Knocking the dust off!

[prowler75]

04/02/2021

Hello Friends!

It has been quite a while since I have gotten myself out to observe and even longer since I’ve written a report. The usual curveballs of life caused me to drift away from observing, but now that things have calmed down, I feel that the bug has bit me again and it’s time to jump right back into the hobby.

Just a little backstory to start off. My wife and I did a pandemic downsizing where we sold a house neither of us were really crazy about and temporarily moved into an apartment to save money. As a result, I currently don't have a backyard of my own and my 12” dob is in storage. The good thing about having multiple telescopes though is that I still have my very capable 8” dob that hasn’t seen any use since I upgraded to my 12”.

That left the issue of location. The apartment complex is out for anything other than observing the moon due to the massive amount of ground lighting. My former remote observing location I haven’t been to in a while now hosts a locked gate, so I have found myself back to square one when it comes to observing sites. I have had my eye on a spot not far away, a small gravel parking area next to a baseball field. Unfortunately this spot is still close to the road so I had to creatively position my car to shield me from the occasional passing headlights.

Tonight’s session wasn’t intended to be very serious. Much more of a knock the dust off my observing skills and make sure I still remembered how to star hop my way around. Because of this I only focused on using one eyepiece (ES 82˚ 18mm) and did not take any notes along the way.

Shortly after dark I packed up my gear and headed out with the goal of checking out some of the brighter galaxies in Leo. My first target was the Leo Triplet.

M66, M65, NGC 3628 were easy to find, but only appeared as faint ghosts. I had forgot to bring a towel with me to shield my view so I wasn’t really as dark adapted as I would prefer for hunting galaxies.

I continued to move on upward into Leo and picked up M105 with a very faint NGC 3384 in the same field. Then on to M96 and M95. Both of which appeared as faint ghostly smudges on the night sky.

From here I decided to change course. I pointed my scope at Denebola and moved my way down toward this galaxy rich portion of the sky. I picked up M99, M86, M84, M60, M59, M89 and ended with M87. I could have pulled a little more out of this area, but I was starting to get tired.

Even though this session was not as in depth as I usually go and the views were somewhat feeble compared to past observations with my 12”, it felt really good to have a telescope out and viewing some galaxies!

We have another clear night in the forecast, so I am fully intending on getting out again with a little more preparation this time.

Thanks for sticking around and reading my report.

Clear Skies!

[Gordon]

Congratulations Craig on getting out to do some observing!

These times have certainly been trying, and it's good to see you getting back into it!

[notFritzArgelander]

Very good to hear that you are getting back into things.

[prowler75]

Congratulations Craig on getting out to do some observing!

These times have certainly been trying, and it's good to see you getting back into it!

Thanks Gordon! Looking forward to getting back out again this evening. Hopefully the forecast is accurate.

[prowler75]

Very good to hear that you are getting back into things.

Thanks nFA! It’s great to be back on the forum too.

[Makuser]

Hello Craig. I bet it really felt great to be back at the eyepiece again, even with the 8" scope. Hopefully, with the warmer weather and less humidity, more of us will get a chance to return to the skies again soon. Thanks for your well written report Craig, and I hope that you and your wife enjoy a wonderful Easter.

[Juno16]

Good to see you out and posting a report Craig! It sounds like you had a good time too.

Sounds like your new "dark" site worked out fine.

You pulled in some nice targets. Hope that you get out tonight and get some more (and bring the towel).

I was fortunate enough to get out last night for some imaging. My Bortle 7-8 sky looked worse than that though. Well, it was good to get outside though.

Glad that life stopped throwing curveballs! Good luck and looking forward to your next report!

[Thefatkitty]

Nice to hear from you Craig, it's certainly been a while! Glad you got some observing time in as well finally. You got a nice haul there as well, especially for the first time out in a while

Hope the weekend works out for you and all the best,

[prowler75]

Hello Craig. I bet it really felt great to be back at the eyepiece again, even with the 8" scope. Hopefully, with the warmer weather and less humidity, more of us will get a chance to return to the skies again soon. Thanks for your well written report Craig, and I hope that you and your wife enjoy a wonderful Easter.

Thank you Marshall! I hope you and your family have a great Easter as well.
Kind of funny having the “settle” on using an 8” scope.
I’ve given myself an odd case of aperture fever and I am sure the 12” will be coming out of storage soon.

[prowler75]

Good to see you out and posting a report Craig! It sounds like you had a good time too.

Sounds like your new "dark" site worked out fine.

You pulled in some nice targets. Hope that you get out tonight and get some more (and bring the towel).

I was fortunate enough to get out last night for some imaging. My Bortle 7-8 sky looked worse than that though. Well, it was good to get outside though.

Glad that life stopped throwing curveballs! Good luck and looking forward to your next report!

Thanks Jim! I still need to find myself an officially dark observing location. I’ve spend quite a bit of time today doing some research on Google earth and looking up contact info for farms that are fully outside city limits.

[prowler75]

Nice to hear from you Craig, it's certainly been a while! Glad you got some observing time in as well finally. You got a nice haul there as well, especially for the first time out in a while

Hope the weekend works out for you and all the best,

Thanks Mark!

[pakarinen]

Looking forward to reading about your future apartment / dark site / new home adventures.

[Bigzmey]

Welcome back to observing and forum Craig! Do you have any astronomical clubs nearby? Most of them have dark sites with members only access.

[kt4hx]

It is indeed wonderful to have you back in action Craig. I have missed your contributions to our reports forum. You gave yourself a very nice dust-off indeed, with many fine galaxies to get yourself back up to speed.

Sounds like you have been through some trying times there, but you do have a plan in place, which gives one confidence moving forward. I hope you can bring the 12 inch back into the hunt sometime in the near future, but in the meantime, the 8 inch will serve you nobly in its stead.

Well done my friend.