An early April evening of observing

[davhei]

Typical April weather yesterday, starting off sunny only to have a good amount of snow dump around lunch, most of it melting before the evening. Clear skies forecasted for +24 hours starting after six in the evening so a good time to haul the 10” dob to my nearby dark site.

Orion was setting by the time I got the scope ready for action. Sky looked very crisp and promised good prospects for faint fuzzies.

Started with M67 in Cancer, first in my lowest mag and then going deeper with the 14 delos. Lovely cluster. In an attempt to learn something I was actually looking at a HR-diagram of the cluster the other day trying to determine its age. Cool to be visually observing it as well.

Continued down to nearby M48 that filled the field of view with sparkling stars. Quite a big cluster this!

Turned next to M3 that resolved nicely into a myriad of stars. Star hopped to the fainter M53 that also showed resolved stars, fewer though. A nice globular, fainter but lots of detail. I love globular clusters. Made an attempt to find the fainter neighbour NGC 5053 but no luck. Not sure I looked in the right place though.

Moved on to M64, the Black Eye galaxy. Now that was really something. Stayed with it for probably half an hour, admiring the detail. The bright core and the prominent dust lane  quite distinct (relatively speaking) using averted vision. The outer parts of the galaxy also clearly visible. It’s large this one! The vast oval extent of the galaxy, getting fainter the further out you go and the dark shadow of the dust lane framing the north part of the core.

Break for tea. Sipped a warm mug of sweetened tea while gazing at the sky. The big Coma star cluster standing out naked eye. Praesepe too, although setting. The quiet night occasionally interrupted by the singing sound of ice moving on a nearby lake and distant bird calls. Took a short walk to get some circulation and get warmer before continuing.

Moved up to M51 to tease out the spirals. Structure certainly, a bit of imagination needed to visualise spirals. Always a pleasure.

Went in search of fainter stuff in the Leo II-group near the lion’s tail end. Casually scanned through the east and west cores and could make out a good many fuzzies. Spent some time going back and forth, enjoying seeing the small galaxies appearing here and there.

Started to get cold now, the metal tube all covered in frost and eyepieces having a tendency to get condensation if I looked too close for too long.

Had to visit the center of the Virgo galaxies before packing up though and from M87 went to Markarian’s chain that in x120 was a joy to move through. The eyes, NGC 4461 & 4458 nearby, the fainter galaxies south of M84 and more.

Two hours went by fast, but the cold was starting to get to me so loaded up and headed home. Glad to have gotten a session in, even if it wasn’t an all nighter!

Edited April 2, 2022 by davhei

[Ships and Stars]

Sounds like an excellent evening and quite a few galaxies to boot. Always a relief when the weather plays along. Hopefully I'll get out one more time before I lose astronomical darkness until the autumn, but will be close.

[davhei]

5 hours ago, Ships and Stars said:

Sounds like an excellent evening and quite a few galaxies to boot. Always a relief when the weather plays along. Hopefully I'll get out one more time before I lose astronomical darkness until the autumn, but will be close.

I hope to get one more dark session in sometime late April to catch M5, M10, M12 and M14 that are quite low here. After that, next time will be August!

[Epick Crom]

A nice report Davhei, I enjoyed reading your descriptions of the objects you saw.