All in all a good evening for observing Messier Objects. I prepared myself using the handbook of Messier Marathon. Observation started local time at 19h50 and I quit around midnight as light pollution continued to make observations impossible. In total I was able to observe 23 Messier Objects and extra 3 NGC objects.
Observation list with remarks
M77, M74, M33 : too faint and too light to see objects
M31, M32, M110 : low at horizon but visible
M52, M103, M34 : good visibility
M76 : picture taken of Little Dumbell Nebula
M45 : observation with naked eye
M42, M43 : good visibility
M78 : found but no details
M79, M93, M41 : behing garden trees :(
M46, M47 : nice open clusters (picture taken from M47)
M44 : observation with naked eye
M65, M66 and NGC 3628 : made a drawing of Leo Triplet. Very good visibility
M95, M96 : Faint objects
M105 with NGC 3384 and NGC 3389 : observation with 28mm UWA 82° all in one field
M81, M82 : even good visible in search scope 9x50
M97 : Faint object
M51 : Details good visible and picture taken.
Some learnings :
- Working with two telescopes makes it possible to take pictures and to keep track on making observing according the plan.
- Since a couple of weeks I'm having a spare battery for the camera. After 3h I needed to change the battery. Charging takes two hours, meaning I can keep taking pictures all the time.
- It was a long time I observed M65, M66; M81, M82 and M51 - all great objects and must see.
- After two hours misallignment on both scopes. After re-allignment much better. So make sure to plan for star allignment each every time (2h)
- Was I prepared? For sure, not enough!!
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| M51 : Whirlpool Galaxy - 15Mly away |
