Leo and Hercules

[wibblefish]

An unexpectedly and superbly clear night (best of what has been a poor one for observing thus far in 2021) brought a couple of DSOs during a quick hour session.

With my neighbours recent blitz on felling most of the tall trees on our boundary Hercules is now visible earlier in the evenings. I chanced a look at M13 and very easily located the globular cluster. It appeared as a very bright, diffuse grey patch between two stars. I tried several different resolutions down to 4mm but only got a hint of starting to resolve any detail on individual stars.

As with other globulars I have tried my 90mm refractor simply doesn’t  have the light grasp to see detail but it was a pleasure to view nonetheless.

With Leo high in the sky I decided to continue my hunt for the Triplet. Unlike previous nights I easily located M65 with an 18mm EP observing a bright core in the centre of a vertical fuzzy.

After another 5-10 minutes I also confirmed the dimmer core and shape of M66 alongside. Both held up well down to 12mm.

I then spent a good 20 minutes and many star chart consultations before I could discern  the very faint smudge of NGC3628 via averted vision. Once I had spotted it I was able to centre on the nearby star and observe all 3 galaxies at once which was a pleasing sight at last! 

Overall a great night and if it had been a weekend I would likely have stayed out longer! Whilst my telescope is at its limits  observing the faint grey fuzzies (especially in my bortle 5) I  do find hunting them enjoyable

 

 

 

Edited April 13, 2021 by wibblefish