11th April 2012 - Report

I was very excited about tonight after looking at the weather data. Crisp clean air from the north, no clouds and humidity levels were below 60%, I could feel the galaxies calling for me.
I suppose I was a little too excited about it because I forgot to pack the finder scope away so that really annoyed me but I didn't let it beat me. I was still able to get a two star alignment done and the GOTO accuracy was good. Annoyingly though, almost all of the objects I had down on my observing list were not on my GOTO database so I changed my observation plans and just went to objects on the GOTO.

The wind was an awful curse, something the weather forecast got wrong. Looking at Zenith caused the least shaking of the scope so I was able to observe galaxies in Ursa Major fairly well.
The night was amazing, the sky so pristine and all the stars shining like diamonds with next to no twinkling. Looking at Mars told me that the seeing was at least a 4 out of 5, transparency was the same, but that darned wind made it impossible for me to use the 8mm so it was 17mm Hyperion the whole session.

Location = Bragan

Equipment = 14" Skywatcher

Start Time = 22:01

M104 - Looking bright, as always, with strong looking features. A good view and a great way to start the evening.

M101 - Sensational!! Almost photographic, from core to the tips of the spiral arms. Very plain to see and not much need for averted vision to see the structure of the superb galaxy.

M108 - Another marvellous view. The details from edge to edge of the disk were excellent, along with delicate clumps of dark and light areas running all along the disk. The central area had a strong appearance of being illuminated from the inside and almost centre of the galaxy was a milky way star in the foreground shining like a diamond. An unforgeable sight and I spent a good bit of time observing this.

M109 - The barred spiral features of this galaxy were plain to see and the spiral arms really stood out well with averted vision. Not too often I get to see this galaxy so well and with barred spirals being my favourite category of galaxy I was more than satisfied with this view.

M51 - A stunning amount of detail. Every feature seen and looked just like some images short exposure CCD images.

NGC 2841 - A large milky disc with a bright core. I couldn't make out any features of detail.

NGC 4656 - Decided to end the night with one of my favourites of the spring sky. Looking really strong but not much details.

Finish = 23:53

It was when observing NGC4656 that noticed my secondary mirror had misted up a bit so I decided to call it a night. Was a rewarding night, despite having to battle the wind.