Another nice clear and dark night, and pretty cold out too
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Image via Wikipedia
M109: This galaxy should be easy to find, since it’s so close to Phad (Gamma UMa) in the big dipper asterism. M109 is very dim…I had to use averted vision to spot it. Even then, I panned around slightly to make sure the smudge moved with the stars, to make sure it wasn’t just my imagination. It showed best in the 25mm EP. The 10mm was too dark to see it.
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Image via Wikipedia
M45 – The Pleiades – So easy to find in the scope since it’s visible with the naked eye. I wish I had a wide FOV eyepiece since this star cluster doesn’t fit in the FOV of the 25mm EP. This isn’t the first time I’ve scoped it. It’s so easy it seems pointless to talk about it, but its a Messier object so I gotta log it.
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Photo by Ian Musgrave (astroblogger.blogspot.com)
103P/Hartley – It’s kinda cool to see a comet in the scope. I’ve tried to find it the last few sessions but couldn’t. I knew it would be easier tonight since it’s right close to the Double Cluster in Perseus. The comet was dimmer than I expected, and less defined than I expected. I couldn’t really make out the tail. It appeared as a faint smudge with a brighter center. Not entirely round.
I spent about a half hour looking for M3. It’s low in the sky this time of year (it sets about a half hour after dark). I’ll try again but maybe I need to wait until it’s higher in the sky again.
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- Becky Ramotowski: Comet Hartley ready for a show (mysanantonio.com)
Deeby's Astronomy Log 