Galaxy Bonanza

[oceanheadted]

I haven't been out with my telescope for quite a few weeks owing to a combination of weather and personal circumstances. Finally a clear night came along and I had nothing do. I have a vixen GP with Skyscan 2000 which has has been giving me trouble the last few times I used it not tracking properly, this has mainly been down to the grub screws loosening off on the gears. After setting up my 200p I did my first alignment on Pollux then went down to Procyon for a second point. The telescope was miles off. I aligned on Procyon and went up to Pollux and that was off again. I retightened the gear grub screws again and finally had a 2 star alignment (would Loctite help or would I never be able to get the screws undone again?).

I started off my evening with Saturn as I hadn't seen it since last winter. It's my favourite planet and and came up nicely with my 4mm UWAN although the seeing wasn't that great. I then scooted up to the behive cluster (M44) changing to a 32mm eyepice which I kept for the rest of the evening. M44 was good to look at with such bright jewel like stars and across to Auriga and M37 via M1 (just a misty patch with the fading twilight). By this time the Vixen was working quite well and I managed to get a 3 star alignment on Capella - the first time that's worked for me with this mount. At this point I looked staight up and spotted half of Ursa Major revealed against my roof line, crucially it was the "right" half and I could see Dubhe (the bright star on the end of the plough). I have spend a while looking for M81 and M82 before with my C80 ED, but never found them. With a quick alignment on Dubhe (which came pretty much into the centre of the field of view anyway) I dialled in M81 and M82. 2 Galaxies in my field of view, I was so excited I dragged the wife out to see (not that impressed). M82 was clearly recognisable with its long thin shape.

I then remembered the good view of Leo in the south and dialled in M96 and took in M95 and M105 at the same time. 5 new Messier objects is an excellent night for me. I then went across to M65 and M66 which I have seen before, but strangely couldn't make out NGC3628 which I have seen with my C80ED.

Now I've always looked at the star maps and wanted to take a look at the Virgo Cluster but where I live (NE Scotland) there isn't too much of a window of opportunity to see them unless you want to stay up quite late because the summer nights quickly get very long from now on. So I dialled in M86 and the galaxy came into view. I'm used to seeing one or two galaxies, but wasn't prepared for the number you can see in that bit of sky. I felt like a child in a sweetie shop. As well as M86 I found M84, The Eyes (NGC4438 and NGC4435), M88, M90, M89, M58, M59 and M60, and quite a few which I couldn't quite identify - why are there so many galaxies in that small bit of sky? The one galaxy I didn't find was M91 - not sure why. By this time it was getting late, my power tank was running down and work the next day was beckoning so I had to pack up. But an excellent evening!

[mdstuart]

Reading your account you can just feel the excitement. Those M81 / M 82 are such a fine pair...Sounds like you did good on Virgo. I also missed one of those galaxies, not sure if it was M91. Its so easy to get lost with them all...

Glad you had a good session anyway..

3628 is very challenging unless the sky is really dark and clear even in my 10 inch dob...Perhaps it was lower down than when you last picked it up?

Mark