Great night for Observing in SE Wisconsin

[k9wis]

the last two nights have been incredible...its been a long time since Ive seen a sky this clear and steady and no moon.

I started my night looking for Deep Sky objects with my 10x50 binoculars and when I found M41 and M35 I blew the dust off the  old 10 inch f/6 newtonian and dragged it outside.

It was easy to find them in the 11x75 finder and WOW..they were big and bright and sparkling like a firework..steady as rock, I never saw M41 before and Ive been stargazing since I was a kid. Ive seen m35 before but tonight it seemed to sparklel.. But low and behold I couldnt find M1..I've seen it before but just couldnt find it. M42 and M43 were spectacular and really bright tonite. And after all the years Ive been observing tonite was the first time I noticed NGC1981..very cool. I took a look at it through the binoculars. 

Well just had to say that its been a few years since Ive been out with the telescope..Sky conditions here arent the best anymore. So this night was a particular treat and just may rekindle the fire to start observing again.

Brian

Horwitz-DeRemer Planetarium

Waukesha, Wi

[jjohnson3803]

Ahhh, Scenic Waukesha!  (We camp at Ottawa Lake - reasonably dark sky for this part of the Midwest.)

December and January weather was absolute dreck here in Chicago too, so this past weekend was a fantastic change.  Hopefully we've paid our dues and will have some decent skies now.