anything better than Bortle 4, researching on line, in one and a half hours drive from where I live. But I guess this is normal anywhere near London! I am going to try the Dengie peninsula in Essex sometime. It is a lot longer drive and also seems to be classed as Bortle 4, but I think it should be darker than where I was last night.

I am still amazed that I managed to see the Leo triplet, after searching for it many times before! I moved the telescope a few times so they that they were not in the eyepiece and managed to find them again, they are not too hard to find from somewhere reasonably dark. I use a Telrad and 80 mm finder scope.

I didn't use a shroud on my truss dobsonian, next time I will try with a shroud and see if it makes a noticeable difference.

I spent around 3 hours looking at the galaxies, it was freezing cold but I had a great time. While I was driving there I saw a large deer with big antlers crossing the road, so it is a good idea not to drive too fast when in the countryside at night!