2 More Messiers & an ISS Highlight

[SuburbanMak]

Out tonight with ST80 & Mak 127 to my new favourite just out of town Bortle 4 site. 
 Arrived just in time to plonk the ST80 down and track the 8:34pm ISS pass up from the SW.  Picked it up in the scope as it came over the horizon and was just marvelling at the fact that I could clearly make out the shape of its panels when it passed right in front of the Pleiades - this will be the view that stays with me for a long time from tonight.  I was also chuffed to get a text from my son up at Manchester Uni to say he’d watched it. I’d tipped him off about the pass earlier in the evening when I’d found out he was out having an optimistic early BBQ. 

I then set up the Mak 127 & aligned the AZGTi and did my usual naked eye survey. 
Transparency was not great at this point - probably a Mag 3 Sky only, but gradually breaking up into bands that were a little better.  
 I looked at some widefield favourites in the ST80 (+ Baader 31mm Aspehric) whilst waiting for my eyes to adapt, the Beehive, Pleiades and a favourite of mine the Alpha Persei Cluster. 
Either through dark adaptation or a slight improvement, things looked a little better by half past nine so I thought I’d have a go at Ursa Major which was comfortably high in the least-worst part of the sky for transparency.

 I worked my way down the chain of 4 stars from Mizar (lovely as always) and picked up a diagonally bisecting line of 3 faint stars. M101 lies just W of this & as on my last outing I’d felt more than seen an area of mottling around a faint unresolvable star here.
 This time though I stayed on it for a long time, acclimatising, nudging, averting & finally switching down to a 40mm Plossl - fairly confident I was seeing, well, something. I went back to Mizar and repeated the process. Yes, there was the same faintest of somethings , M33-like in its vagueness over about a quarter of the Mak’s field. 
To check comparative brightness I switched across to M51 which I’ve looked at quite a lot before & it was just discernible in the finder and present in the eyepiece as the two cores, little structure & by far not the best I’ve seen it but immediately visible.
As a further sanity check I looked for M81 & M82 and they looked suitably brighter and revealed some form, a hint of spiral in M81 & a hint of the dust lane with averted vision in M82, again not the greatest view but about the right comparative brightness to the previous targets to make sense of what I was seeing.  

Another check back to the M101 star field and there it was again - frustratingly vague but, I think, identifiable. 
I moved across to the M106 region and although again not a “wow” moment I was fairly confident that the fuzzy stripe I could see between a loose triangle of stars was the target. Looking online at eyepiece photos of the field now I am back home confirms I got this one.  
Seeking further validation of what galaxies look like in borderline conditions I checked for the Leo Triplet which I’ve enjoyed a number of times - it’s geometry is the give away and tonight, weirdly, the “Hamburger” NGC3628, was easier to see than either M65 or M66 - slightly higher contrast and more compact.  
I will revisit both M101 & M106 until I get those “ah, yes!” views but am chalking them up as seen at least. Finally! 
After so much peering, I rewarded myself with some sparkly things - M35, M36, M37 & M38 all looked stunningly bright and detailed by comparison, easy to find, popping in the finder and with more stars appearing the longer I looked. 
I tried for a few doubles with the Baader Zoom - a messy-seeing, low-down spilt of Porrima, an even, white offset figure of 8 pair.  
A wobbly Tegmine showing elongation in the close pair but not a clean split tonight.
Finally, a colourful finish with Iota Cancri’s easy Sapphire and Gold pairing, one of the best in the sky for me.  

Lovely session, a memorable shared moment, 2 new Messiers and the realisation that galaxies really are my thing. This new site is reasonably dark, peaceful and has hard standing a 200 yard tarmac trolley-wheel from the parking spot.  I sense a biggish Dob somewhere in my future… 
 

Edited March 23, 2022 by SuburbanMak

[Kon]

Nice report and I am glad you had some good skies last night. ISS never disappoints. The Leo triplet is one of my favourite spring targets.

[Stu]

Good stuff, sounds like an enjoyable session. You did well to get NGC3268; I failed in the 16” the other night but the transparency was pretty poor. A big dob in your new site should be excellent 👍 

[Epick Crom]

I enjoyed reading your report @SuburbanMak! Yes the sight of the ISS speeding across the sky through a scope and seeing it's solar panels is an unforgettable experience. Congratulations on your new discoveries!