Good Night Viewing 13/3/10 127mm Mak

[AztecastroMcJ]

Managed to get good 2hrs viewing last week, between 12.30am -2.30am

1st time viewing n note taking since around Nov last year, mainly due to webcamming Planets and Moon and also due to very cold spell.

My Targets were taken off stellarium and following was wrote down to use by scope, conditions were ok 7/10. No filters used.

Saturn n Moons - 8 Moons Nearby 2night

M65 9.3 , M66 9.0, M87 8.6, M64 8.5, M53 7.7, M3 6.4.

Aligned scope using 25mm EP only, using Regulus and Arcturus

(gud to see Arcturus and big dipper again)

then sent scope to Saturn,

viewed Saturn at x60, x150 and mainly x300mag for around 40 mins to hr,

2 or 3 moons were just visible at lower mags,

but when pushing to x300 with 10mm ep and x2 barlow i could definetly make out 4 moons, did a quick sketch of positions to check up on later,

what was interesting was 3 of moons were on one side and seemed to make up a triangle pattern,

faintest Moon seen was Iapteus (11.6) with Titan n Rhea making up Triangle,

other moon spotted was either Dione or Tethys which were on other side to Saturn very close together.

Saturn itself along with rings looked Great also much better contrast was seen at 150x mag slight detail on planet and rings, colour was pale yellow.

I then done PAE on Saturn at x 300mag,

changed back to my 25mm EP (x60 mag 0.8degree FOV approx)

then sent scope to M65 and M66 2 of Leo Triplet

couldn't make out anything for a while at least 20mins

i kept sending scope back in forth and eventually i picked up slight Flash of galaxy now and then, think this was slightly brighter M66.

Gave up on M65 then sent scope to M87 again very dissapointing couldn't make out anything,

next up was M64 immediately i could see M64 with dark patch(eye) helping it to stick out

was very impressed,

then sent to M53 and M3 and again was well impressed, with how easier they stood out compared to others,

then decided to go back to M65, M66 and M87

eventually i managed to pick up feinter M65 with M66

think using brighter M64 helped here aswell as my eyes getting more sensitive, although i couldn't spot confirm anything with M87.

Really chuffed overall tho and chose d.star 54 Leo from handset menu to finish my session,

nice white n blue double easily split at x60mag and at x150 sep looked best

handset notes said sep 6.8arc secs (mag 4.5 n 6.3)

Glob's and double were great but highlight of night def M64.

Found out after this its' known as Black Eye Galaxy

or Evil Eye Galaxy or Sleeping Beauty Galaxy.

Also found out M64, M65, M66 are about 17-36 Mlyrs away

which is the furthest i have seen with my scope so far LOL

Will definetly be checking M64 out again.

[Doc]

Your report made a really entertaining read. M64 is a very bright galaxy and very easy to see in most scopes. Also it has that strange black knot near the core that gives it the black eye name.

You done very well to see two of the Leo triplets, these can be pretty hard especially in a scope like yours, which excells at planetary but struggles a little with DSO's.